Alien: Isolation The Novel Bursting January 2019!

[Neomorph-01]

I have picked up the Alien Isolation novel last week. Just finished it, and I enjoyed it.
I loved the flashbacks that flesh out Amanda's life in addition to giving more to Ellen Ripley and past assignments (I'm not posting spoilers) which explained her distrust of engineers (Parker and Brett - not the race Engineers).
The tie-in to Aliens: Defiance was a nice cherry on top.

[The Old One]

From what I hear the normal life flashback is by far the best part.

[HuDaFuK]

I've said a few negative things about this, so I'll reiterate a positive one - I seriously loved that the Ellen Ripley flashbacks tied into her character profile for Alien.

[Stitch]

From what I hear the normal life flashback is by far the best part.

I'd say the opposite. The flashbacks interrupt the flow of the story. Yes, you get to hear a bit more about Ellen and Amanda's background, but it doesn't amount to anything important and detracts from the story at hand.

Spoiler

Here's the long and the short of it. Her mom disappeared, her step-dad was an asshole, they were broke, people ripped her off when she was trying to find out what happened to her mom.

[close]

Doesn't add much to what was already known, does it? And the way they're added in is like the the cutaways in Family Guy; this reminds me of the time when [insert flashback]...

[SM]

Good of you to spoil it though.

Well done.

[Corporal Hicks]

Let's remember spoiler tags please.

[Stitch]

Let's remember spoiler tags please.

Good of you to spoil it though.

Well done.

Apologies, not intended that way, which is why I didn't go into detail. My point was more that we don't really learn anything more of any importance from the book than we do from other sources which talk about Amanda, such as the 5 year old video game, for example.

[The Old One]

I doubt it means much anyway. The book isn't an instant classic, or even good in my opinion.

[Corporal Hicks]

paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-alien-isolation-author-keith-r-a-decandido/

Turns out Keith didn't actually play the game:

When they first approached you about writing this book, had you already played Alien: Isolation?

Nope. I'm not much of a gamer mainly due to lack of time.

But did you play it after you agreed to write Alien: Isolation?

I didn't, but I did have access to all the gaming materials, and, best of all, Gamer's Little Playground put up a video on YouTube that functions as a movie of the game, basically editing together the entirety of the game action into a single two-hour "movie." That was hugely helpful as it combined with the script to give me a ton of material to work with. The cutscenes YouTube video in particular gave me a good feel for the visuals of Sevastopol.

Also of assistance was the Alien: Isolation comic book that Dark Horse put out as a companion to the game. All of it was mined for the novel.

[HuDaFuK]

Not that surprising in hindsight, but you would've thought they could've found an author who had.

*cough* Alex White *cough*

[Corporal Hicks]

I'm not surprised at all. I said earlier it felt like he hadn't. 

[The Old One]

Yeah no, absolutely a waste of potential- it's basically the one required criteria isn't it? Experiencing the media you're adapting first hand.

[426Buddy]

I havent read it yet but I can't believe he didn't play the game.

That just seems wrong, you can't watch the youtube videos of the game cutscenes, its not even close to the same experience.

Super disappointed in this.

[SM]

This isn't a game; it's a book.

There are already a game and a animated series.  This is a different take.

[Samhain13]