| Title | : | Alien: Out of the Shadows (Canonical Alien Trilogy, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1781162689 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781781162682 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 352 |
| Publication | : | First published December 17, 2013 |
| Awards | : | Audie Award Excellence in Production (2017) |
When a shuttle crashed into the mining ship Marion, the miners learn that there was more than trimonite deep in the caverns. There was evil, hibernating - and waiting for suitable prey.
Hoop and his associates uncover a nest of Xenomorphs, and hell takes on new meaning. Quickly they discover that their only hope lies with the unlikeliest of saviors...
Ellen Ripley, the last human survivor of the salvage ship Nostromo.
Alien: Out of the Shadows (Canonical Alien Trilogy, #1) Reviews
-
This was silly and fun and brilliant. Would I have read it in print format? No. But as an Audible dramatisation, it was thrilling. The sound effects were spot on, giving the story an atmosphere and immediacy that I doubt the book would match.
There were a few problems with the insertion of the story into the canon. There are very limited ways you can stick a whole episode between films but not have Ripley remember it. Still, it was delicious knowing that all the other characters had to die, but now knowing how or when. There was also quite a lot of 'borrowing' from the character styles in both Alien and Aliens. I see from other reviews that this annoyed some people, but I thought it was a useful trick for audio. It meant that the listener built up a mental picture of the people really quickly, without having to add lots of description, which is pretty difficult in dramatisations in any case.
Overall, I think it had more to it than some of the other episodes in the Alien franchise, i'm looking at you Prometheus and Alien Resurrection. It reminded me of how much I love Ripley- sod all these modern female heroines, Ripley has been kicking serious ass and saving lives since 1979. I'll be watching the films again soon for sure. -
Let me start by saying that this isn’t a book I’d buy. It’s currently free over on audible and it’s the reason I didn’t sleep much last night. The audio-book is more of a dramatization rather than a simple reading, and it added so much suspense, with the chilling sound effects and creepy music: it took this to the next level entirely and made me realise that it certainly is worth buying.
I enjoyed this so much more than I thought I would! It slots perfectly into the Alien time lime, between the first and second Alien films. The antagonist is, once again, Ash (the android from the first film.) His body was destroyed but he managed to upload his consciousness to the ship’s computer, and he has lingered there ever since, slowly growing stronger until he dominated all the systems. He’s like a virus, infecting the ships mainframe, and he is ready to complete his original mission: bringing alien life back to Earth no matter the cost in human life.
Ripley doesn’t remember anything that happened from this book in subsequent films, and the explanation as to why at the end of this book worked quite well. It was a little forced, but still plausible. And that’s kind of important because the story does not fuck with the timeline, but instead provides a dark and disturbing story that really could have happened. It’s typical of what you’d expect from the franchise, an Alien loose on the ship systematically killing of all the crew as Ash aided it’s attempts.
Despite the formulaic approach, it was still quite exciting. It’s obvious that everybody (apart from Ripley) would die. Waiting in the shadows was the dark and fearsome creature fans have come to love in all its viciousness, and seeing it pick off the crew one by one was really quite satisfying. I sound like a sadist, but as far as horror goes this was right on the money.
It’s a solid piece of storytelling and could quite easily have been a film in the series; it would have been better than both Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection without a doubt.
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Academia -
I enjoyed this, I've never had much faith in spin-offs until now; I want to read every Alien book I can get my hands on after this.
It's well-written, tense, very fast-paced and full of action.
I think you need to at least have watched the movie Alien (1979) to appreciate this book which is set in the period between the end of Alien and the beginning of the movie, Aliens (1986).
Ellen Ripley (of the movies) plays a key role in this book but the main protagonist is Chris Hooper who is a fantastic addition to the series.
Highly recommend it to anyone who's a fan of the Alien movie franchise. -
This was a full cast production offered for free at Audible and I enjoyed it! .
I'm not sure this would have worked as well for me in book form as it did in audio. The actress doing Ripley's voice was dead on, and Rutger Hauer as Ash's voice was also perfect.
