https://m.indigo.ca/product/books/the-book-of-alien-a/9780062695369
I haven't seen any threads about this book. Did it really fly in under the radar, or is there a thread about this already?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0062695363/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494930666&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=book+of+alien%3A+a+survival+guide&dpPl=1&dpID=51d9vdpZgnL&ref=plSrch
Description
Product Description
An imaginative, full-color, fully authorized in-world guide to the creatures and scenes from all of the Alien movies, including breathtaking 3-D Augmented Reality animations.
A book like no other. An experience you'll never forget.
The Alien movie franchise has been shocking audiences for more than thirty-five years, and the series now continues in eons to come—where this special interactive edition derives. Beamed back to us from the future reality witnessed in the movies, it is a handbook for new recruits of the U.S. Colonial Marines.
The Book of Alien includes everything you need to know to identify and combat the terrifying, extra-terrestrial species known as Xenomorphs. Protecting yourself and mankind against this significant and ever-growing threat is the goal. With this book, you will learn how to clearly identify the threat—and which weapons you will need to successfully neutralize it.
A practical combat guide The Book of Alien is both an old-world handbook—featuring paper pages, text, diagrams, and 100 color and black-and-white photographs—and a futurebook—with 3D interactive animations, sound and vision. A superb interactive companion volume to all the Alien movies, The Book of Alien is an exciting immersive experience that lets you revisit many key moments from the movies, and interact with people, objects . . . and of course, aliens!
This groundbreaking book features Augmented Reality animations, which bring favorite Xenomorph creatures to life via smartphone or tablet.
About the Author
Owen Williams is a film journalist and author. He once was able to indulge his lifelong passion for the Alien movie franchise by interviewing every surviving Colonial Marine from Aliens - including Wierzbowski. Williams has been a regular contributor to Empire magazine since 2006. His work has also been published in The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Film 360, Fangoria, Rue Morgue and elsewhere, including contributions to books published by Phaiton and Aurum Press. He lives in the UK and tweets as @FlexibleHead.
*edited title. Hicks.
Interesting.
curious about the content
Looks pretty neat, just slapped down a preorder.
Quote from: Xenomrph on Jun 22, 2017, 06:09:16 PM
Looks pretty neat, just slapped down a preorder.
looking forward to ur review of this guide
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91-vAu3XnmL.jpg)
Cover on Amazon US
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513oNeNcb%2BL.jpg)
UK cover.
I've pre-ordered. Sounds interesting. Will have to try and reach out to the author.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91x0SJ7QGcL.jpg)
Not looking promising if the bullshit bottom right is anything to go by :laugh:
Oh, Hell. So that's a pulse rifle? Nice. I hope the authors don't mind disputes coming their way. Mind you, they might like to address the 'Calpamios' mis-spelling, too. Maybe.
What they definitely can't get away with is mis-spelling of the binomial for domestic cat. The correct spelling is felis catus.
I might buy this just to see how many errors are actually present in it. Could make a great drinking game.
-windebieste.
This begins to look like a very lazy quarter-assed piece of work indeed...
SM should I pre order it like the moron that I am?
Yes, we all have to order it. We are all just prisoners here of our own device.
I don't know the first thing about it.
Will this publication offer any previously unseen deleted material from the films, like the bonus footage available only to the digital versions of the Rinzler STAR WARS making of books?
Quote from: HuDaFuK on Jul 14, 2017, 11:33:38 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91x0SJ7QGcL.jpg)
Not looking promising if the bullshit bottom right is anything to go by :laugh:
That gun image seems familiar, almost like it's an amalgam of the Lacrima-99 from Resurrection and one of the WY weapons from 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' or something.
Im probably going to pass on this one.
Quote from: Xenomrph on Jul 15, 2017, 06:51:08 AMThat gun image seems familiar, almost like it's an amalgam of the Lacrima-99 from Resurrection and one of the WY weapons from 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' or something.
