What are you reading?

[Hudson]

Finished The Mezzanine. What a trip. Very odd, almost an anti-novel really if you're interested in form and structure. Super funny though. Will definitely be further investigating Nicholson Baker's work.

Moving on to Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot.

Yeah, I enjoyed those parts too. Some really interesting insights. I need to buy myself an actual copy of that.

Yeah you do! It's a solid adaptation of the film in novel form. I think my favorite aspect is the deleted parallel relationship between Harrigan and Heinemann which occurred in the first movie between Dutch and Dillon. The Thomas brothers really hate bureaucrats. That seems to be kind of the subtext of their screenplays, based on what we get in the novelizations.

I really want more people to read the first film's novelization though. It's not really good per se, but it's fecking odd and really compelling because of how different it is from the movie. And the fact that the author was a poetry writer who ended up winning the National Book Award for a memoir.

I wish the P1 and P2 books didn't seem so hard to come by though. Predator books in general really, other than the 3 Bantam books. I think I probably paid around $20-$25

[Kimarhi]

I don't have either of the predator novels but I did get Resurrection when I was a kid and Res was out in theaters (it subsequently had bits told from the Alien perspective that were interesting) and then way later picked up a copy of Alien by ADF that was also WAY different from the movie.  So much so that I got no enjoyment out of reading it. 

[KiramidHead]

The Encyclopedia of Monsters by Jeff Rovin

Poor Hicks doesn't even get mentioned as one of the survivors in the Alien entry.

[Kimarhi]

well............he didn't survive.

[Hudson]

I don't have either of the predator novels but I did get Resurrection when I was a kid and Res was out in theaters (it subsequently had bits told from the Alien perspective that were interesting) and then way later picked up a copy of Alien by ADF that was also WAY different from the movie.  So much so that I got no enjoyment out of reading it.

I think the Alien novelization is mostly just okay. Way too many switches in focalization via the 3rd person omniscient POV. It happens multiple times per page in some cases which is a bit much. It's not even that great at the sentence level, and the way he opens each of the books in the abstract way he does is repetitive and annoying. It's been a while since I read it though.

I thought AC Crispin's Resurrection was straight up awesome. It gave us so much more from every character, and chapter by chapter used a 3rd person limited focalization which worked really well. I'd call it a top 5 Alien novel, period.

[KiramidHead]

well............he didn't survive.

This was written before Alien 3, though.

[Kimarhi]

CHECKMATE

[Corporal Hicks]

Yeah, I enjoyed those parts too. Some really interesting insights. I need to buy myself an actual copy of that.

Yeah you do! It's a solid adaptation of the film in novel form. I think my favorite aspect is the deleted parallel relationship between Harrigan and Heinemann which occurred in the first movie between Dutch and Dillon. The Thomas brothers really hate bureaucrats. That seems to be kind of the subtext of their screenplays, based on what we get in the novelizations.

I really want more people to read the first film's novelization though. It's not really good per se, but it's fecking odd and really compelling because of how different it is from the movie. And the fact that the author was a poetry writer who ended up winning the National Book Award for a memoir.

I wish the P1 and P2 books didn't seem so hard to come by though. Predator books in general really, other than the 3 Bantam books. I think I probably paid around $20-$25

To be fair, I have read it (borrowed a copy off HuDa) but I don't own it myself. I found the original Predator novelization easier to come by when I brought it but Predator 2 is just ridiculous to get hold of.

I thought AC Crispin's Resurrection was straight up awesome. It gave us so much more from every character, and chapter by chapter used a 3rd person limited focalization which worked really well. I'd call it a top 5 Alien novel, period.

Honestly, like Covenant, I prefer the Resurrection novelization over the actual film. The book was so much more entertaining and came off less of a parody.

[Whiskeybrewer]

Maybe they'll re-release the Predator novelisations in a omnibus. We can hope

[HuDaFuK]

I still find it a bit strange that Titan reissued the Alien novelisations but not the Predator ones. I guess Alien's just considered a bigger draw. Unless it's somehow a rights thing?

[Whiskeybrewer]

Could be, but its a pain if it is

[KiramidHead]

The Predator movies don't even get decent features compared to Alien.

[The Old One]

Yeah, unfortunately.

Working my way through The Last Wish at the minute, absolutely fantastic.

[Ingwar]

Have you read whole The Witcher saga?

[The Old One]

Only Season of Storms so far, as it released and earlier The Witcher, the first story from The Last Wish novel, back when I first attempted to play the first game. The one they provided for free with the game and created a very faithful animation of.