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William Gibson's Alien 3
Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay by William Gibson
The first-draft Alien screenplay by William Gibson, the founder of cyberpunk, turned into a novel by Pat Cadigan, the Hugo Award-Winning “Queen of Cyberpunk.”
William Gibson’s never-before-adapted screenplay for the direct sequel to Aliens, revealing the fates of Ripley, Newt, the synthetic Bishop, and Corporal Hicks. When the Colonial Marines vessel Sulaco docks with space station and military installation Anchorpoint, a new form of Xenomorph appears. Written by Hugo Award-winning novelist and “Queen of Cyberpunk” Pat Cadigan, based on Gibson’s never-produced first draft. The Sulaco—on its return journey from LV-426—enters a sector controlled by the “Union of Progressive Peoples,” a nation-state engaged in an ongoing cold war and arms race. U.P.P. personnel board the Sulaco and find hypersleep tubes with Ripley, Newt, and an injured Hicks. A Facehugger attacks the lead commando, and the others narrowly escape, taking what remains of Bishop with them. The Sulaco continues to Anchorpoint, a space station and military installation the size of a small moon, where it falls under control of the military’s Weapons Division. Boarding the Sulaco, a team of Colonial Marines and scientists is assaulted by a pair of Xenomorph drones. In the fight Ripley's cryotube is badly damaged. It’s taken aboard Anchorpoint, where Ripley is kept comatose. Newt and an injured Corporal Hicks are awakened, and Newt is sent to Gateway Station on the way to Earth. The U.P.P. sends Bishop to Anchorpoint, where Hicks begins to hear rumors of experimentation—the cloning and genetic modification of Xenomorphs. The kind of experimentation that could yield a monstrous hybrid, and perhaps even a Queen.ALIEN 3 TM & © Twentieth Century Films. All rights reserved.
277 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 31, 2021
262 people are currently reading
1247 people want to read
About the author
Pat Cadigan
263 books435 followersPat Cadigan is an American-born science fiction author, who broke through as a major writer as part of the cyberpunk movement. Her early novels and stories all shared a common theme, exploring the relationship between the human mind and technology.
Her first novel, Mindplayers, introduced what became a common theme to all her works. Her stories blurred the line between reality and perception by making the human mind a real and explorable place. Her second novel, Synners, expanded upon the same theme, and featured a future where direct access to the mind via technology was in fact possible.
She has won a number of awards, including the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award twice,in 1992, and 1995 for her novels Synners and Fools.
She currently lives in London, England with her family.
Her first novel, Mindplayers, introduced what became a common theme to all her works. Her stories blurred the line between reality and perception by making the human mind a real and explorable place. Her second novel, Synners, expanded upon the same theme, and featured a future where direct access to the mind via technology was in fact possible.
She has won a number of awards, including the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award twice,in 1992, and 1995 for her novels Synners and Fools.
She currently lives in London, England with her family.
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September 26, 2021
“It’s a Darwinist universe,” Bishop said after a moment. “Will humanity be the ultimate survivor? Or will it be the aliens?”
What the hell happened to Jonesy? I know Ripley took the cat with her into the hibernation pod at the end of the original ‘Alien’, but I have no memory of what happened to the feline in ‘Aliens’. Pat Cadigan pokes fun at Ripley by describing her as the “mad cat lady” who fixated on rescuing Jonesy after the rest of her crew had been wiped out, but offers no clues as to what happened to the moggy next.
Actually, if the key differentiator of this novelisation of an alternative version of ‘Alien 3’ (yes, it is a long dark rabbit [or alien] hole of a book we have here) focuses on what happens when the remains of Bishop become infected, adding robot-like characteristics to the already formidable xenomorphs, then it would have made sense if Jonesy had fallen prey. Now that would have made for an unstoppable monster!
Indeed, one of the weirdest scenes in this book – and there is, indeed, a rich plethora of inspired madness to choose from here – is the aliens infecting the lemur population in a park zone on the Anchorpoint space station … and ending up with striped tails when the aliens are fully mature.
Apparently, Gibson produced two ‘Alien 3’ scripts, one adapted into a graphic novel and audiobook, and the first one now novelised by Pat Cadigan, who if I recall was the only woman writer in the original ‘Mirrorshades’ cyberpunk anthology. (I had no idea Cadigan is married to horror writer Christopher Fowler, or that she survived a two-year terminal cancer diagnosis in 2014 … one deadline she was happy to miss, she says.)
Gibson’s screenplay(s) have since become an apocryphal part of ‘Alien’ lore, heralded as a lost opportunity to have saved the franchise after the disaster that was David Fincher’s ‘Alien 3’ (though I have to suggest that ‘Alien Resurrection’ is even more of a shaggy dog alien story than its much-maligned predecessor.)
And if you compare this book, which is like ‘Aliens’ by James Cameron but on speed (and probably a lot of other drugs), to the general dour tone and lack of originality in ‘Alien 3’, which was by no means Fincher’s fault, one is reminded of Robert Frost’s immortal poem ‘The Road Not Taken’.
As far as I can recall, Sigourney Weaver was reluctant to reappear as Ripley again (‘Aliens’ was released in 1986 and ‘Alien 3’ in 1992) due to fear of being typecast, so William Gibson was commissioned to write a draft that minimised Ripley’s presence. Exactly why the powers that be thought Gibson was an ideal fit for this material is another one of those head-scratching moments that seem to litter the long and tortuous history of the franchise. Gibson is not exactly a mainstream writer, especially in a genre that prides itself on ignoring the mainstream anyway.
There are lots of clever ideas and details in Cadigan’s novelisation, but I suppose the issue is how these would have translated to the big screen. And then there is the question of budget; I suspect the ending as presented here, as thrilling and as effective as it is, would have had the studio accountants foaming at the mouth as if they had just been released by a face hugger.
For me, the best idea in the book – and this is not a spoiler, as it is in the marketing material – is that the ‘Sulaco’ makes two stops after the aborted mission on LV-426. The first is in the Union of Progressive Peoples, who are in a state of cold war with the decadent capitalists and soulless bureaucrats of Weyland-Yutani, the eponymous Company (and military-industrial-political complex that has become such a trope in modern ‘polysci’ SF.)
The UPP nick the remains of poor Bishop and quickly stumble on the fact that the Artificial Person (a term they soundly deride, as a machine is a machine is a machine) is infected with … something. Meanwhile, a squad of marines is casually wiped out by … something when the ‘Sulaco’ eventually makes its way to the W-Y space station called Anchorpoint. From this point on, the action switches between the Rodina space station in the UPP, and their bumbling efforts to contain the alien invasion and slaughter, and Anchorpoint, and its equally bumbling efforts – except they have bigger guns – to neutralise the xenomorphs.
By this stage, of course, the aliens have had plenty of opportunities to adapt and evolve in some really fascinating ways (I wonder if Sir Ridley Scott read the original Gibson screenplays at some stage, because some of the latter’s more prescient ideas and conclusions definitely filtered through to ‘Covenant’ and ‘Prometheus’).
As for the Ripley issue, Gibson/Cadigan simply has Hicks bundle her (she never regains unconscious after the ‘Sulaco’) and Newt into a lifeboat and sends them on their merry way to Gateway, which as I understand it is a stopping point on the way to Earth. The ending is a clear set-up for ‘Alien 4’, with the suggestion that the only way that W-Y and indeed humanity can survive is to find the aliens’ home world and destroy them at their source. And we still don’t know how that one turned out, despite Scott dabbling in the franchise again and then apparently giving up to make truly weird shit like ‘Raised By Wolves’.
Interestingly, the novels inspired by the ‘Alien’ franchise – if you look for Alien / Covenant / Prometheus on Goodreads, it lists 100 primary works – have remained surprisingly resilient and adaptive in, er, fleshing out this universe. Even the ‘Alien vs. Predator’ novels have their moments. Alex White is the latest writer to play in the xenomorph sandbox, with ‘The Cold Forge’ and ‘Into Charybdis’.
I suppose the question is whether or not we need any more ‘Alien’ movies? Given the impact of Covid-19 on cinema specifically and the arts more broadly, a Netflix tv show is probably the most cost-effective and realistic option right now. If you look at other major SF franchises like ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Star Trek’, both have made a highly successful transition to the small screen. Heck, there is even talk of an HBO ‘Dune’ series focusing on the Bene Gesserit. Now wouldn’t it be cool if they throw a xenomorph into that particular spice pot!?
What the hell happened to Jonesy? I know Ripley took the cat with her into the hibernation pod at the end of the original ‘Alien’, but I have no memory of what happened to the feline in ‘Aliens’. Pat Cadigan pokes fun at Ripley by describing her as the “mad cat lady” who fixated on rescuing Jonesy after the rest of her crew had been wiped out, but offers no clues as to what happened to the moggy next.
Actually, if the key differentiator of this novelisation of an alternative version of ‘Alien 3’ (yes, it is a long dark rabbit [or alien] hole of a book we have here) focuses on what happens when the remains of Bishop become infected, adding robot-like characteristics to the already formidable xenomorphs, then it would have made sense if Jonesy had fallen prey. Now that would have made for an unstoppable monster!
Indeed, one of the weirdest scenes in this book – and there is, indeed, a rich plethora of inspired madness to choose from here – is the aliens infecting the lemur population in a park zone on the Anchorpoint space station … and ending up with striped tails when the aliens are fully mature.
Apparently, Gibson produced two ‘Alien 3’ scripts, one adapted into a graphic novel and audiobook, and the first one now novelised by Pat Cadigan, who if I recall was the only woman writer in the original ‘Mirrorshades’ cyberpunk anthology. (I had no idea Cadigan is married to horror writer Christopher Fowler, or that she survived a two-year terminal cancer diagnosis in 2014 … one deadline she was happy to miss, she says.)
Gibson’s screenplay(s) have since become an apocryphal part of ‘Alien’ lore, heralded as a lost opportunity to have saved the franchise after the disaster that was David Fincher’s ‘Alien 3’ (though I have to suggest that ‘Alien Resurrection’ is even more of a shaggy dog alien story than its much-maligned predecessor.)
And if you compare this book, which is like ‘Aliens’ by James Cameron but on speed (and probably a lot of other drugs), to the general dour tone and lack of originality in ‘Alien 3’, which was by no means Fincher’s fault, one is reminded of Robert Frost’s immortal poem ‘The Road Not Taken’.
As far as I can recall, Sigourney Weaver was reluctant to reappear as Ripley again (‘Aliens’ was released in 1986 and ‘Alien 3’ in 1992) due to fear of being typecast, so William Gibson was commissioned to write a draft that minimised Ripley’s presence. Exactly why the powers that be thought Gibson was an ideal fit for this material is another one of those head-scratching moments that seem to litter the long and tortuous history of the franchise. Gibson is not exactly a mainstream writer, especially in a genre that prides itself on ignoring the mainstream anyway.
There are lots of clever ideas and details in Cadigan’s novelisation, but I suppose the issue is how these would have translated to the big screen. And then there is the question of budget; I suspect the ending as presented here, as thrilling and as effective as it is, would have had the studio accountants foaming at the mouth as if they had just been released by a face hugger.
