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Alien
An eccentric billionaire wants a piece of a flying saucer, and he is willing to pay one million dollars for it. An astronomer accepts the challenge and searches from the rugged mountains of Ecuador to the frozen marshes of the Saskatchewan. As he searches, he realizes other forces -both human and alien - are out to defeat him in his quest.
- GenresScience Fiction
Paperback
Published January 1, 1977
25 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 9, 2020
Boring!
July 18, 2023
The Short Answer
This book has a massive identity crisis. It can't decide if it wants to be a suspenseful horror, a sexy adventure, or an unraveling mystery. It does all three at different times, and never manages to pull any of them off. There are some promising ideas, and the writing is surprisingly clear and engaging for such a boring story.
It shies away from being truly terrible, but never manages to either be good or bad enough to be enjoyable. In the end it commits probably the worst sin and ends up just being boring.
The Long Answer
A book titled Alien that came out two years before Ridley Scott released his classic film of the same name into the world? Count me in! It doesn't hurt that some of the book takes place in Saskatchewan where I was borne. I had to read this book.
This book was published twice. Once in 1977 when it was first written, then once in 1980. One can only assume the 1980 printing was done in an attempt to ride the coattails of the much better written movie, because there is no way this book sold enough copies to warrant a second printing. The font on the cover of the reprint is clearly imitating the font of movie posters in a cunning attempt to dupe unsuspecting people into buying the book.
Thankfully, the book has not been published since, sparing readers all over the globe from having to scratch their heads. The protagonist is one of the most unlikeable characters I've ever read. The book starts with him complaining about how all him and his wife do is fight, and then they fight over a bad dinner she's made. Then they "made sex" and go on with their life. For the next few chapters we get to witness him leering at every woman he encounters, going so far as to describe panty lines he stares at. He then goes off on an adventure with a hottie to try and prove that UFO's are real and proceeds to sleep with her constantly never so much as mentioning his wife.
And speaking of sex, there is a lot of sex in this book, but it all happens between chapters. There isn't even any foreplay, it's just kind of mentioned casually "then we went back to the hotel and made sex and fell asleep in each others arms".
I would say the sex feels shoehorned in at the request of the publisher, which happens to be Playboy Press, but it keeps being used as key character traits. There's a couple of swingers, a sexy assistant, a billionaire with a harem, and they have a couple discussions about sexual freedom. The author clearly was told to fill the book with sex and had no idea what to do with that. It's always super irrelevant and cringy whenever it comes up.
I guess there's also UFO's in this book. I haven't mentioned them until now because they spend so little time being in the book. The aliens don't want to be discovered, so they try and cover their tracks, but mostly the book is about people trying to sabotage the protagonist's mission in a storyline that ends in the laziest wtf twists ever.
Some other stuff happens in the book, but it's best not to dwell on. While this book is shockingly readable, it isn't quite bad enough to be enjoyably bad, and it's definitely not good enough to worth the read. Definitely pass on this one.
This book has a massive identity crisis. It can't decide if it wants to be a suspenseful horror, a sexy adventure, or an unraveling mystery. It does all three at different times, and never manages to pull any of them off. There are some promising ideas, and the writing is surprisingly clear and engaging for such a boring story.
It shies away from being truly terrible, but never manages to either be good or bad enough to be enjoyable. In the end it commits probably the worst sin and ends up just being boring.
The Long Answer
A book titled Alien that came out two years before Ridley Scott released his classic film of the same name into the world? Count me in! It doesn't hurt that some of the book takes place in Saskatchewan where I was borne. I had to read this book.
This book was published twice. Once in 1977 when it was first written, then once in 1980. One can only assume the 1980 printing was done in an attempt to ride the coattails of the much better written movie, because there is no way this book sold enough copies to warrant a second printing. The font on the cover of the reprint is clearly imitating the font of movie posters in a cunning attempt to dupe unsuspecting people into buying the book.
Thankfully, the book has not been published since, sparing readers all over the globe from having to scratch their heads. The protagonist is one of the most unlikeable characters I've ever read. The book starts with him complaining about how all him and his wife do is fight, and then they fight over a bad dinner she's made. Then they "made sex" and go on with their life. For the next few chapters we get to witness him leering at every woman he encounters, going so far as to describe panty lines he stares at. He then goes off on an adventure with a hottie to try and prove that UFO's are real and proceeds to sleep with her constantly never so much as mentioning his wife.
And speaking of sex, there is a lot of sex in this book, but it all happens between chapters. There isn't even any foreplay, it's just kind of mentioned casually "then we went back to the hotel and made sex and fell asleep in each others arms".
I would say the sex feels shoehorned in at the request of the publisher, which happens to be Playboy Press, but it keeps being used as key character traits. There's a couple of swingers, a sexy assistant, a billionaire with a harem, and they have a couple discussions about sexual freedom. The author clearly was told to fill the book with sex and had no idea what to do with that. It's always super irrelevant and cringy whenever it comes up.
I guess there's also UFO's in this book. I haven't mentioned them until now because they spend so little time being in the book. The aliens don't want to be discovered, so they try and cover their tracks, but mostly the book is about people trying to sabotage the protagonist's mission in a storyline that ends in the laziest wtf twists ever.
Some other stuff happens in the book, but it's best not to dwell on. While this book is shockingly readable, it isn't quite bad enough to be enjoyably bad, and it's definitely not good enough to worth the read. Definitely pass on this one.
January 2, 2023
This book was extremely boring and there were so many sex scenes. It took me over two months to read and I didn't enjoy any part of it.
February 26, 2015
1982 grade F (might have abandoned it)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews