Alien: River of Pain (Book 3) - Reviews

Started by Perfect-Organism, Nov 18, 2014, 10:36:08 PM

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Alien: River of Pain (Book 3) - Reviews (Read 41,965 times)

HuDaFuK

Quote from: Mr. Clemens on Dec 02, 2014, 05:36:23 PMAlso, the whole 'folks, we have scored big this time' scene was odd, with half-quoted dialogue appearing differently than the film in relation to what was said inside/outside the tractor. Just pointlessly odd stuff.

Yeah, I made note of that too. At first I thought maybe that was how the scene appeared in Newt's Tale, but after checking the comic the "call it in" dialogue happens inside the tractor, as in the film. So I dunno why he felt the need to alter something that didn't need altering.

Finished the book. All my previous thoughts stand. Good read, the best of the trilogy, but beset by annoyingly pointless inconsistencies, especially in its second half. Most annoying of all, even a cursory glance at the film would've made most of them obvious to the author/editor. Why does Simpson have a 'tache? Why are Pulse Rifles now "plasma guns"? Why is operations now beneath the med lab?

Personally, what with the fall of Hadley's Hope being such a pivotal moment in the franchise, I would've made sure some extra effort was put into getting everything right. But a lot of these errors were so obvious.

Vrastal

Overall not a bad book. Anyone whos watched the movies and knows some of the pivotal scenes by heart will notice the errors in scene description and dialogue. This bugged me to no end, I dont understand why the author decided to change some of these dialogue scenes that were perfectly fine in the movie, but it sets my teeth on edge KNOWING the source material is not hard to access yet they werent done true to it.


The throwback scenes to Alien and Aliens with ripley i honestly hated, not just because of the inaccuracy  in the movie-writing but i personally think that they are over milking Ripley.

I felt the Scientist and marines pissing contest was annoying and un-needed.

Spoiler
I did like Story development of brackett  having him and Anne having a past felt like a good build and despite what he wanted he he didnt rock the boat with Anne intentionally. i found that to be quite refreshing and a bit sad. Anne fantasizing about Brackett thou minor bothered me. Russ was being a dumbass. But it was reason for newt to befriend brackett which felt sad and right.

Scenes from newts perspective in some ares truly made me feel scared and hopeless  which i loved. I Easily imaged myself there in the colony in some scenes feeling the fear.

The last scene with the marines searching the ops for survivors and Brackett finding anne and tim dead, not being able to find newt, But knowing she was so close to him was heartbreaking and i got serious ripley newt vibe from brackett and the little girl he rescued.
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Overall id say 7/10 not my favorite Alien book but not bad either.

HuDaFuK

Was anyone else really disappointed the female colonist the Marines find alive in the hive in Aliens didn't feature? She clearly had to have been on the run until a day or so before they arrived, but the book just jumps several weeks from the final overrun of the colony to Gorman and co. arriving.

I thought that was a big missed opportunity.

Perfect-Organism

That's a good point.  I've always wondered what she was doing from the point where the infestation occurred to when the marines arrived and if she ever crossed paths with Newt.  It would have also been interesting to reference John J. Marachuk.

Vrastal

The way it was left felt like all the colonist that were remaining the 100ish of them all got snatched up in that last night with the exception of newt

HuDaFuK

Quote from: Nazrel on Dec 06, 2014, 07:52:31 PMThe way it was left felt like all the colonist that were remaining the 100ish of them all got snatched up in that last night with the exception of newt

That's what I mean. I think a bit of extra survival horror focussing on a few stragglers, including Mrs. Hive Woman, would've really added to the book.

DemonicD13

I really loved this book, If it wasn't for having to work 12 hour shifts I would have finished it sooner. I love that Golden used Newt's Tale as a starting point. I also was pleased with the way he handled the marines, I was worried they were going to be all gung-ho ACM types. But yes I noticed many of the mistakes the rest of you have mentioned. Does no one at Titan bother to proof read this stuff. I mean most of this would be an easy fix.   :P

Two things I wanted to mention, first the description of the Derelict. At first I thought, what the hell was he smoking, putting the Jockey in the egg chamber? But then I got to thinking, just because their is a helmeted engineer in a chair in an egg chamber does not mean he is the same engineer we see in Alien. It kind of sounds like Anne and Russ are down a level in the big egg chamber from the movie Alien and that the Jockey would be above them. We have never seen the far ends of the egg chamber, maybe another helmeted engineer is stationed there in another big chair, perhaps to monitor the eggs?.... Well maybe I'm grabbing at straws, I'd like to know what Golden has to say.

Second the book makes it sound like the colony sent out a message asking for help. What happened to losing radio contact and it just may be a downed transmitter? Was Burke lying, or was the signal somehow blocked?  :-\

HuDaFuK

Quote from: DemonicD13 on Dec 08, 2014, 05:13:43 AMTwo things I wanted to mention, first the description of the Derelict. At first I thought, what the hell was he smoking, putting the Jockey in the egg chamber? But then I got to thinking, just because their is a helmeted engineer in a chair in an egg chamber does not mean he is the same engineer we see in Alien. It kind of sounds like Anne and Russ are down a level in the big egg chamber from the movie Alien and that the Jockey would be above them. We have never seen the far ends of the egg chamber, maybe another helmeted engineer is stationed there in another big chair, perhaps to monitor the eggs?.... Well maybe I'm grabbing at straws, I'd like to know what Golden has to say.

They do go downstairs, but then they come back up before finding the jockey. The way it was written made it sound like the room from Alien and Golden just screwed up.