For me, the best idea in the book – and this is not a spoiler, as it is in the marketing material – is that the ‘Sulaco’ makes two stops after the aborted mission on LV-426. The first is in the Union of Progressive Peoples, who are in a state of cold war with the decadent capitalists and soulless bureaucrats of Weyland-Yutani, the eponymous Company (and military-industrial-political complex that has become such a trope in modern ‘polysci’ SF.)
The UPP nick the remains of poor Bishop and quickly stumble on the fact that the Artificial Person (a term they soundly deride, as a machine is a machine is a machine) is infected with … something. Meanwhile, a squad of marines is casually wiped out by … something when the ‘Sulaco’ eventually makes its way to the W-Y space station called Anchorpoint. From this point on, the action switches between the Rodina space station in the UPP, and their bumbling efforts to contain the alien invasion and slaughter, and Anchorpoint, and its equally bumbling efforts – except they have bigger guns – to neutralise the xenomorphs.
By this stage, of course, the aliens have had plenty of opportunities to adapt and evolve in some really fascinating ways (I wonder if Sir Ridley Scott read the original Gibson screenplays at some stage, because some of the latter’s more prescient ideas and conclusions definitely filtered through to ‘Covenant’ and ‘Prometheus’).
As for the Ripley issue, Gibson/Cadigan simply has Hicks bundle her (she never regains unconscious after the ‘Sulaco’) and Newt into a lifeboat and sends them on their merry way to Gateway, which as I understand it is a stopping point on the way to Earth. The ending is a clear set-up for ‘Alien 4’, with the suggestion that the only way that W-Y and indeed humanity can survive is to find the aliens’ home world and destroy them at their source. And we still don’t know how that one turned out, despite Scott dabbling in the franchise again and then apparently giving up to make truly weird shit like ‘Raised By Wolves’.
Interestingly, the novels inspired by the ‘Alien’ franchise – if you look for Alien / Covenant / Prometheus on Goodreads, it lists 100 primary works – have remained surprisingly resilient and adaptive in, er, fleshing out this universe. Even the ‘Alien vs. Predator’ novels have their moments. Alex White is the latest writer to play in the xenomorph sandbox, with ‘The Cold Forge’ and ‘Into Charybdis’.
I suppose the question is whether or not we need any more ‘Alien’ movies? Given the impact of Covid-19 on cinema specifically and the arts more broadly, a Netflix tv show is probably the most cost-effective and realistic option right now. If you look at other major SF franchises like ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Star Trek’, both have made a highly successful transition to the small screen. Heck, there is even talk of an HBO ‘Dune’ series focusing on the Bene Gesserit. Now wouldn’t it be cool if they throw a xenomorph into that particular spice pot!?
January 16, 2022
This is a thoroughly hard writing gig for any writer, let alone an experienced one like Pat Cadigan. I love William Gibson with all my reading-heart, but not all of his ideas for Alien 3 were great. Most notably, a new, violent way for the xenomorphs to replicate. It just feels unnecessary, and it's quite silly. The xenomorphs already have an ungainly reproduction cycle as it is, Gibson doesn't make it smoother. He also leans in on the idea that the xenomorphs are biological weapons, which has become canonical in the Alien universe, and dear reader, I don't like it!
The alien=weapon idea takes away so much of the mystery surrounding the creature, and makes it less frightening. Two 'that said's to add to that - I'll give Gibson a pass on using that idea, as he wrote his script in 1987, and secondly, some of his ideas seem to connect with the canonical 'black goo' from Riddles Scott's later films.
The novelisation has problems. It picks up right after Aliens, and the Sulaco is found by an interesting anarcho-communist space colony, who take the halved android Bishop', get jumped on by xenomorphs, and find his files on the aliens and what happened in Aliens. They then send the Sulaco on its way, sans Bishop for now. The Sulaco is found for a second time, by Anchorpoint station. This is where most of the action will take place.
And that feels like such a missed chance! The idea of an Alien film inside the Union of Progressive Peoples nation-state sounds so much more interesting! But we get Anchorpoint, and colonial marines, and Ripley and Newt get shipped off the station, they barely play a part in the book, and so we have Hicks as a main character, and Bishop as a prominent side character. And a lot of other people that are going to die.
Bishop is a strange character. He is written as a "what.. is.. love" robot, which makes little sense to me. He keeps comparing himself to humans. He'll use a figure of speech, and then note to himself he is using one of those figures of speech humans like to use, but why would he think like that? I find it hard to believe he has been programmed to speak, but without knowledge of figures of speech. And even if he has learned them over time, their just part of human speech, which he already knows. He already speaks like humans speak, and doesn't wonder about that. OH ALRIGHT, I'm going to let this go before I give myself an aneurysm.
Overal, Pat Cadigan's writing is smooth, and the book is made up of a lot of small chapters. Cadigan isn't a horror writer - her writing isn't very atmospheric, and worse, it's missing the visceralness you need for an Alien novel. We have to see, hear, smell and feel the horror. Her descriptions are too flat, too matter of fact.
There are a lot of characters, and I wish Gibson had chosen Bishop as his main character. Hicks gets a lot of little flashbacks to Aliens, lots of lines quoted from that movie, and I'm not sure what that's supposed to add. Surely people who read this book will have seen Aliens..? What does it add to Hicks' (flat) characterisation? A few times a character from Aliens will step out of his memories, and say something new - that's pretty cheesy, but at least it adds something.
This was still a time where basically every Alien story had to end the same way, and of course this book is no exception. Still a little bit disappointing, mr. Gibson.
I'd say this book is a curiosity for the more ardent Alien fan. Go in with low expectations, and you'll get the most out of it.
(Thanks to Titan Books for providing me with a review copy through NetGalley)
The alien=weapon idea takes away so much of the mystery surrounding the creature, and makes it less frightening. Two 'that said's to add to that - I'll give Gibson a pass on using that idea, as he wrote his script in 1987, and secondly, some of his ideas seem to connect with the canonical 'black goo' from Riddles Scott's later films.
The novelisation has problems. It picks up right after Aliens, and the Sulaco is found by an interesting anarcho-communist space colony, who take the halved android Bishop', get jumped on by xenomorphs, and find his files on the aliens and what happened in Aliens. They then send the Sulaco on its way, sans Bishop for now. The Sulaco is found for a second time, by Anchorpoint station. This is where most of the action will take place.
And that feels like such a missed chance! The idea of an Alien film inside the Union of Progressive Peoples nation-state sounds so much more interesting! But we get Anchorpoint, and colonial marines, and Ripley and Newt get shipped off the station, they barely play a part in the book, and so we have Hicks as a main character, and Bishop as a prominent side character. And a lot of other people that are going to die.
Bishop is a strange character. He is written as a "what.. is.. love" robot, which makes little sense to me. He keeps comparing himself to humans. He'll use a figure of speech, and then note to himself he is using one of those figures of speech humans like to use, but why would he think like that? I find it hard to believe he has been programmed to speak, but without knowledge of figures of speech. And even if he has learned them over time, their just part of human speech, which he already knows. He already speaks like humans speak, and doesn't wonder about that. OH ALRIGHT, I'm going to let this go before I give myself an aneurysm.
Overal, Pat Cadigan's writing is smooth, and the book is made up of a lot of small chapters. Cadigan isn't a horror writer - her writing isn't very atmospheric, and worse, it's missing the visceralness you need for an Alien novel. We have to see, hear, smell and feel the horror. Her descriptions are too flat, too matter of fact.
There are a lot of characters, and I wish Gibson had chosen Bishop as his main character. Hicks gets a lot of little flashbacks to Aliens, lots of lines quoted from that movie, and I'm not sure what that's supposed to add. Surely people who read this book will have seen Aliens..? What does it add to Hicks' (flat) characterisation? A few times a character from Aliens will step out of his memories, and say something new - that's pretty cheesy, but at least it adds something.
This was still a time where basically every Alien story had to end the same way, and of course this book is no exception. Still a little bit disappointing, mr. Gibson.
I'd say this book is a curiosity for the more ardent Alien fan. Go in with low expectations, and you'll get the most out of it.
(Thanks to Titan Books for providing me with a review copy through NetGalley)
September 2, 2021
So yeah, I was so pumped up to read this that I queued up all the Alien movies in my mom’s Disney+ account. I then had a bit of a panic because I promised a hot date night to this girl I met on Tinder. After a few deep breaths, and a couple shots of whiskey, I was back at ease though. Chicks like aliens, right? I’ll just combine the two! So, I grabbed a couple Little Caesar’s Hot and Ready’s, a bag of gummy worms, and a twelver of Michelob Ultras (gotta watch the carbs bros) and was all set for a sick night!
She comes over and I’m pulling out all the moves like stacking two pieces of pizza on top of each other and calling it a calzone. She kinda laughed, but wasn’t eating much, must have eaten before she came over. After the chestburster scene, she excuses herself to go to the washroom. Turns out she just got up and left! After Alien finished, I went to check up on her in the bathroom and she wasn’t in there. Can you believe that dudes? Just bailed on me! Oh well, her loss, more gummy worms and couch space for me.
Anyways, I’m going to sugar coat this to keep this review kid friendly. The Alien 3 movie fucking sucked. So, it’s pretty sweet that it gets a shot at redemption here with this draft screenplay turned novel. It’s like when a boxer gets screwed over by the judges in the title bout and the fans are all booing and throwing beers in the ring. A while later he gets his rematch and totally destroys that guy. I’m the champ! *Aaron Rodgers belt-miming* Same thing here and we get a rad novel from two cyberpunk top dogs rather than a stitched-together nihilistic nothing-burger like the movie.
Yeah so, the Sulaco drifts off course into this soviet-esque socialist commune space territory with Ripley, Hicks, Bishop, and Newt still aboard in hypersleep. The Union of Progressive Peoples send in a boarding party to see what’s up and what they can steal. They take Bishop but get attacked by a facehugger in the process and bail. The Sulaco then continues to its destination which is this massive moon-sized space station called Anchorpoint. The boarding party there is fucked up by a stowaway alien which they do manage to kill. So now the UPP (commies) and the Weyland-Yutani (capitalists) have the alien bio-matter and are trying to weaponize it to get the edge in this cold war. Bro, it doesn’t take a genius to know how this one is going to end up.
The huge departure from the movies is that Ripley is sidelined. She’s in a coma is fired off in a lifeboat before all hell breaks loose. Hicks and Bishops know what’s going to go down and are trying to stop it before it’s too late. When it becomes too late, they’re trying to lead an escape while nuking the station to oblivion.
It is weird having Ripley completely absent and I can see why the story was kyboshed for the movie. Having Hicks as the main character was fine but it falls back into those tropes where the marine hero is here to save the day. OORAH! I much preferred the unassuming warrant officer who becomes this ultimate alien killing badass.
But yeah, the narration felt a little off-kilter for an Alien story. That said, the evolution of the aliens and how they infect was a great continuation of the Alien universe. A new breed of aliens in a larger habitat with the gore factor cranked up is most definitely a solid read.
Anyways, that’s about all I got. Adios amigos!
Oh wait, check out my rad site for more content like this: The SciFi Book Guy
She comes over and I’m pulling out all the moves like stacking two pieces of pizza on top of each other and calling it a calzone. She kinda laughed, but wasn’t eating much, must have eaten before she came over. After the chestburster scene, she excuses herself to go to the washroom. Turns out she just got up and left! After Alien finished, I went to check up on her in the bathroom and she wasn’t in there. Can you believe that dudes? Just bailed on me! Oh well, her loss, more gummy worms and couch space for me.
