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Alien: A Novel
by Alan Dean Foster
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Warner Books (1979-06)
ISBN: 0446829773
EAN: 9780446829779
Mass Market Paperback: 270 pages
SKU: 644
Condition: Fair
Comments: Binding: Softcover. Condition: Fair. Wear on the cover. Creased binding.
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Customer Reviews
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Better than what you might expect
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-11-07
When I was a teenager, I had scores of guilty pleasures; after shedding the majority of them in my twenties, few remain. Among these last silly indulgences are movie novelizations, the first feature-length books that I read as a child. Revisiting these books in the twilight of my young adulthood, I've noted that most of them are terrible, but a few do exist that are worth reading. Alan Dean Foster's adaptation of Ridley Scott's widely (and rightly) celebrated space horror film is among the latter of these.
Based very loosely on an early draft of O'Bannon and Shusett's script, Foster's "Alien" differs greatly from the film. The basic scenario and the characters are essentially the same, but the differences aren't limited to mere details. Scribed from a source prior to numerous rewrites, the influence exerted by visual genius H.R. Giger, on-set tweaking and Scott's own judicious post-production editing, this is certainly not what you'll see onscreen.
That said, the book is capably written. It only hints at the sporadic brilliance that Foster would later develop and implement in numerous film novelizations and his own original fantasy and sci-fi novels, but it is effective. The pace of the narrative is deliberately uneven and yields mixed results. While the book's slow first half does gradually generate tension, it's also quite dull in spots, often concentrating on minutiae that isn't of much interest. On the other hand, the last fifteen pages are a whirlwind of action, much of which is quite thrilling.
While the fully-grown alien is revealed sparingly throughout the film, Foster wisely chose not to describe its' appearance, only acknowledging its' large size to imply the creature's power and ability to intimidate. The more gruesome happenings are also hinted at with great effect, allowing the reader's imagination to visualize the gore between the lines.
Quite a few sequences in the book aren't to be seen in the original theatrical cut of the movie. Most of these are based on scenes that were cut from earlier script drafts, a few that were only partially shot, and numerous well-known outtakes that later resurfaced in laserdisc and DVD editions of the film, as well as the 2003 director's cut. While many of these portions were cut to preserve pacing, consistency or overall quality, they're all very effective in a written context. Foster's depiction of a scene wherein Ripley discovers Dallas and Brett's cocooned bodies is far more creepy than the middling equivalent that was cut from the 1979 theatrical release.
Most tie-in novelizations are subject to poor quality control, but I only noticed a few misspellings here. However, Dallas casually glances at Brett (actually Parker) nine pages after the assistant engineer has been picked off! This is the only serious mistake that I found in this book.
Of course, no tie-in novelization ever came close to crossing over as a serious work of genuine literature. But "Alien" is a pretty solid pop novel for its' genre. Employing the slightly prolix dialogue, uncompromising situations and exhaustive detail characteristic of 20th century science fiction, this would probably be regarded as a minor classic had it been released as an original novel in the '20s or '30s. As it is, it's still superior to most of the laughably juvenile trash that passes for adult sci-fi these days.
This is one of Foster's earliest movie novelizations and his second adaptation of a screenplay by Dan O'Bannon; the first is that of "Dark Star," the quirky B-movie that O'Bannon created in collaboration with John Carpenter. Just as certain elements of "Dark Star" were recycled in "Alien," the same recurring features can be found in both books. Although these novels have long since gone out of print, they're both cheaply available via Amazon and make for a fun (albeit brief) reading double-bill.
Just don't expect high terror on the order of Lovecraft.
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Before Giger.
Rating (3)
Date: 2006-07-26
2 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
When reading this book I was expecting it to be a lot like the film. It does have a lot of similarities to the film but not as much as I expected. Odviously more happens in the book than the film, as scenes are longer with more dramatism and more interaction between characters. The book, just like the film, starts off pretty slow. Leading the reader into a snail pace introduction that lasts for a about 100 pages before reaching anything interesting. But when some activity starts to happen, the book becomes very interesting and a little engrossing. 'Alien' is a very good story in my opinion, so when reading the book I was expecting more. However, I got less. More stuff does happen in the book, but its the way its described and explained that dissapoints me. Terrorizing scenes that show the alien are very basic. For example: the part where the alien burts out of a crew members chest is short, bland and not detailed enough for the reader to experience. This moment is described breifly with less emotion and with no sence of atmosphere than expected. Another thing in this book thats dissapointing, is the description of the alien itself. There is almost no description of the alien's features, movement, size and appearence. The book's description if the alien entering a room is e.g."Then Ripley saw the alien enter the control room", which to me is weak.
*[I know that i'm referring the differences between the film and the book, because I saw the film before reading this book which results in an automatic differenciation. Which is normal.]*
As the book progresses, sightings of the alien aswell as horrific deaths are slightly different from the film and less engaging. This is a shame but still acceptable as it is the story that counts. The climatic ending is very different from the film and shortened. Which results in the book's fair conclusion to a close.
Overall, 'Alien' by Alan Dean Foster is an OK book. More of a sci-fi thriller than a horror, I would give this novel 3.5 stars as it is a good read and a brilliant story. The only thing that let it down for me is the book's attention to detail. Perhaps if I had read the novel before seeing the brilliant film, I might have given it a higher rating. So, in this case the book is NOT as good as the film.
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Alien - the NOVELIZATION
Rating  (4)
Date: 2005-02-07
6 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is the review for the novelization of Alien - for some reason, every other review that I've found here has been for the movie.
Alan Dean Foster's novelization of Alien is a stark, somewhat barren re-telling of the story that most of us are familiar with. However, the rather dry, impersonal style used in narrating the story actually adds to the horror and sense of hopelessness.
