Alien: River of Pain (Book 3) - Reviews

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

Author
Alien: River of Pain (Book 3) - Reviews (Read 42,011 times)

Ultramorph

Spoiler
The new films won't be constrained by what the novels have done, so if Ridley wants to tell the story of the Derelict, it will be different. That being said, I really liked the image of the queen and the Engineer mummified in their death struggle.
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Engineer

Wow!

Ok sorry for the necro post, but I had to say this, and it didn't seem like a good idea to start a whole new thread just for this comment.

I read river of pain about a week ago, and I liked it. Wasn't my favorite but it wasn't terrible either.

Ok, so while river of pain was still fresh in my mind I went ahead and read newts tale for the first time today. And wow! Whole new level of respect for this book now seeing how true the author stayed to newts tale. I loved that!

SM

SM

#137
There were quite a number of differences and both wasted opportunities to tie closer to the source material.

Engineer

Um, did I hit a nerve? Yea I saw the differences between the two, but I was impressed that the author even bothered with newts tale and getting a lot of the dialogue, events and character names incorporated into his story. Unless that was a requirement from fox, I think it showed a greater level of effort to keep the lore consistent and the older comics relevent. I appreciated that; that's all. I also attribute the differences to the fact that in newts tale the story is prefaced as a dream of newts; dreams get distorted. :-)

But I have to ask, what do you mean by tie in better with the source material? Sounds like you have something specific in mind? Like not having the marines onsite? Or not going with scientists and a secret escape pod? Those details drove me crazy... but nothing really bothered me that much in newts tale by itself... just curious.

SM

SM

#139
The marked lack of the last stand in ops, no mention of the last colonist they find in the hive, maybe tie some of the fighting into the damage the marines find.  Both novel and comic missed all that interesting stuff completely.  The latter also almost completely glossed over Newt's surviving on her own, in favour of inexplicably re-writing Aliens.

No 'nerve hit'.  River Of Pain was my favourite of that novel trilogy.

Engineer

Oh I see.

In that case I agree. I would have liked seeing, or rather reading, more about the mayhem we only saw the aftermath of too. But I wasn't totally disappointed in the lack of it.

I did think it was weird that newts tale made some changes, like cutting through the side of the vents in their last-stand moment. But I forgive it, since again, it was prefaced as a dream.

I'd also like to see more of newt surviving on her own, it's a shame we haven't yet. But would probably be remarkably challenging to pull that off in an interesting way that keeps most (especially casual) readers interested. I always though that an alien isolation format game would be the perfect medium to tell that story effectively.

My favorite in the trilogy was out of the shadows, and ironically it's the one I was most skeptical of.

SM

SM

#141
Newt's Tale would be a great DLC for Isolation.

Engineer

Agreed. I don't think there's enough there for a full standalone game, but a mini campaign of sorts would be awesome!

SM

SM

#143
Depends on how its presented.  Newt isn't going to be building bombs and flamethrowers, but she can press buttons and fit in smaller places.  She's never going to be on the offensive - it's all about evasion.

Engineer

Engineer

#144
Yea that plus I always thought it be interesting in the sense that:

A) she wouldn't get a motion tracker

B) as a small child the perspective is different. The aliens would look bigger; Hallways turn into wide open spaces, and air vents turn into hallways, essentially.


He SM! I have a burning question for you related to the thread topic!

So it was pretty recently I read river of pain, about a week ago, so it's still pretty fresh in my mind.

Today I just started reading Alan dean foster's adaptation of aliens. I'm at the part where they find the facehuggers in the stasis tubes. When they looked at the files they named the patient and attending physician. They also mentioned that the physician was one of 3 doctors in the colony.

So here's my question. Do the number of doctors (not scientists) align with river of pain? What about the names mentioned in ADF's adaptation? It's honestly been a while since I've watched the movie so I can't even recall if the names were mentioned onscreen. But as for river of pain, I can't remember the names of the smaller side characters well enough to tell right off the bat if it lines up. I thought you might be a good person to ask :-)

SM

SM

#145
No, Chester Ling was missing from the novel unfortunately.  And I don't recall the novel saying how they caught the live huggers either.  And I don't think it mentioned anyone called Marachuk too.

