The end of November saw the release of Alien – River of Pain, the last of Titan’s trilogy of Alien novels released throughout 2014. The novel serves as a semi-prequel to Aliens and tells the tale of the Alien infestation of Hadley’s Hope. I have just uploaded my review of the novel, written by Christopher Golden, for you all to read:
“The first half of the novel is quite a slow burn, taking its time to let us get to know the situation these characters are in. Christopher Golden really emphasizes the mental turmoil that the colonists face every day. It makes a nice change as none of the other novels or comics that I can remember make a big deal of the hardships that are faced when these people uproot their life and attempt to make a new start on a frontier colony.
A section relatively early on in the book focuses on the more drastic aspects of this hardship in what can happen when someone really goes off the deep end. It really emphasized what can happen when it all goes truly wrong.
River of Pain focuses mainly on the Jordan family – quite obviously as Newt is the sole survivor in Aliens and as her parents are vital to the story in that they bring the xenomorphs back to the colony – and Golden uses their family to further emphasize the hardships of the frontier-life. Russ, Newt’s father, is becoming quite disillusioned with the life he has chosen and it is putting strain on his relationship with Anne. A relationship that is further strained with the introduction of the new Colonial Marine CO, Demian Brackett.”
Whilst Alien – River of Pain marks the last of the current series of Alien novels, we recently found out that Tim Lebbon – author of the first novel, Alien – Out of the Shadows – will be writing a brand new Alien vs Predator trilogy titled Rage Wars. Be sure to check out my Alien – River of Pain review in it’s entirety. The novel is available to purchase from all your usual online book retailers.
What did you think of the novel? Let us know down below!
Ah, didn't realize... I only remember the errors.
But some of the scenes were verbatim...
BTW we've got the Chris Golden interview back. I'm awaiting some response to follow-up and I need to get it all pretty but it should be up over the weekend. He didn't really want to talk about the mistakes so...that wasn't talked about.
I actually hated that scene. The Marine's reaction was yet another example of characters leaping straight to conclusions the reader knows to be true, but the characters themselves have no real evidence to suggest. The minute he saw that he knew what was going on, yet nothing before that suggested the colonists had to have been killed, nor was there any evidence it was intentional on the part of the scientists.
Spoiler
As for the bad, I'm just not sure that it was necessary to change the universe as much as they did here. The secret escape ship read like something from one of the lesser DHP novels, and though it felt more earned, the Colonial Marines-esque ending felt useless, unless there winds up being a sequel with Brackett and company. Similarly, the cameos from Derrick Russel and the FaS characters were a nice treat, but ultimately I don't think it really worked. How The Company just missed what was going on with the jungle on LV-223 defies reason. On the same note, including the marines felt more forced than anything, as the story would have arguably been better if it had just starred colonists coping to survive. So, a lot of the premises behind the book felt needlessly over-complicated, and this is coming from someone who liked Ripley in Out of the Shadows.
All being said, I liked the book well enough, but it felt a bit unnecessary. I'm looking forward to Lebbon continuing the 25th century side of things in the Rage War.
A couple other points:
Spoiler
As far as the Derelict, I didn't hate what Golden did. It wasn't as new or as exciting as the dog-alien ship scenes in OotS, but Anne and Russ's reactions to what they found were nice. The Engineer and alien queen locked in their death struggle bordered on cool and cheesy, but given what we've seen of the Engineers and the xenomorphs in FaS, the whole idea of a battle on the Derelict works well enough.
So why the f*ck didn't they tie up with those scenes?
Just found this. Interesting read.
I don't intend to be entirely negative, because I agree with the 7/10 rating. Mr. Golden has a gift for imbuing his characters with depth while maintaining a brisk narrative pacing. The birth of Newt was something I wouldn't think we need to see as fans, but after reading the passage found it moving. One major gripe though: in Golden's timeline Newt is six years old, which means she either skipped a grade to earn that 2nd Grade citizenship award or someone didn't do their homework.
Also, one passage that stood out, and I'm paraphrasing: "He didn't earn the Galactic Cross just to deal with corporate stooges". A space setting doesn't necessitate placing a space prefix before everything. Did Brackett earn the Cosmic Bronze Star as well? I assume that the military, being stubbornly traditional, would still retain the medal names we have today.
In the 40 watt range?
Seriously though, good questions, I second them.
Any basic information on Brackett, How old is he, where was he born, Ect.
There are both Pulse rifles and Plasma rifles mentioned, do the marines have both or was it a typo. I have a hard time believing their were Phased Plasma rifles at Hedley's Hope.
Was the egg chamber and Jockey in the same area simple a mistake or did he have something else in mind their that we didn't understand?
Is their any plan of a follow up with Louisa and Brackett?
Also, I think others have mentioned the colonists having super-weapons, which doesn't sound like it gels with Apone's mention of "small arms fire" and improvised "seismic survey charges" - whose idea was that and why remove such an element which would have heightened the sense of desperation and tension?
^This, when you interview the author.
Who's idea was it to include the Newt's Tale scenes?
But wouldn't a Xenomorph be able to shrug off punches, even from a peak conditioned human?
Nah - nothing like that. Just a beating.
Please tell me it wasn't a Kung-Fu fight.. Either way.. just.. WHAT?!
Seems legit.
Hand to hand.
As in.. hand to hand or.. with a blunt weapon?
No Exit started really well. It was this story of a psychologically damaged detective hunting down Aliens. It started so well and was really interesting but then the second half descended into an over-blown Aliens-esque book in which a dude beats up an Alien. Really disappointed me.
Anyway! I've just uploaded my own review of the book onto the website.
http://www.avpgalaxy.net/literature/reviews/alien-river-of-pain/