Alien: Covenant - Origins - Prequel Novel

[SM]

Spoiler

Not much.  There's some sparse info early on about the takeover and competition with Jutou Combine, but it's not overly important to the plot really.

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I would have much preferred Fox to say, "Okay, Alan Dean Foster...David and Shaw were on Paradise for 10 years, go nuts! Invent like mad! Create an Engineer culture, have them explore the planet. Have them fight and argue, show us Shaw's fear. Show us David's increasing madness. Whatever, just be wild!"

I think a lot of people would've preferred that, but there were stories floating around about how that might be a film, so perhaps those stories had some substance.

[Stitch]

OK, so for some reason Amazon UK only has the book for sale via 3rd party sellers so I've ended up listening to it via Audible.

Firstly, I have to say that the audible reading was good. Tom Taylorson was fantastic and did all the voices very well, especially Lope.

As for the story itself, it was a bit superfluous. There are some bits I liked about in regards to world building. It fleshes out the universe they live in, and makes it feel rather reminiscent of the Blade Runner universe in some ways (hardly surprising, really). There were other aspects that reminded me very much of the Dark Horse Aliens comic books, specifically the

Spoiler

cult and prophet who has visions of demons from space. I believe Outbreak has a cult in it, though worshipping the aliens as opposed to trying to save us from them

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.

I suppose I could see this as a novelisation of one of the Dark Horse comics, though not one of the best. That's what it felt like.

Also, I find it ironic that

Spoiler

the cult and the prophet were right and if they had just listened to them that then the colonists wouldn't be in the hands of a mad android right now...

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[Ultramorph]

Thumbed through it last night, liked

Spoiler

a scene where they speculate that David might have malfunctioned and been responsible to the Prometheus disappearing. That was a nice touch.

"Oh-tee-bee-see" = "Out there be demons."

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Looking forward to doing a proper read.

[Corporal Hicks]

Also, I find it ironic that

Spoiler

the cult and the prophet were right and if they had just listened to them that then the colonists wouldn't be in the hands of a mad android right now...

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I actually really like that. There's lots of different elements of this book that I do think are interesting and enjoy (I'm especially enjoying more like with Branson and Daniels and Lope and Rosenthal) but it's just not coming together for me.

Spoiler

Not much.  There's some sparse info early on about the takeover and competition with Jutou Combine, but it's not overly important to the plot really.

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No but I thought it was one of those world-building elements that people would have found interesting.

Does anyone else's book also have Branson referred to as Brandon throughout?

[Ultramorph]

Yeah, I kept seeing "Captain Brandon" too.

[SM]

No but I thought it was one of those world-building elements that people would have found interesting.

I'm finding it interesting that after years of many fans saying they want a story about the universe and/ or the Company with no Aliens in it, we get one and it's not what people wanted.

[asil]

It would be interesting though if Fox could adapt this into mini-series. More areas can be explored and expanded in Alien universe. ADF might agree.

[Corporal Hicks]

No but I thought it was one of those world-building elements that people would have found interesting.

I'm finding it interesting that after years of many fans saying they want a story about the universe and/ or the Company with no Aliens in it, we get one and it's not what people wanted.

I honestly think there's room for it. This just doesn't seem like the one. I think it's hanging under a shadow of "but a proper Covenant sequel would have been David and Shaw!"

[TWJones]

An expanded Alien universe, particularly on earth is difficult because it ends up feeling like Blade Runner. At least to me anyway.

[SM]

I never got a Blade Runner vibe from the book.

[SenseOfDoubt]

FFS... Really?!!!!

Spoiler

Exploding goats?

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Well, that's 8 hours of my life I'll never get back.

[Perfect-Organism]

Just finished reading this.  Well there's a minor canon change as a result:

Spoiler

Yutani took over Weyland, not the other way around as the sacred timeline in the W-Y report states

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Also we get to meet

Spoiler

Hideo Yutani

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I think some people hit the nail on the head saying this feels like Blade Runner.  That's not a bad thing.  But how do I feel about the book as a whole?  Got to sleep on it...

Spoiler

What this book desperately needs is a moment where we see an engineer transmitting the info into the prophet's head.  That would justify him having these dreams.  Otherwise, there is no reason why the guy would have such accurate dreams.  Also, and very importantly, we needed to see Hideo Yutani plugging in the prophet to the dream reading equipment which we saw at the beginning of Prometheus.  I mean that is old technology by the time this story takes place.  If Yutani saw the dream, perhaps it could have been the reason that he needed to go out and search for the aliens.but this never happened.  We could have had the motivation for W-Y's alien weapons interests explained here, but noooo.  Fun read, but a bit of a wasted opportunity

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A good number of orthographical errors too.

