Andrew E. C. Gaska

6/19/23 Edit: Reread for campaign

Free League have outdone themselves with this title. The book itself is large, heavy, lavishly illustrated with original art and jam packed with the world of Alien. The printing itself, each page is the black expanse of space dotted with stars. The text is white or light green (Much like the movies computers) which lends itself to being very atmospheric. Interspersed throughout are little 1 paragrph - 1 page stories giving even more background.

The book is show more divided into a player section and a GM (Cleverly called the 'Game Mother') section like most RPG titles. The rules and text are logically presented and easy to read and grasp.

As I said the illustrations are top notch, the book not only covers Alien enemies from the original movies but also the Neomorphs introduced in the prequels. I appreciated this very much as I know I'm in a minority with the fan base here but I honestly really enjoyed both Prometheus and Covenant. Most each type of Alien has a few variants as well.

The universe is huge of course but this book does a great job of getting into some of the lesser known planets and their backgrounds along with the well known sites from the movies. There is plenty for the imaginative just in this volume alone to create an epic campaign of their very own design.

Also represented is vehicular combat both on land and in space which I appreciated.

I have purchased everything that has come out for this so far and have the next hard back volume preordered that is a resource volume on playing the Colonial Marines in more detail/depth. Simply put, very excited to get this to the table. show less

This is, surprisingly, the first original novel (i.e., not a novelization) set during the continuity of the 1968-73 films. But the book is kind of a novelization of the first film, the only one of the five to never be novelized (publishers just reissued Pierre Boulle's original novel with a film tie-in cover instead), and kind of a sidequel to it, as it mostly focuses on minor characters from the first film, and characters who were introduced in later ones.

The main human character is Landon, show more one of the not-Charlton Heston astronauts from the original film; Conspiracy reveals that he had a much more involved adventure on the planet of the apes than one might have guessed based on the film. It's kind of neat to see the early scenes of the original retold from his viewpoint. Taylor is kind of an asshole when he's not the protagonist. There are also lots of flashbacks that fill in Landon's pre-Liberty 1 life, especially a space mission he undertook a few years earlier along with Maryann Stewart, the female astronaut who dies in suspended animation in the film's opening. To be honest, I struggled to care about him at times; the present-day stuff was interesting, but the flashbacks ultimately came off as pretty pointless.

The main ape characters are Galen, a veterinarian who briefly appeared in the original film, and Milo, a scientist who was introduced in the third film as a close friend of Cornelius and Zira who'd we never heard of before. Galen experiments on Landon, while Milo uses information from Landon to recover the Liberty 1 from beneath the water, setting up and explaining one of the particularly contrived aspects of the third film. To be honest, this is one of those tie-ins where it feels like its whole purpose is not telling a story, but sewing up holes. It does a good job of sewing up holes (I liked the explanation for why the Liberty 1 crashed to begin with, or why someone would even send a rescue mission after a ship that seemingly couldn't return), but Gaska's own story isn't always particularly compelling.

The book is graphic novel-sized (I think it was published by a comic book publisher) and profusely illustrated by some greats of the sf/comics world like Andrew Probert, Dave Dorman, and Thomas Scioli, which was really neat. Worth reading if you've thought a lot about inconsistencies in the Planet of the Apes films (which I have), but maybe not if you just want to read a great story. show less

The first three Planet of the Apes films have a tenuous link based on shared characters, but their overall approach and tones are completely different. This makes sense, as Pierre Boulle's original novel was a standalone book and, while the 1968 film changed several details, it retained that sense of closure with the final twist giving away the author's message. In Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes, Andrew E.C. Gaska links the three films with a story set during the original movie. He show more focuses on John Landon, who had disappeared for some time following the crash in the film and thereby offers an opportunity to explore more of the Ape's world. With flashbacks to Landon's early career, Gaska links the astronaut to the physicist Dr. Otto Hasslein, who appeared in the third film, Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Finally, Landon serves as an unwitting mole in Ape City, controlled via long distance telepathy by the mutants from Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Gaska's writing is more than up to the task of the legacy he has inherited and the accompanying art from the likes of Jim Steranko, Joe Jusko, Andrew Probert, Dave Dorman, Chandra Free, Lucas Graciano, and more adds to the overall feel of the narrative. The title refers to the conspiracy led by Dr. Zaius to suppress any information that might threaten Ape society and the overall tone of paranoia compliments elements from the films. Though the book contains mild spoilers for the three films, it should be a necessary companion volume as it serves an essential purpose in building up the connections between the films. show less

A brilliant introduction into the universe of Alien role playing. The system is clean, well hinges, and the coupling of stress dice with mechanics to stimulate deterioration of function in life threatening situations was well thought out, and sensible. In some ways, and interesting premise and better than the sanity system for Call Of Cthulhu. I look forward to many more supplements, and support material, on creatures other than the Xeno morphs, and would like some concentration on the show more various corporate factions and states other than the United States. show less