Alien: Sea of Sorrows (Novel 2)

[Darwinsgirl]

That book you just read mentions her having a husband that left her.

totally missed that.....

I stoutly believe that "descendants" is nothing more than a poor analogy to "successors", Amanda Ripley had no children and to add "secret children" would be comic book stupid.

I'll keep an open mind before condemning any particular plot suggestion. I didn't think I'd like Out of the Shadows and I did.

[Ultramorph]

I stoutly believe that "descendants" is nothing more than a poor analogy to "successors", Amanda Ripley had no children and to add "secret children" would be comic book stupid.

Agree to disagree on that one. "Out of the Shadows" surprised me by pulling off the (unnecessary) Ripley gimmick well enough that I have some hope they'll do cool stuff with the next two books. And after some thinking, even having Hicks in "River of Pain" doesn't sound that bad, assuming that this trilogy is ignoring Alien 3 and Resurrection as I think some of the blurbs have hinted at. If that's the case, that makes "Ripley's descendants" even easier to pull off: she had more kids after making it back safely from Acheron, maybe even with Hicks.

[Kimarhi]

I doubt they will get rid of Alien 3.  If even DH will go back and retcon their stories AFTER they've released them with Hicks and Newt and A:CM being a casual Aliens fans wet dream acknowledges the third film I doubt they will try and supersede it.

That ARES though.....

[Ultramorph]

That ARES though.....

That's one of the reasons I smell a retcon. "Sea of Sorrows" seems to be set around the time of A:R or even later, and the blurbs mention "The Company," which almost always means Weyland-Yutani, especially if the theme from "Out of the Shadows" of the Company manipulating Ripley is continued. I also seriously doubt Titan would be silly enough to have Ripley 8's kids getting chased around, or to embrace the fanon that the USM from A:R is a front for Weyland-Yutani.

There's also the blurb from James A. Moore's blog (http://genrefied.blogspot.com/2013/11/alien-sea-of-sorrows.html):

"This second novel and its two tightly plotted tie-ins will directly relate to the first two films of the franchise, expanding the canon like never before."

We'll see how it plays out in July, I guess. Honestly, with Prometheus being the direction of the film franchise for the foreseeable future, and along with the fact that Alien and Aliens will always be regarded as the classics of the series by most people, I wouldn't be shocked if Fox gave its licensees the green-light to benignly neglect Alien 3 and Resurrection.

[Kimarhi]

Indeed.  But I always thought they'd just have a self contained story within the universe.  Could be whole colonies wiped out but as long as the aliens are naturalized before they get to major colony worlds they can still always contain the story that way.

The first book was better than I thought it was going to be so I hope its interesting whatever they do.

They often times use the first Alien and Aliens for their promotion purposes because those are the two most popular entries.

[Ultramorph]

They often times use the first Alien and Aliens for their promotion purposes because those are the two most popular entries.

Indeed. It'll be interesting to see what happens. I hope the next two books have some Prometheus influences like "Out of the Shadows," though. It'd be great if "River of Pain" was a return to LV-426 and the Derelict.

[Kimarhi]

To be honest I'm tired of Hadleys and the derelict.

Unless this incarnation makes us forget ACM then I wouldn't complain much.

[Ultramorph]

Fatigue from "Colonial Marines" is understandable, but it could be cool. "River of Pain" is coming out in November, so that's after the new Dark Horse comics have unassumingly wrapped up. It has been intimated that those comics will explain more about the Aliens and their relation to the black goo and Deacons. Maybe, if there is collaboration happening with Titan and Dark Horse (I'm not holding my breath, though), Hicks will have his own Prometheus-style adventure where he discover more about the Jockeys. Who knows.

[RakaiThwei]

Something which irks me is that seemingly.. a lot of new stuff seems to revolve around Prometheus. I mean sure.. I get that Alien and Prometheus are connected with each other but damn... I kind of don't like the idea that everything is now centered around Prometheus.

