Alien/Predator Novel Reviews

Started by Hudson, Aug 19, 2014, 04:55:43 PM

Author
Alien/Predator Novel Reviews (Read 70,470 times)

SM

SM

#15
QuoteThen surely it wouldn't be able to survive birthing that early? I mean yeah, he was getting shot to shit by Wren, but you can't just shave off two thirds fo your typical gestation period and expect to survive.

Might've tried to do a Newt Queen and find another host.

QuotePlus, what the hell is with it giving Purvis superpowers?!

The same burster that allowed him to survive underwater so long with a restricted lung capacity.
Or adrenaline.

HuDaFuK

HuDaFuK

#16
Quote from: SM on Aug 21, 2014, 11:12:07 AMThe same burster that allowed him to survive underwater so long with a restricted lung capacity.
Or adrenaline.

He gets shot quite a few times, pretty sure that would at least incapacitate anyone just from the physical damage alone. He certainly wouldn't be throwing evil doctors around the room, no matter how much adrenaline in his body.

Hudson

Hudson

#17
I got Aliens in the mail today and started reading it:

[facepalm] "Come here, Jonesey, you ugly old moose, you sweet ball of fluff, you!" [/facepalm]

Oh boy...

EDIT:

On this note, another gripe I had with Alien (and the paragraph following the above quote) was that there was a piece from Jones's POV. Not like a major section, I think it's maybe a page at the most, but seriously, WTF?

EDIT 2:

Also, I don't want to keep coming off as an ass when I describe these books. Despite my comments on Alien and Aliens Original Sin, I'm really glad that I decided to start reading these books and I'm having a good time going through them so far. I was never interested before, but now as a writing student and someone who wants to commit to a career within fiction, or writing at the least, I'm more curious. I have a tentative goal down the road of being able to publish enough to get the attention of whoever is publishing Alien novels at a point when I can convince them to let me write one. It's a more realistic goal than wanting to direct the next movie at least!

Plus, I'm reading Infinite Jest right now, and as much as I've really gotten into David Foster Wallace this past year, these books are pure storytelling. Literary fiction always wants something from the reader, these books don't expect anything other than your attention while they lay something out and put you in a different place for 300 pages.

SM

SM

#18
Quote from: HuDaFuK on Aug 21, 2014, 11:15:17 AM
Quote from: SM on Aug 21, 2014, 11:12:07 AMThe same burster that allowed him to survive underwater so long with a restricted lung capacity.
Or adrenaline.

He gets shot quite a few times, pretty sure that would at least incapacitate anyone just from the physical damage alone. He certainly wouldn't be throwing evil doctors around the room, no matter how much adrenaline in his body.

Nevermind Johner, Purvis is not the man with whom to f**k.

Or he was a robot.

HuDaFuK

HuDaFuK

#19
Quote from: SM on Aug 21, 2014, 09:17:24 PMOr he was a robot.

Same model as Bishop II?

SM

SM

#20
He was a robot designed by the Bishop II robot.

Hudson

Hudson

#21
Looks like a "f**k you" on page 80. Didn't get rid of all the swearing I see.

Hudson

Hudson

#22
Aliens 4/5

Finally finished it this morning. It's been a busy semester, so not a lot of time to do outside reading, OR I either do so much reading for class that I'm just not interested in reading for fun. Hence the time I've spent playing A:I lately.

So, this book is definitely an improvement upon Alien in terms of writing. The POV was much more tight, and it seemed like ADF had more fun writing it. It's not perfect. Some of the dialogue is god-awful, but I was really struck by the initial description of the Sulaco. It was a really earnest passage and I was really pleased with that.

I also enjoyed the increase in character interactions as opposed to the film. The Colonial Marines have a lot of good moments in the early parts of the book. Unfortunately, like in the film, Gorman is relegated to being just a background character after being pretty important in the first half. I was hoping for something more on this front, but it kind of seemed like the third act of the novelization was a little rushed to meet a deadline. Doesn't surprise me. I read from the operations battle to the end today in maybe an hour or so. It goes by fast and it seems to be a little more loosely written than the rest of the book.

Probably won't pop back in here for a while. I have a ton of literary things I need to read for class and for fun. Perhaps I'll get a couple of these read in December/January.

HuDaFuK

HuDaFuK

#23
Nice review. Covers a lot of the thoughts I have on it.

Alien 3 suffers from the acceleration at the end far worse than the second book.

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#24
So I'm slowly re-reading the Alien novelization again. They've just brought Kane back on. It's been years since I last read it. As I mentioned earlier, the POV jumps are still jarring but I expect them now so it's not too much of a big deal - just very weird.

I do love Foster's use of the language though. Only time I can ever think of where I read the word brobdingnagian. I quite liked the opening bits about dreaming as profession. He does pad out the novel with some lovely lit bits.

And I'd completely forgot he had the eye on the face-hugger.



Stolen from Val's blog.

HuDaFuK

HuDaFuK

#25
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Nov 10, 2014, 12:41:43 PMI quite liked the opening bits about dreaming as profession.

I really enjoyed how all three of his novelisations started with similar dream-centric bits.

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#26
Aliens is a nightmare IIRC?

HuDaFuK

HuDaFuK

#27
She has a nightmare - a different one to the Chestburster one we see in the film - on Gateway. I don't think we ever find out what she's dreaming at the very start. It just talks about it in a similar way to the opening of the first book.

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#28
So I was reading more of the book last night and came across a mention of Arcturus. Obviously it's a real star and this was well before Arcturians were mentioned but it made me chuckle.

Hudson

Hudson

#29
No Exit 3/5

No Exit starts off really well, engaging, lets you know whose story this is going to be and puts you in his head. I found Kramm to be a good character to root for, not 100% fully developed but with a good enough backstory. The writing is way better than Original Sin, Evenson is actually a literary writer known more for original literary material and for teaching than he's known for writing licensed fiction.

I found the story to be interesting for the most part, incredibly violent and even a little disturbing at points. BUT, again the Aliens don't seem to be the primary threat. There are some decent moments with Aliens, but there never seems to be a huge amount of drama when they're present. I don't feel a lot of fear towards the Aliens coming from the characters. Sometimes Kramm, but not even that much. He comes off as being more methodical and calculated than afraid.

The ending is awful, actually the whole 3rd act really, otherwise this would get a 4/5 from me. WTF happens to Braley? Loose end there. HUGE loose end. The character of Bjorn becomes more and more ridiculous as time passes. Some of the other named characters aren't really characterized, Kelly and Jolena to be specific. The last 100 pages remind me a lot of Alien 3, people running around in the dark, except this sequence cheapens the Aliens considerably. Feels really really really rushed. Odd. Seemed uncharacteristic of the writing in the first half or perhaps 2/3rds of the book. I would even use the word boring.

And then of course the story just stops. I think I read in an interview that he ran out of time. It's pretty stupid how they just rush these books out instead of trying to create a quality product. I seem to remember a masterpiece from 1979 that's actually quite a literate and dynamic film, much more than "just a monster movie." Why these books are let off with being sub-par in the context of a film series that is certainly not sub-par I will never understand.

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