Combined with the sound effects of the various ship functions, this production was a lot of fun to listen to: especially for free. -
I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would.
It fits in nicely to the main storyline in the films and has some teasers in there also. -
Surprisingly engaging and utterly thrilling, this audio dramatisation of an Alien novel is quite superb. I would not have picked this up if not for the freebie being offered by Audible during its 20th Anniversary celebration a few months ago, not even being aware that there are also official canonical novels in this science fiction horror franchise.
If you have never watched the movies before, please note that there will be spoilers for the first film, Alien.
In my opinion, the second film, Aliens, was one of the best sequels in the history of movie-making. I have less favourable views on the subsequent movies and the prequel series. In the sequel, sole survivor Ellen Ripley was rescued after 57 years in stasis and drifting in space onboard the Nostromo. The timeline in Alien: Out of the Shadows is set somewhere in between the first two movies.
The story commences with the Marion, a mining space vessel, orbiting planet LV178 where humans have discovered trimonite, the hardest material known to man. It would not be a spoiler, nor a surprise to learn that the miners stumbled upon a nest of Xenomorphs on the planet and the waking nightmare ensued after a dropship carrying frantic and terrified miners crashed into the main vessel. While the crew on the Marion remained relatively safe for the moment, their distress signal was picked up by the Nostromo in which Ripley had been drifting in deep space under stasis.
The new characters are all likeable, and their friendship and loyalty to one another feel genuine and compelling - especially when performed by a great cast. And I swear that Laurel Lefkow sounded so much like Sigourney Weaver that I initially thought Audible managed to get the talented actress to lend her voice - her portrayal of Ripley was spot on!
The two highlights in this story for me are the two familiar and fascinating characters from Alien. Firstly, we have Ellen Ripley who was my childhood hero and probably the most significant character in challenging gender roles in science fiction and action movies back in those days. And then, there is the return of Ash and the android's long endgame towards the goal of fulfilling Special Order 937 of Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
This Audible Original Drama version of the book is a worthy winner of the 2017 APA Audie Awards for Excellence in Production. All the sound effects from the ship's instrumentation and computers to the hair-raising hisses and screams of the Xenomorphs and an atmospheric soundtrack made for a most immersive experience and lent a palpable tension to the story. Even though I was only listening to the book, I literally cringed during some of the more violent and gory moments. I sincerely doubt that reading the novel itself will be even half as thrilling. Lebbon's prose has been stripped away - as a dramatisation; there is zero narration. While I've not read any of his books, I gathered from a few other reviews that one would not sorely miss the narrative if one chooses this dramatic version instead.
After being disappointed with the movies following Aliens and the prequel series, I am pleased to discover this great cinematic audio production of film canon material of one my old favourites. Recommended, especially for fans of the franchise
Check out the Audible ad. -
4 stars for the story, 5 for the Audible production. The performance was excellent, including all the sound effects, particularly the bleeps, the sweeps, and the creeps.
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I wanted to like this.
Supposedly taking place between the two films, Ellen Ripley is taken out of cryosleep sooner than what was revealed in Aliens 2. We go on another Alien adventure.
I place a great store in originality in the books I like and while I knew that this was a series, or tie in, or whatever I thought this may be a new twist on the Alien story. Does not appear to be, DNF at 25%.
Lebbon is a good writer and I see many people who enjoyed this, but I could not.
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Okay, wow. Where to begin. This is going to be wordy.
I'm first to admit I read some trashy Fantasy/Sci Fi. I'm a sucker for a good sword, spell or space ship. I normally steer far far away from Franchise stuff though, because its usually spitting distance away from fan fiction on the internet. I'm an unabashed fan of (most of) the Scott/Cameron Alien universe though and I can even find some entertainment in the Fincher/Jeunet extensions. We won't talk about the Anderson AvP movies though. I've read both of Alan Dean Fosters novelizations of Alien and Aliens numerous times (They were staple reads during Jr High) and sadly I can talk more about the events and corporate histories of those two movies/books than I can about a number of real world subjects.
