An Aliens Search-and-Find Book: Find the Xenomorph Review

Official Aliens search-and-find puzzle book, based on the movie, featuring a host of highly detailed full-colour illustrations by artist Kevin Crossley set in familiar film locations.

As one of the most highly regarded movie sequels of all time, Aliens quickly embedded itself in the minds of cinemagoers around the world when it was released in 1986.

Now relive the film in a whole new way in this fun search-and-find puzzle book, where you can test your powers of observation through 14 scenes inspired by the classic film, each one rendered in incredible detail by artist Kevin Crossley. Rescue trapped colonists! Help the marines spot the aliens! Defeat the Alien Queen! Do you have what it takes to Find The Xenomorph?

While Titan has been responsible for some of the best literature the Alien franchise has seen (I’m looking at you Alex White and Scott Sigler), they have also published some fantastic non-fiction in the way of J.W Rinzler’s phenomenal Making of Alien and Aliens and Alien: The Blueprints, as well as some absolutely delightful off-beat Alien books like Alien Next Door: In Space, No One Can Hear You Clean and Jonesy: Nine Lives on the Nostromo and Alien: The Colouring Book.

Titan’s next addition to their eclectic range of Alien books comes in the form of a spin off the classic Where’s Waldo/Wally format in the way of An Aliens Search-and-Find Book: Find the Xenomorph. This isn’t the first science-fiction or horror property to have fun with the format and I certainly hope it wont be Alien’s last dive into this concept because I had an absolute blast with Find the Xenomorph.

Illustrated by Kevin Crossley, Find the Xenomorph offers 14 illustrations in which colonists, various stages of the Alien lifecycle and Colonial Marines are hidden away in. The book follows a loose narrative telling the tale of the fall of Hadley’s Hope from the first chestburster victims as they return to their blue collar lives, to the Colonial Marine’s disastrous first foray into the Atmosphere Processor and Ripley’s discovery of the Queen.

I was a little disappointed to find the book ended with Ripley coming across Matriarch of the Alien hive and not continuing to any illustrations aboard the Sulaco, but what is one small complaint? I had such a great time with Find the Xenomorph.

Crossley’s illustrations are fantastic. His artwork is just dripping with atmosphere. And while only loosely adapting the events of Aliens, with no specific likeness to any of the actors – none of the characters are specifically named in the text either – the artwork does a brilliant job of retelling the story.

And like any good book intended to offer a visual challenge, Crossley’s artwork hides the various beings I’m being tasked to find within the detail of his artwork very well. I went through the book with my partner, and we had so much fun scouring the hived up and trashed interiors of Hadley’s Hope looking for hidden synthetics, skulking Aliens and terrified colonists.

There were one or two pieces where certain Aliens or colonists were difficult to find because of the tone of the colours being a little too dark – something I think might be down to the printing process – or because of the placement within the fold at the center of the book, but this was not a frequent enough occurrence to complain too hard about.

And out of 14 pieces of artwork, there was a single piece I didn’t find too thrilling to dive into the detail of to find any sneaky Aliens, and that was the piece depicting the aftermath of the dropship crashing to the surface of LV-426. I just didn’t find it as visually appealing as the rest of the illustrations. Only disliking 1 out of 14 isn’t bad going at all!

I thoroughly enjoyed An Aliens Search-and-Find Book: Find the Xenomorph. It’s a fantastically illustrated and quirky book, that feels very much Aliens in tone and atmosphere but with a more whimsical side. It’s something I can quite happily recommend as Christmas gift or just as purchase for any Alien fan out there who enjoys something slightly off-beat or has an appreciation for some fantastic Alien artwork.