I saw the film when I was 9 years old. It has given me nightmares well in to my 30's. This is great stuff!!!After getting past the initial shock of watching the movie at such a young age, I went and bought the Alien Story Picture book and then in my early teen years I read the novel. It is a great read and really captures the haunting aspects of the movie. Everything you wanted was there with additional content you didn't see in the movies until Ridley Scott released a Director's Cut around 2004.If you want to spook yourself while enjoying a great sci-fi story, then this for you. The atmosphere is gritty with a feeling that this is all plausible and set in the not-too-distant future.Plot ***Spoilers***The commercial towing spaceship Nostromo is on a return trip from Thedus to Earth, hauling a refinery and twenty million tons of mineral ore, and carrying its seven-member crew in stasis. Upon receiving a transmission of unknown origin from a nearby planetoid, the ship's computer awakens the crew. Acting on standing orders from their corporate employers, the crew detaches the Nostromo from the refinery and lands on the planetoid, resulting in some damage to the ship. Captain Dallas, Executive Officer Kane, and Navigator Lambert set out to investigate the signal's source while Warrant Officer Ripley, Science Officer Ash, and Engineers Brett and Parker stay behind to monitor their progress and make repairs.Dallas, Kane, and Lambert discover that the signal is coming from a derelict alien spacecraft. Inside it they find the remains of a large alien creature whose ribs appear to have been exploded outward from the inside. Meanwhile, the Nostromo's computer partially deciphers the signal transmission, which Ripley determines to be some type of warning. Kane discovers a vast chamber containing numerous eggs, one of which releases a creature that attaches itself to his face. Dallas and Lambert carry the unconscious Kane back to the Nostromo, where Ash allows them inside against Ripley's orders to follow the ship's quarantine protocol. They unsuccessfully attempt to remove the creature from Kane's face, discovering that its blood is an extremely corrosive acid. Eventually the creature detaches on its own and is found dead. With the ship repaired, the crew resume their trip back to Earth.Kane awakens seemingly unharmed, but during a meal before re-entering stasis he begins to choke and convulse until an alien creature bursts from his chest, killing him and escaping into the ship. Lacking conventional weapons, the crew attempt to locate and capture the creature by fashioning motion trackers, electric prods, and flamethrowers. Brett follows the crew's cat into a large room where the now-fully-grown Alien attacks him and disappears with his body into the ship's air shafts. Dallas enters the shafts intending to force the Alien into an airlock where it can be expelled into space, but it ambushes him. Lambert implores the remaining crew members to escape in the ship's shuttle, but Ripley, now in command, explains that the shuttle will not support four people.Accessing the ship's computer, Ripley discovers that Ash has been ordered to return the Alien to the Nostromo's corporate employers even at the expense of the crew's lives. Ash attacks her, but Parker intervenes and decapitates him with a blow from a fire extinguisher, revealing Ash to be an android. Before Parker incinerates him, Ash predicts that the other crew members will not survive. The remaining three crew members plan to arm the Nostromo's self-destruct mechanism and escape in the shuttle, but Parker and Lambert are killed by the Alien while gathering the necessary supplies. Ripley initiates the self-destruct sequence and heads for the shuttle with the cat, but finds the Alien blocking her way. She unsuccessfully attempts to abort the self-destruct, then returns to find the Alien gone and narrowly escapes in the shuttle as the Nostromo explodes.As she prepares to enter stasis, Ripley discovers that the Alien is aboard the shuttle. She puts on a space suit and opens the hatch, causing explosive decompression which forces the Alien to the open doorway. She shoots it with a grappling gun which propels it out, but the gun is yanked from her hands and catches in the closing door, tethering the Alien to the shuttle. It attempts to crawl into one of the engines, but Ripley activates them and blasts the Alien into space. She then puts herself and the cat into stasis for the return trip to Earth.
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 masterpiece, Foster has his work cut out and the result is only partially successful. The book starts off pretty poorly, with way too long spent on technical detail and having the crew landing their craft. Things pick up with the visit to the alien planet, a setting which allows for plenty of eerie vistas, and once we get back on board the Nostromo it really kicks off.The novel as a whole is a mixed bag. Some parts work better than the movie, but as a whole the movie's better. Characterisation is thinly sketched here, and people like Parker and Brett end up being more likeable than Ripley. The horror is very diluted, lacking the visceral edge the film possesses. There are various changes and differences along the way, including the extra scenes of Ripley stumbling upon Dallas, scenes which movie-goers were denied for many years until the director's cut finally came out. ALIEN isn't a bad book but the movie is so, so much better.
