Alien: Covenant Novelization

Started by Corporal Hicks, Sep 22, 2016, 03:30:14 PM

Author
Alien: Covenant Novelization (Read 48,277 times)

Engineer

Engineer

#210
HA! ADF commented! That was cool. And an interesting insight. :-) thanks for sharing!

felix

felix

#211
Nothing official as yet. But i suspect Foster will be doing the novelization for the Last Jedi later this year.

Corporal Hicks

Quote from: Engineer on Jun 10, 2017, 10:07:26 PM
HA! ADF commented! That was cool. And an interesting insight. :-) thanks for sharing!

I think he mentioned that in my old old interview with him on the website.  :)

HuDaFuK

HuDaFuK

#213
He ghost-wrote the original novelisation, didn't he, as Lucas?

Corporal Hicks

I do believe so.

SM

SM

#215
Yeah it so widely know now that it's mentioned in his bio at the end of his books.  GL is still credited as author of the Star Wars novelisation though.

Robopadna

Robopadna

#216
Quote from: Xenomrph on Jun 04, 2017, 01:56:49 AM
Quote from: BonesawT101 on May 30, 2017, 02:55:11 PM
The book is not canon though. Canon starts and ends with the film(s).
That's your opinion, though.

Quote from: Robopadna on May 31, 2017, 02:41:24 PM
Quote from: BonesawT101 on May 30, 2017, 04:31:57 PM
Exactly. That's my point. A form of the creature(s) has existed prior to David's tinkering. All David has done  is play around with the ingredients to realise his version of the perfect organism, using ingredients and tools that have been used by the engineers for as long as they have existed.

The way Scott intends it to be interpreted is this (from what he has said and can be taken from the films):

The engineers made/discovered the accelerant - They created the deacon from the accelerant (you can see it in the mural) - David, unbeknownst to him, also creates the deacon (although the process is a little odd for the engineers to have done prior but hand wave that away) - David creates the xenos we all know in covenant and alien/aliens/alien 3/AR

So in a way he actively created the xenos we have seen in every movie (outside of the deacon and neo morphs) but he did it with a material that already had the property allowing him to do that.
That may be his intent, and it's certainly one way to interpret the movie, but Ridley's intent is not the be-all end-all.

In terms of how things happen in the 'real' Alien world, it is the end all be all.  He made his intent clear and said he thinks he made it glaringly clear in the film as well.  That is simply the end of the story.,

BUT you can fan fic it all you want.  It's a fictional universe so it isn't like anything actually happened.  If you want to pretend a film didn't happen or find a way to mentally maneuver around everything to come up with a crazy alternate hypothesis, go ahead.

Someone could say that David finds a way to manipulate time and travels back to leave the derelict and the eggs thousands of years in the past and they are later found in Alien.  Clearly the movie aren't going in this direction (nor are they going in any direction where david is not the clear sole creator of the alien creature we have seen in every movie) but there isn't anything technically saying that this ISN'T what happened.

Xenomrph

Xenomrph

#217
Quote from: HuDaFuK on Jun 05, 2017, 08:04:40 AM
Quote from: D88M on Jun 02, 2017, 11:53:26 PMso, there is nothing on what happened between Prometheus and Covenant?

Foster is writing a whole other book to cover that.
Apparently he's not, based on the plot summary of the Origins book we're getting.


Quote from: Robopadna on Jun 12, 2017, 01:40:19 PM
Quote from: Xenomrph on Jun 04, 2017, 01:56:49 AM
Quote from: BonesawT101 on May 30, 2017, 02:55:11 PM
The book is not canon though. Canon starts and ends with the film(s).
That's your opinion, though.

Quote from: Robopadna on May 31, 2017, 02:41:24 PM
Quote from: BonesawT101 on May 30, 2017, 04:31:57 PM
Exactly. That's my point. A form of the creature(s) has existed prior to David's tinkering. All David has done  is play around with the ingredients to realise his version of the perfect organism, using ingredients and tools that have been used by the engineers for as long as they have existed.