So coming to this book I didn't think much of it when I saw it was coming out but two things piqued my interest. The first was that it was claimed to be canon with the movies. Now, I'm not sure who decides that since there isn't really a single creator of the Alien world, (and I'm assuming they OKed a number of horrible acts perpetrated on it over the years as well) and then it started getting pretty decent reviews. That's literally all I knew about the book though. No plot summaries, no timelines, other than 'Alien' I went in blind.
I knew I was in trouble when within the first 15 pages the proverbial crap has hit the intake fan and someone is already LITERALLY doing a 'Game Over, man!' speech. Not good, see earlier reference to spitting distance of fan fiction. As thins went on it continued to borrow heavily from the movies. And by borrow I mean copy almost directly. Ugh. Next imagine my surprise when who shows up but Ripley. Uhm, what? They explicitly state its 37 years after the disappearance of the Nostromo from Alien. Oookay, it was 57 years later when the Narcissus (Her escape ship that she left with at the end of the first movie) is found at the beginning of Aliens and she didn't tell any wacky tales of being woken up and then put back to sleep.
So what continues from there is a pretty generic 'against all odds' sci fi. Through various evolutions the critters get on a mining ship, they go to the surface, they encounter more critters, they have seemingly impossible goals to fulfill to survive while they get picked off one by one, only a few of them make it out alive and they blow up the entire facility before returning to the ship to deal with the one leftover alien. Where have I seen that story before?
So whatever, the story isn't original, it was mildly entertaining, but it TICKS ME OFF. It claims to be canon but it introduces all sorts of things that make absolutely NO sense to the Alien universe and then wraps things up in a super convenient Deus Ex Machina to explain how it leads into Aliens that probably would have been BETTER written if Ripley had just woken up finding it was all a cryo sleep dream! I actually just reduced my rating from 2 starts down to 1 after writing that and getting even more pissed off.
I shouldn't be surprised, its a money grab book that thumbs its nose at actual fans of the series and there's really no reason for it. Even better its open ended and there's another book coming in June which I'm sure will contain more of Ripleys wacky hijnks everyone was waiting to hear about between Alien and Aliens.
There's nothing in this book to recommend it to anyone. Its barely passable sci fi on its own and for an Alien fan its just insulting. Nuke it from orbit, its the only way to be sure. -
This is just ridiculous! How much better these books can become?!
I started reading this series out of the order, mostly because of the Audible's aggressive marketing campaign, but it doesn't really matter. If you like Alien these are all just new sequel/prequel episodes. Each one for itself in the well-interconnected universe.
Finally got time to read the leading story in the canonical Alien Trilogy. Was not disappointed!
I'm not even going to say anything more. For every Alien fan - this is as good as you're expecting it to be. And, due to it being recorded by a full cast, perhaps even better!
Rutger Hauer
Alien: Out of the Shadows (Canonical Alien Trilogy #1)
by Tim Lebbon (Goodreads Author), Dirk Maggs (Director), Rutger Hauer (Narrator), Corey Johnson (Narrator), Kathryn Drysdale (Narrator), Laurel Lefkow (Narrator), Andrea Deck (Narrator), Mac McDonald (Narrator)
Verdict: I got scared shitless and loved every second of it!
Overall:
Performance:
Story: -
3.5
Thirty-seven years of nightmares, she thought. And now that I’m awake, the nightmare has woken with me.
I’m not the type to usually jump on the bandwagon for Sci-fi series, but the Alien series has always been my soft spot. I’ve watched the first two several times, collected the expensive but irresistibly huge DVD box set when it was released, and a few EBay collector items and limited figures. I’ve always wanted to read books on the series – the only thing that’s surprised me is I waited this long.
I’ve rea d a few books by Tim Lebbon and he’s a gifted author who usually dabbles in the horror or thriller scene. I’ve always found the Alien scene particularly creepy and an excellent example of how well science fiction and horror make a fascinating marriage of genres. There aren’t any complains about the writing style, dialogue or the characterization. No one comes across flat and all serve their appropriate purpose for the most part.