Anyways, I’m going to sugar coat this to keep this review kid friendly. The Alien 3 movie fucking sucked. So, it’s pretty sweet that it gets a shot at redemption here with this draft screenplay turned novel. It’s like when a boxer gets screwed over by the judges in the title bout and the fans are all booing and throwing beers in the ring. A while later he gets his rematch and totally destroys that guy. I’m the champ! *Aaron Rodgers belt-miming* Same thing here and we get a rad novel from two cyberpunk top dogs rather than a stitched-together nihilistic nothing-burger like the movie.
Yeah so, the Sulaco drifts off course into this soviet-esque socialist commune space territory with Ripley, Hicks, Bishop, and Newt still aboard in hypersleep. The Union of Progressive Peoples send in a boarding party to see what’s up and what they can steal. They take Bishop but get attacked by a facehugger in the process and bail. The Sulaco then continues to its destination which is this massive moon-sized space station called Anchorpoint. The boarding party there is fucked up by a stowaway alien which they do manage to kill. So now the UPP (commies) and the Weyland-Yutani (capitalists) have the alien bio-matter and are trying to weaponize it to get the edge in this cold war. Bro, it doesn’t take a genius to know how this one is going to end up.
The huge departure from the movies is that Ripley is sidelined. She’s in a coma is fired off in a lifeboat before all hell breaks loose. Hicks and Bishops know what’s going to go down and are trying to stop it before it’s too late. When it becomes too late, they’re trying to lead an escape while nuking the station to oblivion.
It is weird having Ripley completely absent and I can see why the story was kyboshed for the movie. Having Hicks as the main character was fine but it falls back into those tropes where the marine hero is here to save the day. OORAH! I much preferred the unassuming warrant officer who becomes this ultimate alien killing badass.
But yeah, the narration felt a little off-kilter for an Alien story. That said, the evolution of the aliens and how they infect was a great continuation of the Alien universe. A new breed of aliens in a larger habitat with the gore factor cranked up is most definitely a solid read.
Anyways, that’s about all I got. Adios amigos!
Oh wait, check out my rad site for more content like this: The SciFi Book Guy
September 7, 2021
I'm going to play a little game here.
We all know this isn't the official take on the Aliens universe bible, because the xenomorphs get a massive upgrade in their danger level, going way beyond the life cycle that we've come to know and love. It's more along the lines of Prometheus and it explores just how nasty things could really get.
I'd call it the real Aliens 3 if I could get away with it. It increases at the same rate that Alien became Aliens, and not going backward like the movie we actually got.
In this original screenplay, written in the '80s by William Gibson and later given the novelization treatment here by Pat Cadigan, we even get the wonderful continuation of Hicks and Bishop and Newt. They weren't just killed off. Ripley is kinda missing, but we're dealing with a believability factor that the Aliens 3 movie also had to deal with.
On the other hand, scale and scope and delicious destruction and widespread world-collapse IS something that we can all get excited about. It's the reason why we keep going after the Aliens franchise novels, always hoping that they would break out of the formula mode and generally always being disappointed.
So. If we assumed that this original story WOULD have become the standard, avoiding all the subsequent cash-grabs, BUT also fitting, wonderfully so, with the Prometheus prequel, then I think most Aliens fans will fall over dead or start popping or something.
If you're a fan of the formula without any risk-taking, then I don't really recommend this novel. If you like all the basic premises, the action ramp-up, AND like playing around with the core ideas in a really freakishly horrible twist, then I totally recommend this novel.
It's a natural progression of claustrophobic horror and action film, adding a scouring take-down of both capitalism and communism. It even takes it much further than Aliens 4 with all the genetic weirdness. Indeed, it establishes that weirdness and just flies with it.
But then, I'm a big fan of alternate realities, even if it's an alternate reality of a fictional universe, so take what I say with a grain of xenomorph. :)
We all know this isn't the official take on the Aliens universe bible, because the xenomorphs get a massive upgrade in their danger level, going way beyond the life cycle that we've come to know and love. It's more along the lines of Prometheus and it explores just how nasty things could really get.
I'd call it the real Aliens 3 if I could get away with it. It increases at the same rate that Alien became Aliens, and not going backward like the movie we actually got.
In this original screenplay, written in the '80s by William Gibson and later given the novelization treatment here by Pat Cadigan, we even get the wonderful continuation of Hicks and Bishop and Newt. They weren't just killed off. Ripley is kinda missing, but we're dealing with a believability factor that the Aliens 3 movie also had to deal with.
On the other hand, scale and scope and delicious destruction and widespread world-collapse IS something that we can all get excited about. It's the reason why we keep going after the Aliens franchise novels, always hoping that they would break out of the formula mode and generally always being disappointed.
So. If we assumed that this original story WOULD have become the standard, avoiding all the subsequent cash-grabs, BUT also fitting, wonderfully so, with the Prometheus prequel, then I think most Aliens fans will fall over dead or start popping or something.
If you're a fan of the formula without any risk-taking, then I don't really recommend this novel. If you like all the basic premises, the action ramp-up, AND like playing around with the core ideas in a really freakishly horrible twist, then I totally recommend this novel.
It's a natural progression of claustrophobic horror and action film, adding a scouring take-down of both capitalism and communism. It even takes it much further than Aliens 4 with all the genetic weirdness. Indeed, it establishes that weirdness and just flies with it.
But then, I'm a big fan of alternate realities, even if it's an alternate reality of a fictional universe, so take what I say with a grain of xenomorph. :)
March 17, 2024
So here is the first try for a sequel after James Cameron's Aliens movie which explored the actionside of the series where Ridley Scott's Alien was a horror scifi thriller. Reading this novel I found that perhaps Sigourney Weaver had decided not to return to the franchise as her part in the story is not existent. The main characters in this sequel are Bishop & Hicks.
Alien3 turned out to be a totally different beastie with Weaver returning to the franchise with the stipulation that Ripley did not survive the movie.
This Alien 3, first draft, is the four survivors in the Sulaco returning to the land of the living but of course they have some unwanted guests along the ride.
There is an attempt to board the Sulaco by another human faction who make off with half of Bishop and they find DNA of the Alien and go with it and the result is not surprising for the fans of this franchise.
When the Sulaco docks at the spacestation Anchorpoint Weyland- Yutani has already have experts ready to continue to weaponize the Aliens.
Hicks gets healed, New gets send home to her grandparents on Earth, Ripley gets put in a lifeboat and send of by Hicks. Bishop gets doenloaded ansd sampled and then send back to Anchorpoint station.
Of course all Alien havock break loose and once again humanity finds itself opposed by the perfect killing machine. Who seems to have found New ways of reproducing.
The story takes place on two spacestations and shows a new phase of development of the Alien.
A smoothly told story which would have taken a different direction for the franchise than the road called Ripley. Bishop &;Hicks make up great replacements for her and the story is both horrific and high adventure and the philosophy about the Alien is interesting and seems to have continued in Ridley Scotts Prometheus and Alien Covenant.
An interesting and great adventure worthy to the Alien franchise. Even if the story told could be considered an alternative timeline.
Alien3 turned out to be a totally different beastie with Weaver returning to the franchise with the stipulation that Ripley did not survive the movie.
This Alien 3, first draft, is the four survivors in the Sulaco returning to the land of the living but of course they have some unwanted guests along the ride.
There is an attempt to board the Sulaco by another human faction who make off with half of Bishop and they find DNA of the Alien and go with it and the result is not surprising for the fans of this franchise.
When the Sulaco docks at the spacestation Anchorpoint Weyland- Yutani has already have experts ready to continue to weaponize the Aliens.
Hicks gets healed, New gets send home to her grandparents on Earth, Ripley gets put in a lifeboat and send of by Hicks. Bishop gets doenloaded ansd sampled and then send back to Anchorpoint station.
Of course all Alien havock break loose and once again humanity finds itself opposed by the perfect killing machine. Who seems to have found New ways of reproducing.
The story takes place on two spacestations and shows a new phase of development of the Alien.
A smoothly told story which would have taken a different direction for the franchise than the road called Ripley. Bishop &;Hicks make up great replacements for her and the story is both horrific and high adventure and the philosophy about the Alien is interesting and seems to have continued in Ridley Scotts Prometheus and Alien Covenant.
An interesting and great adventure worthy to the Alien franchise. Even if the story told could be considered an alternative timeline.
May 17, 2022
This is actually horrible, poor writing meant to feed fan nostalgia without a thought given to providing a story that makes sense or is gripping.
Endless pandering.
I recovered my Goodreads account just to post this review, I hated it that much.
Endless pandering.
I recovered my Goodreads account just to post this review, I hated it that much.
December 26, 2022
An adaptation of the screenplay that would have been the third Alien film in the franchise. It seems a bit disappointing now, what with the character selection, but I wonder how it would be looked upon if it had actually been filmed? Would it be panned as much as the actual third film? Would it have led the franchise in a totally different direction? As it is, it’s an interesting curiosity and an entertaining what if.
April 9, 2023
I have a Worst Books I've Ever Read shelf here on Goodreads and this just earned a spot there. Which is unfortunate because I was excited and came in with high expectations. It's William Gibson meets Aliens, what could go wrong? Pat Cadigan apparently. The result is a mishmash ripoff of several good films (Aliens, The Thing... even The Poseidon Adventure) all wrapped up like a generic/lame survival horror game plus some embarrassingly hamfisted attempts at fan service. Basically every line of dialogue uttered in Aliens is going to be relived or repeated as if it were a catch phrase. Even the tagline for Alien (In Space No One Can Hear You Scream) is repeated a few times. It's like everybody in this book has watched Aliens way too many times even though logically that doesn't make sense.
Very little about this book makes sense though. I guess she was trying to come up with some new alien forms but they're just generic and stupid. The worst is that some people just turn into aliens.
It's never explained how or why some people turn like this and others don't as the plot needs them to or how this supposedly works. But basically people can now walk around normal until suddenly their skin rips off and there's a fully formed alien underneath. I guess nobody noticed turning into an alien with human skin around it. It made some sense in The Thing where it was ripped off from but not here. Nor does it add any paranoia as The Thing did so well, none of the characters seem to catch on to the fact or worry about who could be the next to turn or anything like that, it's just a dumb thing that happens a couple times.
As far as Gibson's input, besides the basic idea of a communist space station and a capitalist one I don't see much here that seems like his work. Nor does that really go anywhere either. It just so happens that these two stations have differing ideologies but it doesn't matter because their paths rarely cross. The bulk of this book is just, let's get from one end of this space station to the other and make our way past the tedious obstacles the author places in our path. It's like the novelization of a lame survival horror game, in other words idiotic and boring.
Bottom line, just watch Alien 3. Or read the novelization if you just need to read something that's Alien 3. What looked like the opportunity to replace a lackluster movie with a cool novelization was completely wasted. From the looks of the story they hadn't even planned on getting Sigourney back, or if they were she was only agreeing to being filmed in a coma. She's a non-character. The story is basically Bishop and Hicks (who are reduced to being boring/generic characters) babysitting a bunch of the authors straight-from-the-trope-barrel cast of new characters.
