Alien [Mass Market Paperback]

Alan Dean Foster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1979

Where was Earth?

This was not their galaxy. A strange sun lit the sky with orange rays. In their long cold sleep, the seven space travelers had left their own universe behind, and now their monitor told them that on the planet revolving below them, someone was signaling for help. By space law, they must descent, explore and render assistance. But they would carry weapons. For who could tell what being called to them---or why. All they knew was that it was Alien.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books Inc (Mm) (June 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446328782
• ISBN-13: 978-0446328784
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,036,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alan Dean Foster's work to date includes excursions into hard science-fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, western, historical, and contemporary fiction. He has also written numerous non-fiction articles on film, science, and scuba diving, as well as having produced the novel versions of many films, including such well-known productions as "Star Wars", the first three "Alien" films, "Alien Nation", and "The Chronicles of Riddick". Other works include scripts for talking records, radio, computer games, and the story for the first "Star Trek" movie. His novel "Shadowkeep" was the first ever book adapation of an original computer game. In addition to publication in English his work has been translated into more than fifty languages and has won awards in Spain and Russia. His novel "Cyber Way" won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990, the first work of science-fiction ever to do so.

Foster's sometimes humorous, occasionally poignant, but always entertaining short fiction has appeared in all the major SF magazines as well as in original anthologies and several "Best of the Year" compendiums. His published oeuvre includes more than 100 books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better than I feared, worse than I'd hoped, June 23, 2009

By 

Ana Mardoll (United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Alien: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Alien (Film Novelization) / 0-446-82977-3

The film novelization of "Alien" is pleasantly well-written from a technical standpoint; the book possesses correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation, which cannot always be said for film novelizations. The characters are largely true to their counterparts in the movie, and both the expanded dialogue and the internal thoughts of the crew have a ring of the genuine to them.

This novelization was apparently based on an extremely early transcript of the screenplay and there are several noticeable differences between the film and the book, which is slightly disappointing if you read film novelizations as a companion to flesh out the film more fully. Most notably, the dead alien with the chest-burst rib cage is missing - a very jarring omission which had me flipping back and forth, wondering where it had got to - and a great deal of the final plot with Ash's betrayal is different, with Ash deliberately and openly interceding to save the alien from being shot out an airlock.

Even considering the omissions, there is a great deal here for fans of the movie to enjoy. The alien facehugger is described very nicely, with frequent allusions to its 'skeletal hand' appearance. (The final form of the alien is described almost not at all, however, presumably due to vagueness in the written screenplay.) The internal thoughts of the crew are fleshed out nicely, with a particular emphasis on Ripley of course, but with flourishes that greatly humanize Dallas and Parker in particular. There is foreshadowing of Kane's ultimate demise, with a mysterious black 'blotch' on the medical scanner over Kane's lungs, and Ash explains how the Company had known that the alien was there (having picked up and translated the warning via long-range scans), and had substituted Ash for the previous science officer right before the Nostromo's regularly scheduled trip, in the hopes that they would pick up an alien and 'accidentally' bring it back to Earth, bypassing the questions and quarantines that a direct mission would have generated. There is also a very nice included scene that was eventually (and in my opinion, unfortunately) cut from the film, where Ripley discovers a cocooned Brett and Dallas, and is forced to euthanize her former friend.

The most disappointing aspect of this book, however, is that the pacing is excessively slow and dull, particularly in the beginning. Even the first few pages crawl painfully, as Foster "introduces" each cryo-sleeping crew member by describing their dreams and discussing whether they would be candidates for 'professional dreamers' and whether their dreams are restless or ordered, pleasant or painful, hazy or distinct. The writing style is what I would deem 'experimental' and I think it might have even worked well if Foster had felt comfortable including more physical detail, but since he was trying to match a movie that apparently hadn't finished yet, details like the appearance of the crew, the ship, the planet, and the alien are kept to a minimum, leaving only the heavy speculative prose.

If you're a die-hard fan of the series, this book is worth checking out, but just factor in the slow-pacing and don't expect too much. For what it is worth, I am now reading Foster's sequel Aliens, and so far the author seems to have corrected all the writing 'mistakes' in "Alien", indicating either growth on the part of the author, or a more complete screenplay source, or both. So if there's a chance that you might read the entire series of alien film novelizations, I recommend starting with this one and just remembering that they get better.

~ Ana Mardoll

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Alien, February 6, 2010

By 

Stephanie Gates "pandora_box82" (Sparta, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alien: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Having never seen the movie in its entirety, I came into this book without having any preconceived notions of what was supposed to happen, as according to the movie. It was an interesting premise, given that the crew was sent to their slaughter to find out why another alien vessel was warning everyone to stay away from the planet, and just what happened to the people that were chosen to host the alien offspring. The most disconcerting thing was that the alien was never fully described, so even though I had an image based off of what little I have seen, I was also able to think up something rather scary to me. All in all a very suspenseful read for me, since I didn't know how it would end.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes you get more. Sometimes you get less., December 1, 2010

By 

Z. Simon "HarlotBug3" (Poway, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Alien: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Novelizing a screenplay is a funny idea in itself. The passive voice/faux eloquence can certainly be laughable, but the real entertainment comes from scenes that deviate so strongly from the film that you end up scratching your head even if you initially sneer. It's worth it for the curiosity factor, but don't expect it to add any weight or depth to the Alien mythos.