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Post by dem bones on May 13, 2020 18:09:40 GMT
Yvonne Navarro - Species (Bantam, 1995) Blurb: Based on the screenplay by Dennis Feldman
Beautiful, blond, and deadly, she is part alien and part human, a top-secret government experiment scheduled to be destroyed. But she has escaped and – driven by powers not even she understands, and an instinct she cannot control – she descends on Los Angeles with a single purpose: to mate and reproduce.
Now a special team of uniquely talented individuals has been assembled to stop her. The only problem is that their quarry is like nothing they've ever encountered, and all they have to go on is a growing trail of bodies and the knowledge that time is running out. For if they don't catch her before she reproduces, the planet will be seeded with the spawn of an unknown species – a species genetically superior to our own and with no known predators ..."In laymans terms, you made a monster with a formula from outer space, it's escaped and is going around killing people, now you want us to hunt it down and kill it."I've not seen the movie, don't particular want to, but this all-action novelisation is a lot of fun. We hit the ground running with a catastrophe at a top secret Government Research Center. Acting on orders from above, Dr. Xavier Fitch gives the order for the facilities priority experiment - a genetically engineered human-extraterrestrial hybrid, who resembles a twelve-year-old girl - to be exterminated. As her glass cage fills with cyanide, 'Sil' smashes the glass, allowing the deadly fumes to contaminate the compound while she makes her escape. The creature's prodigious strength sees her vault the electrified fence with ease and sprint off across the desert. Sil first jumps a freight train bound for Salt Lake City. Desperate for food, she kills a hobo for the scraps of hamburger in his filthy coat pocket, stealing his rags to replace her flowery hospital gown. At Bringham City station, she switches to a sleeper headed for Union City. During the night, her outer shell breaks apart to birth a new, full grown, devastatingly beautiful Sil. On reaching LA, she treats herself to a shopping spree at Fredericks of Hollywood with money stolen from the restaurant car. Dr. Fitch hand-picks a crack team for a desperate search and destroy mission comprising Stephen Arden, anthropologist; Laura Baker, kickass molecular biologist; Preston 'Press' Lennox, government 'troubleshooter' ("they've never asked me to find anyone they didn't want killed"); and Dan Smithson, blue collar working stiff and empath. To give them a better understanding of what they're up against, the Frankenstein's in the lab cultivate a second mutant, this time splicing the alien DNA with that of a bat. They really haven't thought this through. TBC ....
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Post by andydecker on May 14, 2020 11:16:53 GMT
Recently watched it again on TV. Still like it. Nothing deep, but entertaining enough with a few good ideas.
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Post by dem bones on May 15, 2020 8:57:01 GMT
Recently watched it again on TV. Still like it. Nothing deep, but entertaining enough with a few good ideas. It's unlikely I'd have started it just yet, had not prospect of persevering with Alien Pregnant By Elvis been too repulsive to contemplate. Sil is class! Desperate to get down to some serious reproduction, she visits the ID Club to check out the talent. Robbie Llwelyn, handsome playboy about town, wastes no time in whisking her back to his mansion for a night of fun. Sil is right up for it too - until a green tinge about his person - visible only to the extraterrestrial eye - identifies Romeo as afflicted with a ghastly medical condition; diabetes. She can't be birthing a damaged specimen! When Sil makes to leave, nice guy Robbie turns nasty. Sil suffers herself to be handled a little rough, responds with a power french kiss that drives much of his cranium out through the back of his head. One thing we've learned is to pay close attention to everything the enigmatic Xavier Fitch has to say re the next course of action, and then do the exact opposite. The guy's a misanthrope. P. 150 of 280 (ie, not long past the 8 page photo-inset) |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on May 16, 2020 12:16:01 GMT
Dr. Fitch hand-picks a crack team for a desperate search and destroy mission comprising Stephen Arden, anthropologist; Laura Baker, kickass molecular biologist; Preston 'Press' Lennox, government 'troubleshooter' ("they've never asked me to find anyone they didn't want killed"); and Dan Smithson, blue collar working stiff and empath. I saw this film in the theater--by myself--and haven't watched it since. However, I still remember the scene where the "empath" walks into a train car, sees a dead conductor amidst gobs of alien goo, and then proclaims, "Something bad happened here." I like Forest Whitaker, but even he couldn't save that line. A few years later, some friends and I got drunk and went to see Species 2. If not for the alcohol, I don't think I would've made it through that one--it's probably my vote for worst movie I've ever seen on the big screen. |
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Post by andydecker on May 16, 2020 12:27:17 GMT
Yeah, the sequels are terrible.
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Post by dem bones on May 17, 2020 10:39:28 GMT
What the .... Now the novel has mutated into a No Sex Please, We're Earthlings farce. Seriously, how hard can it be for a beautiful woman to get laid in LA? Things were going swell with saintly stranger John Carey in the Jacuzzi until Sil delivered an everything-curdling, "I want a baby!" She's now set her sights on Press as ideal sperm donor, but a late move by Laura the molecular biologist sees him otherwise romantically engaged.
To pass the time, Sil has bought a hair dye and faked her death in an automobile explosion. Eager to put a career low behind him, Fitch all-too hastily disband the team. Press is sure they're way premature in congratulating themselves on a mission well accomplished, but no-one likes a killjoy ....
If Sil's gonna breed a new species she better gets her skates on. Only forty-four pages until we run out of book.
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Post by dem bones on May 18, 2020 18:25:37 GMT
Finally Sil gets to experience the joys of sex (© Graham Masterton) and we could not be more delighted for her! The same cannot be said for Stephen Arden, our amorous anthropologist, when he realises this sexy 'Nicola' and the mass-murdering human-alien hybrid are one and the same. Arden becomes aware of his embarrassing mistake when an ecstatic Sil shows him her rapidly expanding belly. So hurt is she at her lover's horrified reaction that she destroys him with a swipe of her beautiful tentacle. Sil reverts to her natural form - translucent torso, oversized elongated head, coils of metallic hair, tendrils, purple vital organs, spikes, etc - and relocates to the sewer to give birth to it. Fitch, Press, Laura and Dan give chase ...
It's probably a good thing that I lost all interest in movies, otherwise I'd want to watch Species and bet I'd find it less fun than this great trashy novelisation (no doubt Mr. Brewer will be delighted to have it confirmed that nice guy Dan's "something ... bad happened in here" is retained.)
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Post by andydecker on May 18, 2020 18:58:35 GMT
It's probably a good thing that I lost all interest in movies, otherwise I'd want to watch Species and bet I'd find it less fun than this great trashy novelisation (no doubt Mr. Brewer will be delighted to have it confirmed that nice guy Dan's "something ... bad happened in here" is retained.) the movie is very trashy. Lots of violence, sex, nuditiy, Ben Kingsley slumming, Michael Madson playing Michael Madson and Natasha Henstridge looking fabulous. |
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