Alan Dean's Foster "Alien" novelization

[Oasis Nadrama]

Hi everyone! I'm creating this thread because, while I found numerous threads deeper in the forum category asking specific questions on Foster's Alien, I didn't see one about the content of the book.

Let's talk in-depth about the first novel, that is a significant work by itself.

For a lot of people, it was their first contact with this dystopian future world and the nightmarish entity coiled in its mechanical guts: the book came out 29 March 1979, months before the Ridley Scott movie hit the silver screen. In the following decades, people still stumbled on the book before the flick sometimes.

Alan Dean Foster took his job seriously and, working from previous drafts of the screenplay, developed the world beyond what was written in the script, further imagining the culture and technology of 2122, as well as the life trajectories, emotional and social lives of the Nostromo crew. His extrapolations ended up sometimes at odds with the final result - Ridley's movie made Ash's innards pseudo-biological, à la Blade Runner, while Foster went with multihued wires and printed circuits - and also preserved a treasure of abandoned ideas - the facehugger has an eye on its back, Parker and his friends almost succeed ejecting the beast in space via an airlock trap -, giving us a fascinating insight on what could have been. His powerful and nuanced prose carries us through a slightly different, but still excellent, tale.

What was your first encounter with the paper menace? What did you think of the book? What was your favorite scene? Character? Theme? Element? What do you think it did better than Ridley's movie? Is there a specific sentence that you like?







(I will make threads for the other novelizations later.)

[Retropocalypse]

I first read this story in The Complete Alien Omnibus, which collected all of ADF's Alien novelizations available at the time. I absolutely loved it. Alan was working from the script before filming began, so there are some noticeable differences from the final film. Like the Facehugger has an eye, the lack of a Space Jockey entirely, and the egg chamber is located in a cave beneath the Juggernaut rather than inside it.

Two scenes in the book especially stood out to me. The first is at the start of Chapter 13, when the crew discovers that Ash is a robot. They go on to discuss Ash being swapped in at the last moment, their course being rerouted to LV-426, and the implications of Special Order 937.

'But why?' Lambert was struggling, still couldn't put it all together.

'I'm only guessing, but the only reason I can come up with for putting a robot crew member on board with the rest of us and not letting us know about it at the time is that someone wanted a slave observer to report developments back to them.' She glanced up at Lambert. 'Who assigns personnel to the ships, makes last-minute changes like trading science officers and would be the only entity capable of secretly slipping a robot on board? For whatever purpose?'

Lambert no longer looked confused. 'The Company.'

'Sure.' Ripley smiled humourlessly. 'The Company's drone probes must have picked up the transmission from the derelict. The Nostromo happened to be the next Company vessel scheduled to pass through this spatial quadrant. They put Ash on board to monitor things for them and to make sure we followed something Mother calls Special Order 937.

'If the follow-up on the transmission turns out to be worthless, Ash can report that back to them without us ever knowing what was going on. If worthwhile, then the Company learns what it needs to know before it goes to the trouble of sending out an expensively equipped, exploration team. Simple, matter of maximizing profit, minimizing loss. Their profit, our loss.

The second is in Chapter 2, just after the Nostromo lands. Dust clogs part of the ship's engine, and while Brett and Parker try fixing it, the rest of the crew just... chill in the bridge. It's a surprisingly peaceful scene. The calm before the storm.

Parker remains my favorite, both in the book and the film. Of course, ADF does a better job of exploring the characters more than the movie.

[StrangeShape]

I always loved, absolutely loved novelizations. They gave you so much more information, and so much more insight that you cant have in the movie, or there just isnt a place for it. The ALIEN novelization has couple interesting things going for it, which I listed in my blog which I dont want to shamelessly plug so Ill just paste it here:

1. Nostromo's oil is being processed during the return trip

(...) Nostromo was towing a considerable quantity  of crude oil through the void between the stars, encased in its own automatic, steadily functioning refinery. That oil would be finished petrochemicals by the time the Nostromo arrived in orbit around Earth. (pg 21)

2. The planetoid is still Orange

As in the early concept paintings and illustrations, the planetoid isn't dark as a night, but it's a mix of bright orange and brown colors. Some examples

They moved without talking through the dust-laden, orange limbo (pg 63)

The increasing brightness didn't help. Instead of raising their spirits, the rising sun chilled them by turning the air from orange to blood (pg 65)

3. The gravity is slightly lighter

If someone was ever wondering if it wasn't too hard for Lambert to help Dallas carry Kane all the way back to Nostromo on stretchers, the gravity on the planetoid was lighter than that of Earth

The slightly lower gravity eliminated the burden of suits and tanks (pg 62)

4. Facehugger has an eye

Like in the early concept illustrations, in the novelization the facehugger still has one dark eye on its "back". Example:

On its back he could just make out a dim, convex shape that looked like a glazed over eye. (...) The eye moved and look at him (pg 95)

5. Ripley also replaced the last officer

Just like Ash, Ripley replaced the last officer

So what? (Dallas) snapped at (Ripley).  They also replaced my old warrant officer with you (pg 151)

6. Kane was out for a couple of days

"God am I hungry. How long was I out?" Dallas continued to stare at the apparently unharmed man in disbelief. "Couple of days" (pg 166)

7. The chestburster is still of the original design

The chestburster is still the original Chestburtser design done by H. R. Giger based on the Francis Bacon painting

It reminded Dallas of a butchered turkey with teeth protruding from the stump of  a neck (pg 172)