Very little about this book makes sense though. I guess she was trying to come up with some new alien forms but they're just generic and stupid. The worst is that some people just turn into aliens.
It's never explained how or why some people turn like this and others don't as the plot needs them to or how this supposedly works. But basically people can now walk around normal until suddenly their skin rips off and there's a fully formed alien underneath. I guess nobody noticed turning into an alien with human skin around it. It made some sense in The Thing where it was ripped off from but not here. Nor does it add any paranoia as The Thing did so well, none of the characters seem to catch on to the fact or worry about who could be the next to turn or anything like that, it's just a dumb thing that happens a couple times.
As far as Gibson's input, besides the basic idea of a communist space station and a capitalist one I don't see much here that seems like his work. Nor does that really go anywhere either. It just so happens that these two stations have differing ideologies but it doesn't matter because their paths rarely cross. The bulk of this book is just, let's get from one end of this space station to the other and make our way past the tedious obstacles the author places in our path. It's like the novelization of a lame survival horror game, in other words idiotic and boring.
Bottom line, just watch Alien 3. Or read the novelization if you just need to read something that's Alien 3. What looked like the opportunity to replace a lackluster movie with a cool novelization was completely wasted. From the looks of the story they hadn't even planned on getting Sigourney back, or if they were she was only agreeing to being filmed in a coma. She's a non-character. The story is basically Bishop and Hicks (who are reduced to being boring/generic characters) babysitting a bunch of the authors straight-from-the-trope-barrel cast of new characters.
May 15, 2024
This was a fun and nerdy deep dive. Remember with me if you will: You saw "Alien." It changed the game of space horror. Then you saw "Aliens." It changed the game of space action. You heard that Alien 3 was coming out! You can't wait to find out what happened to Ripley, Newt, and Hicks! It's directed by David Fincher! (Who wasn't really "David Fincher" yet, but whatever.) Surely this will be the greatest!
Well...it wasn't. It sucked. Hicks and Newt are killed off off-screen before the movie even starts. The budget was clearly very low. There were some cool visuals and it was fun to have Ripley back but...it definitely had "Superman 4: The Quest for Peace" vibes. How did they get this so wrong?
I recently discover this book which is an adaptation of the original screenplay for Alien 3. It was clearly written in case they couldn't get Sigourney Weaver back. But even though they got her back, I thought she could have been worked into this story easily.
Hicks and Newt wake up on a space station after floating for 4 years. Ripley can't wake up and doesn't. Newt is then sent back to Earth...and we never hear from her again. It really becomes the Hicks and Bishop show. Which is...fine. The action is cool and I like how the Aliens continue to evolve. This would have definitely been a better movie than what we got but would have cost more so I'm sure that's why it was scrapped. A shame.
Well...it wasn't. It sucked. Hicks and Newt are killed off off-screen before the movie even starts. The budget was clearly very low. There were some cool visuals and it was fun to have Ripley back but...it definitely had "Superman 4: The Quest for Peace" vibes. How did they get this so wrong?
I recently discover this book which is an adaptation of the original screenplay for Alien 3. It was clearly written in case they couldn't get Sigourney Weaver back. But even though they got her back, I thought she could have been worked into this story easily.
Hicks and Newt wake up on a space station after floating for 4 years. Ripley can't wake up and doesn't. Newt is then sent back to Earth...and we never hear from her again. It really becomes the Hicks and Bishop show. Which is...fine. The action is cool and I like how the Aliens continue to evolve. This would have definitely been a better movie than what we got but would have cost more so I'm sure that's why it was scrapped. A shame.
August 19, 2021
With Alien 3 having come out before I was even born, I hadn't been aware of what a rocky production the blockbuster suffered from. Initially, William Gibson was meant to write the script for it, which, mind you, he did. While that potential version of the sequel never went into production, it now received a second life in form of this novel.
Alien 3: The Lost Screenplay is actually a novelisation of said screenplay, revealing that Alien 3 could have potentially turned out to be a very different film. Following the events of Aliens, it is an action-packed story of Corporal Hicks and the android Bishop as they battle their way through xenomorphs in an area that feels very reminiscent of the Soviet Union, but is instead called the Union of Progressive People here.
I thought the claustrophobic atmosphere didn't transfer quite as well onto the pages. While the story of the franchise occasionally likes to go a bit overboard in terms of believability, it's how everything feels that makes watching the films such a singular experience. That uncomfortable, dark and very specific atmosphere never quite came up in this novel, which might have something to do with the entire story being driven by fights and action, which I generally find more interesting on screen than on page.
The story is fine, just not very interesting altogether. Fans of Hicks will be pleased to find that he doesn't get killed off in the first five minutes of the story as he unceremoniously did (off-screen even) in the film, but instead even takes the lead here. This does cost us Ripley, though, who is stepping back in here and remains a mere name mentioned every now and then. The xenomorphs have become more deadly, too, which made them to me less interesting: they're nothing more than killing machines and became hard to see as proper antagonists as their existence felt so meaningless. Again something that I find easier to forgive on screen than I do in a novel, where I personally enjoy motives to threats and enemies.
This will probably appeal only to die-hard fans. A lot of the storytelling relies on you getting excited to spend more time with characters you already know. The novel itself doesn't give you a lot of reasons to root for the protagonists or be afraid of the enemies, so you should be familiar with the plot of the films, as this isn't an appropriate introduction to the franchise. In case you are an enthusiast, however, this might be an interesting excursion into how the story could alternatively have developed.
Alien 3: The Lost Screenplay is actually a novelisation of said screenplay, revealing that Alien 3 could have potentially turned out to be a very different film. Following the events of Aliens, it is an action-packed story of Corporal Hicks and the android Bishop as they battle their way through xenomorphs in an area that feels very reminiscent of the Soviet Union, but is instead called the Union of Progressive People here.
I thought the claustrophobic atmosphere didn't transfer quite as well onto the pages. While the story of the franchise occasionally likes to go a bit overboard in terms of believability, it's how everything feels that makes watching the films such a singular experience. That uncomfortable, dark and very specific atmosphere never quite came up in this novel, which might have something to do with the entire story being driven by fights and action, which I generally find more interesting on screen than on page.
The story is fine, just not very interesting altogether. Fans of Hicks will be pleased to find that he doesn't get killed off in the first five minutes of the story as he unceremoniously did (off-screen even) in the film, but instead even takes the lead here. This does cost us Ripley, though, who is stepping back in here and remains a mere name mentioned every now and then. The xenomorphs have become more deadly, too, which made them to me less interesting: they're nothing more than killing machines and became hard to see as proper antagonists as their existence felt so meaningless. Again something that I find easier to forgive on screen than I do in a novel, where I personally enjoy motives to threats and enemies.
This will probably appeal only to die-hard fans. A lot of the storytelling relies on you getting excited to spend more time with characters you already know. The novel itself doesn't give you a lot of reasons to root for the protagonists or be afraid of the enemies, so you should be familiar with the plot of the films, as this isn't an appropriate introduction to the franchise. In case you are an enthusiast, however, this might be an interesting excursion into how the story could alternatively have developed.
February 1, 2022
In a word, awful.
Paper thin characters. Characters doing things because... who knows why? Fractured narrative and difficult to follow plot points.
I was looking forward to a decent story based on the William Gibson screenplay. I'd read that a few years back and found it interesting but light on atmosphere, which is what I was looking for in this book.
I stuck with it for longer than I should have because, you know, Alien and William Gibson. I finally bailed about 2/3 of the way through. I couldn't take it any more.
Life is too short to read bad books. One star only because I couldn't give it anything less.
Paper thin characters. Characters doing things because... who knows why? Fractured narrative and difficult to follow plot points.
I was looking forward to a decent story based on the William Gibson screenplay. I'd read that a few years back and found it interesting but light on atmosphere, which is what I was looking for in this book.
I stuck with it for longer than I should have because, you know, Alien and William Gibson. I finally bailed about 2/3 of the way through. I couldn't take it any more.
Life is too short to read bad books. One star only because I couldn't give it anything less.
August 5, 2024
Pat Cadigan's take on William Gibson's screenplay is a frustrating mess: a book that's too complicated to be scary, too detailed to be action packed, and too fiddly to ever be thrilling. It's a book with endless callbacks to Aliens (the sequel movie), but not once does it ever do anything with that material. There's enough propulsion and imagery to drive you through the beats of the story but so little of it is cohesive, and even less of it is for a reason. Alien showcases one woman's struggles to survive against the overwhelming forces of male brutality and corporate greed. Aliens contrasts competing maternal drives of protection and destruction. Alien 3 (the unproduced screenplay) is about... military dudes in a mall? And there's communism but they're stupid? I dunno.
Let's do the requisite paragraph about Alien 3 the movie here. It's important, because you definitely need to know I'm an apologist for it - Lynch's instinct to return to a grimy nasty bleakness after Aliens' rah rah action is a good one, and I personally love how simply and meanly it adds a brutal coda to that film's finale. Newt and Hicks are dead, fuck you then end. Cadigan's Gibson's Alien 3 is not that, instead looking at Aliens and saying "what if the same thing, but more" and there's not much way that was going to play well with me. That said, I don't think those who hate the third movie (note: most people) are necessarily going to be well served here either, the ramping up of stakes doesn't... *do* anything.
Cadigan can't take all of the blame - It's pretty clear this must be an earlier draft than anything that could be reasonably filmed, because Gibson's outline must just be *way* too full of nonsense to ever work. Hicks, Newt, and Ripley are found and brought to a station. Bishop is taken by a rival communist station, but then returned once they're done with him (this lets us have *two* stations with aliens in it, yay!). There's plot about the maintenance workers. There's plot about the scientists. There's plot about the military personnel. There's plot about the company weapons specialists. There's more. There's no way that, were this to be filmed, you wouldn't cut about half of it. All of the "Universal Progressive Peoples" stuff is *easily* cut, and then you wouldn't have the insanely heavy-handed anti-soviet tone. Half the setup meetings could be cut. The plot about the fucking lemur habitat could be cut.
Honestly, the Aliens cast should be cut, but they never would - this book is "about" Hicks (who sends Newt away to earth quickly to blatantly get her out of the story as fast as is possible), and his dealing with the trauma of the previous story, and leading his battered horde of survivors to rescue. This mostly takes the form of him hearing quotes from the old cast of the previous movie. This is hella boring, and really doesn't amount to anything, because he's never actually challenged by this trauma.
Lots of people die very violently, and I think Gibson has invented some really cool, nasty body horror. Two problems here - one, there's a new twist to the Xenomorphs which is neat that they're slightly different, but the delivery method is now so nebulous, people end up dying for fairly nebulous reasons, and it's never set up well or very 'fair'. This is as cruel a book as Alien 3 the movie is, it's just it doesn't at all fit the tone here. The second is Pat Cadigan who, unfortunately, does not have anywhere near William Gibson's skill with words - Neuromancer this is not. Cadigan's writing is as straightforward and bland as can be, lending no tone or style to any of this. There's little description, rending so much of the claustrophobia of a dying space station a confusing mess. There's little style, turning the iconic menace of the xenomorph into a litany of samey description every time. Black claws, shiny carapace, and so on. They feel like they stand in one place, scream, kill, and disappear. There's no menace, no danger - except for the aforementioned random (unfun) one.
