The Complete Alien Omnibus

Alien Movie Novelizations #1-3

by Alan Dean Foster

An omnibus edition of Alan Dean Foster's Alien science-fiction trilogy. While a computer guides their space tug, the crew of seven humans sleep - until scanners pick up a distress call from a remote dead planet. All the technology of the future cannot shield them from the nightmare of today.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Horror, Aliens, Film, Media Tie In, Novels

656 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Bestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946, but raised mainly in California. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1968, and a M.F.A. in 1969. Foster lives in Arizona with his wife, but he enjoys traveling because it gives him opportunities to meet new people and explore new places and cultures. This interest is carried over to his writing, but with a twist: the new places encountered in his books are likely to be on another planet, and the people may belong to an alien race.

Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux.

Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000.

Reviews

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Alien films so I was very happy when my boyfriend found this at a car boot last weekend!

Obviously, I already knew I liked the stories, and Ellen Ripley is probably my all time favourite movie character, but I was hoping for a bit more info / background on the plot and characters.

There really isn't much outside what happens in the films. Extra scenes and conversations are few and far between, and I wasn't impressed with the bits that are added. We do get to find out what Ripley is thinking, and it makes more of how the events are affecting her psychologically.

Saying that, some bits are made clearer - eg why the ship crashes in the final film.

The writing improved in each book, in the first one it's a bit overblown, and I felt like the author was trying too hard to be intelligent. By the last book, he's calmed down a lot and just gets on with telling a story. In fact, Alien 3 is my least favourite of the movies (let's pretend 4 never happened), but actually it makes the best book. Though I will never approve of the Alien franchise's habit of killing major characters off between films.

Is this for you? Well, if you love the movies and are happy just reading them in book form then go for it, but if you're after more insights into the Alien world, then this will just disappoint you.

[Jonathan Ammon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never seen any of the original ALIEN trilogy films. ALIEN is a classic story and a genuinely good novel. Alan Dean Foster overperforms for film novelizations, and while adapting a screenplay usually demands more exposition (as the author is not free to change dialogue and scenes), Foster manages it with some art. ALIENS is also a good novelization, but like many 80s/90s action movies features a final act of exhuasting action set pieces and false endings. It's the most complex, but least interesting novel of the three. ALIEN3 is a surprisingly good story. It has some serious mis-steps, egregiously undoing the ending of the second story, but thematically there are a number of interesting things going on (male-female, death-rebirth, choosing to live a good life/die a good death, faith and unbelief, beowulf, capitalism/communalism, crime and punishment). It's an almost archetypal story, and the final act is surprisingly strong and emotional. It has its eyerolling moments and the screenplay would have benefited from revision but it makes for a good if imperfect novel.

[Dinuka Fernando · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of the Alien franchise and since I've watched all the movies several times over I didn't really feel like reading this book. However fate would have it that I borrow this book from a friend and get into it and boy am I ever glad I did.
This trilogy is heaps better than the movies because it goes into details that probably wouldn't have worked on screen. If you're a fan of the franchise pick this up now, if not this is still a very decent read and comes highly recommended.

[Juan Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading the first novel I was surprised by the small changes that affect who the characters are. The second felt like I was rewatching the movie while the third was better than the movie it was based on.

[Bookbear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read, written in a good style, very close to the movies. Interesting enough, I like the third book a lot better than the third movie, which tells me, it's not the story that bugs me, it's the filming. I always have a hard time with the third movie.

[Joe Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fine - just watch the film though

[Suden Käpälä · Rating 5 out of 5]

Because I didn't have a review yet for this omnibus (which I actually read, instead of the loose novelizations), I decided to 'grace' it with a link to my reaction (23.07.13) to Sam’s review of Alien3. (Find my actual review here; it spans all 3 novels that ADF wrote to tie in w/ the initial films.)

(For my own archival purposes, I've pasted the full text of my comment in the following 'spoiler' field.)


There might've been a fan edit and/or another director's cut of the film. (ATM I'm not sure which I viewed; I could find out, later*. It was may very well be the Assembly Cut you mention.) I found this refurbishment to have an enormously positive impact on the final product. (In a similar fashion to the Director's Edition of Star Trek I: The Motion Picture!)
Which version have you seen? It may be worth it, to check out the other one(s). (Well... If you've seen the more/most recent cut(s) already, it may not be worth so much of your time to go back to the theatrical version. YMMV.)

In the end, I absolutely agree with the order you rate the four films in -- but I also agree with your friend; the Fiorina 161 episode is not that bad, at all. (Certainly not the version I've last watched.)

In any case -- regarding the novel, I really adored ADF's writing. (I even ended up buying one of his originals, Cat-A-Lyst, afterwards.) It was a very long time ago (so I may change my opinion, were I to ever read my omnibus again), but I do remember that I found the descriptions and writing style to be of very high quality -- especially for a novelization.