This is a list of personnel I did for a job a while back that combines the film, novelization, Newt's Tale and River of Pain (and even then I've probably missed people).

W Al Simpson – Manager
M Brad Lydecker – Asst. Manager
Greg Hansard – Chief engineer 2165
Najit – TF engineer 2165
Nguyen – TF engineer 2165
Mendez – TF engineer 2165
Russell Jorden – Wildcatter
Anne Jorden
Tim Jorden
Rebecca Jorden
Dr Theodora Komiskey – MO (f)
Samantha Monet
Otto Finch – wildcatter
Curtis Finch – wildcatter
Bronagh Flaherty – Cook
Meznick
Generazio
Dr Mori – science (arrived circa 2163)
Dr Bartholomew Reese - science
Dr Elena Hidalgo – science
Derrick Bradford/ Russell – OIC terraforming
Luisa Cantrell – child
Aaron – child
Nolan Cale – wildcatter/ prospector
Neela Parvati (f)
Mina Osterman – plant architect 129
Jiro – botanist
Joel Asher – nurse 18-19
Mrs Hernandez
Stefan Gruenwald – wildcatter
Khati Fuqua – science assistant
'Bluejay' – surveyor
Saida Warsi (f)
Wes Navarro – science assistant
Volk – orderly
Zak Li – musician
Mo Whiting – exobiologist (f)
Bill Andrews – surveyor
Lizzie Russo
Genevieve Dione – greenhouse supervisor
Virgil – welder
Ramona – pilot
Luiz – prospector
Meyers – prospector
Carl – prospector
Standish
John J Marachuk
Dr Chester O Ling

Marines
Captain Demian Brackett
Lt Julisa Paris
Sgt Coughlin
Sgt Marvin Draper
Pvt Ankita Yousseff
Pvt Stamovich
Cpl Aldo Crowley
Pvt Boris Chenovski
Pvt Hauer
Nguyen
Cpl. Pettigrew
Jimmy Valente
Joplin Konig
Ginzler
Sixto
Pvt Dunphy
Izzo

Engineer

Ok now, wtf! What job a while back called for you to make this list? It wasn't the WY report... right? Something else in the works??

That's unfortunate, but thanks for confirming. That would've been so much cooler if river of pain had stayed consistent with ADFs novel too.

And when you say the novel never says how they caught the living face huggers, which novel are you referring to? River of pain? The movie adaptation? Or both?

SM

SM

#147
Yeah River of Pain doesn't mention it (as far as I can remember).

The list wasn't for WYR, it was for something else and just used for my own reference.  The proper version is all colour-coded to reflect the source and has page numbers everywhere (some of which I accidentally left on above).

Engineer

Engineer

#148
Nope! I remember that clearly. River of pain never mentioned how the huggers were caught. I was a little disappointed with that. I always assumed they were caught while removing them from the colonists, at least that's how the movie seemed to imply it...

Soooo this "something else," is it something new, on the way you can't talk about yet or something?


On another note, river of pain DID keep consistent with one thing from ADFs novel (that I've read so far anyway), that was a nice touch. I remember being a little weirded out by the idea that several atmosphere processors were scattered across the surface of lv 426. Mainly because I would be surprised that the derelict remained hidden that whole time if the colony's operation was that wide spread. But now I see ADF mentioned that too... I still find it weird, but within the realm of reason considering the ship aesthetics and being partially covered by lava flows.

SM

SM

#149
QuoteNope! I remember that clearly.

I'll take you're word for it.  It's been a while since I read it.

QuoteSoooo this "something else," is it something new, on the way you can't talk about yet or something?

The bolded one.

The AP station thing came from the script.  Burke said there was thirty or so, but that dialogue was ultimately dropped.

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