I am really excited about this book relaunch. The first book of the trilogy is fabulous. The return of Ripley is fantastic and the book fits perfectly between the first and second movie. Plus, unlike some of the movies the characters all act like the intelligent people they are. Go read this now. Good summer fun. Better than most of the blockbusters out there. ( )

2.9

I think if I was to read this as a book then I would probably have lost patience quickly. The character writing is lacklustre and the scenario is contrived in a way that creates obvious plot holes for the franchise (or at least demands a lot of suspension of disbelief). As an audio-drama experience, I found it listenable but entirely unengrossing for the first half, but thankfully it does take a slightly more interesting direction as the story progresses. The sound design is detailed but the audio mix limits it from being overly immersive. The voice casting is good and allows the characters to be set apart in a way that the writing is unable to achieve on its own, and the voice for Ripley is very well chosen as a Sigourney Weaver soundalike.

I like the idea of Ash continuing to exist as a sort of virus that infects and seizes control of the ship computers. I was already familiar with this from the game Alien: Isolation, though I'm not sure which came first. I also was pleased to see some attempt to expand the lore a bit with a peek into an ancient alien culture ala Prometheus. This is short-lived with minimal development though and we do end up tumbling back into a lot of the familiar tropes.

At the end of the day, it's inoffensive entertainment. I wasn't willing to sit still for it but I appreciated it as a soundtrack for doing household chores. ( )

Eh...

The person who did the narration for Ripley sounded amazingly like Sigourney Weaver so that was good. But, though Rutger Hauer was fantastic doing the voice for Ash, that whole aspect of the story seemed very thin to me. Plus the action struck me as just a rehash of the original movies. Oh well. ( )

An enjoyable read, but suffers the same thing every prequel does. Lack of stakes. The story wasn't aided by Ripley, I would have preferred leaving her out so that I didn't know how it ended.

Story wise, great. kept me interested the entire time. ( )

Very fun listen. Felt like listening to an Alien movie, lots of good sound effects, pretty good acting, and intense scenes. Nice way to pass a few hours of reporting. ( )