It's straight out of
ACM. It's the Wey-Yu assault rifle with the flamethrower attachment equipped.
I knew it looked familiar, thanks.
Should have an advanced copy of this on way shortly. Will see what it's like.
Do let us know if they eventually worked out what the Pulse Rifle looked like :laugh:
Will do. :laugh: I'm hoping that was just a slip-up in the details, though.
I've been reading more on the publishers and the concept of an Augmented Reality book. I know some of Marvel's comics toyed with them but I never bothered with them. However, I'm curious to see how it's implemented here.
I checked out some of their other AR titles and they seem to review well.
Augmented Reality can be legitimately super cool if it's handled well.
Quote from: HuDaFuK on Sep 15, 2017, 10:36:00 AM
Do let us know if they eventually worked out what the Pulse Rifle looked like :laugh:
I received my review copy yesterday. I only had a quick flick through but it looks like they sorted this. Will double-check later. I had a go on a few of the AR things too. There's videos that play "on the page" through the app and there's a bulk of about 8 AR "activities" in the middle of the bulk.
I had a go on the egg analysis which was fune. And I tried one where you had to land a dropship. Controls and perspective were a little hard to get the hang off but still kinda cool.
Quote from: HuDaFuK on Sep 15, 2017, 10:36:00 AM
Do let us know if they eventually worked out what the Pulse Rifle looked like :laugh:
I checked and it's been replaced with a section on the Assault Rifle. The Pulse Rifle gets a bigger spread later on.
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Sep 22, 2017, 08:43:30 AM
Quote from: HuDaFuK on Sep 15, 2017, 10:36:00 AM
Do let us know if they eventually worked out what the Pulse Rifle looked like :laugh:
I received my review copy yesterday. I only had a quick flick through but it looks like they sorted this. Will double-check later. I had a go on a few of the AR things too. There's videos that play "on the page" through the app and there's a bulk of about 8 AR "activities" in the middle of the bulk.
I had a go on the egg analysis which was fune. And I tried one where you had to land a dropship. Controls and perspective were a little hard to get the hang off but still kinda cool.
Well, well, well.
So the artist used my ALIEN Egg untextured sculpt picture: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=271906
Can anybody show me further scans of the book. Would like to dig there after.
Thanks.
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Sep 23, 2017, 07:42:42 AMI checked and it's been replaced with a section on the Assault Rifle. The Pulse Rifle gets a bigger spread later on.
Bonus points for that then :laugh:
Quote from: locusta on Sep 23, 2017, 09:15:44 AMWell, well, well.
So the artist used my ALIEN Egg untextured sculpt picture: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=271906
Can anybody show me further scans of the book. Would like to dig there after.
Without your knowledge? Is that not... theft?
Quote from: HuDaFuK on Sep 23, 2017, 09:21:12 AM
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Sep 23, 2017, 07:42:42 AMI checked and it's been replaced with a section on the Assault Rifle. The Pulse Rifle gets a bigger spread later on.
Bonus points for that then :laugh:
Quote from: locusta on Sep 23, 2017, 09:15:44 AMWell, well, well.
So the artist used my ALIEN Egg untextured sculpt picture: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=271906
Can anybody show me further scans of the book. Would like to dig there after.
Without your knowledge? Is that not... theft?
Saw the book and the egg picture today the first time. Super lame actually.
Yeesh man, people using your art left and right it seems.
Yeah. I don´t mind if I get asked, at least that should be possible, as the picture which is used is only on the web with my signature.
Here a comparison gif:
https://ibb.co/jJtKw5
I believe that may even be the model used in the AR video.
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Sep 23, 2017, 07:10:46 PM
I believe that may even be the model used in the AR video.
How come, without a 3D file?
Anyway, I appreciate any more info about the book and the virtual content. Not really eager right now to toss money after them. Thanks.