People want this to be a lost cult work, one that rewrites a narrative injustice, and gives a view into what 'could have been' in a different universe. I still believe a fully Gibson written script could be cool as hell, i dunno. But as this is, there's really nothing to recommend it over a generic space horror thriller, and the story we got is still superior. Sorry.
Let's do the requisite paragraph about Alien 3 the movie here. It's important, because you definitely need to know I'm an apologist for it - Lynch's instinct to return to a grimy nasty bleakness after Aliens' rah rah action is a good one, and I personally love how simply and meanly it adds a brutal coda to that film's finale. Newt and Hicks are dead, fuck you then end. Cadigan's Gibson's Alien 3 is not that, instead looking at Aliens and saying "what if the same thing, but more" and there's not much way that was going to play well with me. That said, I don't think those who hate the third movie (note: most people) are necessarily going to be well served here either, the ramping up of stakes doesn't... *do* anything.
Cadigan can't take all of the blame - It's pretty clear this must be an earlier draft than anything that could be reasonably filmed, because Gibson's outline must just be *way* too full of nonsense to ever work. Hicks, Newt, and Ripley are found and brought to a station. Bishop is taken by a rival communist station, but then returned once they're done with him (this lets us have *two* stations with aliens in it, yay!). There's plot about the maintenance workers. There's plot about the scientists. There's plot about the military personnel. There's plot about the company weapons specialists. There's more. There's no way that, were this to be filmed, you wouldn't cut about half of it. All of the "Universal Progressive Peoples" stuff is *easily* cut, and then you wouldn't have the insanely heavy-handed anti-soviet tone. Half the setup meetings could be cut. The plot about the fucking lemur habitat could be cut.
Honestly, the Aliens cast should be cut, but they never would - this book is "about" Hicks (who sends Newt away to earth quickly to blatantly get her out of the story as fast as is possible), and his dealing with the trauma of the previous story, and leading his battered horde of survivors to rescue. This mostly takes the form of him hearing quotes from the old cast of the previous movie. This is hella boring, and really doesn't amount to anything, because he's never actually challenged by this trauma.
Lots of people die very violently, and I think Gibson has invented some really cool, nasty body horror. Two problems here - one, there's a new twist to the Xenomorphs which is neat that they're slightly different, but the delivery method is now so nebulous, people end up dying for fairly nebulous reasons, and it's never set up well or very 'fair'. This is as cruel a book as Alien 3 the movie is, it's just it doesn't at all fit the tone here. The second is Pat Cadigan who, unfortunately, does not have anywhere near William Gibson's skill with words - Neuromancer this is not. Cadigan's writing is as straightforward and bland as can be, lending no tone or style to any of this. There's little description, rending so much of the claustrophobia of a dying space station a confusing mess. There's little style, turning the iconic menace of the xenomorph into a litany of samey description every time. Black claws, shiny carapace, and so on. They feel like they stand in one place, scream, kill, and disappear. There's no menace, no danger - except for the aforementioned random (unfun) one.
People want this to be a lost cult work, one that rewrites a narrative injustice, and gives a view into what 'could have been' in a different universe. I still believe a fully Gibson written script could be cool as hell, i dunno. But as this is, there's really nothing to recommend it over a generic space horror thriller, and the story we got is still superior. Sorry.
August 28, 2021
The story of how this novel came to be is almost as good as how it ended up.
Many, many moons ago — back in 1987 to be precise — William Gibson was tapped to be the first of what turned out to be ten writers to tackle the script for what was to become the third film in Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise. Gibson ultimately produced a second revision, in 1988, which toned down the story a bit, but the studio still passed on it.
This second revision was adapted into a comic series by Dark Horse Comics in 2018, and an audio drama in 2019 by Audible Studios, but the first revision remained in the dark aside from being passed around the internet on Alien fandom sites and message boards.
Now, in 2021, it sees the proper novelization it deserves; and from the Queen of Cyberpunk herself, Pat Cadigan.
To say that I was excited to read this book is an understatement. I have been a fan of both Gibson and Cadigan since I was a mere kid, and this is exactly the “peanut butter in my chocolate” type of collaboration that I dream about.
This story is gritty as all hell. Focusing largely on Hicks and Bishop after being “rescued” with Ripley and Newt in the Sulaco where they ended up at the conclusion of Aliens, this version of Alien 3 goes from “Ehhh, things might be ok.” to “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” to “Oh yeah, everything is totally screwed.”
We see a whole lot of evolution in the Xenomorphs in this story. Their adaptation and speedy evolution is both terrifying and, for franchise fans, fascinating given the total lore that already exists. These bugs are a total game changer when it comes to their propagation and swarm-like spread.
Through it all, however, we see the laser-focused persistence of Hicks and Bishop. Naturally, as should always be in an Alien story, there is some thinly-veiled political intrigue, and the ever-present idiocy of “The Company” to help push the story along a bit.
What’s striking about this book is that it is a total redirection of the bigger story. Ripley is probably in it for about two chapters before everything gets focused on the Artificial Person and the Marine. I applaud the change, and how a lot of material and memories from Aliens was referenced to give some extra sparkle to the situation the two find themselves in.
Ms. Cadigan tackled this project just perfectly. There are some scantly disguised references to the current COVID-19 pandemic that I found rather amusing, but the bigger story really lends itself to that kind of comparison. Being a fan of her previous writings, falling into a cadence and rhythm that I’m familiar with really helped churn through the pages. The dialogue encompasses so many damn emotions, but nothing ever gets to a point where the broader picture is derailed for lack of detail or cohesiveness.
All-in-all, this was one hell of a novel to read, and I’m both incredibly happy I got to enjoy it, and very sad that I’m done with it. I really, really, really hope this sees the screen someday. If only so I can see some Xenomorph lemurs. Oh yeah, there are lemurs.
Many, many moons ago — back in 1987 to be precise — William Gibson was tapped to be the first of what turned out to be ten writers to tackle the script for what was to become the third film in Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise. Gibson ultimately produced a second revision, in 1988, which toned down the story a bit, but the studio still passed on it.
This second revision was adapted into a comic series by Dark Horse Comics in 2018, and an audio drama in 2019 by Audible Studios, but the first revision remained in the dark aside from being passed around the internet on Alien fandom sites and message boards.
Now, in 2021, it sees the proper novelization it deserves; and from the Queen of Cyberpunk herself, Pat Cadigan.
To say that I was excited to read this book is an understatement. I have been a fan of both Gibson and Cadigan since I was a mere kid, and this is exactly the “peanut butter in my chocolate” type of collaboration that I dream about.
This story is gritty as all hell. Focusing largely on Hicks and Bishop after being “rescued” with Ripley and Newt in the Sulaco where they ended up at the conclusion of Aliens, this version of Alien 3 goes from “Ehhh, things might be ok.” to “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” to “Oh yeah, everything is totally screwed.”
We see a whole lot of evolution in the Xenomorphs in this story. Their adaptation and speedy evolution is both terrifying and, for franchise fans, fascinating given the total lore that already exists. These bugs are a total game changer when it comes to their propagation and swarm-like spread.
Through it all, however, we see the laser-focused persistence of Hicks and Bishop. Naturally, as should always be in an Alien story, there is some thinly-veiled political intrigue, and the ever-present idiocy of “The Company” to help push the story along a bit.
What’s striking about this book is that it is a total redirection of the bigger story. Ripley is probably in it for about two chapters before everything gets focused on the Artificial Person and the Marine. I applaud the change, and how a lot of material and memories from Aliens was referenced to give some extra sparkle to the situation the two find themselves in.
Ms. Cadigan tackled this project just perfectly. There are some scantly disguised references to the current COVID-19 pandemic that I found rather amusing, but the bigger story really lends itself to that kind of comparison. Being a fan of her previous writings, falling into a cadence and rhythm that I’m familiar with really helped churn through the pages. The dialogue encompasses so many damn emotions, but nothing ever gets to a point where the broader picture is derailed for lack of detail or cohesiveness.
All-in-all, this was one hell of a novel to read, and I’m both incredibly happy I got to enjoy it, and very sad that I’m done with it. I really, really, really hope this sees the screen someday. If only so I can see some Xenomorph lemurs. Oh yeah, there are lemurs.
quit-dnf
November 17, 2021DNF at 13%.
I was pretty damn excited to read the novelization of the unproduced William Gibson screenplay for Alien 3, but author Pat Cadigan is striking too many tonally dissonant notes for me to enjoy this. She seems to be writing for camp, and the tongue-in-cheek, self-referential vibe of her style here is not something I'm enjoying. I knew I was in troubled waters when Ripley is introduced to us as a crazy cat-lady, but things grew even more tremulous after Hicks is awakened from cold-sleep. Our introduction to him is as a disillusioned veteran hellbent on going rouge could have been interesting. Instead, it presents another instance for Cadigan to crack wise, writing about Hicks looking at his hospital bed pillows and thinking, "Next week he was going to rip the tags off those suckers with his bare hands. And if he couldn't, then he'd take off and nuke them from orbit. It was the only way to be sure."
Frankly, five chapters under my belt, this affair is just too cutesy and reads more like William Gibson's Alien 3 by way of Mad Magazine. To top it off, although we never received the fabled Alien 3 movie that could have been, the Gibson script has been adapted previously and in much better fashion. Take, for instance, the Alien III Audible Original Drama starring Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen, reprising their iconic roles of Hicks and Bishop, respectively. Or the five-part miniseries from Dark Horse Comics adapting William Gibson's Alien 3. For Alien fans who may have missed those, Cadigan's venture may suffice, if they can look past the irritating, spoofy writing style. Personally, I'd recommend either of these other two adaptations over this, with Audible's adaptation being the superior version and the closest we're likely ever going to get to a cinematic edition.
I was pretty damn excited to read the novelization of the unproduced William Gibson screenplay for Alien 3, but author Pat Cadigan is striking too many tonally dissonant notes for me to enjoy this. She seems to be writing for camp, and the tongue-in-cheek, self-referential vibe of her style here is not something I'm enjoying. I knew I was in troubled waters when Ripley is introduced to us as a crazy cat-lady, but things grew even more tremulous after Hicks is awakened from cold-sleep. Our introduction to him is as a disillusioned veteran hellbent on going rouge could have been interesting. Instead, it presents another instance for Cadigan to crack wise, writing about Hicks looking at his hospital bed pillows and thinking, "Next week he was going to rip the tags off those suckers with his bare hands. And if he couldn't, then he'd take off and nuke them from orbit. It was the only way to be sure."
Frankly, five chapters under my belt, this affair is just too cutesy and reads more like William Gibson's Alien 3 by way of Mad Magazine. To top it off, although we never received the fabled Alien 3 movie that could have been, the Gibson script has been adapted previously and in much better fashion. Take, for instance, the Alien III Audible Original Drama starring Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen, reprising their iconic roles of Hicks and Bishop, respectively. Or the five-part miniseries from Dark Horse Comics adapting William Gibson's Alien 3. For Alien fans who may have missed those, Cadigan's venture may suffice, if they can look past the irritating, spoofy writing style. Personally, I'd recommend either of these other two adaptations over this, with Audible's adaptation being the superior version and the closest we're likely ever going to get to a cinematic edition.