8. Apparently Ash was lying about the crew's chances against alien

While Ash revealed his admiration for the creature due to its adapting capabilities, it seems that he over exaggerated alien's characteristics in order to spook the crew into fixing Ash. It is made much more apparent in the novelization with additional dialogue of Ash like this:

"I don't think that you can kill it. But I may be able to. (...) However, I am not exactly at my best at the moment. If you would simply replace..." "Nice try Ash" Ripley interrupted him (pg 253)

He then tries to explain that the alien may infect the Earth's population if he arrives on the ship and tries to convince them that if they won't reconnect Ash to help them, they will have entire Earth on their conscience

And just by the way, this is the alien's first description which I think is terrific

"Above the helpless figure of the engineer was a faint outline, something man-shaped but definitely not a man. Something huge and malevolent"

First US printing

[Acidforblood75]

I'm rereading a lot of the alien books and it's a long time since I read the novelisation of the movie but I do remember a scene were ash stops the alien from being suked out the airlock further proving how he was protecting it.

We learn that kane was a dreamer and was hoping to find treasure in the ship which is why he volunteers to investigate. He hopes to find treasure. ADF also gives us an early insight into the type of dreams the crew had in hypersleep.including jonsey while also hinting at the type of dreams ash had.

It's a great book and even if you know the movie like I do like the back of your hand you should still read this.

[SiL]

I found myself not liking it on my last read -through. The entire last twenty or so minutes is compressed into one chapter; you can feel the deadline approaching Foster.

[Local Trouble]

Worse than the rushed ending in his Alien 3 novelization?

[SiL]

Ehhhh, close.

[Wweyland]

I found the prose in the first novelization to be great.
There was some interesting information in Ash's speech, but I don't remember much else from this (I read it in 2018).

However, The Aliens novelization really irked me, partly because of the missing profanity, and the added dialogue did not sound like the characters (nor Cameron's writing). I actually think this is one of the worst Alien novels.

[Elmazalman]

What was your first encounter with the paper menace? What did you think of the book? What was your favorite scene? Character? Theme? Element? What do you think it did better than Ridley's movie? Is there a specific sentence that you like?

First encountered the book in 1987 (high school library) and borrowed it.

I was very surprised by all the additional material that didn't make it into the film. The book is loaded with pretty much everything from the various scripts - but no Space Jockey - which I thought was a strange omission.

The book is far more detailed than the film ever could be. At the time, I was disappointed the adult creature was barely described in any detail (and no extending tongue, this time), but I agree with the choice; it works best for the reader's imagination - at least, the readers that haven't seen the film first.

My favourite line from the book is: "Whatever it was, it was big. Swung down on him like a giant f**king bat."

[Samhain13]

that novel was great

[Slutty Badger]

I found the prose in the first novelization to be great.
There was some interesting information in Ash's speech, but I don't remember much else from this (I read it in 2018).

However, The Aliens novelization really irked me, partly because of the missing profanity, and the added dialogue did not sound like the characters (nor Cameron's writing). I actually think this is one of the worst Alien novels.

Foster's dialogue in general is not his strong suit. I also find a lot of his prose too clunky and ponderous, and he tends to use the same sentences and expressions over and over ("fungoid growth", "all but growled", and so on).

He also tries to "futurise" the setting too much, making up words like "sentilite" and "overcola". For me, that clashes with the realistic and achievable setting of the Alien universe.

[SiL]

It's very pulp sci-fi, which I think kind of works for the first book but starts to clash more when the sequel movies clearly went a more grounded direction.

[TheDerelict]

Covenant novelisation is the best one ADF did. The full movie with all the deleted scenes added and better characterisation. Also Walter breathing in the air to test it. (Which is briefly seen in the movie).
Also I needed to see the Alien disembowel the neomorph. Cool.

The other alien novelisation books were boring apart from ressurection.

[Slutty Badger]

Covenant novelisation is the best one ADF did. The full movie with all the deleted scenes added and better characterisation. Also Walter breathing in the air to test it. (Which is briefly seen in the movie).
Also I needed to see the Alien disembowel the neomorph. Cool.

The other alien novelisation books were boring apart from ressurection.

The worldbuilding is terrible. The United States apparently no longer being a thing somehow (the existence of West Virginia being a mystery to an American!)*, nobody knowing what a pinball machine is (and there are numerous examples of present day things being *ahem* alien to our heroes 'coz FUTURE!), Daniels being unaware of the existence of cheese despite being in charge of supplies on the ship and having to be told what it is by Tennessee, and so on.

*Seriously, how would Bishop have known what Nebraska was?

[TheDerelict]

Covenant novelisation is the best one ADF did. The full movie with all the deleted scenes added and better characterisation. Also Walter breathing in the air to test it. (Which is briefly seen in the movie).
Also I needed to see the Alien disembowel the neomorph. Cool.

The other alien novelisation books were boring apart from ressurection.

The worldbuilding is terrible. The United States apparently no longer being a thing somehow (the existence of West Virginia being a mystery to an American!)*, nobody knowing what a pinball machine is (and there are numerous examples of present day things being *ahem* alien to our heroes 'coz FUTURE!), Daniels being unaware of the existence of cheese despite being in charge of supplies on the ship and having to be told what it is by Tennessee, and so on.

*Seriously, how would Bishop have known what Nebraska was?

I will allow your opinion to counter mine. You make a valid argument.