DragonCon 2018 is currently taking place in Atlanta and like 2017’s event, with the event comes the announcement of a new Alien novel. And this one is something of a surprise!
I can finally announce one of my upcoming media tie-in projects, which was just announced at @DragonCon.
Coming in January 2019 from @TitanBooks:
ALIEN: ISOLATION.
Amanda Ripley vs. Xenomorphs.
More soon……..
— Keith R.A. DeCandido (@KRADeC) August 31, 2018
There are no further details as of yet so it’s unknown if this is an adaptation of Alien: Isolation or a sequel. While none of the games have been adapted into novels in English, Sierra & Monolith’s Aliens vs. Predator 2 was adapted in Hungarian and titled Aliens vs. Predator: Forced Chase.
Keith R.A. DeCandido has previously written for the Alien universe. He wrote the short Deep Background for the anthology Aliens: Bug Hunt which you can listen to him read on the Dead Kitchen Radio podcast. You can also follow Keith on Facebook or Twitter.
Thanks to Bryan Thomas Schmidt for the news. Keep a close eye on Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest Alien and Predator literature news! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien and Predator fans on our forums!
Excellent. I'm really interested to see where they go with this. Particularly in relation to the events before the arrival of Amanda, and some more information about what Waits, Samuels and Axel.
No listing on amazon so far.
By all accounts, they fully intended to show the Alien exploding, it's just by the time they came to film the coda aboard the shuttle they were so critically short of funds they simply couldn't afford to do it.
Not saying that clears up what is canon and what isn't, but it least explains why the ending might come across as more ambiguous than intended (although I personally never thought it survived anyway).
Despite the differences between the above (October 1978) and an earlier draft (June 1978 - below) and the final film, it's safe to say the people making the film wanted the Alien to be dead. The final film can be interpreted as the Alien being dead or simply neutralised as a threat to Ripley.
********
EXT. OUTER SPACE
The burned mass of the Alien drifts slowly away.
Writhing, smoking.
Tumbling into the distance.
Pieces dropping off.
The shape bloats, then bursts.
Spray of particles in all directions.
Then smoldering fragments dwindle into infinity.
I know it's OT, but canon is the film that hits the theatres right? So which version was that?
It's been so long since I read it, I honestly can't remember. All I know is they altered the design for the digital edition, while the print edition had the original version (presumably because it was too late to modify the physical copies).
According to the script it exploded as it floated away.
As Xenomrph said, they may have justified it, but that didn't stop it feeling any less like an abrupt u-turn in the story. I have no idea if it's actually the case, but it definitely felt to me like they suddenly changed plans - and binned off the ongoing story as a result.
The fact Extravehicular ended up having nothing to do with the main comic would seem to back that up.
& We never see something as bland as "the terrorists" ever again, what a wasted opportunity for something new and interesting aesthetically and conceptually.
The story, however, wasn't puzzling. Zula lost this round, but the final panels indicated her fight wasn't over.
Like, if the point of the second half of the series was to demonstrate the futility of defiance because something will always happen to derail it and make it fall flat, then uh, mission accomplished I guess?
One rogue robot.
They dropped the mission when Zula's pain became unmanageable and their ship was falling to bits.
It's funny when you put it that way. But think of it more as an audio drama of a game that won major awards for incredible sound design.
This. I'd love to see a limited series on Netflix or Hulu or whatever, that's all about the people on the station. The series could open with the Anesidora's arrival at Sevastopol, which would be a great way to introduce the various conflicts between Waits, Marlow, Ransome, and Lingard. We'd get to know a family on the station - maybe it's that guy whose wife is named Claire, or maybe it's from the POV of the reporter, Julie Jones. The gradual collapse of civil order, the formation of factions, and the rapid deterioration of the relationships between crew members would make for interesting TV even without the presence of a murderous alien. The final few episodes' arc would cover the events from the game itself, culminating in the big finale, though hopefully a little more fleshed out.
Plus, it'd be fun to bring back William Hope as Waits, and maybe some of the other cast members.
There was a build-up, and a promise of a grand resistance which anticlimactically gave up the ghost.
A good story features an arc for a character which starts on one value and progresses into another value. Effectively, Zula's story started up the arc, and came right back down without ever crossing the apex.
You had to go there.
There were no racial undertones to what I was saying, but rather the fact that Ripley is a name that is established in the series as a central character. That is why she would be a main character if the series were to include both characters prominently.
The way it is, is contrived as most people say. Perhaps there were plans to give Ripley a greater central role? It seems that the story suffered from the same issue as the original Aliens: Colonial Marines series, whereby the series had a direction, and then held way through the ship sailed in a different direction leaving fans puzzled.
Anyway, I am looking forward to the novel, and hope that it features the story from the game but expands it significantly..
Both miraculously the singular survivors of their own encounter with the same deadly Alien.
While also both having an unrelated personal relationship.
It's that which I believe is contrived and I do not buy it.
Well they both would have encountered the Alien separately even if Amanda Ripley hadn't cameoed - 'Alien Isolation' came out before the comic, and the comic was always intended to be about Zula and since the word "Aliens" is in the title, the odds are pretty good that she'd encounter an Alien at some point.
Definitely agree on the second point, though.
Too ultimately coincidental that they would both encounter the Alien, separately.
It's contrived and I believe it was a misstep.
As was not having the entirety of Defiance under Tristan Jones.
And it wasn't a short random encounter - they became friends and she helped Amanda out on tech jobs while she was doing rehab at Luna.
I liked how they linked Zula and Amanda. It gives the 'EU' a bit more cohesion between titles and media.
I agree as others have said, reference the company, important lore bits of Isolation, but having Zula and Amanda be buds was a little silly.
You're right, when one mentions Defiance, they should also add an asterisk, with issues 1-6 and without the constant wasted space and chatter of Zula's health problems. Great locations and story though, in the first 6 issues.
Amanda was Zula's only friend - so therefore was best friend by default.
Defiance takes place entirely after Isolation (apart from the flashbacks).
Referencing a survivor of an unrecorded Alien infestation is another.