They might be able to make an argument that it's transformative, but simply changing the colour and removing the tentacles is pretty weak. It's effectively traced. There are squillions of images of eggs in Fox's archives but they had to nick this one without even asking?
Seeking permission to use content in a book can be as difficult as any other research activity undertaken for its preparation - and can extend its completion by any amount of time and effort.
Having said that, Locusta isn't exactly a difficult person to find.
I wouldn't even worry about pulling the 'transformative' component of copyright law out the hat to support its inclusion - I'd be more concerned about wanting to approach the artist (Locusta) for additional content on any future Project and the response I'd receive.
-Windebieste.
The page cited earlier as well as the other pages available in the preview read terribly. This feels like it was written by a gushing fanboy making a game that would make Aliens: Colonial Marines look good. The third image preview in particular feels like it belongs in a propaganda video from Starship Troopers. It would be funny satire but unfortunately I don't think it is.
Plus the AR stuff is just a novelty and will be irrelevant when the apps become unavailable in two years.
Why is the layout for this so amateur? This looks like a first year computer arts student reproduced one of the 90s DVD menus through a filter of mediocrity. I'm referring to the stroked yellow background for headers and the lame quasi-futuristic angled text boxes. It's not impossible to make a print object look like a user interface, but this is a poor effort. Alien has some incredible graphic design (Thanks, Ronn Cobb). Creative Assembly took the visual direction from Alien expanded on it brilliantly, from the signage throughout the space station to the vintage advertisements. Why not do something smart, especially considering that the fanbase (just a guess) is no longer fifteen?
I realize this reads like a nitpick, but it would have been so much cooler if they did a retro-inspired, analogue print manual for this.
Quote from: Birth_Machine on Sep 27, 2017, 11:35:53 PM
Why is the layout for this so amateur? This looks like a first year computer arts student reproduced one of the 90s DVD menus through a filter of mediocrity. I'm referring to the stroked yellow background for headers and the lame quasi-futuristic angled text boxes. It's not impossible to make a print object look like a user interface, but this is a poor effort. Alien has some incredible graphic design (Thanks, Ronn Cobb). Creative Assembly took the visual direction from Alien expanded on it brilliantly, from the signage throughout the space station to the vintage advertisements. Why not do something smart, especially considering that the fanbase (just a guess) is no longer fifteen?
I realize this reads like a nitpick, but it would have been so much cooler if they did a retro-inspired, analogue print manual for this.
I had a similar complaint about the layouts in the Weyland-Yutani Report.
For something framed as an in-universe document, from a design standpoint it looks like anything but.
I really can't stand this kind of over designed presentation. It takes away from the focus of the book. I understand the designers are trying to bring a sense of thematic cohesion to the whole production; but as pointed out above, it becomes a case of the tail wagging the dog. ...and it looks cheap.
Personally, I prefer a presentation that his high on content rather than heavy handed on superfluous border and inset designs. This is one of the stipulations I am making to the interior designers for HP. I want the content to stand out - not the incidental design components that do nothing other than clutter up the page.
My web site adopts a based philosophy of 'simple design works best'. It's actually V2 of the website you see. A much less cluttered and easier to look at effort rather than the super retro theme I had originally designed for V1. It was just a mess and I hated it. I like simplicity in presentation. It works. It then allows the content and information to function with clarity and be as complex as you want. I'm adopting that philosophy for the book. They will both match in this regard.
So yes. I really can't stand these over designed publications. They're trying too hard to impress and the content - which should never take a 2nd place position - has to work even harder to keep up with expectations. If the content is good enough, it is better off without all the distractions, anyway.
It also presents another problem. It ceases being a resource and becomes just another coffee table book. I guess that's OK for some publications but not all.
-Windebieste.
Started reading this - a bit in the Prometheus section made me chuckle where the manual points out the "inexplicable lapses in judgment" of the Prometheus crew. :laugh:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLogEgNWkAIbvv2.jpg:large)
Some AR fun. :laugh:
Lol.
