Alien

The Official Movie Novelization

By: Alan Dean Foster

Narrated by: Peter Guinness

Alan Dean Foster is the acclaimed author of movie tie-ins for Star Wars, Alien and Transformers. He was awarded the IAMTW Grand Master Scribe Award in 2008. He is also a best-selling science fiction and fantasy author in his own right, including the popular Pip & Flinx novels and the Founding of the Commonwealth series.

©2014 Alan Dean Foster (P)2015 Audible, Ltd

Old memories

I remember seeing this in the theater with my family. My brother talking my mother into allowing me a 6 year old to participate. He said it was “a space movie like StarWars.” Oh yeah, it was a space movie but nothing like StarWars. I didn’t become a fan of Alien until I was 8. By then I had realized there are monsters in the dark but they are not from space. I am such a fan, I have every single type of copies of VHS, DVD, and BlueRay. I even have an old beat up LP as well as an old beat up sleeve from an “LaserDisc!” I also have all the art books even the horrific dreams pertaining to Geigers art. Lego? Got it! 1/12 model? Got that too. Trust me, I love this franchise. Even the crappiness of the recents to III and IV. But the book saved the day for #3. Why am I blabbing like this about a book and linking in all my fandom? One reason, I honestly can’t stand the books of recent. The ones that claim to stay on canon. The ones that claim to care about the franchise. No, they don’t. I have listened to every single extensions the Alien franchise on Audible and I can tell you 90% are not for the fandom, and they are not for people that just want a scary story pertaining to the scariest franchise in history. That’s not just my opinion, FACT CHECKED. Well, there is that whole Jaws thing, but maybe the first. I can tell you as well, the new pile of “$4!7” that’s for sale or free, depending on your account preferences, is political woke garbage that’s about as scary as Chucky stalking Barbie at The Magic Kingdom. On a Wednesday nite. In the summer. And yes, I have listened to every one of them from beginning to end just so I hear every bit of garbage that others commented on. And honestly, I guarantee, these crap stories that get four or five stars across the board and only have a sentence or two that’s about as vague and boring as the expositions that makes up 75% of these horrifically written paperweights. So do yourself a favor and get Alien! Next Alien 3 is not bad. But, you can tell voiceovers by some of the original cast is a little hard to listen due to whom ever recorded that one didn’t have a de-esser. Yes it hurts sometimes but the story isn’t as bad as the rest.
Stepping off my soap box, now the reason to listen to this. It’s worth it. Tails the original and voiceover is good. This one follows the directors cut, somewhat, but still amazing. While your at it, follow it up with Aliens. Not tea bag! Naughty bag at all. Another actor from the main franchise lending his chops and yes he is a professional voiceover actor.
So there you go. The reasons to and to not listen to these books. I’m not even going to get into the most recent abomination that’s supposed to follow up to the new “ALIEN FireTeam!” Ugh! Just miss it. Fireteam not too bad…thus far! Did I mention I have all the original games from the franchise as well? Well, I don’t. I skipped a couple of recents just because they too were peppered with the same woke political crap that’s plagued everything. EVERYTHING!

Wow!

Loved the movie and have watched it countless times. I wasn’t sure if the book would add anything to the lore but I am happy to be wrong. The characters are presented in a slightly different manner and there are a couple of nuggets not present in the movie. The narration was wonderful. Recommend for fans of the franchise.

Interesting Adaptation

It was interesting to hear the differences in Foster’s interpretation of the script. From a story I heard he was working from an earlier draft of the script and Geiger hadn’t finalized the designs for the film.

Peter Guinness’ narration is superb. Steadily drawing you in for the the scare.

Solid story

This novel faithfully follow the events of the classic movie (or the other way around), so there are no real surprise. The characters are very shallow, but the story is interesting enough, especially as a palate cleanser between some more demanding books.

The narrator did a very good job.

just a great listen

the film and this recording were just about one and the same. loved the unnatural music set in at perfect timing for spine tingling effect.