It’s fitting to start an Alien series with Ripley, and the way this was done to squeeze it in between the first and second movies cannon was creative and stylish. Sometimes there was an overdose of flashbacks to her daughter Amanda and imagined horror scenarios for her child. This especially got heavy later on – a bit too much so – but I think the point of that was setting up a particular technological technique to be seductive and reassuring rather than unrealistic.
He was the stuff of the stars, and when he was a young boy—dreaming of monsters, and looking to space in the hope that he would find them—that had made him feel special. Now, it only made him feel small.
If you got chills from the android Ash from the original movie, you’ll get plenty of him here – not in physical form, of course, but that’s not even needed with the communication with him and Ripley and some of the “letters”.
The start is interesting with a different group, and I dug the dynamics of the people when they all merged, but it did tend to slow down and drag on a bit when they were at the heart of the Alien trouble. It almost stopped feeling like a genuine alien story and it’s mainly a game of cat and mouse chasing.
The idea is creative and well executed, although the details can sometimes be a bit lackluster. It was nice to see Ripley in between voyages and how the mother angle would tie in so highly in the second movie (story) by bringing up her daughter so often and strongly. I did think the romantic element was a little false, but it also made sense because desperation and loneliness make people clatch on to any new person they can, especially to replace personal loss.
We don’t get many cool scenes with the alien mouth-thing, but we get tons of emphasis on the acid blood and the chest incubation. -
Alien: Out of the Shadows was a fast-paced and action filled book. I love the movies (rewatched Alien yesterday) and I was really looked forward to reading the book. I wasn't sure how they would, or even if they would explain how Ripley could be in this story since it takes place between Alien and Aliens, but they did. Perhaps a bit of an easy solution, but at least they explained it.
It was a great read. Perhaps not as terrifying as seeing the movies, but reading some part of the book was just at chilling as seeing it happened on the screen. Some parts was almost worse, it's awful enough to see an alien burst from a chest, reading about it and the moments up to it wasn't that nice either. -
I listened to this freebie audiobook on Audible. This was one of the best I've listened to as far as production quality goes. The voice actors were amazing. The music and sound effects made it feel like I was listening to a movie. Having said all of that, I didn't think the book itself was amazing but I did enjoy it much more than I thought I would. 3.5 stars.
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Nach sehr langer Zeit habe ich mal wieder ein Hörspiel gehört und bin sehr begeistert. Natürlich trägt die Originalsynchronstimme von Sigourney Weaver (Karin Buchholz) sehr zur authentischen Atmosphäre bei. Und auch Dietmar Wunder (u.a. Daniel Craig) und David Nathan sind Teil der gelungenen Produktion. Doch das schönsten Stimmen bringen nichts, wenn die Geschichte hakt, aber das tut sie nicht. Sie spinnt die Story des 1. Teils der Verfilmung gekonnt weiter, wenn Ripley nach 37 Jahren Hyperschlaf plötzlich in einem anderen Sonnensystem auftaucht, in dem, wenn wundert es, Aliens ihr Unwesen treiben. Das Einzige, was nervt, waren die Dialoge, die im Angesicht der extremen Gefahr, die dann mir eindeutig zu oft albern statt cool vorkamen. Aber für die Produktion und die spannende Geschichte gibt es 4 interstellare Leuchtkörper.
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I am usually leery of any movie novelisations or tie-ins. However, the recent announcement that South African director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Chappie) had been given the green light by Fox to film his long-gestating Alien project coincided with my discovery of this Alien novel by Tim Lebbon, a respected fantasy and horror author. (There are two more in what is a loose trilogy, by James A. Moore and Christopher Golden). And being in the mood for a popcorn read, I thought, how bad can it be?
To my surprise, this was hugely enjoyable and accomplished – despite a half-assed marketing attempt by Titan Books to bill as this a direct sequel to Alien. Which I suppose means it is a prequel to Aliens. (Which also gives a wry nod to some of the more outré excesses of Prometheus, if you are not confused enough already).