That took so many attempts. :laugh:
Lol you make it kinda of looks pleasurable.
There were worse attempts when it looking a little too O face. :laugh:
:laugh:
Dude. ISSUES.
:laugh:
That's why I'm not an actor. :laugh:
In all seriousness, though, I am enjoying these AR things.
http://www.avpgalaxy.net/literature/reviews/the-book-of-alien-augmented-reality-survival-manual/
My thoughts on the book.
Just got my copy in the mail today. I haven't had much time to mess with it (let alone mess with the AR functionality) but it looks pretty neat. I suspect I'm going to have similar "presentation" problems that I had with the WY Report, but like with that book, I get why they did it the way they did.
Just from a cursory glance I did catch what appear to be a couple errors already, but that's okay.
The more I read though this, the more it makes me sit up and pay attention to the little details - partly for what it gets wrong, but partly for the interesting tidbits it throws in.
An interesting revelation is that despite straight up citing the USCM Tech Manual's history and formation of the USCM, it claims that the modern USCM as we know it is "owned" by Weyland-Yutani. It doesn't make it clear if this is a new development or when it happened, or if the USCM has always been that way (the CMTM doesn't give such an indication), but it kind of recontextualizes 'Aliens' a little bit if the WY ownership dates all the way back to 2179 or before. At first I thought the author was ignorant of the CMTM's history of the Corps, but then he explicitly referenced it so I was caught a little off-guard. The USCM falling under the control of WY over time doesn't seem that outlandish; military structures change, and we're talking about a span of centuries.
The WY blurb also mentions that WY engages in prison-based racing circuits - I certainly wasn't expecting to see a reference to Paul WS Anderson's 'Death Race' in this book.
Caught a "2178" typo fairly early in the book, which was kind of goofy since the very next page got the year correct twice in the same sentence. I'm getting the feeling this book could have really used a better editor and layout planner - in terms of content and audience it feels like a companion piece to the WY Report, almost as if it's the same book but written from the USCM's perspective. I think with better planning and execution, both books could have been really interesting companion books for one another - one about ways to exploit and harness the Alien, and another book about how to exterminate them.
I'm going to keep going through it, I'll pick out other interesting tidbits as I find them.
Oh another goofy consistent error I'm seeing is the book claims David's bestiary/experiment sketches were done in 2089 when David was onboard the Prometheus.
First page of the Nostromo ('Alien') chapter goofs up the year it took place, but the very next page gets it right in the first sentence. Whoops!
The MU/TH/UR page has some interesting tidbits - it claims that Dr. Wren onboard the Auriga was a WY employee. I mean I guess it's possible, but the "bought out by Wal-Mart" line and the general disdain for which 'Alien Resurrection' referred to Ripley's "former employer" makes it unlikely.
Also the very end of the page has a reference to the 'Predator: Concrete Jungle' videogame, which I wasn't expecting.
What's the Concrete Jungle reference? That's out of left field.
Quote from: Ultramorph on Nov 25, 2017, 12:31:26 AM
What's the Concrete Jungle reference? That's out of left field.
It mentions that the earliest precursors to MU/TH/UR from earlier in the 21st century were reportedly based around an organic core.
I mean this is a book that straight-up references the 'Death Race' remake for some reason, so I guess anything is on the table. :P
I almost forgot, the page about the Pulse Rifle uses the one from 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' as the baseline, but does point out the variant used in 'Aliens', and mentions the variant from the AvP2010 video game as well. That said, it references one of the variants mentioned in the CMTM (the M41E) but gets the details about it wrong.
Also, the article about Alien eggs references egg-morphing as a potential source for eggs. Always nice to see that referenced in officially-licensed stuff.
Like I said, it's this kind of stuff that's had me actually paying attention to the book (and surprisingly getting a lot more out of it). The content is so inconsistent but not necessarily in an off-putting way; it keeps me engaged just to see what it's going to get right or wrong, and what sort random stuff it's going to reference.
