Alan Dean Foster--Alien

[ripper]

Alien by Alan Dean Foster (from The Complete Alien Omnibus, Winner, 1996; originally Warner, 1979)

This one has been sitting on my shelf for around a decade. It isn't quite the complete series as Alien: Resurrection had not been made when this omnibus was published.

I am sure everyone will know the plot of Alien, so I shan't describe it in detail here; suffice to say, it is basically a slasher set on a mining spaceship, with the slasher being an acid-blooded alien creature.

I read this in two sessions. It's an easy read and pleasant enough, though I didn't find that much tension was built up and in the end it seemed a little bland overall with weak characterization. It has been quite a while since I saw the film so I am not sure how closely this novelisation follows the film's plot. Warner must have been satisfied with Foster's writing as he penned the novelisations for Aliens and Alien 3, and I will probably give them a go sometime.

[mattofthespurs]

In 1979, when I was but a wee nipper of 11 years old I was desperate to see Alien.
I had the graphic novel, and still have it around somewhere (with name, address etc written in pencil in the inside cover. The address even goes as far as Earth, The Universe...Just in case I lost it in outer space), but alas I was prevented from seeing it by my sensible Mother and Father.
My Uncle bought me a copy of the novel to make up for my disappointment but sadly the prose and lack of action at the start were enough that I never got past page 11.
I still have that book too (I never throw anything away). I really must give it a go one of these days.

[Deleted]

I actually thought that some of the dialogue in the novelisation of ALIEN was better than what was used in the film, in particular Ash's sign-off before he gets the wrong end of a flamethrower. Nice to see where the unfinished 'airlock' scene would have come in the narrative, too. There are, however, some unusual omissions: The crew never encounter the pilot of the crashed alien ship, for example, and Foster clearly has no idea what the alien is meant to look like.

Interesting fact: The Hungarian title of ALIEN is THE EIGHTH PASSENGER. Slightly erroneous, as the other seven people on the Nostromo were crew members. Strictly speaking, the Alien was the second passenger, after Jones the cat, but perhaps that wasn't pithy enough...

[Deleted]

Oct 16, 2015 10:08:49 GMT mattofthespurs said:

I had the graphic novel, and still have it around somewhere (with name, address etc written in pencil in the inside cover.

I have the same comic adaptation; wonderful Walt Simonson artwork. The double-page spread for the chestburster scene is especially... splashy.

[ripper]

I think that it is a shame that such an iconic film doesn't have a better novelisation associated with it. It just sort of plodded along with little tension and by the end I wasn't really bothered if the alien had killed the entire crew, Ripley and Jones included. To be fair, I haven't read anything else by Foster and don't know the circumstances under which the book was written, so have no idea if this is typical of his work. As I said, he also wrote the tie-ins for Aliens and Alien 3 so Warner must have been satisfied with his initial book.