[SM]

Spoiler

How were the dreams accurate?

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Also

Spoiler

WYR focuses on Peter Weyland and not Hideo Yutani (for obvious reasons) so the language used in it will favour Weyland.  Though later it also uses the word 'merge'.  The term 'merger' is used numerous times throughout Origins as well.

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[Corporal Hicks]

http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/books-comics/alan-dean-foster/52206/alan-dean-foster-interview-alien-covenant-origins

How does it feel to be back in the Alien universe after so many years away?

Kind of like being in Deep Sleep on the ship: I wake up, and no time has passed for me at all.

Origins is your fifth Alien novel; is it a particularly fun series to play around in?

As is always the case with playing in someone else's playground, it always depends on how much freedom I'm allowed. The more I'm left alone, the more enjoyable the project.

You've penned a number of movie novelizations in the past; what are some of the challenges involved with turning a screenplay into a compelling novel?

First and foremost, the reader must get a good deal more than exists in the screenplay: otherwise you might as well just read that. Fixing the science (where allowed), correcting lapses in story logic, expanding on the characters and especially their inner thoughts, and giving greater weight to interpersonal relationships are all important. In a novelization I have far more time, greater opportunity to provide insight into story and character, and an unlimited budget. All need to be utilized.

I understand when you were approached about the Covenant novel there was already a plan in place for a second tie-in book. Was the story set at this stage, or were other ideas discussed, e.g. Shaw and David's journey to the Engineer planet?

No story was in place and several alternate plots were discussed. The final story chosen was the one that I was asked to write.

Origins is your first original novel in the universe. How did you go about crafting the storyline?

There was a good deal of discussion between myself, Titan books, and Fox as to where the story could/should go. The more elaborate a movie franchise becomes, the greater the restrictions that come to the fore. Within what I was requested to write, I was given a great deal of freedom.

Do you have any favourite characters or sequences from the book? The Lope chapters seemed like a lot of fun to work on.

It's easy to write heroes and villains; ordinary folk are more difficult. I always saw Sgt. Lope as one of the most professional and competent characters in Covenant, but because of the number of characters and pace of the film, there wasn't much time to delve into his personality. I consider him the blue collar champion of the film; somebody who's really good at his job but doesn't make a big deal of it. In Origins I also enjoyed linking him up with Rosenthal. And of course, creating an entire family backdrop and history for the Yutani side of Weyland-Yutani was great fun.

One notable omission from Origins is a physical appearance by the titular beast himself. Was there ever any talk of trying to fit the alien into the story somehow?

It was discussed.

Was there ever consideration of including details from Origins in the Covenant novelization, e.g. a reference to the attempted sabotage of the ship before launch?

As the novelization was written, completed, and turned in to the publisher before Origins was begun, the opportunity was never there. It would have been fun to have been able to do that, but publishing requirements and time considerations prevented the possibility.

If you had free rein to tell any story within the Alien universe, do you have a concept you'd like to explore?

Oh yeah...but then, I've had them for decades.

A personal favourite novelization I've read of yours was The Thing, which is quite different from the final film. Was it surprising to watch the finished product and see how much it deviated from the script you worked from?

So often, important changes to a film are decided on the set or in post-production. I particularly would have liked to see filmed the ending in Bill Lancaster's script, but as I understand it, it would have cost too much.

Do you have any favourite novelizations of your own out of those you've worked on?

I'm afraid I like them all, and I don't really play favorites. But Alien was an especially difficult one because Fox would never allow me to see any images of the alien. If you read the book, there are no descriptions of the alien itself.

On the flipside, are there any of your original novels you'd love to see adapted into a film or television series?

Don't get me started. I've had, and currently have, a fair number under option, but I've been disappointed too many times already.

And finally, can you tell us about any projects you're currently working on?

Strange Music, a new Pip & Flinx novel, will be out from Del Rey in November. Relic, a stand-alone SF novel, will come out from Del Rey next year. I've turned in Secretions, a novel based entirely on slime. And a few other things....

Alan Dean Foster, thank you very much.

[HuDaFuK]

Thanks for sharing that.