Alien: River of Pain (Book 3) - Reviews

[DemonicD13]

Sounds great, can't wait for my copy.

[Perfect-Organism]

About Arcturians:

Spoiler

3 words:  Arcturian Trading Partners

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[Corporal Hicks]

My copy arrived this morning. Can't wait to start reading.

So I'm a little over half way through it and the Jordans have just made friends in the Derelict. Impressions so far...

Spoiler

By and large I'm enjoying it. A lot of the first half of the book has been about the life that the colonists lead. Mostly the hardships they face and the effect that has on the family and the mind. It's been pretty interesting and the Jordans have had the brunt of the attention so far. That said, the family and relationship drama included might annoy some folk.

Ripley has also featured but it's largely been an adaptation of Aliens as could be expected.

The novel has also dealt with the corporations and corporate connections. Golden has handled the inclusion of the Colonial Marines and their relationship to the colony and Wey-Yu. He's basically said that the Colonial Administration, the government (United States) and Weyland-Yutani are all working together on the colonizing effort.

W-Y get involved in certain colonies that they belief have potential to benefit them. Specifically here it's around the idea that something extraterrestrial is on 426. W-Y are aware that the Nostromo picked up an ET signal but not specifically anything about the Xenos. Golden puts across that W-Y put plenty of effort into finding aliens as they've helped advanced technologies - he specifically mentions how useful the Acturians were in this regards.

Golden has the Jordans explore the Derelict and they come across hived up section of the Derelict and the remnants of Jockey's and Aliens in the midst of a conflict. It had all been going really well but it's led to my only groan moment and Golden has somehow merged forgotten that the eggs had been below the pilot's chamber, not in it. Hoping this is the only significant mishap.

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Enjoying it so far.

[Perfect-Organism]

My copy arrived this morning. Can't wait to start reading.

So I'm a little over half way through it and the Jordans have just made friends in the Derelict. Impressions so far...

Spoiler

By and large I'm enjoying it. A lot of the first half of the book has been about the life that the colonists lead. Mostly the hardships they face and the effect that has on the family and the mind. It's been pretty interesting and the Jordans have had the brunt of the attention so far. That said, the family and relationship drama included might annoy some folk.

Ripley has also featured but it's largely been an adaptation of Aliens as could be expected.

The novel has also dealt with the corporations and corporate connections. Golden has handled the inclusion of the Colonial Marines and their relationship to the colony and Wey-Yu. He's basically said that the Colonial Administration, the government (United States) and Weyland-Yutani are all working together on the colonizing effort.

W-Y get involved in certain colonies that they belief have potential to benefit them. Specifically here it's around the idea that something extraterrestrial is on 426. W-Y are aware that the Nostromo picked up an ET signal but not specifically anything about the Xenos. Golden puts across that W-Y put plenty of effort into finding aliens as they've helped advanced technologies - he specifically mentions how useful the Acturians were in this regards.

Golden has the Jordans explore the Derelict and they come across hived up section of the Derelict and the remnants of Jockey's and Aliens in the midst of a conflict. It had all been going really well but it's led to my only groan moment and Golden has somehow merged forgotten that the eggs had been below the pilot's chamber, not in it. Hoping this is the only significant mishap.

[close]

Enjoying it so far.

Spoiler

In addition to the fact that the egg chamber and pilot's chamber now appear to be merged, there is another strange detail on the same page.  In effect, the Alien eggs are described as 1' to 18" tall.  That is clearly inconsistent with any eggs we've seen  I'm about 2 thirds of the way into the novel and I don't see anything else glaringly inaccurate.  Curious how that got into the book when Kane's descent was so memorable.  I suppose there could be an adjacent chamber next to the Space Jockey in the Derelict, but it's unlikely that's what the author intended.  Secondly it is possible that there were different sized alien eggs but it seems an unnecessary deviation from canon.  Realistically, it would have been impossible to write the scene differently and expecting that Russ could have gone down the hole near the jockey and then Anne would be able to pull him up on her own.  It's a bit of an annoying section midway through the book, but other than that the book is pretty solid.

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[Morgoth]

Is this connected any way to the previous two books?

[Perfect-Organism]

I have finished the book.  In one word, Awesome!  It is my favorite book by far of all the Aliens books that I have ever read.  It comes out today.  Go buy it.  Treasure it.

Out of respect for the author's great work, I decided to not get into any more spoilers here until the release date, but since that day is here I have written a review of the novel which can be found on the "Aliens Continuity Change" Facebook page.  I actually invite you to go out and read the book instead, but if you're interested in the spoilerific review, you can find it here:

https://www.facebook.com/Aliens.Continuity.Change/posts/363400347153568

Keep it tight people...

[DemonicD13]

Spoiler

"As it turns out, another little girl and a marine also escaped Acheron on a spaceship." They didn't go by the name Wilks and Billie did they? 

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[HuDaFuK]

Book's not out here in the UK until the middle of next month. Sad times.

[Corporal Hicks]

Still says today on Amazon. But it's also still only a pre-order.

[HuDaFuK]

I've had mine on pre-order for a while and it's still showing December 18th as the delivery date.

EDIT: Although, having checked, you're right, the book's entry on the site actually gives today as the release date. Wires crossed somewhere.

[DemonicD13]

Just got an email from Amazon stating i won't get my copy until December 19th. What gives? 

[Perfect-Organism]

Chapters.ca from Canada is shipping the book right now.  But it will take 2-3 weeks to get to the US from Chapters.

Here is the shipping info:

http://help.indigo.ca/app/answers/detail/a_id/28

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/alien-river-of-pain-novel/9781781162729-item.html?ikwid=alien&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=2

Spoiler

"As it turns out, another little girl and a marine also escaped Acheron on a spaceship." They didn't go by the name Wilks and Billie did they? 

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Spoiler

Well no they did not name them Billie and Wilks but that was the exact same impression that I got out of the book.  In fact all three books from this series have set up different threads that can be followed up on in various divergent stories, essentially setting up post-Alien, post-Aliens, and Post Alien: Resurrection worlds.  The relationship between the marine and the little girl from A:ROP is potentially exactly like Hicks / Newt or Wilks / Billie from the original Aliens series by Mark A. Nelson and Mark Verheiden.

The novel itself was really great, but this new idea to give fans something similar to that continuation of the Hicks and Newt story that fans have been hoping to get since 1986 is really uncool.  Fox seems to want fans to just transpose their invested feelings about Hicks and Newt to these two new derivative characters.  I don't think that's going to fly.  Think about it, that's like having a girlfriend and then when that relationship ends, trying to find someone who is identical to her.  That never works...

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[DemonicD13]

I would be open to them doing a remake of the original comics. They are some of the best we got.

[Perfect-Organism]

Ok, well the cat is out of the bag.   

As far as comics go, I think the very first 2 or 3 Aliens series written by Mark Verheiden were by far the best of all the Aliens series, but IMO, they were destroyed not by Prometheus, but by Wilks and Billie.  Reading those retconned books, you end up thinking the whole time that this should be Hicks and Newt.  But yes, a retelling of those stories would be fun.

The logic presented in Alien: River of Pain works much better than the old Dark Horse retcon, but honestly I think people would much rather have Hicks and Newt.  I know there will be those who disagree...

[Ultramorph]

Looks like I'll be getting mine December 19th, as well. It kind of stinks, but there are plenty of comics coming out in the meantime.