[Kimarhi]

I wish they'd make up their mind.  Prometheus isn't going to be like Alien, but we are going to turn the jockey's into engineers and put a proto alien into it.

[RakaiThwei]

To be honest, I'd really wish they'd step away from Prometheus and not make it the center of everything.

[Ultramorph]

To be fair, Prometheus and its sequels, if handled correctly, offer the opportunity to greatly expand the universe and recapture the cosmic horror vibe. As much as I love the Alien/Predator universe, it was time for an infusion of new material, and Prometheus provided that (far better than Predators). I would love a true Alien 5, especially with Sigourney leading an epic final expedition of extermination to the xeno homeworld, but since that's unlikely to ever happen I'm fine with how the universe is being handled. I would rather new Alien stories have Prometheus DNA than the old grind of Colonial Marine or mad scientist stories.

[RakaiThwei]

To be fair, Prometheus and its sequels, if handled correctly, offer the opportunity to greatly expand the universe and recapture the cosmic horror vibe.

Thing is, the Alien stories got along just fine without Prometheus for the last thirty something years. Don't get me wrong, I liked Prometheus and what it had to offer as it had actually shed some light on the creature which we called the Space Jockey, but Alien stories really don't need to be centered around Prometheus. Neither does Predator nor Alien vs Predator.

I would love a true Alien 5, especially with Sigourney leading an epic final expedition of extermination to the xeno homeworld, but since that's unlikely to ever happen I'm fine with how the universe is being handled. I would rather new Alien stories have Prometheus DNA than the old grind of Colonial Marine or mad scientist stories.

Sigourney Weaver is in her mid-sixties by now and after seeing her reprise a Psuedo-Ripley role... she doesn't look very good to be in the role of Ripley. If you ask me, Ripley's story has already been told and the character needs to be just put to rest-- unless you count Alien 3 as the final resting place for Ripley, and her clone just continues what was left off. So we're not likely to get any new Alien movies if at all with Sigourney Weaver.

Ocassional references and maybe even Engineers in an Alien story are fine once in a while but please, don't make Prometheus the center of the Alien/Alien-Predator universe.

[Ultramorph]

Thing is, the Alien stories got along just fine without Prometheus for the last thirty something years.

That is entirely subjective, and I won't grudge anyone their opinion, but I would say that Alien stories got along fine until about 1999, then mostly faltered on convention, failed attempts at 'modernizing', and mediocre stories. The last really good Alien comic, IMHO, was Destroying Angels, and Prometheus was basically an adaptation of that series.

Sigourney Weaver is in her mid-sixties by now and after seeing her reprise a Psuedo-Ripley role... she doesn't look very good to be in the role of Ripley. If you ask me, Ripley's story has already been told and the character needs to be just put to rest-- unless you count Alien 3 as the final resting place for Ripley, and her clone just continues what was left off. So we're not likely to get any new Alien movies if at all with Sigourney Weaver.

Ocassional references and maybe even Engineers in an Alien story are fine once in a while but please, don't make Prometheus the center of the Alien/Alien-Predator universe.

I don't think Sigourney is too old by any stretch. If Harrison Ford can shamble around as Indiana Jones in his 70s, Sigourney can be Ripley at least one more time. Alien 3 was the perfect end to Ripley's story for sure, but since they just had to make A:R the character deserves some final closure, beyond the absolute BS decision to include her in that AvPvT junk.

You do raise a fair point about Prometheus becoming the center of the Alien/Predator universe, but at this point I'm fine with it. If they can give us more answers to Prometheus and then come up with original, engaging, purely-Alien stories, that would be cool.

We should also keep in mind that "Prometheus becoming the heart of the universe" hasn't really happened yet. "Out of the Shadows" had limited Prometheus connections, and Isolation may have none at all. We have no idea what the next two Titan books will be like, and Dark Horse will probably respect the Alien mythology in the long run even if the upcoming reboot centers around Prometheus.

[Kimarhi]

I highly doubt we will ever see Ripley again onscreen as played by Sigourney Weaver.