Alien/Predator Novel Reviews

Started by Hudson, Aug 19, 2014, 04:55:43 PM

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Alien/Predator Novel Reviews (Read 70,517 times)

HuDaFuK

HuDaFuK

#120
Quote from: Xiggz456 on Mar 24, 2018, 02:57:05 PM@Hudafuk The changes from the comic actually strengthened the already great story to the point where I now prefer how the events transpire in the novel much more than the comic.

Yeah, the greatly expanded cast of civilian characters and the sub-plot involving their mutiny in particular really adds some depth and breadth to the story.

Wweyland

Wweyland

#121
I remember the book version of "Rogue" gave the marine character Choi a much more badass death.
Also, it made the marines much more competent, with many of them surviving their detour in the hive with only blank ammo (and making explosives out of the blanks).
It was the first Alien novel I read (about 17 years ago) and I still think it's the best one.

Xiggz456

Xiggz456

#122
Yes! When the marine contingent and the civilian mutineers finally meet, I straight up fist pumped in excitement haha! It was such a pleasure to read.

Wweyland

Wweyland

#123
I think there was also a scene exclusive to the book of a scientist doing some snooping on Kleist and waking up as a head in a jar on his shelf.

SM

SM

#124
There was a similar scene to that in the comic - that went nowhere.

Corporal Hicks

After re-reading the comic at the weekend, I'm also re-reading the novelization now. I can't remember the last time I read it but I'm flying through it pretty well so far. Already noticing a lot of improvement over the comic.

TheBATMAN

TheBATMAN

#126
Recently read Aliens Original Sin for the first time. Quite a bizarre story where not a lot really happens save for a few chapters with startling pre-Prometheus revelations about the origins of the Space Jockeys. The core story itself I found really quite mundane about a sparsely populated botanical colony with a number of garden domes. The characters populating this place were not very interesting save for maybe the main administrator and his head of security, Shepard. A new breed of Alien is also present that is larger and with a bigger head. Although there is only a single egg and facehugger in the story there are multiple Aliens present which is explained thanks to a multiple chest-burster scenario which would later feature in AVP Requiem.

We get Ripley back and she is portrayed here as some kind of vigilante antihero and since the events of Resurrection the surviving crew of the Betty have sworn total allegiance to her. Ripley's mission seems to be about raiding various installations and using Call to hack into the mainframe to discover what the likes of Earth Gov and Weyland-Yutani knew of the Alien and the Space Jockey. One character, Simioni, seems to have been invented simply for the sole purpose for Ripley to explain via exposition all the unanswered mysteries from the original Alien film. Needless to say, the explanation is very, very poor and I'm glad the films never went down this route, although its clear the novel tries to set up the Loki as a new villain for the expanded universe.

Aside from perhaps Call, I was surprised the Betty took a backseat in this story. Vriess for example sits out a majority of the action simply because his paralysis means he cannot lower himself down from the Betty into the botanical dome. Johner is just the same as always and the new crew members are largely uninteresting and simply serve as canon fodder for the aliens.

Overall I wasn't impressed with this story. It has a very mundane premise and the story is nothing we haven't seen a dozen times before. The author seems to be totally reliant on the inclusion of Ripley and the revelations about the Space Jockeys and sadly neither worked for me here.

Xenomrph

Xenomrph

#127
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Apr 03, 2018, 10:58:13 AM
Already noticing a lot of improvement over the comic.
I found that to be the case with most of the novelizations, to be honest.

Xiggz456

Xiggz456

#128
Finished the the last of the Bantam novels: Labryinth, Music of the Spears and Frenzy. All three added lots of extra backstory for the characters, which is what I've come to really appreciate with the novelizations of the comics. All three were pretty much faithful adaptations that didn't stray much from the source material. I'll be picking up the Predator omnibus soon but I won't be starting any new novels until Cold Forge comes out!

Corporal Hicks

Quote from: Xenomrph on Apr 16, 2018, 08:59:41 AM
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Apr 03, 2018, 10:58:13 AM
Already noticing a lot of improvement over the comic.
I found that to be the case with most of the novelizations, to be honest.

Yeah, that's the general trend, thankfully. There's been some "ehhh, wish you hadn't done that" or "I wish they'd have expanded on this" but in general, the novelizations have all done good jobs at fleshing everything out.

HuDaFuK

HuDaFuK

#130
The only Bantam book I disliked was Hive. I really struggled to finish it. I remember it being a boring story full of flat-out unlikable characters.

Corporal Hicks

Did you feel the same about the comic?

Xenomrph

Xenomrph

#132
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Apr 17, 2018, 07:36:37 AM
Quote from: Xenomrph on Apr 16, 2018, 08:59:41 AM
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Apr 03, 2018, 10:58:13 AM
Already noticing a lot of improvement over the comic.
I found that to be the case with most of the novelizations, to be honest.

Yeah, that's the general trend, thankfully. There's been some "ehhh, wish you hadn't done that" or "I wish they'd have expanded on this" but in general, the novelizations have all done good jobs at fleshing everything out.
The only time I found I preferred the comic was with 'Labyrinth'. The novel just doesn't capture the comic's absolutely perfect artwork, and it changes up the order of some events and reveals that I felt the comic handled better.

HuDaFuK

HuDaFuK

#133
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Apr 17, 2018, 08:31:11 AMDid you feel the same about the comic?

I've not actually bothered to track it down, mostly because I disliked the book.

SM

SM

#134
Quote from: HuDaFuK on Apr 17, 2018, 08:18:35 AM
The only Bantam book I disliked was Hive. I really struggled to finish it. I remember it being a boring story full of flat-out unlikable characters.

There was a whole bunch of invented characters on the Dolomite with a subplot that really wasn't needed.  The original comic had some pretty average writing (which the 'invented characters' actually went a little way to addressing), and the novel didn't improve on it.

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