Alien: Covenant - Origins - Prequel Novel

[Scorpio]

If you like the movie, you will like the book.

If you hate the movie, why are you reading it?

If you like the movie but have problems on it, it does go into further detail about some things, giving background and such.

I'm only about halfway through it, but it's a good read.

Highlights so far (besides what others have said):

*Rosie introduction
*Background of Walter's production
*Yutani and his daughter.. a bit like Weyland/Vickers but different

I'll quote from the book:

"As the first of its kind, there were always 'issues' with David.  That is what my team and I have been working overtime to try to resolve.  We believe we have done so, but are not yet a hundred percent sure." - page 143

[SM]

Wouldn't mind elaborating on that? 

David was unable to exploit Walter.

Now that the David's Drawings book has been announced, and I'm no longer massively disappointed/salty about the deceptive advertising surround this prequel novel, I've gone back and am giving it another shot after putting it down a few chapters in and not touching it again since it initially came out back in September. I'm about... almost halfway through and it's a decent enough story so far I suppose, though obviously not the one people thought they were getting, or one that anyone had particularly wanted or asked for. Seeing from that interview with ALF that he wasn't the one who came up with the pitch, he was handed the brief by FOX and Titan, so I guess props to him for working with what he had.

What deceptive advertising was this?

[HybridNewborn]

The general implication, the one that pretty much the entirety of the internet picked up on and was assuming as writ prior to.... June (just barely around three months prior to publication) was that the book would be about David & Shaw. So while "deceptive advertising" possibly isn't the best term to describe it, the scope and subject matter of the novel could have been clarified much earlier. Even then, when the brief was revealed, the novel's title — Origins — as well as its cover, also suggest at a glance things that the body of the work again fails to deliver upon.

All that being said, I'm still enjoying it well enough, now that the better part of a year and the announcement of David's Drawings have basically alleviated most of my gripes about the circumstances of this novel's release related above.

[Scorpio]

David was unable to exploit Walter.

Given that David, a supposedly inferior model, bested Walter twice.

[Nukiemorph]

This book, with this cover, doesn't have an alien in it.

The average person who doesn't hang out on these forums would likely consider that deceptive advertising.

[SM]

The average person should read the blurb.

Where are David and Shaw mentioned?

[Scorpio]

The aliens actually motivate the entire plot, at least the threat of the aliens that come from dreams this cult leader has.

[HybridNewborn]

Wrapping this up now. The whole compound assault in particular, and the bit where the six try to convince Yutani with the artists' interpretations, makes me a little sad this wasn't an HBO or Netflix miniseries, or even something a little lower budget like Forward Unto Dawn.

It really is much better than I gave it credit for on release, and I'm glad I took the time to come back to it.

Listening to this so soon after Sea of Sorrows, I have to wonder if "The Prophet" is an empath like Deckar, who also experienced visions and nightmares of alien monstrosities...

[Scorpio]

I don't whether Yutani is convinced by the visions, but this confirms that Yutani had some knowledge of the alien.  So maybe Yutani was looking for alien, which created Special Order 937.

[SM]

How do you figure that?

[Scorpio]

They showed him the visions of the prophet.

[HybridNewborn]

Which were described as indistinct, and artists' renditions, with no defining details beyond claws and teeth and monstrous forms.

[Scorpio]

"Relatively photorealistic"

"Enough details to create a visceral response"

"Like nothing he had ever seen or read"

pg 253

"They played out in swirls of viscera and reformulations of grisly violence"

"He was sweating profusely"

pg 254

[SM]

None of which, as HybridNewborn said, mentions anything specifically Alien with a capital A.

And he was sweating because he turned the heating up.  Yutani didn't take them seriously.

[HybridNewborn]

There apparently wasn't too much detail, as it also states he couldn't tell if the victims were human or not.