September 6, 2021
The tale of the troubled development of the second Alien sequel is well documented and probably just as interesting as the movie we ended up getting. It’s a tale of hirings and firings and grandiose concepts that gradually became more and more compromised — for those interested, there’s a lot of documentary info out there but a good place to start is with actor Ralph Brown’s blogs on the making of the film.
But long before it even got to that stage — long before the prima donna-ish hell shoots and the revolving door of directors — an early starting point for the movie’s development was a 1987 script by cyberpunk author William Gibson. And while it was never filmed, this script has had something of a long creative life in its own right, and not just as a footnote in one of the many, many tales of Hollywood development hell. It has already seen life as a graphic novel adaptation and an Audible audio version has been available for many years.
But Pat Cadigan’s novelisation is perhaps this particular story’s natural home. The screenplay itself is packed full of brilliant and innovative ideas — some of which have made it into the subsequent movies, as you’d expect from a writer like Gibson, but at the same time it’s easy to see why it never made it to screen. Aside from the near-absence of the character of Ripley throughout the story lacks the powerful forward momentum need for a movie like this. It’s too diffused; there are too many characters and too many locations. In short, it has rather more of the structure of a novel rather than a screenplay.
Cadigan is a very good choice for the adaptation too. I’ve been a fan of her work ever since coming across her in Mirrorshades, a cyberpunk short-story anthology from the mid-80s, of which her story Rock On was a highlight for me. Not only does she have a long body of original SF work, but she’s also adept in the cyberpunk subgenre (if that, indeed, is how we should describe it) and so she’s guaranteed to be sympathetic to Gibson’s original vision. She has a lot of experience in the area of SF/fantasy tie-ins into the bargain and has oodles of experience of taking others’ work, often from entirely different media, and turning them into a slick reading experience.
If anything, the novel could have stood a little more experimentation, I think. As mentioned above, there are elements which have found their way into other films in the franchise. The black sludge that the xenomorphs have evolved to speed reproduction seems similar to that seen in the Prometheus pre/sequels and I couldn’t help but feel that the character of Colonel Rosetti was some kind of close relation to Dan Hedaya’s General Perez from Alien Resurrection.
However, there are other ideas that fell by the wayside from the original script that could have been delved into further. Primary for me among these were the sequences on Rodina Station, an outpost of United Progressive Peoples. It’s understandable why this might have been dropped at the time, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR making the idea of a Soviet enclave in space somewhat dated. But I think there’s a case to be made to view the Alien franchise as retro SF anyway. Maybe not originally, but it’s become a vision of the future that’s embedded in a late 20th century late industrial view of human civilisation rather than a 21st century digital, transhuman one. Nowhere is this more obvious than in what I’d view as the most successful post-Aliens entry in the franchise, the 2014 survival videogame Alien Isolation, which very much traded on the nostalgic late-1970s interior designs of HR Geiger and Ron Cobb, among others.
It would have been nice to have had more of the book set on Rodina and maybe have a deeper exploration of the Soviet base and people, perhaps as a counterpoint to the extreme gung-ho Colonial Marine antics of the second film. At the very least, as the story’s denouement relies on co-operation between the communist and capitalist protagonists, a little more from the Soviets might have been nice.
Another adjustment that could have been interesting would have been to develop some of the more tangential characters a bit further. For the purposes of the screenplay, it’s natural that the established characters — in this case, Hicks, Newt and Bishop — should be foregrounded but they didn’t strike me as the most interesting ones and with the extended scope of the novel, it would have been nice to see some of the potentially really quite interesting characters like Luc Hai and Spence get more development.
One slight niggle was the constant references to dialogue and even whole scenes from Aliens, usually within the reminisces of Hicks. I get that they’re a little piece of fan service and I could have lived with one or two but there were just too many of them for my liking and they ended up being rather intrusive, pulling us out of the story being told to remind us of one that’s long over.
But this is perhaps a rather petulant criticism because this is a novel very much for the fans and on that score it very much delivers. It’s a complete and faithful reimagining of Gibson’s screenplay and a tightly written SF adventure to boot that not only delivers the scares and thrills of the first two films but also manages to suffuse the story with some of Cadigan’s trademark wit and humour.
But long before it even got to that stage — long before the prima donna-ish hell shoots and the revolving door of directors — an early starting point for the movie’s development was a 1987 script by cyberpunk author William Gibson. And while it was never filmed, this script has had something of a long creative life in its own right, and not just as a footnote in one of the many, many tales of Hollywood development hell. It has already seen life as a graphic novel adaptation and an Audible audio version has been available for many years.
But Pat Cadigan’s novelisation is perhaps this particular story’s natural home. The screenplay itself is packed full of brilliant and innovative ideas — some of which have made it into the subsequent movies, as you’d expect from a writer like Gibson, but at the same time it’s easy to see why it never made it to screen. Aside from the near-absence of the character of Ripley throughout the story lacks the powerful forward momentum need for a movie like this. It’s too diffused; there are too many characters and too many locations. In short, it has rather more of the structure of a novel rather than a screenplay.
Cadigan is a very good choice for the adaptation too. I’ve been a fan of her work ever since coming across her in Mirrorshades, a cyberpunk short-story anthology from the mid-80s, of which her story Rock On was a highlight for me. Not only does she have a long body of original SF work, but she’s also adept in the cyberpunk subgenre (if that, indeed, is how we should describe it) and so she’s guaranteed to be sympathetic to Gibson’s original vision. She has a lot of experience in the area of SF/fantasy tie-ins into the bargain and has oodles of experience of taking others’ work, often from entirely different media, and turning them into a slick reading experience.
If anything, the novel could have stood a little more experimentation, I think. As mentioned above, there are elements which have found their way into other films in the franchise. The black sludge that the xenomorphs have evolved to speed reproduction seems similar to that seen in the Prometheus pre/sequels and I couldn’t help but feel that the character of Colonel Rosetti was some kind of close relation to Dan Hedaya’s General Perez from Alien Resurrection.
However, there are other ideas that fell by the wayside from the original script that could have been delved into further. Primary for me among these were the sequences on Rodina Station, an outpost of United Progressive Peoples. It’s understandable why this might have been dropped at the time, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR making the idea of a Soviet enclave in space somewhat dated. But I think there’s a case to be made to view the Alien franchise as retro SF anyway. Maybe not originally, but it’s become a vision of the future that’s embedded in a late 20th century late industrial view of human civilisation rather than a 21st century digital, transhuman one. Nowhere is this more obvious than in what I’d view as the most successful post-Aliens entry in the franchise, the 2014 survival videogame Alien Isolation, which very much traded on the nostalgic late-1970s interior designs of HR Geiger and Ron Cobb, among others.
It would have been nice to have had more of the book set on Rodina and maybe have a deeper exploration of the Soviet base and people, perhaps as a counterpoint to the extreme gung-ho Colonial Marine antics of the second film. At the very least, as the story’s denouement relies on co-operation between the communist and capitalist protagonists, a little more from the Soviets might have been nice.
Another adjustment that could have been interesting would have been to develop some of the more tangential characters a bit further. For the purposes of the screenplay, it’s natural that the established characters — in this case, Hicks, Newt and Bishop — should be foregrounded but they didn’t strike me as the most interesting ones and with the extended scope of the novel, it would have been nice to see some of the potentially really quite interesting characters like Luc Hai and Spence get more development.
One slight niggle was the constant references to dialogue and even whole scenes from Aliens, usually within the reminisces of Hicks. I get that they’re a little piece of fan service and I could have lived with one or two but there were just too many of them for my liking and they ended up being rather intrusive, pulling us out of the story being told to remind us of one that’s long over.
But this is perhaps a rather petulant criticism because this is a novel very much for the fans and on that score it very much delivers. It’s a complete and faithful reimagining of Gibson’s screenplay and a tightly written SF adventure to boot that not only delivers the scares and thrills of the first two films but also manages to suffuse the story with some of Cadigan’s trademark wit and humour.
September 20, 2021
During the rollercoaster production of the Alien 3 film, a number of different scripts by different writers were written and discarded. Ultimately, the film used a mishmash of ideas that the various scriptwriters had come up with, resulting in the 1992 film we're all familiar with. The first script written for the film was penned in 1987 by cyberpunk writer William Gibson. Gibson wrote two drafts of the script, both of which have been recently adapted into print form. The latter was adapted in a graphic novel, and the former has been adapted into the present novel, about which this review was written. I don't know why Pat Cadigan was chosen to adapt the script into a novel. She is a newcomer to the Alien universe, and I had not ever heard of her. However, she has quite the resume, so you'd think the novel would be in good hands. Unfortunately, the final product proves otherwise.
The plot of "Alien 3 - The Unproduced Screenplay" is substantially different from that of the film. At the end of the second Alien film, Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and Bishop are asleep aboard the Sulaco. In this new version of events, the Sulaco drifts through space controlled by the Union of Progressive Peoples (UPP), a throwback to Soviet socialists on earth. After a short though tumultuous visit, the Sulaco continues on to space station Anchorpoint, where the majority of the novel takes place. Stowaway aliens quickly make a mess of things, and venerable hero Corporal Hicks must step up to the plate and face the galaxy's most fearsome creatures.
I'm not entirely sure who is to blame for the rather poor product that is "Alien 3 - The Unproduced Screenplay." Since both Gibson and Cadigan had a hand in the final product, I'd say they both share in the blame. First of all, let's tackle the lackluster story. When the script was penned in '87, the plot ideas would have been quite a lot fresher than by today's standards. There was no Alien expanded universe at the time, so that particular story idea had not been visited ad nauseum like it has in so many Alien novels already. The novel produces some interesting evolutionary ideas about how the Aliens procreate, but those already feel like old hat, readers having already seen similar ideas in many other Alien novels. Having Hicks as the protagonist is kind of lame, but again, we have to consider Gibson's original idea--that Ripley would return as heroine in a future Alien 4 film. I also think you could have cut out the parts of the story taking place in UPP space and still had a largely coherent story. So, while the story of the novel may have been effective when penned as a script decades ago, it does not hold up well by today's standards.
While I can excuse the plot deficiencies (due to poor aging), I surely cannot excuse the unpalatable prose. I understand that the author was aiming for a writing style with an ornery attitude, but it just came across as obnoxious. The humor falls flat, there is excessive hyperbole, and italicized emphasis litters every page. The dialogue is inane; when faced with certain death, all the characters seem to be able to muster are some (un)humorous one-liners that induce some serious eye rolling. Description is confusing to the point of being non-sensical. I was constantly confused about what was going on, and about the physical descriptions of the settings. Basically, the book was just reduced to people going from point A to point B, in no particular hurry, and for some confusing reason you forgot about ten pages ago. When it becomes convenient for a character to die, they do just that--like clockwork. The author does include some uncomfortable descriptions of violence and gore that feel right at home in an Alien novel, and she can be commended for that. However, such descriptions often accompany totally unbelievable evolution in Alien procreation.
While an interesting idea to bring William Gibson's script to life, the final product leaves much to be desired. One of the poorest Alien novels to date, perhaps the book would have fared better in the hands of a veteran Alien writer, such as Alan Dean Foster, Steve Perry, or Tim Lebbon. However, I do appreciate Titan books trying something out of the ordinary, and bringing some lost story ideas into the light. If you are a die-hard Alien fan, you might give this adaptation a shot. Otherwise, check out some of the other great Alien titles that have been written over the years.
