Why do most of the "Alien" novels feature hardly any aliens?

[user14327648]

...and on the rare occasion where they actually show up, they are just treated as cannon fodder? A lot of these novels feel very much like "its Xeno blastin' time! f**k YEAAAAHHH"

There are a few books I've read that seem to be exceptions, like Enemy of My Enemy, Sea of Sorrows, Prototype, Colony War... I loved all these because the Xenos in them were lethal, just the way they should be (honestly I dont understand all the hate towards Colony War)

I thought Cold Forge was decent though it was far too focused on humans, the Xenos felt more like guest characters and I also dont find it quite as exciting when they're just killing unarmed scientists.

Nightmare Asylum had a couple of really cool xeno momenys, but 99.99% of it just felt like a military-themed romance novel

AVP Ultimate Prey had a handful of cool stories but mostly it was just Xenos being exterminated by the "heroic" Predators

The Rage War trilogy was a cool idea but I hated how the xenos were just massacered in their hundreds / thousands like pathetic little insects... same with The Female War.

Into Charybdis = gave up after 400-ish pages

I dont get it? The authors always refer to them as being "The perfect killing machine" and yet all they ever seem to do is just get slaughtered without any effort? And often the xenos are barely even in it!

I love the concept of Xenos but feel like the books are just one anti-climax after the next, with the occasional decent novel cropping up occasionally

I might just have to give up hope!

[SiL]

Because for some reason people got it in their heads that the first two movies were about classism and bureaucracy, with special guest stars the Aliens, instead of being about the Aliens with the other things as dressing.

[Still Collating...]

Because for some reason people got it in their heads that the first two movies were about classism and bureaucracy, with special guest stars the Aliens, instead of being about the Aliens with the other things as dressing.

Completely agree there. I am someone who adores world building and believes there should be stories where that can be done even freely away from the creature. But most of the stories, and especially in longer novel form need to remember that which you have just said. The Aliens are the primary driver, and the human elements are secondary, not the other way around!

The human, thematic and philosophical aspects are all really important here to make the story feel grounded, but they are secondary. They are the setting IMO. I come for the creature itself, to see what it does and how it behaves. The first 4 films are all very focused on the creature. You don't even need a lot of screentime for the Alien to notice that the buildup, presence and threat of the Alien is felt throughout most of the first 4 film's runtime.

They're all very clearly about the Alien. Finding it, surviving it, beating it, running away from it. The fun bit is how that happens. The human context dressing is very important, but not the primary thing which most Alien novels just don't get. And that's noticeable with the best widely renowned novels of recent time, the Aliens even they're treated well, are auxiliary.

If an Alien story is drastically changed by removing the creature from the premise, then that's a win in my book. If an Alien story changes very little by removing the creature, you can have the best dialogue and character dynamics ever written, but that's a bad Alien story then. It can be a stellar novel and still be a bad Alien story, even when the creature is treated with respect, but if it feels auxiliary, you're left wanting.

To me it feels like most of the authors of the novels don't really care about the Aliens themselves, they just aren't that interested in the creature.
It may be adjacent to the questionable belief some people had that the Alien films are predominantly about Ripley and her story. Even then, Alien certainly wasn't that until the end, you could at most say it was about the crew's experience.


To the OP though, I believe then the comics, and especially the early Dark Horse comics would be more appealing to you then?
I'm actually quite glad I came across this question and SiL's reply cause thinking through this I can now articulate why I like the first 4 films and the comics so much more than the novels and prequels.

[Local Trouble]

In the unlikely event that an alien actually makes a cameo between all the corporate intrigue and "exploration of what it means to be human" bullshit, I might glance at it.

[BlueMarsalis79]

I largely agree Still Collating... but with one major caveat, Resurrection features the Alien, but partway through they become perfunctory. A new creature takes centre stage.

[SiL]

It barely even does that.

That's probably the most unforgivable fumble of that movie -- the Aliens are kind of interesting up until the kitchen scene and then they just disappear, and the Newborn comes too late and does too little to make up for it.

[Wweyland]

Uncivil War is perhaps the worst offender here.
The main character realized there is an Alien on the planet with about 15 pages remaining.

[SM]

Guess no one needs to read that book now.

[Samhain13]

Huh now it got me thinking, havent read them in a bit.

But then just aliens isnt enough to carry the novel on its own, I like a good plot, characters and writing.

I think Labyrinth that was my favorite out of the ones I read... it had a little of all of that.

[Mr.Turok]

They also gotta allow the aliens to be a genuine threat that the story ends in a dark ending of some kind. I've been looking at how WH40K handles their series and it always enforces how grimdark their universe is with all types of characters getting some nasty endings.

Aliens isn't grimdark, but it is dystopian with some rays of hope here and there, but they forgot that the xenos or the big corpos need to stay threatening and allow the villain to get their day in order to enforce the tone of the universe. The beginning of Romulus reminds us that it sucks for us working class folks in that future and not everyone gets to see a great end. Best to build on that and keep the people guessing and invested. More bittersweet endings, bad ends, lets make some memorable sad/tragic stories I say.

[SiL]

The series has one (1) bittersweet ending and one (1) downer ending. It otherwise has five (5) endings of the characters defeating the monsters and flying off into the sunset.

[Kimarhi]

The Alienverse is oversaturated.  It's been a movie monster since 1979.  There is no way that the Alien could continue to be interesting on its own.  It NEEDS humans to carry it, to make the interactions between them interesting.  Otherwise its just the same creature doing the same thing. 

Scott realized this, thats why they went with the black goo.  I hate that narrative choice, but I can see why they did it. 

Also, the movies, afraid to take chances with the Aliens actually doing anything, have them stopped at the 1 yard line over and over again.  Think about it.  What is their biggest victory?  Hadley's Hope.  Something that took place off screen.  You don't even get to see their biggest W. 

When something takes that many Ls, it becomes a non threat to our subconscious.

Also, the series would be boring af if every story was told the exact same way. 

I'm unconvinced that the Alien could ever be scary again, so I dread any media be it book or film that tries to portray them as such.  You know its just going to be an hours long snore fest as you drag through the movie/game/story. 

[BlueMarsalis79]

Isolation / thread.

[Oasis Nadrama]

The Alienverse is oversaturated.  It's been a movie monster since 1979.  There is no way that the Alien could continue to be interesting on its own.  It NEEDS humans to carry it, to make the interactions between them interesting.  Otherwise its just the same creature doing the same thing. 

Scott realized this, thats why they went with the black goo.  I hate that narrative choice, but I can see why they did it. 

Also, the movies, afraid to take chances with the Aliens actually doing anything, have them stopped at the 1 yard line over and over again.  Think about it.  What is their biggest victory?  Hadley's Hope.  Something that took place off screen.  You don't even get to see their biggest W. 

When something takes that many Ls, it becomes a non threat to our subconscious.

Also, the series would be boring af if every story was told the exact same way. 

I'm unconvinced that the Alien could ever be scary again, so I dread any media be it book or film that tries to portray them as such.  You know its just going to be an hours long snore fest as you drag through the movie/game/story. 

Bless your words, you are speaking the truth.

I'd add some nuance to it, I think the Alien CAN be scary again, but for that they need to stop throwing them in every work set in this universe, and they definitely need to stop always going for the swarm.

This setting can give us so much more.

[SiL]

The Alienverse is oversaturated.  It's been a movie monster since 1979.  There is no way that the Alien could continue to be interesting on its own.  It NEEDS humans to carry it, to make the interactions between them interesting.  Otherwise its just the same creature doing the same thing. 

When have there ever not been humans?

The question is the humans being the main threat of the piece or the Alien.