I might actually have to pick this book up at some point.
Just got to a page about eggs and it has a still image of Kane leaning over the open egg, with the caption "THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS, DO NOT DO IT", it's pretty f**king funny.
On that same page, it offhandedly tosses out the idea that there might be multiple evolutionary "stages" to the Alien egg based on its age, that older eggs manifest more advanced and elaborate methods of providing nourishment for the facehugger inside.
There's also a page with quotes from 'Alien' - that page manages to get the movie's year wrong, and then repeat Ash's "perfect organism" quote twice in a row. :P
This book really would have benefited from an editor, seriously.
Yeah, my main issues with the book where with editorial decisions too. Nicely picked up on the Concrete Jungle and Death Race things, btw! I completely missed those.
Quote from: Xenomrph on Nov 25, 2017, 12:56:55 AMIt mentions that the earliest precursors to MU/TH/UR from earlier in the 21st century were reportedly based around an organic core.
Hah! Nice. I mean, that was obviously what they were going for in the game, so it's nice to see something else pick up on it all these years later.
I've made a bit more headway on the book, here's my latest thoughts and findings.
The chestburster page calls attention to not all chestbursters being the same - some have forelimbs while others don't, and some are born with limbs fully formed, which seems to be talking about at least 'Alien3', if not 'Alien: Covenant'. It's kind of neat to see a book acknowledge this, as not many books do.
After that is the augmented reality stuff. I happen to think AR as a concept is pretty neat, and while my only "screen" is an iPhone (which sort of limits the impact versus, say, a tablet), the AR in the book is pretty well executed. I think I had the most fun with the weapon simulators. Worth noting that the AR image you scan is of a pulse rifle from 'Aliens: Colonial Marines', although the AR weapon you interact with is a movie pulse rifle. Another weapon you can mess with is the M5 RPG Launcher, an 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' weapon (although it is mentioned in the Colonial Marines Tech Manual as well).
A close second is probably the facehugger dissection, that was pretty well done, too. The Alien Queen AR was pretty neat, it gives you the ability to scale the AR Queen up to "life size". I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it is pretty damn huge.
On the page immediately following the AR stuff, there's another of David's bestiary drawings from Covenant. The caption reads: "After collecting samples of alien specimens for research and data, 'David', a synthetic onboard the USCSS Prometheus in 2089 recorded his notes and sketches."
The book is really committed to the idea that David made these sketches onboard the Prometheus, prior to the bulk of the movie's events (in 2093). :P
The first page of the Sulaco ('Aliens') chapter dates the film as having taken place in 2122. Whoops!
Also, the chapter repeatedly refers to the Sulaco as the "USCSS Sulaco" as opposed to the "USS Sulaco"; I mean, it's not like it was written on the side of the ship or anything. The chapter gets the name right once, otherwise it screws it up every time.
The first page of the chapter has a really weirdly-worded recap of the events of 'Aliens' - it brings up the Marines' intention to get airlifted back to the Sulaco and nuke the site from orbit, but the way it's worded, it's as if the Marines actually did that. Only halfway through the subsequent paragraph does the recap get back on track and describe the events of the film following the Dropship crash. Like, it's really bizarrely worded and more than a little confusing. The page does call attention to Ripley and co's "inadequate" sweep for surviving Alien threats prior to going back into hypersleep, though.
Worth noting is one of the image captions on the next page: for an image of the Sulaco's hypersleep pods, the caption reads, "Crew's travel to LV-426 was disturbed during hypersleep in capsules." I genuinely don't know what this is referring to. ???
The next two pages are about "key personnel", and this is where shit starts getting really crazy. It mis-spells Bishop's name as, I shit you not, "Úbishopi". I think someone forgot to do a little proofreading. And that's the least crazy thing in this section. The characters who get little paragraphs are Ripley, Newt, Hicks, Burke, Hudson, Vasquez, Bishop, and... Weirzbowski, of all people (but we'll get to him in a second). No other characters get mentioned.
