Aliens

If this has been an original novel, and the movie came from it, then it would have been a five star easy. Since it's a novelization of an existing movie that's superior, it gets a three star rating for different reasons.

First, the story most of us know and love is great written down. Reading it, I envisioned the actors in their roles, the score powerfully pushing through the action and run scenes, the beautiful, uncomfortable design of the ship and aliens. Written down it lost a little impact, especially in some of the well-constructed action scenes. Some of the tense nail-grinding was removed from the scene where they first discovered the aliens, a few deaths lost their epic showdown appeal, and the ending fights with the queen seemed show more shortened and with less oomph. On the other hand, having it written down, the author was free to extend some musing dialogue, pausing for thought about the alien and the strategies they needed to come up with for proper combat.

I took one star away from some of my favorite parts of movie being glossed over in the book. Obviously the author didn't agree on dragging out the same scenes I would. I had to remove another star because it was censored. I can get taking out some of the language and the reader wouldn't notice, but to remove all of it? Even the epic one-liner showdowner from Ripley from the queen was removed. That's the most quotable line from the movie! It has been replaced with:

"Get away from her, you!"

Wow, really? Playing it safe in the novelization from of Aliens is not cool, no matter what universe you're in.

Overall it's enjoyable, especially for fans of the series, and I loved Foster's writing style overall. He's readable and sucks you into the story, but some of it fell apart after the first few chapters. show less

Solid 3.5. First, it is oddly bizarre that the thought it necessary to cut out all of the profanity considering both the movie and other novelizations are riddled with it. It helps humanize the characters and gives more severity to the situation. It was also weirdly distracting.

Once you get past that, it was a pretty decent regurgitation of the film with some bonus background and interactions with the protagonists.

This wasn't a bad listen at all. It got me through my first quiet afternoon in a long while.

I usually only buy novelisations when I've seen the film about 50 times, but with Aliens, I thought I'd read the book first! (I tried watching the first film and it was too hokey even for me, so I'm a bit nervous about the sequel, even with Michael Biehn).

Ehh, this is what I was expecting, really - Alan Dean Foster is one of those writers who uses adverbs like 'lustily' and I don't know why he bowdlerised the dialogue, but I got the gist of the action scenes. I think I'll finally have to watch the film for what Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn bring to their characters though!

The sequel to the excellent first instalment sees our Ellen Ripley emerge after 57 years of hyper sleep to find a corporation that doesn't really believe her story of what happened, but still sends colonisers out to inspect the reportedly dangerous alien spacecraft - only without giving them any warning it may be dangerous.

Low and behold the alien plague is unleashed once more and Ripley has to fight for survival once again.

It's not particularly long, but seems a good length for what it is, conveys the story well.

I read this book shortly after seeing the movie for the first time, and it is as riveting as a novel based on the movie can get! I remember actually jumping out of my seat at one point while reading the book, and I had already seen the movie. It's a great way to revisit the plot of Aliens and consider the back story of the characters.

I read this book shortly after seeing the movie for the first time, and it is as riveting as a novel based on the movie can get! I remember actually jumping out of my seat at one point while reading the book, and I had already seen the movie. It's a great way to revisit the plot of Aliens and consider the back story of the characters.

If you're a fan of Alien/Aliens, these books will do it for you.
Fun drinking game: take a shot every time the author uses the word "biomechanical"