ALIEN: Out of the Shadows (Novel 1)

Started by Darwinsgirl, Jun 01, 2013, 03:49:43 AM

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ALIEN: Out of the Shadows (Novel 1) (Read 148,041 times)

BountyHunter

I'm loving River of Pain, but I feel the Ripley scenes, which are basically just scenes lifted out of ALIENS, are not necessary.

SM

SM

#526
Quote from: Engineer on May 08, 2016, 11:13:37 PM
Yea, it didn't feel THAT forced to me... More like cleverly implemented. :-)


PS. On the subject of "forced inclusion" I only really felt that about Hicks in A:CM. I was skeptical about A:I and Amanda Ripley at first, but that turned out very natural and pleasant. I was a little skeptical about out of the shadows too, and as it turns out I actually liked how they went about that too. I'm currently skeptical over river of pain, but I'll keep an open mind until I get around to reading it!

I was very sceptical about A:I, but overall they made it work really well.

Out of the Shadows was way better than it had a right to be considering the premise.  River of Pain, despite some continuity glitches, was my favourite of the initial three novels.

Engineer

Engineer

#527
Quote from: BountyHunter on May 09, 2016, 01:13:15 AM
I'm loving River of Pain, but I feel the Ripley scenes, which are basically just scenes lifted out of ALIENS, are not necessary.
Wait... WHAT?!? Ripley is in River of Pain too?!? How's that work?!


Quote from: SM on May 09, 2016, 02:17:37 AM
Quote from: Engineer on May 08, 2016, 11:13:37 PM
Yea, it didn't feel THAT forced to me... More like cleverly implemented. :-)


PS. On the subject of "forced inclusion" I only really felt that about Hicks in A:CM. I was skeptical about A:I and Amanda Ripley at first, but that turned out very natural and pleasant. I was a little skeptical about out of the shadows too, and as it turns out I actually liked how they went about that too. I'm currently skeptical over river of pain, but I'll keep an open mind until I get around to reading it!

I was very sceptical about A:I, but overall they made it work really well.

Out of the Shadows was way better than it had a right to be considering the premise.  River of Pain, despite some continuity glitches, was my favourite of the initial three novels.
Hmm... Sounds like we agree on A:I and out of the shadows. That's good to hear about River of pain; I'm looking forward to that one. :-)

SM

SM

#528
Ripley is in RoP via 'cutaways' which are scenes from Aliens.  She's not part of the colony story.

The Alien Predator

Quote from: Engineer on May 09, 2016, 02:18:39 AM
Quote from: BountyHunter on May 09, 2016, 01:13:15 AM
I'm loving River of Pain, but I feel the Ripley scenes, which are basically just scenes lifted out of ALIENS, are not necessary.
Wait... WHAT?!? Ripley is in River of Pain too?!? How's that work?!


Quote from: SM on May 09, 2016, 02:17:37 AM
Quote from: Engineer on May 08, 2016, 11:13:37 PM
Yea, it didn't feel THAT forced to me... More like cleverly implemented. :-)


PS. On the subject of "forced inclusion" I only really felt that about Hicks in A:CM. I was skeptical about A:I and Amanda Ripley at first, but that turned out very natural and pleasant. I was a little skeptical about out of the shadows too, and as it turns out I actually liked how they went about that too. I'm currently skeptical over river of pain, but I'll keep an open mind until I get around to reading it!

I was very sceptical about A:I, but overall they made it work really well.

Out of the Shadows was way better than it had a right to be considering the premise.  River of Pain, despite some continuity glitches, was my favourite of the initial three novels.
Hmm... Sounds like we agree on A:I and out of the shadows. That's good to hear about River of pain; I'm looking forward to that one. :-)

There's just a couple of Ripley scenes taken from the movie and added in the novel like the briefing from Aliens where she explains why she blew up the Nostromo to the Company and then some bits where Burke and Gorman arrive to her apartment I think. But Ripley herself plays no part in the actual events of the novel.

Engineer

Oh gotcha! That makes sense. Gives you a sense of time with respect to the movie...

Corporal Hicks

Quote from: SM on May 09, 2016, 02:17:37 AM
Out of the Shadows was way better than it had a right to be considering the premise.  River of Pain, despite some continuity glitches, was my favourite of the initial three novels.

Really? Mine would probably be Sea of Sorrows but I think because it evoked such a strong feeling of the old EU in me. Why River of Pain? Don't get me wrong, I liked them all (solid 7s for me) but I just couldn't get over the Colonial Marines.

SM

SM

#532
I would've preferred Colonial Marshalls, but I liked the dynamic of putting Brackett in there, him having a history with Anne Jorden, then having his actions directly lead to the crisis.  Then they're practically wiped out in around 3 days.

Sea of Sorrows had too many characters - so many that even James Moore lost track of them.

Corporal Hicks

Quote from: SM on May 09, 2016, 08:26:46 AM
I would've preferred Colonial Marshalls, but I liked the dynamic of putting Brackett in there, him having a history with Anne Jorden, then having his actions directly lead to the crisis.  Then they're practically wiped out in around 3 days.

I really wish it had been the Marshalls too. That would have worked perfectly. I was very fond of the whole frontiersman aspect of the novel. I thought they was really well portrayed.

Quote from: SM on May 09, 2016, 08:26:46 AM
Sea of Sorrows had too many characters - so many that even James Moore lost track of them.

True enough. I liked all the primary and secondary characters though. I think my fondness for it came primarily from how much I thought it felt like the older novels.

The Alien Predator

I also liked Sea of Sorrows because of its far future setting.

HuDaFuK

There was some neat world-building at the start. It did get terribly red-shirty later on though.

I honestly struggle to pick a favourite from the trilogy. They all had stuff I really liked, and all had glaring faults.

LordCassusSnow

I doubt Amanda Ripley will have any significance in Defiance. I didn't finish Isolation yet so i have no idea if Defiance could take place after the events of A.I.. If Fox is planning a sequel to Isolation in the future, however, then A. Ripley might be a character no one can touch right now but only to reference and shoe horn for more cash. As it stands, if Defiance takes place before Isolation, Amanda will still have no significance as she hasn't even encountered any xeno's yet. Speaking of Isolation, anyone ever read Alien the illustrated story? I'm guessing the folks who created Isolation didn't as the warning signal was switched off by Dallas in that interpretation. Or maybe they purposely ignored it?

Perfect-Organism

If I'm not mistaken, the signal was switched off also in Alan Dean Foster's novelization by Dallas.  I would have preferred to leave things that way ideally.  But it's no biggie.

SM

SM

#538
Creative Assembly weren't beholden to story points that didn't make it to the screen.

QuoteAs it stands, if Defiance takes place before Isolation, Amanda will still have no significance as she hasn't even encountered any xeno's yet.

Defiance takes place just after Isolation, but the Amanda flashback is before Isolation.  And that seems to be a bit of a narrow definition of 'significance'.

Perfect-Organism

We will only be able to judge significance once the other issues come out.  If Mandy's character reappears and her inclusion is a logical intrinsic part of the story then it will be ok.  Otherwise if Ripley was just a passerby then it would have indeed been silly.  We'll only be able to judge in hindsight at some point in the future.

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