Some interesting tidbits which were either added to the story by Foster or which were in the original script and ended up on the cutting room floor are:
1) Ripley sensing something odd about Ash and asking Lambert if she had ever slept with him (the answer is: no - Lambert goes on to say that she never even got the sense that Ash was interested).
2) Lambert suggesting an "alternative" to hunting down the Alien...suicide...she holds up a bunch of suicide pills and states that this is a pretty painless alternative to getting ripped to pieces by the Alien. For me, this added to the almost depressing sense of hopelessness of the story - the situation of the crew was so dismal that some of them began to consider suicide as an 'option'.
3) The crew discovers the Alien has escaped into the air ducts after they burst into a supply room and flame the contents - which happen to be canned food, etc. - the Alien didn't grow that big before killing Brett by just metabolizing air.
4) Ash, when he tells the crew that they can not kill the Alien, states that the crew of the derelict space ship in which the eggs were found were, no doubt, larger/stronger and more intelligent than humans...and even they were overcome.
5) Ripley, before she abandons ship, discovers the bodies of Brett and Dallas. They have both been cacooned by the Alien and impregnated by a parasite. The life cycle of the Alien as conceived in this version is much different from that of the social insect analog as pictured in Aliens - in fact, Ash compares the Alien to certain species of parasitic wasps which lay their eggs in unsuspecting spiders which go about their lives while the wasp larvae eat/kill them alive. This scene was actually filmed and can be seen in certain cuts of the film but I was disappointed...the scene, as conveyed in the novelization, was pretty macabre...the actual filmed scene was not very convincing (which was probably one of the reasons - outside of pacing - it was cut from the final theatrical cut).
6) As mentioned above, Ash hypthesizes that the life cycle of the Alien is similar to certain parasitic wasps on Earth. The Alien was envisioned as being more of a solitary animal rather than the social insect analog seen in the sequels. Essentially, the facehugger implants the embryo, the embryo bursts out, grows, captures prey, cacoons them, implants them with an egg. etc. This was a more satisfying hypothetical life cycle for me since the whole 'parasite-social insect' angle doesn't really seem too convincing to me.
7) Passing mention is made of Ripley's home town - a little village somewhere in El Salvador.
In my experience, most novelizations of movies tend to be "lacking"...they're either bare bones, providing nothing more than a threadbare summary of the narrative of the movie itself or they go off the deep end, providing a lot of "extra" information that often fails to mesh with the original narrative. Alien is one of the few movie novelizations that I've read which actually seems to work and has merit as an entity separate from the movie itself. It would be difficult for any novelization to capture the sense of disgust and fascination that H. Geiger's design of the Alien evoked in many viewers and Foster doesn't (wisely) even try - instead, he concentrates on the feeling of hopelessness on the part of the crew as they attempt to deal with an entity that always seemes to be one step ahead of them and whose goal is nothing more than a metaphorical rape and forced pregnancy (and eventual, horribly painful childbirth) of its victims.
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Unlike the movie....a bit dull
Rating (3)
Date: 2004-11-05
2 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
(...)
To set the record straight, the very first Alien movie will always be regarded as a classic instead of blatant imitators like Predator. Whereas Predator looked and feel blatantly 1980s, Alien still look like it could have been shot a year ago. Alien set the blueprint and the standards for the film of the genre, which none, in my opinion,has surpassed, much less equaled. It is a film that you watch with repeated viewing and learn to appreciate its complexity whereas its imitators (and unfortunately, sequels) relied on cheap thrills, gore, and caters to those with the attention span of a gnat. Granted, I enjoy shoot em up non stop action. Just don't compare these films to Alien as an equal. It is easier to film a shoot 'em up than to film a movie that manipulate the audience's imagination and senses.
Now, onto the book. Alan Dean Foster's novelization, compared to the film, is a bit of a let down...espcially when the film relied on stunning (and spooky) set designs. Reading the book you don't seem to get the impression that the alien is this phallic-headed double jawed skeletal monstrosity. In fact, the alien is barely described at all.
The novel is more sci-fi and less horror, and it is based on previous screenplays of films, many of the elements (and dialouge) of which was discarded in the film. Because it is not based on what was shot but what WAS written, the novel differs from the film in various key points: the attack scene of Parker and Lambert was kind of bland and straightforward, Ripley never even found her compatriot's bodies. She just realized she was the last survivor and tore butt out of there. The scene with the alien in the airlock (which was never filmed) was retained, and so was the cocoon sequence and Lambert and Ripley's altercation. All of the character retain their basic personality...with the exception of Lambert. In the film, she and Ripley were polar opposites, in the book, there was really no differentiation between the two women...she wasn't teary or hysterical.
In all, the novelization of Alien kind of dull the film. The illustrated version, if you can find it, is more accurate...and it showed how Brett was REALLY killed in the film before the Ridley Scott went editing crazy.
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Great novel - out of this world cover
Rating  (5)
Date: 2003-12-29
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I, like most people was captured by the phrase, "In space, no one can hear you scream." I recently viewed the "Director's Edition" (94% like the original only with better sound) and was surprised at how terrifying this movie really is. I wish they had stopped at the first movie, though, and had not gone on to two, three and the rotten four. The quality declined in each succeeding release. The book is not quite as good as the movie and I believe that is the result of the tremendous sound score that added a touch of dread to every single scene. As an aside, the Director's Cut was truer to the book. It showed details of the alien spacecraft and it showed the captain and Brett captured and being used as a vessel for other creatures. It did NOT include the best line of the entire book..the one where Ash suggests to the remaining crew that they try to communicate with the creature. When asked if he had done so, he replied, "Please, let my grave hold some secrets." Powerful book.
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