What do You think about Alien (1979)?
Si pensaban que es el libro en el que se basaron para la película me temo que estan equivocados, realmente este libro es una novelización de la famosa película de Ridley Scott, de la cual existen 3 secuelas y una precuela y es una de mis películas favoritas dicho sea de paso.El libro se publico el mismo año que la película (1979), si bien es cierto las novelizaciones tienen muy mala fama ya que es muy difícil dotar a un libro del mismo interés que despierta la película este caso es sin duda la excepción a la regla. El autor Alan Dean Foster, ha realizado la novelización de varias películas (incluyendo las tres primeras de Alien) y tiene en su curriculum varios libros de fantasía y ciencia ficción, además de escribir guiones para series y películas.Una muy buena novela que te permite conocer a detalle a los tripulantes del U.S.C.S.S. Nostromo; sin duda sus personalidades estan muy bien reflejadas, incluso mucho mejor de lo que la película pudiera mostrarnos y eso me permitió entender mejor el porque reaccionaban de determinada forma.Creo que la única pega que le pongo, es que el Alien ya desarrollado no es reflejado como tal; es decir, la descripción difícilmente hace que uno se imagine la cabeza enorme y curva, ni menciona la doble boca tan característica, pero omitiendo esto la verdad es que cumple muy bien.De hecho debo decir que incluso la nave la considere mas claustrofóbica, el estrés y tensión de la situación se conserva e incluso se incrementa por momentos. La verdad es que es una muy buena novela y si eres fan de las películas la puedes disfrutar incluso aunque ya sepas lo que va a pasar; si no eres fan y te interesa conocer la historia pero te da miedo ver las películas sin duda disfrutaras este libro.
—Jessica
A wonderful Sci-Fi-thriller book! I enjoyed every bit of it! A cosmic tug the Nostromo is sent to analyze a distress SOS signal from the unknown planet. Seven crew members including a warrant officer Ripley landed on that planet to investigate the signal. They found the alien space ship. They went inside it and found egg shaped barrels. Kane bent on one of them. The small creature jumped from the barrel right to the Kane’s suit helmet and glued himself to the Kane’s face. They brought him to the Nostromo. After some time the thing unlatched itself from his face. First they thought all is past. But no way, Nightmare not only for Kane but also for all the crew has just started! The hidden creature, growing inside Kane, run outside, emboweling him. They also learnt that it was not a SOS signal but a warning one to keep away from the alien ship they were just exploring …The creature rapidly grew to the man’s size. It’s now very powerful and cunning and learns fast. Ash who was a robot sent by the Company to spy on the crew and to protect the alien, tries to kill Ripley but Parker and Lambert helped her and killed Ash. One by one the alien brutally kills all the crew members Dallas, Lambert, Bert, Parker except Ripley. It became apparent there’s only one way to survive. To blow the Nostromo with the alien and run inside a shuttle. Ripley runs to the dock where the shuttle is in and they are launched from the Nastromo. It blasted to pieces! But the alien was already in the shuttle. Ripley opens the outer hatch and throws the alien to the open space.
—Nazim
I like it for personal reasons (the only ones I guess). I like sci-fi books that stay in space. Sending a ship from A to B, doing an 'Odyssey' type plot, is how I likes my sci-fi. Stopping at planets for a short time, but then getting back on the road instead of stopping at a planet for a long time, getting to know the aliens there, seeing how similar they are to humans ... blah. This is the reason why I love 'Hitchhiker's Guide..." so much. Very few sci-fi novels I've come across do this type of plot, and even fewer do them as comedies. Which is sad. There should be more Douglas Adams, RIP, not less. Why don't publishers allow these types of sci-fi novels to be published and bloom and be loved? They're obviously popular. (Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, etc) Maybe the publishers (and authors?) think the novel wont be taken as an erudite masterpiece if a ship jumps from planet to planet having fun, satirizing along the way? Dunno. A weak spine of a genre allows for only a certain serious, tragic, dramatic type of lit. Like Can Lit. We aren't taken seriously enough by the big boys (sci-fi dismissed by LIT lit), therefore we must write stories to make people think and cry. Laughter is only for the strong and sure of themselves. Blah.I also liked that this is one of the few novels that could be considered both sci-fi and horror. Maybe '2001: A Space Odyssey' could do that too, but this one definitely has a foot in both genres. More space horror!!End communication.
—Rob Bliss
