Alien: River of Pain (Book 3) - Reviews

Started by Perfect-Organism, Nov 18, 2014, 10:36:08 PM

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Alien: River of Pain (Book 3) - Reviews (Read 41,970 times)

Perfect-Organism

Perfect-Organism

I just got my copy of Alien: River of Pain and figured I'd start a thread for those who either already have the novel, or have read it, or have found an article reviewing it.  Hope this isn't redundant, but I figured the other thread was speculative about details whereas this one is factual so spoilers ahead.

Spoiler
Well my first comment is that the back of the book mentions HADLEY'S HOPE as "The doomed colony from the blockbuster film ALIEN".  I figure they just had to say that instead of "ALIENS" due to licensing rights.  No big deal.
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Can't wait to read through this!


Ok, so chapter 2 names the planet around which LV-426 orbits.  It is called:

Spoiler
Calpamos
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Anybody ever hear of that in any other Alien Story?

Ultramorph

Calpamos has been floating around for a while. All the Fire and Stone comics have gone out of their way to use that name, and I think Colonial Marines did, as well.

Perfect-Organism

Perfect-Organism

#2
You're right Ultramorph.  I just caught that with a simple bit of Googling...  I'm 3 chapters in.  Well it looks so far like they're really trying to explain a lot and stay consistent with "canon" in that case.  I am really enjoying the book so far.

Here's a little bit about the name of the book for those who haven't guessed it:

Spoiler
Acheron comes from the ancient Greek mythological "River of Pain" which wound through the netherworld.  This is confirmed in the book.
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Four chapters in and I'm really enjoying it.  The author is really focusing on character development rather than like the characters in Sea of Sorrows.

I'm listening to the new (ehem very old) Pink Floyd album while reading.  "Endless River".  No, the irony is not lost on me.  It's a cool way to enjoy the book.  No singing means no distractions yet a pretty cool vibe...


Here is the back of the book...

Corporal Hicks

Quote from: Ultramorph on Nov 18, 2014, 11:44:55 PM
Calpamos has been floating around for a while. All the Fire and Stone comics have gone out of their way to use that name, and I think Colonial Marines did, as well.

I'd never seen it prior to the comics. Does anyone remember when it first showed up?

Perfect-Organism

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Nov 19, 2014, 04:07:57 PM
Quote from: Ultramorph on Nov 18, 2014, 11:44:55 PM
Calpamos has been floating around for a while. All the Fire and Stone comics have gone out of their way to use that name, and I think Colonial Marines did, as well.

I'd never seen it prior to the comics. Does anyone remember when it first showed up?

Regarding the meaning of Calpamos...

Spoiler
...Also, since according to the book River of Pain, Acheron literally means River of Pain, and Calpamos has a Greek word structure, does anyone know if the naming of Calpamos has any deeper meaning or translation?
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TheBATMAN

Is it my eyes or does that back cover say established 2179... What happened to people being there for over 20 years??

Xenomrph

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Nov 19, 2014, 04:07:57 PM
Quote from: Ultramorph on Nov 18, 2014, 11:44:55 PM
Calpamos has been floating around for a while. All the Fire and Stone comics have gone out of their way to use that name, and I think Colonial Marines did, as well.

I'd never seen it prior to the comics. Does anyone remember when it first showed up?
It gets name-dropped in some of the pack-ins with the Aliens: Colonial Marines collector's edition, but as far as I know they sourced it from Xenopedia... which made it up wholesale. :P

Oh well, it's canon now I guess. :P

HuDaFuK

I like that they're using Acheron for the name of the moon.

But it says Newt is the colony's first newborn... Wasn't Tim older? So is he already around when the Jordens move there, or what?

Quote from: Xenomrph on Nov 20, 2014, 09:00:16 AMIt gets name-dropped in some of the pack-ins with the Aliens: Colonial Marines collector's edition, but as far as I know they sourced it from Xenopedia... which made it up wholesale. :P

We're just building better worlds.

DemonicD13

Still have high hopes for this book. For those of you fortune enough to have a copy is there much time spent investigating the Derelict? How are the Marines handled? To a lesser degree I am wondering does it stay consistent with Aliens Newt's Tale (I know many of you don't like the comic, but what can I say, I'm a fan)?

robbritton

Hey, back cover ! The doomed colony from which film now?!

Perfect-Organism

Quote from: robbritton on Nov 20, 2014, 10:47:25 AM
Hey, back cover ! The doomed colony from which film now?!

That back cover mention of the doomed colony from the "Alien" film was the first inconsistency I mentioned from the book in an early post in this thread, but I suspect that it was due to the licensing from FOX.  Titan has the "ALIEN" license for books and there may be a licensing reason why they can't reference the film Aliens.  But who knows for sure?

The book is very enjoyable with well written / developed characters, and so far seems to be bulletproof in terms of continuity.

HuDaFuK

Quote from: Perfect-Organism on Nov 20, 2014, 03:11:38 PMThe book is very enjoyable with well written / developed characters, and so far seems to be bulletproof in terms of continuity.

Something I wanted to ask - does the book recreate any scenes from the Aliens SE at all? I'm thinking mainly of Russ and Anne finding the derelict for the first time.

Perfect-Organism

Perfect-Organism

#12
Quote from: TheBATMAN on Nov 19, 2014, 11:13:03 PM
Is it my eyes or does that back cover say established 2179... What happened to people being there for over 20 years??

Without reading the whole book yet or really sorting out the dates, I can tell you that so far (7 chapters in) the book seems bulletproof in terms of continuity and you're going to love it.  The author actually includes dates and time of occurrence with each chapter and sometimes several times per chapter.  (It is a real page-turner and I would probably have finished it by now if I didn't have so much work on my plate.)  This one specific detail with the establishment of the colony date you don't need to worry about as it is dealt with.  It appears to be fully consistent with canon.  Below is the explanation, but beware as it has spoilers.  Not major story-affecting spoilers but still, be warned:

Spoiler


Hadley's Hope may have been established in 2179, but that does not necessarily mean that is when people first got there.  Hadley was one of the designers of the infrastructure on LV-426 years before the colony was established in his name.  There is a chapter which starts in the year 2165 on LV-426 and there are already atmosphere processors there.  So far so good...

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Quote from: HuDaFuK on Nov 20, 2014, 09:08:35 AM
I like that they're using Acheron for the name of the moon.

But it says Newt is the colony's first newborn... Wasn't Tim older? So is he already around when the Jordens move there, or what?

Quote from: Xenomrph on Nov 20, 2014, 09:00:16 AMIt gets name-dropped in some of the pack-ins with the Aliens: Colonial Marines collector's edition, but as far as I know they sourced it from Xenopedia... which made it up wholesale. :P

We're just building better worlds.

Newt is the colony's first-born and this is explained fully so no canon infraction here.  Explanation below, so spoiler alert:

Spoiler

Russ and Anne came to LV-426 with Tim already born elsewhere.  We even get to know Anne's maiden name!  There is some backstory to this couple.  I love the character development.  I literally want to take a day off work and just read through this thing.  It's so interesting....
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TheBATMAN

Ah, cool. Any Prometheus references?

Perfect-Organism

Quote from: TheBATMAN on Nov 20, 2014, 03:41:27 PM
Ah, cool. Any Prometheus references?

Regarding Prometheus references:

Spoiler
  7 chapters in.  So far zippo.  ;-)

....but two chapters are spent re-enacting 2 pivotal scenes from Alien and Aliens films in full.  That was fun to read.  It really brings the vibe of the 2 films together into the book.  That's not easy considering how different they are.

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