The plot of "Alien 3 - The Unproduced Screenplay" is substantially different from that of the film. At the end of the second Alien film, Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and Bishop are asleep aboard the Sulaco. In this new version of events, the Sulaco drifts through space controlled by the Union of Progressive Peoples (UPP), a throwback to Soviet socialists on earth. After a short though tumultuous visit, the Sulaco continues on to space station Anchorpoint, where the majority of the novel takes place. Stowaway aliens quickly make a mess of things, and venerable hero Corporal Hicks must step up to the plate and face the galaxy's most fearsome creatures.
I'm not entirely sure who is to blame for the rather poor product that is "Alien 3 - The Unproduced Screenplay." Since both Gibson and Cadigan had a hand in the final product, I'd say they both share in the blame. First of all, let's tackle the lackluster story. When the script was penned in '87, the plot ideas would have been quite a lot fresher than by today's standards. There was no Alien expanded universe at the time, so that particular story idea had not been visited ad nauseum like it has in so many Alien novels already. The novel produces some interesting evolutionary ideas about how the Aliens procreate, but those already feel like old hat, readers having already seen similar ideas in many other Alien novels. Having Hicks as the protagonist is kind of lame, but again, we have to consider Gibson's original idea--that Ripley would return as heroine in a future Alien 4 film. I also think you could have cut out the parts of the story taking place in UPP space and still had a largely coherent story. So, while the story of the novel may have been effective when penned as a script decades ago, it does not hold up well by today's standards.
While I can excuse the plot deficiencies (due to poor aging), I surely cannot excuse the unpalatable prose. I understand that the author was aiming for a writing style with an ornery attitude, but it just came across as obnoxious. The humor falls flat, there is excessive hyperbole, and italicized emphasis litters every page. The dialogue is inane; when faced with certain death, all the characters seem to be able to muster are some (un)humorous one-liners that induce some serious eye rolling. Description is confusing to the point of being non-sensical. I was constantly confused about what was going on, and about the physical descriptions of the settings. Basically, the book was just reduced to people going from point A to point B, in no particular hurry, and for some confusing reason you forgot about ten pages ago. When it becomes convenient for a character to die, they do just that--like clockwork. The author does include some uncomfortable descriptions of violence and gore that feel right at home in an Alien novel, and she can be commended for that. However, such descriptions often accompany totally unbelievable evolution in Alien procreation.
While an interesting idea to bring William Gibson's script to life, the final product leaves much to be desired. One of the poorest Alien novels to date, perhaps the book would have fared better in the hands of a veteran Alien writer, such as Alan Dean Foster, Steve Perry, or Tim Lebbon. However, I do appreciate Titan books trying something out of the ordinary, and bringing some lost story ideas into the light. If you are a die-hard Alien fan, you might give this adaptation a shot. Otherwise, check out some of the other great Alien titles that have been written over the years.
September 5, 2021
EH.
As someone who enjoys the ALIEN franchise, and thankfully has only fully retained the memories and or watched Alien and Aliens, I was excited to get a chance at reading the un-produced screenplay for film 3. The ALIEN 3 film was tonally different than the first two and I just stopped caring and didn't make it through Alien 4.
I will say this - the world-building for the Alien franchise is a juggernaut in itself. You have greedy and slimy corporations working behind the scenes which could be another franchise in of itself.
This book picks up 4 years from the events from the 2nd film. If you go in thinking that NEWT and Ripley are returning to kick alien ass, no, sadly. They get shuffled off - Newt to her grandparents on Earth, Ripley back to her job/colony to heal from the wounds inflicted from the second film. So this story is all about Hicks and Bishop. WHICH IS NOT A BAD thing.
What this book suffers from is the inability to really let us understand what exactly is going on with the alien and the government. We know the government is shady, we know they are looking for some type of 'weapon' to assist them... it backfires when we find out that the blood and or the 'infection' of the xenomorph causes people to literally turn into xenomorphs themselves. (Like their body sheds its skin and out comes a xenomorph.) The connections and the reasoning behind how this happened wasn't explained enough, and it's hard to tell if it was the fault of the writer or the screenplay (since it was only a first draft).
I don't regret reading this book, but I do wish that the plot we got equaled to the amazing action scenes. ... and maybe Ripley and or Newt should have been in it.
As someone who enjoys the ALIEN franchise, and thankfully has only fully retained the memories and or watched Alien and Aliens, I was excited to get a chance at reading the un-produced screenplay for film 3. The ALIEN 3 film was tonally different than the first two and I just stopped caring and didn't make it through Alien 4.
I will say this - the world-building for the Alien franchise is a juggernaut in itself. You have greedy and slimy corporations working behind the scenes which could be another franchise in of itself.
This book picks up 4 years from the events from the 2nd film. If you go in thinking that NEWT and Ripley are returning to kick alien ass, no, sadly. They get shuffled off - Newt to her grandparents on Earth, Ripley back to her job/colony to heal from the wounds inflicted from the second film. So this story is all about Hicks and Bishop. WHICH IS NOT A BAD thing.
What this book suffers from is the inability to really let us understand what exactly is going on with the alien and the government. We know the government is shady, we know they are looking for some type of 'weapon' to assist them... it backfires when we find out that the blood and or the 'infection' of the xenomorph causes people to literally turn into xenomorphs themselves. (Like their body sheds its skin and out comes a xenomorph.) The connections and the reasoning behind how this happened wasn't explained enough, and it's hard to tell if it was the fault of the writer or the screenplay (since it was only a first draft).
I don't regret reading this book, but I do wish that the plot we got equaled to the amazing action scenes. ... and maybe Ripley and or Newt should have been in it.
December 18, 2021
2.5
This has some interesting ideas but I am still happy they went with the “ Alien 3” that we got . Each version introduced new ideas but this version felt way to similar to “Aliens”. Hick’s repetitive “ remember this part?” Flash backs from Aliens over stayed its welcome. Bishops story arch was very similar to the one in “Aliens”. And SPOILER Alert Ripely is in a coma for the duration of the book.
This has some interesting ideas but I am still happy they went with the “ Alien 3” that we got . Each version introduced new ideas but this version felt way to similar to “Aliens”. Hick’s repetitive “ remember this part?” Flash backs from Aliens over stayed its welcome. Bishops story arch was very similar to the one in “Aliens”. And SPOILER Alert Ripely is in a coma for the duration of the book.
October 18, 2021
it’s boring af and super off tonally
August 11, 2023
Die Alien-Reihe zählt seit Erscheinen des ersten Films im Jahr 1979 zu den erfolgreichsten Weltraum-Sagen. Die Mischung aus klaustrophobischem Setting, actionreichem Überlebenskampf, beklemmendem Horror und einer faszinierenden Kreatur in Gestalt der Xenomorphen hat nicht nur vier Hauptfilme hervorgebracht, sondern auch zwei Sequels, mehrere Crossovers und Computerspiele sowie Romane, Graphic Novels und Hörspiele. War es im ersten Film ein einziges Alien, das die Besatzung des Frachtschiffs Nostromo dezimierte, sah sich Protagonistin Ellen Ripley im zweiten Film direkt einer ganzen Herde der tödlichen Kreaturen gegenüber, als sie mit einem Trupp Marines die Kolonisten auf einem Terraforming-Planeten retten sollte. Genau ans Ende des zweiten Films knüpft nun der Roman „Alien 3“ an, der auf Basis eines alternativen Drehbuchs zum dritten Film entstand.
Dieses Drehbuch schrieb kein Geringerer als William Gibson, der Erfinder des Sci-Fi-Subgenres Cyberpunk, der mit seiner „Neuromancer“-Trilogie zu Weltruhm gelangte. Auf Basis des Drehbuchs schrieb Sci-Fi-Autorin Pat Cadigan nun diesen Roman. Merkwürdigerweise hatte ich bisher von Pat Cadigan noch nie etwas gehört, obwohl sie mehrfache Hugo-, Arthur C. Clarke- und Locus-Award-Preisträgerin ist. Vielleicht wieder mal ein Problem der mangelnden Sichtbarkeit von Autorinnen in einem männlich dominierten Genre?
Die Handlung des Romans spielt dieses Mal nicht in einem Raumschiff oder auf einem unwirtlichen Planeten, sondern auf einer stark bevölkerten Raumstation. Sobald man auf den ersten 100 Seiten mit dem neuen Setting vertraut gemacht wurde und dabei mitverfolgt, wie sich etwas anbahnt, das ganz und gar nicht gut ausgehen wird, setzt danach die atemlose Action ein und der Kampf ums Überleben beginnt. Den Protagonisten ist dabei klar, dass es nicht nur um das Leben der Stationsbesatzung geht, sondern das der gesamten Menschheit, wenn der skrupellose Weyland-Yutani-Konzern es schafft, die Xenomorphen zu klonen, um sie des Profits wegen als Waffen zu verkaufen.
Als Vorbereitung auf diesen Roman schadet es nicht, den Film „Aliens – Die Rückkehr“ von James Cameron nochmal anzusehen. Hauptakteure sind dieses Mal der überlebende Corporal Hicks sowie die Künstliche Person Bishop. Auch das Mädchen Newt spielt eine kleinere Rolle. Dafür gibt es so gut wie gar nichts von Ripley zu sehen – was einerseits schade ist, andererseits bieten die anderen Charaktere (inkl. der Besatzung der Raumstation) genug Potenzial, um das auszugleichen. Wenn Hicks und Bishop sich an ihre Kolleg:innen erinnern, die von den Aliens dahingerafft wurden, schafft das eine schöne und glaubhafte Verbindung zur Filmreihe.
Ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob das Drehbuch unter der Prämisse entstanden ist, dass Sigourney Weaver für den dritten Film nicht zur Verfügung stand oder ob ganz bewusst auf Ripley verzichtet wurde – wir wissen jedoch alle, dass es dann doch anders kam und der Film „Alien 3“ mit Weaver in der Hauptrolle produziert wurde und auf einem Gefängnisplaneten spielte. Viele Fans sind sich einig, dass der Film einer der schlechtesten der Reihe ist. Ich bin da etwas befangen (ja, hauptsächlich wegen Charles Dance), aber ja, ein Highlight war der Film leider nicht.
Ich hätte gerne dieses alternative Drehbuch verfilmt gesehen, denn im Gegensatz zum realisierten Film bietet es neue Entwicklungen – die Xenomorphen stellen hier ihre unfassbare Anpassungsfähigkeit unter Beweis. Das sorgt für Spannung bis zu den letzten Seiten.
Wer die Alien-Filme mag, wird an diesem Buch seine Freude haben. Man sollte allerdings mindestens die ersten beiden Filme gesehen haben, um es wirklich genießen zu können.
Von mir gibt´s 4 von 5 Sternen für packende Sci-Fi-Action.