Hicks' section gets a direct callout to the events of 'Aliens: Colonial Marines', referencing the USS Sephora and USS Legato by name and claiming that he may have survived the events of the movie 'Aliens', although this is "unconfirmed".
Weirzbowski's section also claims he may have survived the events of 'Aliens', stating that "uncorroborated reports suggest a subsequent career running covert black-ops for Weyland Yutani".
The next page is about the Sulaco, and funnily enough it features a screen capture from 'Aliens' where you can see the name of the ship on its side, and also cites a bunch of technical specs from the USCM Tech Manual, but then still calls it the "USCSS Sulaco" anyway. :P
Most interesting thing on this page is a paragraph about the Sulaco's fate - it says reports of its demise are "contradictory", and gives a reference to the 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' version of events where it was destroyed after being damaged by the USS Sephora's explosion, but then also offers an alternate fate where the Sulaco was overrun by Aliens and lost somewhere between LV-426 and Foirina 161, a reference to the 'Aliens: Infestation' game for the Nintendo DS.
Like I said before, this is a weird f**kin' book.
The pervasiveness of references to 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' makes me wonder if this book originally started as some kind of tie-in to that game, but that the project stalled out and got delayed so much that its only just now getting published, and had some late-stage changes made to include 'Alien: Covenant' content. Even the bit about Weirzbowski's survival is a reference to one of the early plot ideas for A:CM if I remember right, before it was changed to Hicks.
After I finish reading it, I'm genuinely interested in contacting the book's author and picking their brain about the book. Like, the (lack of) editing and the sheer number of references to ancillary stuff like Concrete Jungle and Infestation make it feel like an unofficial fan book, but the overall production values of the visuals and presentation are more in line with an official publication - not to mention the 20th Century Fox copyright notice in the book's front matter.
Sounds like its weird enough that I will buy it.
It's unfortunate about the wrong names and dates.
Maybe under Disney they will have tighter quality control or some kind of "Story group" like in Star Wars.
They already have bibles. Doesn't make them immune to mistakes.
And Star Wars was pretty tight on its EU long before Disney got there. I don't think Disney gives half a crap, that's a Lucas thing.
Lucas didn't really care about the EU insofar as it would make him more money, he willingly contradicted it via the prequel movies at the drop of a hat.
Allegedly there's a pretty well-formed "story group" in place for the Disney-era Star Wars "canon", and based on some of the canon-heavy youtube channels I follow that religiously scour the new material, it seems to be pretty tightly-knit (so far).
Quote from: SiL on Jan 21, 2018, 01:06:17 PM
They already have bibles. Doesn't make them immune to mistakes.
And Star Wars was pretty tight on its EU long before Disney got there. I don't think Disney gives half a crap, that's a Lucas thing.
The prequels created myriad continuity problems with pre-existing EU material - but they had people whose job it was to address them.
What level of involvement did you have with this book?
Nil.
/order cancelled
I should think so too.
I still need to try and get ahold of the author and see if I can get more info on this book in general. My PC has been dead until this afternoon otherwise I'd have probably tried sooner.
Do you have a list of complaints compiled yet?
I've only looked at some screen grabs and there seems to be an inordinate amount of minor errors.
Quote from: Local Trouble on Jan 29, 2018, 05:09:45 PM
Do you have a list of complaints compiled yet?
Not all in one place, my posts in this thread will have to do. :P
Speaking of, I don't think I've actually finished my page-by-page analysis I've been posting in this thread. I've finished the book, but I think my PC died before I could finish posting about the last chunk of the book.