PS: "[...] composer Elliot Goldenthal only had a single night to create a new piece of music[...]"; I never knew/noticed this! I have a foggy memory, but I do remember, as a kid, lying in bed one night when I had just received Mr Elliot's score of Alien3. I had to listen to it on tape, via my walkman, b/c the only CD player in da house was in the living room. (Luckily, that would soon change!) I was very impressed, if also a bit depressed, by Goldenthal's Adagio. I had an equipment-heavy friend record the actual end credits of my VHS tape on the tape as well, because it is a very nice medley of 4 cues spread throughout the score album. I loved the music, but more so than those of the other 2 films (at the time), this one also made me feel uneasy. Which was one of the first surprisingly "pleasant-because-unpleasant" encounters I had with the power of music.
So, while I have strong memories about this soundtrack, "I've learnt something today" (as certain cartoon kids would say). :-)

Nice, that you also seem to be interested in mentioning film scores in your book reviews. I also do that! I tend to listen to them while reading a related novel.

(*: Edit; I checked, and my positive experiences proved to have been with the Assembly cut. I left my original doubts in-line, for the record; and for my own archival purposes.)

[N · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay this is a going to be a completely short review because I generally don't have much to say about this book. All I'm saying is that I definitely prefer the movie to it, and I am not just referring to Alien, I mean the whole three "books" that are contained in this volume.

I think that because I felt the movie versions were a far more superior and effective medium, the books kind of fell flat in pretty much everything. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Alan Dean Foster's writing (I thought it was okay) and I did enjoy this to some degree; but because this was just a straight up word format of the movies - a lot of what made the movies so good, such as the gruesome imagery, suspense, atmosphere and eerie tones to the movies (especially Alien) just fell flat for me. Maybe I just feel this way because I react/prefer a visual stimuli, I don't know.

Overall, it wasn't that bad of a book - but I do definitely recommend everyone to just go watch the movies because they are much better. Well except Alien 3 and especially Alien Resurrection...

[Gav Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In space no one can here you scream

[Marcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Works rather well in book form.

[W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just enjoyable.

[Kent Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foster adds a lot of depth to his film novelizations. And I liked that the Aliens one didn't have all of the profanity from the film. Oddly though, Alien 3 did.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are the novelizations of the three main Alien films written 1979, 1986 & 1992 respectively. They are standard adventure novel fare following quite closely the film plots. This isn't classic literature but is nonetheless classic SiFi. ADF is clearly very good at pacing and jeopardy. These 3 novels work well together and read in one go perhaps more seamlessly produce a continuity of story for Ripley.

Alien is one of my favourite films and the book(s) are a nice set to complement things.

[Kain · Rating 5 out of 5]

The nostalgia! Although there were obviously differences between the book and the film they were very small and slight differences and I still really enjoyed reading the book as this series was a favourite of mine.

[Paz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Muy lento

[Robert Allan Wragg]

Not as good as the film

[Rob Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three solid easy read novelisations of the first three Alien films.

[Orkhiroz · Rating 3 out of 5]

★3,167

Alien (dibaca Juni 2024)
★2
Aliens (dibaca Juni 2024)
★4
Alien3 (dibaca Agustus 2024)
★3,5

Masing-masing ulasan ada di Goodreads versi buku satuan.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just about the perfect thing for all you massive fans of the franchise...like me!

[Edward Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to find a copy of this book that was only to be sold in the UK (there is a note on the back that reads "not for sale in the US or Canada) and can tell you that I have no idea what the differences are between the editions. Regardless, this is the magnum opus of science-fiction horror in my mind.

1. Alien: 11 stars
2. Aliens: 8 stars
3. Alien: 5 stars

Each of these is what is referred to as the "director's cut" and includes things not set in the original theatrical releases of the movies. Things like the transformations of Dallas and Brett in Alien, the Sentry guns of Aliens, and the original xenomorph's host creature in Alien 3 are all here for your nightmarish pleasures.

[Nunya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book which has caused me to say I really liked Alien 3, when I get confused between the novelisation and the film. A lot goes on in the book that left me disappointed when I finally saw the film (I actually read this omnibus when I was 13 or 14, before I saw any of the films). I still get confused though. The pictures this book created in my mind were very vivid

Someone else in these reviews described it as "the directors cut" of the films. That's an excellent way of putting it.

[Stephan · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not a bad book at all, I'd still recommend the films over this one any day. Maybe except for Alien3.
They are fairly well written, all of them, but there's also a lot of odd pieces. Like the Alien and the facehugger from the first novel/film having a visible big eye.
If you've enjoyed the films, then please, by all means read this, but don't expect it to be better, just different.

[Robert Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alien, Aliens and Alien3; the original trilogy of movies rendered into words. Just as scary, just as exciting, just as visceral and just the kind of thing that made us want more and more of these cute, cuddly aliens. Excellence in print.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know, I know. But they were actually pretty good.

[nooker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essentially the directors cuts of the movies. Well written.

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Dean Foster's novelisation of the first three movies is brilliant. You wouldn't expect much, but he slips in the kind of extraneous details that film is never able to express.

[Johan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I stopped reading halfway through the second book. The movies are much better.