Any fan of the movies knows, of course, that Ripley’s appearance in such a book is totally illogical: Lebbon’s answer to this dilemma is the only misstep in a generally assured and confident horror novel.
The 1979 movie by Ridley Scott – and let us not forget H.R Giger’s Alien design – is one of the greatest SF movies ever made, revelling in the genre’s gothic and pulp origins. Indeed, the Alien creature has become as iconic as Jaws, King Kong or E.T. The Extraterrestrial.
One of the greatest attributes of the Alien creature is its mystery and savagery, combined with its ability to evoke both awe and a weird sexual frisson – Scott masterfully introduced all these elements into his original movie.
Subsequent sequels tended to focus on a single element at the expense of all the others: action in Aliens, martyrdom in Alien 3, and who knows what-the-fuck in Alien Resurrection. Scott’s own Prometheus (2012) raised its nose disdainfully at the schlockier elements of his seminal original, and was a pretentious failure as a result.
Lebbon’s continuation of the original story – what happens to Ripley (and let us not forget Jonesy the ship’s cat, as well as the more-corporate-than-thou Weyland-Yutani) after they escape from the Nostromo in a shuttle craft is positioned somewhere between Aliens and Alien 3 in terms of tone and effect.
There is sufficient action to please even the most diehard movie fan, but the real achievement here is how nuanced the characters are, and what insight we get into Ripley. Surprisingly, Ripley herself has remained as much a cipher as the Alien creature itself: more a means to an end (elaborate death and destruction on a galactic scale) than a flesh-and-blood person.
Lebbon gives Ripley a nicely textured palette of pathos, anger and terror. In addition, he wisely resists the temptation to write a by-the-numbers book explaining the origin and evolution of the Alien culture: all we get are tantalising, and sometimes awe-inducing, glimpses.
Given how good this novel is – how it manages to tell a gripping, character-driven story in which a bunch of disparate characters have to deal with a terrifying manifestation of the Unknown – it remains one of the more perplexing mysteries of Hollywood as to how it has managed to fuck-up all the sequels from Alien 3 onwards. Let us hope Blomkamp and his team restore Ripley to her rightful place. -
My original
ALIEN: OUT OF THE SHADOWS audiobook review and many others can be found at
Audiobook Reviewer.
In 2014, Titan Books released the first in a new series of books set in the Alien film franchise under the supervision of the movie studio 20th Century Fox. These novels are considered part of the film canon and help expand and flesh out the movie universe, and they launched with Tim Lebbon’s Alien: Out of the Shadows, set between the first two movies and featuring the series’ heroine, Lt. Ellen Ripley.
Following the destruction of the Nostromo in the first Alien movie, Ripley put herself into hypersleep and drifted through space. Movie buffs know that 57 years passed between Alien and Aliens, but Lebbon has crafted a nicely fitting story that slots itself directly into the middle of this time gap. In Out of the Shadows, the damaged mining vessel Marion picks up a distress call from Ripley’s lifeboat, while the crew contends with the discovery of a vicious life-form on the planet LV-178. It’s not long before Ripley is pressed back into action, haunted by the events aboard the Nostromo, and hellbent on saving the crew of the Marion.
Rather than taking Lebbon’s novel and producing a straight-up audiobook, Audible Studios and director Dirk Maggs have turned Out of the Shadows into a brilliant audio drama, crafting a production that may well be the best Alien production since James Cameron’s own Aliens. Using an ensemble cast of voice actors, including actor Rutger Hauer in his first audio performance as the now-disembodied ghost in the machine of the android Ash, and an array of sound effects and musical score, the production quality on display here is downright phenomenal.
Actor Corey Johnson brings to life Chief Engineering Hooper, while Laurel Lefkow voices Ripley. The chemistry between these two is terrific and you get a great sense of camaraderie as they form a fast friendship under the threat of the alien menace. Lefkow in particular wowed the heck out of me, and a few times I could have positively sworn that Maggs had gotten Sigourney Weaver to reprise her role. Lefkow absolutely nails the tone, inflection, and speech patterns of Weaver’s Ellen Ripley and it’s mighty damn impressive to listen to.