To go back to what I'd said earlier in the thread, it's just a really baffling book. The production values are on-point from a visual standpoint (although the WY Archive beats it out in terms of original artwork) and the AR gimmick is well executed, but the book is so riddled with easily-fixed minor errors that it's as if there was no editor whatsoever. It's got minor sparks of brilliance and clever references to obscure stuff, but the mistakes make it read like a work of fan-fiction. It's got a ton of explicit references to 'Aliens: Colonial Marines', as if the book was originally meant as a tie-in to that game, but it got released in 2017 and has a chapter about Alien Covenant.
I certainly don't regret buying it - it's one of the most fascinating pieces of Alien tie-in stuff in a long time just because it's such an oddity.
Had no idea this book even existed until today in my local book store - had a bit of a play with it and even downloaded the app but couldn't get it to work.
The book was retailing for $AUD40. Was tempted to get it.
Yeah I was almost tempted to get a copy at Dymocks the other day. I'd only seen for $50+ before that.
Flipping through it, my suspicions about the amount of silly errors was confirmed. It was nicely put together though.
Quote from: SM on Nov 20, 2018, 05:33:34 AM
Yeah I was almost tempted to get a copy at Dymocks the other day. I'd only seen for $50+ before that.
Flipping through it, my suspicions about the amount of silly errors was confirmed. It was nicely put together though.
Funnily enough my local I mentioned was Dymocks here in Adelaide. Still might get it...
I keep forgetting to reach out to the author of the book and pick his brain about it.
Quote from: Xenomrph on Nov 20, 2018, 10:38:31 AMI keep forgetting to reach out to the author of the book and pick his brain about it.
I'm going back through the book again and I still need to do this.
It's just such a weird book. With a proper editor and fact-checker behind it it could have been a really cool companion to the WY Report.
Why does the Covenant section have no AR sequences when that's the primary selling point of the book?
It's a shame that its simply a reformatted The WY Report and not an actual militarized survival guide against the xenos. Fireteam Elite did expansion of the UA Colonial Marines and the overall world of the Alien series so much better than what the book supposed to do. Only difference is that it has the app that allows you to see aliens on your phone and that last few pages where how they can use xenos for military applications.
Quote from: Mr.Turok on Feb 08, 2024, 04:14:25 PMIt's a shame that its simply a reformatted The WY Report and not an actual militarized survival guide against the xenos. Fireteam Elite did expansion of the UA Colonial Marines and the overall world of the Alien series so much better than what the book supposed to do. Only difference is that it has the app that allows you to see aliens on your phone and that last few pages where how they can use xenos for military applications.
There's nothing in the book about Alien military applications, in fact early on it says "yeah the Company might have applications, but we're the USCM and we kill on sight." Maybe you're thinking of the WY Report? The last few pages in the Book of Alien are Alien identification guides and some of David's drawings.
Quote from: Slutty Badger on Feb 08, 2024, 02:03:40 PMWhy does the Covenant section have no AR sequences when that's the primary selling point of the book?
The primary selling point of the book is the first two movies (same as the WY Report), it just includes Covenant because it would seem incomplete without it given when it came out.
As a contrasting example, see the upcoming Encyclopedia that's excluding material released before the book comes out.
I'm about 2/3 of the way through my re-read and I gotta say, while I was hard on it for its errors (and I stand by what I said then, the errors are egregious and the book needed a fact-checker very badly), I'm softening on it on the re-read. As a casual fan coffee table book like the WY Report, it's got some fun ideas and the presentation is solid. As a dedicated fan, the errors are disappointing but it's got some interesting franchise deep-cuts and covers a surprising amount of material that conveys to me that the author was passionate about the assignment but presumably just wasn't up to the task on a technical level, and I'm okay with that. The AR stuff is a fun addition. And as a long-time fan, it's just such an oddity based on what it includes vs when it was released (namely the Aliens Colonial Marines content).
It's not an authoritative tome on the USCM (that book arguably already existed), nor is it even a particularly convincing in-universe document, but just like the WY Report I don't think it's trying to be. Just like the WY Report it's a casual fan coffee table book, a novelty.