A great book, but one that differs somewhat from the film on which it is based.Alien follows the unfortunate crew of the commercial starship Nostromo as they are sent to respond to a distress signal, which soon leads to one of the most famous survival horror situations in pop culture.The story is great, with varied, well-written characters and a sustained sense of dread and claustrophobia; the narrative does a wonderful job establishing how little space the crew have available to them, and how t...

It literally only got interesting on page 171...Tragic considering how great the movie is.

Alien…a classic, epic movie. Created from a screenplay, they turned around and made the movie, then made the book off the movie/screenplay – one rarely thinks of this book offspring when they hear the word “Alien.” The movie is better too, but for fans of the series, especially completionists, this spawned book is a good addition to the shelves.I won’t go into the details of the story – what’s the point? If you don’t know the story of Alien, rent it immediately or miss out. The book stays pretty...

Most of us know what Alien is about. If you don't, shame on you. The 1979 movie is a classic, and you should watch it.I've known about the novelization for a few years now, so I said it was finally time to give it a try. It didn't disappoint, even if the beginning was a bit rough. Once the action starts, everything runs smoothly.As with all novelizations, we get a lot more details and nuances. And the facehuggers are described in great detail. A bit too great if you ask me, but that's a matter o...

Alien is one of my favourite films, not just in sci-fi, but in general. It's always fun to read a novelisation, to see if bits are different, and you get a lot more room for characterisation. I'm guessing Foster based his book on an earlier script, and probably before or while the film was being filmed, because there quite a few differences.I'm not going to go to deep into the differences - they are never better than what ended up in the film, and in most cases are uninteresting.I think the most...

I think this is the first film novelization I've ever read. The idea never appealed to me before but this was pretty damn good. It successfully captures the suspense and subtle terror of the film which I am now anxious to watch again. This Foster dude can write and I already bought his sequel, Aliens, even though I'm not a huge fan of the film version on that one. Amazon currently has it for $2 though so I figure it's worth checking out. Recommended space horror.

One of the least pretentious and most effective SF books I've ever read, and probably the best film novelization I'm aware of. Follows the Ridley Scott movie quite closely, bit gives the "truckers in space" spin of the characters much greater depth, albeit Ripley is less likeable than in the film. The first part of the story (including the planetoid landing and the alien relic exploration) is given much more space than in the movie, while the second part is more compressed. A nice page turner!

it is pretty good, the acess to the characters thoughts really enhance the experience, and the scene with the chest burster is very agonizing, i would say this one is for people who liked the movie and would want to have a more intimate relation with the characters.

This was a bit of an odd read as it's a novelization of the film Alien, and that is a film that I know very well. So well that I could pick out every time the dialogue was different, and almost any differences in terms of the plot. I'm sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing!One reason I enjoy reading adaptations after seeing a film is to learn more about the characters. In this case, that didn't work out to well because I learned things I wish I hadn't (usually in a gender crap way). Anothe...

If you ever want to see how much movie novelizations have changed in the last forty years, you can't go wrong with Alan Dean Foster's work. Pick up his adaptations of the most recent Star Trek movies and you'll find what is essentially just the script reformatted to prose form -- and not just any script, but the final draft continuity script. No deleted scenes, no character development based upon production notes, and certainly no original input from the author.But go back to the novelizations h...

Worth a read, well, the first part at least. Out of 270 pages, the first half comprises of the first twenty minutes of the movie. And, to be honest, this is the best part of the book! Overall, the characters are far better developed in the movie and the alien itself isn't described at all (plus, we all know the plot), but the exploration of the alien ship is fantastic; it's intriguing and suspenseful. These scenes are almost from another story - there is a mystery and danger that I never felt wh...

A novelsisation of the movie that scared the living daylights out of me, and that after I read this book. I did read the book before since there was no chance in a snowballs' hell my mother was allowing me to see the actual movie in cinema. So as a good kid I found a 2nd hand copy and read the book before I ever saw the movie, and when I did on VHS I did not tell anybody at home, my sisters being snitches and such.Alien the brilliant visual conception of GIGER and it does fall short in the book

I don't normally read novelizations, but when I do, I read Alan Dean Foster's novelizations. (Okay, that sounded like a beer commercial…)Part of the reason is that Foster seems to single-handedly write ALL movie novelizations, especially those in the sci-fi/fantasy/horror genre. So, if you're going to read a novelization, more than likely, it's been written by Foster.Ridley Scott's "Alien" is, in my opinion, one of the best horror movies ever made. It's so creepy and horrifying, it gives me goos...

Not a bad novelisation as they go but not a patch on the film. ALIEN is the first of a trilogy by Alan Dean Foster, in which he based his novelisations on the screenplays rather than the finished movies. As H. R. Giger came up with the look of the alien after the screenplay was finished, we're left with little to no description of the adult alien here; just a bogeyman's hand reaching down to catch its unsuspecting victims.Given that Ridley Scott's film is a widely acknowledged sci-fi/horror mast...

I just lost a review I'd been working on for two hours, so now I'm honked off. Conclusion: if you want to read books that don't make you sleepy, try those with a single point of view that don't have a cast of a thousand dullards. Alien is highly enjoyable for those who like such things. Five stars, if not for the mushy beginning and universal point of view. No doubt Foster could write a better book, but it wouldn't match the script and deadline conditions he was probably under. Corporations suck...

Alien is one of Foster's most successful novelizations (which is really saying something when you read the list of his titles) not only financially, but also artistically. He did an excellent job of embracing the tropes of a horror movie and folding them into a science fiction book, and vice versa. We even get the point of view of the cat, an alien creature if there ever was one. There's a bit more detail and background on the creatures, which is really especially helpful for the many people who...

This adaptation of the original screenplay for the first Alien film; tries hard to capture the terror and pacing of the movie. It succeeds to a degree. Some of my favorite movies are based on novels. Official movie novelization is not really as successful in my opinion. So I've reserved a Blu-ray of the film at my local library to give it another view as it's been years since I've seen it.

More detail and a bit more tense than the movie. The characters are more real. I enjoyed it and would recommend.

Greatest book in the whole frickin' universe!!! (of course, having read it over 30 years ago this won't be a highly detailed review...)Now,I was 11 years old when Alien came out. My mom wouldn't let me see R-rated flicks at the time and most older friends & cousins were afraid of my mother so they wouldn't take me either. I couldn't fathom such a cruel existence - a Monster-Movie junkie being denied access to the latest, and possibly greatest, creature flick of all time. Torture. When some hair-...

I’ve now seen the Director’s Cut of this movie – and when I finished watching it I knew I wanted to revise this. To watch the movie again, wow!! phenomenal does not cover it – the sets, especially the intricate detail (the kind that requires a labour of love), reminded me of how visual impact matters to Ridley Scott. I could watch this movie frame by frame, the mise-en-scene is stunning in its brooding dark palette. Though, watching this with surround sound could have completely distracted me to...