Quote from: DemonicD13 on Dec 08, 2014, 05:13:43 AMSecond the book makes it sound like the colony sent out a message asking for help. What happened to losing radio contact and it just may be a downed transmitter? Was Burke lying, or was the signal somehow blocked?  :-\

I don't think Burke was lying. It looks like he's just as clueless about the colony's fate as everyone else - you can see it in his face when he gets there.

Vrastal

I think the scientist blocked the signal, it would make sense since they held off so long with everything else.

and HuD i know what you mean. the lone colonist could have gotten her own story with ending she opened her eyes and saw marines or something.

TheBATMAN

I found the first half excellent, the second half pretty poor. Hated the Newt's Tale angle and would be interested to know if he was contractually obliged to include it. I only ask because if you take that aspect out, plus the copy and paste chapters from Aliens, we are left with a very, very short book indeed.

What strikes me is that Golden seems to have a lack of passion for the franchise compared to Jim Moore and Tim Lebbon. That may sound harsh and I'm sure he's a fan, but his writing makes this seem far less of a passion project for him than it was for the other two authors in this trilogy.

I hate the way the colonists just keep letting the chest bursters hatch. It's completely nonsensical. They already admit they cannot help them, so why not simply incinerate them all? I know Dr. Reese wanted specimens, but they already had a live face hugger contained.

I liked Brackett. His characterisation was very good and his portrayal of the Jordan family was also excellent. But it seems to be an ironic trend for me that with so many Aliens novels, things start off so well and go downhill when the aliens actually arrive on the scene.

I liked the exploration of the juggernaut, though I was hoping for a lot more. I really wanted chapters of Dr. Reese and his team going back and exploring the derelict in detail with some more Prometheus stuff and some accelerant. The fact they all die in the end would not harm continuity in any way and the secret of the space jockeys would still be preserved.

I'm gonna have to read this again in order to form a final opinion but this book just had me completely polarised. But I will say this has been a highly enjoyable trilogy of books, much better than the Dark Horse run. I just wish more of an effort had been made to link Prometheus in as like it or not, it's a part of this series now.

Out of the Shadows - Would have removed  Ripley and Ash, changed the dog aliens to another Engineer outpost and weapons cache.

Sea of Sorrows - Would not have had the Auriga crash cause so much devastation on Earth. That aspect was ridiculous considering Ripley went to such lengths to stop the alien reaching Earth to avoid such a disaster.

River of Pain - I wouldn't have followed Newt's tale. I would have had a more scientific exploration of the derelict before the shit hit the fan at the colony. I don't think I would have had Brackett and the girl survive either. I know it doesn't exactly break continuity, but it seems odd now watching Aliens knowing that a good faction of the colonists survived. I also would have had some colonists survive until literally hours before Ripley and the marines arrived.

HuDaFuK

Quote from: TheBATMAN on Dec 08, 2014, 01:22:45 PMRiver of Pain - I wouldn't have followed Newt's tale. I would have had a more scientific exploration of the derelict before the shit hit the fan at the colony. I don't think I would have had Brackett and the girl survive either. I know it doesn't exactly break continuity, but it seems odd now watching Aliens knowing that a good faction of the colonists survived. I also would have had some colonists survive until literally hours before Ripley and the marines arrived.

Totally condone all of this.

Xenoscream

Just finished it. Overall I liked it, I'd give it 7/10. I do have some medium sized gripes though as follows:

Movie scenes:

Spoiler
Hated them, every Ripley scene felt padding to make the book longer. Really did not like the way she instantly figures Burke out.
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Prometheus:

Spoiler
Engineer ripped the brain out of a Queen? Really? Did he copy this pose straight out of AVP:R? I was very excited to see inside the derelict, but then all of the dead aliens and "exo suit" references made me wish it had been empty
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.

Short story:

This is a short story, virtually a Newt's tale write up with a couple of chapters characterisation, I didn't feel like I got much bang for my buck here (at least it was only £3 on kindle) like others I think they could have drawn this out into a protracted survival story, it all seems to be over in virtually 24 hours.

The over-riding reason these points (especially the length) is because the quality of the writing and characterisation is very high, and I was left just wishing there was more, and that the padding movie chapters were original content.


RakaiThwei

Quote from: Xenoscream on Dec 09, 2014, 05:20:04 PM
Prometheus:

Spoiler
Engineer ripped the brain out of a Queen? Really? Did he copy this pose straight out of AVP:R? I was very excited to see inside the derelict, but then all of the dead aliens and "exo suit" references made me wish it had been empty.
[close]

Wait.. what? THAT happened in the book? I'm not a fan of the Aliens, but I can tell you that doesn't sit too well with me.

Spoiler

Is anyone else starting to think they're trying to really push the Engineers as these Uber-Boss types now? I mean considering how large and tall a Queen is, I would think these types of Xenomorphs would be able to overpower an Engineer. How is this scene explained anyway?
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HuDaFuK

Quote from: RakaiThwei on Dec 09, 2014, 10:14:03 PM
Spoiler

Is anyone else starting to think they're trying to really push the Engineers as these Uber-Boss types now? I mean considering how large and tall a Queen is, I would think these types of Xenomorphs would be able to overpower an Engineer. How is this scene explained anyway?
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Spoiler
They're both dead and fossilised, but the Engineer has his hand right down the Queen's gob.
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Vrastal

I really dont care for engineers beign creaters they were better as the space jockey. I loved prometheus but the engineers take somethign away from the aliens

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