Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Review - Alien: Covenant: The Official Movie Novelization



Titan Books; 348 pages; $7.99; Amazon
I've had the worst blogging experiences trying to write my review for Alien: Covenant: The Official Movie Novelization. After reading the novel last month, I had set up the basics for my review - images, buy link, etc., but then, abracadabra, the post was magically deleted. Frustrated, I put aside writing the review for a few weeks. Then I slowly worked on a long review, where the first few paragraph talked about the history of novelizations. Over the weekend, I dabbled a little more with the review, and then early yesterday morning I finished writing it. I did a little editing and I was seconds away from clicking the  'publish' button when suddenly the entire text disappeared within a flash. I went to use the "undo" button, but it wasn't available, as if my review was never written. After a few cuss words came flying out mouth, I calmed down and began to write what you are currently reading. No, it's not the review I wanted to post, but it is what it is, and hopefully a few readers will enjoy it.

Why did I read a novelization to begin with?

Well, I wanted to watch the science fiction-horror flick Alien: Covenant, but I knew the one-screen theater in my town would never get the movie becasue it was rated R, which is normally a no no for a volunteer-run theater. Instead of waiting for the film to be released to Blu-ray (Next month, right?), I decided to read the novelization.

Alien: Covenant: The Official Movie Novelization is written by Alan Dean Foster, based on the screenplay by John Logan and Dante Harper. Alien: Covenant is a sequel to the 2012 film Prometheus, as well as being a prequel to the original Alien (1979). This isn't the first time author Alan Dean Foster has ventured into the Alien universe, as he also wrote the novelizations of Alien, Aliens, and Aliens 3.

The novel opens up with a prologue (aka, Chapter 1), where we see the creation of David, the synthetic android that appeared in Prometheus. The following chapter introduces the colonization ship Covenant that is bound for a remote planet called Origae-6, carrying two thousand colonists and a thousand human embryos. After the ship is damaged from a stellar neutrino burst, the android named Walter wakes up the crew from stasis.

Later, after the repairs are made, the crew receives a strange radio transmission from an unknown planet. Despite the objections of the Covenant's chief  terraforming officer, Daniels, the acting captain, Oram, orders the crew to take the ship's lander down to the planet's surface and investigate the strange message's origins.

Upon landing on the planet, the crew finds a massive, crashed alien ship (an Engineer spacecraft). Before they can search for any lifeforms, a crew member gets sick after coming in contact with an alien spore. Horror quickly surrounds them, as the first Neomorph creature is born and wrecks havoc. They're only hope of survival is in the hands of the only survivor of the Prometheus, the android David. However, things are never really what they seem to be, as the crew must also fight against a few Protomorph creatures.

Final Thoughts: Alan Dean Foster must be the go-to author for novelizations, as I remember reading a few of this books during my teenage years. He does a good job with Alien:Covenant. All of the characters are well-written, though a few are missing some depth to them, but I'm not complaining, as I'm sure it was also this way in the script. The plot feels less like Prometheus, and more like a proper Alien prequel/sequel. The dialogue is good for the most part, and the descriptions are topnotch. Yes, there are several action scenes, which are also well-done.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Alien: Covenant: The Official Movie Novelization. It's a fast-paced, entertaining read with a few twists and turns that I didn't see coming.




*Note - I received a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.




1 comment:

  1. Sounds like something I'd definitely be interested in reading!

    - El @ El's Book Reviews

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