Dieses Drehbuch schrieb kein Geringerer als William Gibson, der Erfinder des Sci-Fi-Subgenres Cyberpunk, der mit seiner „Neuromancer“-Trilogie zu Weltruhm gelangte. Auf Basis des Drehbuchs schrieb Sci-Fi-Autorin Pat Cadigan nun diesen Roman. Merkwürdigerweise hatte ich bisher von Pat Cadigan noch nie etwas gehört, obwohl sie mehrfache Hugo-, Arthur C. Clarke- und Locus-Award-Preisträgerin ist. Vielleicht wieder mal ein Problem der mangelnden Sichtbarkeit von Autorinnen in einem männlich dominierten Genre?
Die Handlung des Romans spielt dieses Mal nicht in einem Raumschiff oder auf einem unwirtlichen Planeten, sondern auf einer stark bevölkerten Raumstation. Sobald man auf den ersten 100 Seiten mit dem neuen Setting vertraut gemacht wurde und dabei mitverfolgt, wie sich etwas anbahnt, das ganz und gar nicht gut ausgehen wird, setzt danach die atemlose Action ein und der Kampf ums Überleben beginnt. Den Protagonisten ist dabei klar, dass es nicht nur um das Leben der Stationsbesatzung geht, sondern das der gesamten Menschheit, wenn der skrupellose Weyland-Yutani-Konzern es schafft, die Xenomorphen zu klonen, um sie des Profits wegen als Waffen zu verkaufen.
Als Vorbereitung auf diesen Roman schadet es nicht, den Film „Aliens – Die Rückkehr“ von James Cameron nochmal anzusehen. Hauptakteure sind dieses Mal der überlebende Corporal Hicks sowie die Künstliche Person Bishop. Auch das Mädchen Newt spielt eine kleinere Rolle. Dafür gibt es so gut wie gar nichts von Ripley zu sehen – was einerseits schade ist, andererseits bieten die anderen Charaktere (inkl. der Besatzung der Raumstation) genug Potenzial, um das auszugleichen. Wenn Hicks und Bishop sich an ihre Kolleg:innen erinnern, die von den Aliens dahingerafft wurden, schafft das eine schöne und glaubhafte Verbindung zur Filmreihe.
Ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob das Drehbuch unter der Prämisse entstanden ist, dass Sigourney Weaver für den dritten Film nicht zur Verfügung stand oder ob ganz bewusst auf Ripley verzichtet wurde – wir wissen jedoch alle, dass es dann doch anders kam und der Film „Alien 3“ mit Weaver in der Hauptrolle produziert wurde und auf einem Gefängnisplaneten spielte. Viele Fans sind sich einig, dass der Film einer der schlechtesten der Reihe ist. Ich bin da etwas befangen (ja, hauptsächlich wegen Charles Dance), aber ja, ein Highlight war der Film leider nicht.
Ich hätte gerne dieses alternative Drehbuch verfilmt gesehen, denn im Gegensatz zum realisierten Film bietet es neue Entwicklungen – die Xenomorphen stellen hier ihre unfassbare Anpassungsfähigkeit unter Beweis. Das sorgt für Spannung bis zu den letzten Seiten.
Wer die Alien-Filme mag, wird an diesem Buch seine Freude haben. Man sollte allerdings mindestens die ersten beiden Filme gesehen haben, um es wirklich genießen zu können.
Von mir gibt´s 4 von 5 Sternen für packende Sci-Fi-Action.
Read
August 5, 2023
χρόνος ανάγνωσης κριτικής: 55 δευτερόλεπτα
Μερικές φορές απορώ με το πώς συνδυάζω τα αναγνώσματά μου.
Από ολλανδικό βιβλίο που κέρδισε το Διεθνές Μπούκερ το 2020
σε φιλοσοφία Ελληνιστικού Ιουδαϊσμού του 1ου μ.Χ. αιώνα
και απ' εκεί βιβλίο τρόμου επιστημονικής φαντασίας.
Να τονίσω όμως ότι είμαι λάτρης της επιστημονικής φαντασίας
και η σειρά Alien από τις αγαπημένες μου.
Τον περασμένο Οκτώβριο πήρα τα δύο novelisations
(ελληνιστί ίσως μυθιστορηματοποίηση / μυθιστοριογράφηση(;) )
των αγαπημένων μου ταινιών, το Alien και Aliens.
Το πρώτο το διάβασα τον Οκτώβριο ως τρομακτικό ανάγνωσμα
για τον μήνα του Χάλλοουιν και το 2ο το ολοκλήρωσα στην τρίχα,
πριν μας αφήσει ο Γενάρης.
Αυτό το τρίτο το ολοκλήρωσα επίσης στην τρίχα, πριν μας αφήσει κι ο Ιούλης.
Είναι η μυθιστορηματοποίηση (novelisation) από την Αμερικανοβρετανή
συγγραφέα Pat Cadigan του πρώτου προσχέδιου (draft) από το σενάριο
του Αμερικανοκαναδού steampunk συγγραφέα William Gibson.
Ένα σενάριο που απορρίφθηκε από τους παραγωγούς της τρίτης ταινία Alien,
πολύ διαφορετικό από την ταινία και πλησιάζει περισσότερο την ταινία του Κάμερον
παρά την άκρως σκοτεινή και δυστοπική του Φιντσερ.
Παρόλο που διαβάστηκε αρκετά γρήγορα (100+ σελίδες την μέρα)
ένιωσα ότι ως βιβλίο ήθελε ακόμη δουλειά.
Χάρτινοι χαρακτήρες βγαλμένοι από B-movie,
πολύ γρήγορη εναλλαγή σκηνών και αφηγητών που πολλές φορές σε μπέρδευε
και δεν προλάβαινες να συλλάβεις τον χώρο, για το πού και το τι γινόταν,
και φυσικά ένιωθα ότι διάβαζα μια διαφορετική βερσιόν του Aliens, υποδεέστερη.
Δεν ξέρω αν θα δοκιμάσω στο μέλλον να διαβάσω κάτι άλλο από
Gibson και Cadigan αλλά σίγουρα θα συνεχίσω με τις
μυθιστορηματοποιήσεις των άλλων 4 ταινιών:
Alien³
Alien Resurrection
Prometheus
(για όταν θα εκδοθεί Αγγλικά γιατί μόνο στα Γιαπωνέζικα υπάρχει. Γιατί; Τρέχα γύρευε)
Alien: Covenant Origins
August 1, 2025
After the first listen, I was thinking, "You know, maybe me setting the bar so low on this actually made me like it a lot."
Then I started listening to it a second time, and I thought, "Nah, I was right. This isn't very good."
But it's not completely awful. It's not like baditude, not really raditude. Kind of saditude, and admittedly does make me a little maditude. But it could've been a lot worse, so I'll find the silver lining and take the high road. There are some good tunes, even if the lyrics make me wish I didn't speak English so I could enjoy the album more.
Party on.
Then I started listening to it a second time, and I thought, "Nah, I was right. This isn't very good."
But it's not completely awful. It's not like baditude, not really raditude. Kind of saditude, and admittedly does make me a little maditude. But it could've been a lot worse, so I'll find the silver lining and take the high road. There are some good tunes, even if the lyrics make me wish I didn't speak English so I could enjoy the album more.
Party on.
November 23, 2022
-so much fast paced alien action and slaughter.
-weird and terrifying alien hybrids.
-spaceship claustrophobia.
-war between communists and capitalists.
-Weyland-Yutani gets more than they bargained for, as usual.
-Bishop cracking jokes.
I quite liked it.
-weird and terrifying alien hybrids.
-spaceship claustrophobia.
-war between communists and capitalists.
-Weyland-Yutani gets more than they bargained for, as usual.
-Bishop cracking jokes.
I quite liked it.
October 28, 2021
This 100% different from the movie so don't be put off if you have seen the movie. I suppose the main reason why this was not made is because Ripley isn't in it. It's Hicks, Bishop and Newt. The big change. In any move a little girl will grow so Newt would been big problem because the child actress would be lot older.
Also I don't think in the 1980s that 'new' Aliens in this book would be very unlikely to create. This lot more brutal than Alien. With darker twists.
This the movie that would been better than what we got.
The only thing I do now understand is why Gibson did not want to write it.
Also I don't think in the 1980s that 'new' Aliens in this book would be very unlikely to create. This lot more brutal than Alien. With darker twists.
This the movie that would been better than what we got.
The only thing I do now understand is why Gibson did not want to write it.
November 2, 2021
The journey this book has taken to existing is insane; when I was younger I was obsessed with all things Alien so I've had my fair share of exposure to terrible IPs (Superman v Alien comes to mind).
In this version of Alien3 the Aliens have evolved, merging with Bishop's artificial blood and are now able to burst fully formed from people. Upping the ante and setting up a final showdown between humans and the Alien Homeworld.
There are some odd choices, the book constantly references LV426 and the Marines of Aliens in a way that gets almost obsessive. The characters introduced die at a phenomenal rate, and they don't get much of an introduction and when you're never sure who's going to play a page you stop learning their names. Ripley is kept literally on ice and Newt is shipped off at the beginning.
It speeds along like a freight train and hits a lot of the beats from Aliens.
In this version of Alien3 the Aliens have evolved, merging with Bishop's artificial blood and are now able to burst fully formed from people. Upping the ante and setting up a final showdown between humans and the Alien Homeworld.
There are some odd choices, the book constantly references LV426 and the Marines of Aliens in a way that gets almost obsessive. The characters introduced die at a phenomenal rate, and they don't get much of an introduction and when you're never sure who's going to play a page you stop learning their names. Ripley is kept literally on ice and Newt is shipped off at the beginning.
It speeds along like a freight train and hits a lot of the beats from Aliens.
June 26, 2023
The plot is pretty basic and there’s absolutely no characterisation, which may not be the worst thing given that you’re just waiting for these people to die. It feels like a mash-up of Alien and Aliens, and it’s not as good as either of those. Cadigan’s writing is serviceable, but a couple of things grated after a while. First, Cadigan has a bad habit of using colloquialisms and references that just feel out of place within the context of the Alien franchise’s setting (future, outer space). For example, the incessant likening of two characters to “Barbie” and “Ken” felt repetitive and awkward. Second, Cadigan doesn’t really know how to build suspense. Human encounters with xenomorphs and other varieties of alien feel a bit rote; there’s no sense of shock or horror. Without any sense of suspense, there’s no corresponding feeling of surprise. Characters, who have been provided absolutely no meaningful character development, appear in the narrative and then later die unceremoniously. This would be fine if the deaths felt visceral, but it all just falls a bit flat. In any case, it was interesting to read this alternate version of Alien 3, as it feels more in keeping with the tone of the first two films. However, as much as the version of Alien 3 that we got tends to be dismissed, I feel that it at least tried something a bit different and, as such, is a more interesting story than this one.
December 27, 2023
Kann verstehen weshalb dieses Script nicht genommen wurde! Jedoch eine interessante Version des 3. Teils!
January 7, 2022
Really wish we'd gotten this in film form, because damn does this go to some really weird and gory places. Reading this book felt like the perfect balance between Alien and Aliens, with the slow burn and dread of Alien filling the first half of the book, and the action/survival horror of Aliens occupying the second half. As a fan of the franchise, I can definitely recommend this to fellow Alien nerds.
January 23, 2022
A worthy follow up to Aliens. If this had been the filmed version the original trilogy would likely have been better regarded. Gibsons's story was bigger, more horrifying, and suitably epic. A book continuation on this alternate story path would be welcome.
July 10, 2023
Garbage, cover to cover
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