The way Scott intends it to be interpreted is this (from what he has said and can be taken from the films):

The engineers made/discovered the accelerant - They created the deacon from the accelerant (you can see it in the mural) - David, unbeknownst to him, also creates the deacon (although the process is a little odd for the engineers to have done prior but hand wave that away) - David creates the xenos we all know in covenant and alien/aliens/alien 3/AR

So in a way he actively created the xenos we have seen in every movie (outside of the deacon and neo morphs) but he did it with a material that already had the property allowing him to do that.
That may be his intent, and it's certainly one way to interpret the movie, but Ridley's intent is not the be-all end-all.

In terms of how things happen in the 'real' Alien world, it is the end all be all.  He made his intent clear and said he thinks he made it glaringly clear in the film as well.  That is simply the end of the story.,
Yeah except that it's not, because as you pointed out, it's fiction and people can have their own interpretations and opinions about it. Ridley Scott's is no better or more important than anyone else's, that's how art and fiction work.

SM

SM

#218
General thoughts.  Read it twice now and really dug it.  Not too keen on a few of ADF's embellishments though.

Specifically...
- 'What's an environmental activist?'
- 'What's 'cheese'?'
- 'What's a 'West Virginia' anyway?'

It seems incongruous that people wouldn't be familiar with these things, seeing as it's not that far into the future (and states still exist in the US in 2179 for example) and each question results in a clunky explanation.

HuDaFuK

HuDaFuK

#219
Quote from: SM on Jun 28, 2017, 04:33:20 AM- 'What's a 'West Virginia' anyway?'

Yeah, that seemed really dumb. I know what a 'Wessex' is, and that hasn't been a kingdom in the UK since the 10th century.

windebieste

windebieste

#220
Do all the US states exist in the future 'ALIEN' universe as they do now?  Maybe West Virginia doesn't exist any more.  Maybe it's been divided up or consolidated into its neighbour states...  Hasn't there been talk of dividing California into 6 smaller states?  What's the political landscape of the US - or the rest of the world for that matter - going to look like in 100 years?  We're seeing political upheaval all the time and borders get redrawn.  Especially within single nations. 

Does 'San Angeles' mean anything to 'Blade Runner' fans, here?  You can bet the population of that mega city in 100 years probably wouldn't even be aware of that their megatropolis was once 2 separate cities.  "What's a San Diego?" might be a real question expressed in the 'BR' Universe.

It's not that hard to come to grips with, really.   Foster is clearly expressing changes in the political climate, not just in terms of geography and what you may consider common knowledge.  'Common knowledge', it turns out, isn't that common.

The same can be said for 'environmental activist'.  The phrase may not be in use in 50 years.  It's a reasonable question.  As for 'cheese', it's the same deal.  Maybe the character comes from a colony world where cheese is unknown - is her origin explained in the book?  Maybe cheese is only eaten by the wealthy, like people who own animals in the 'BR' Universe. 

Shit, man.  I expect most people living in the 'BR' universe probably couldn't name 10 breeds of dog.  I expect other parallels would exist in the 'ALIEN' Universe. 

-Windebieste.

Anthony

Anthony

#221
Quote from: SM on Jun 28, 2017, 04:33:20 AM

- 'What's 'cheese'?'

"Cheese is a food derived from milk that is produced in a wide range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep." - Wikipedia.

Mr. Clemens

Mr. Clemens

#222
Huh, 'buffalo milk'....... spicy!  ;D

HuDaFuK

HuDaFuK

#223
I had reindeer cheese one and it was lovely!

SM

SM

#224
Quote from: Anthony on Jun 28, 2017, 03:26:26 PM
Quote from: SM on Jun 28, 2017, 04:33:20 AM

- 'What's 'cheese'?'

"Cheese is a food derived from milk that is produced in a wide range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep." - Wikipedia.

Almost as clunky as the explanation in the book.

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