Rounding out the voice talent is the full-fledged sonic experience of the work itself. From the familiar not-quite dot matrix noises of the computers as they display text, to the ferocious grunts, hisses, and screams of the aliens, and the attendant instrumental score, Out of the Shadows is a frighteningly immersive experience, and one that is very audibly an Alien story. Dirk Maggs has been credited with turning the audio drama into an audio movie for his BBC productions, and that particular knack is on full display here. Lebbon’s prose work has been stripped away, although the story and dialogue, with a bit of finessing for this dramatization, remain intact and is lovingly crafted in a highly cinematic experience for the mind. With the accompanying audio you can really let your imagination run wild and set the scene in your mind’s eye on this one. This is as much an audio movie as it as a movie of the mind, and it’s scarily effective. Be sure to listen to this one with a good set of headphones to fully appreciate the layers and depth that went into constructing this audio drama, but be careful not to fall off the edge of your seat.
Some may argue that by placing this story between the first two Alien films that it’s not an entirely necessary work. To this, and with a shoulder shrug, I can only say, “meh.” I, for one, don’t care a whit about this works “necessity” because it’s just too damn good to ignore. This is a fun listening experience, and one of the best Alien productions we’ve gotten in a long, long while. It’s great to see, or rather, hear, Ellen Ripley back in action and kicking butt on land and in space.
If I have to post one complaint, it’s that the inclusion of Ash serves mostly as story recaps. While Hauer is a great choice to voice this iconic character, a lot of the information Ash relays, in the form of status update reports to the Weyland-Yutani corporation, is redundant to the unfolding plot, and given the frequency at which this is done over the course of the production’s 4 hours and 28 minutes it often times feel highly repetitive. If you’re spreading this listen out over multiple days or longer, these updates may serve as helpful story recaps, but if you’re digesting the story in large chunks they ultimately add little. Like a television show’s “previously on” segment, these recaps don’t eat up a lot of time, so this is ultimately a very minor complaint in the grander scheme of things.
As they did with last year’s adaptation of Joe Hill’s Locke & Key, Audible Studios has delivered a knock-out win of an audio drama – and for a work set in one of my favorite film series, no less! I had read and enjoyed Lebbon’s novel of this work when it came out a few years ago, but I absolutely loved listening to this adaptation. Dirk Maggs and his cast and crew have created a very special production for Alien fans with this dramatization, released on Alien Day (4-26, as in LV-426), and it’s a work that I highly recommend. Now go give it a listen! -
Okay, after thinking about it for several hours, I decided to raise my rating to 5 stars after originally giving it 4 stars. Maybe 4.5 stars, rounded up?
I'm not a fan of Audible's audio dramas at all, and I've tried to listen to quite a few. They leave so much out of the narration, and most of the details necessary for the story are just lost completely . This was definitely NOT the case with Tim Lebbon's Alien: Out of the Shadows.
Alien is probably my favorite sci-fi movie series/universe, more so than Star Wars (gasp!), though some movies and episodes of Star Trek run a close second to Ridley Scott's masterpiece. So going in, I was already a fan, and had high expectations for a fun read.
This book was set between the events of the original Alien movie, in which Ellen Ripley was the sole survivor of the Nostromo after the crew discovered the aliens, and Aliens, the second movie. If you haven't seen the first movie in a while, I'd recommend going back to watch that classic. There are many details from that movie that are vital to know as you listen to this book.
The story itself is intense; it is, after all, an Alien story. The trek through the mines, the fight to survive in the mines and on the ship, hearing the crew members be taken out, it all fit the overall Alien mythos perfectly.
The production was outstanding. The sound effects were perfectly recreated, from the sounds of the ship creaking, collapsing, and exploding, to the sounds of the Alien claws scraping across the metal floors and duct work, even the sounds of the face-suckers. Surprisingly, the cast could be heard perfectly over the sound effects (one of my main drawbacks with these Audible dramas), and there was no doubt as to what was happening, what their plans were, and what happened to each of them.
The one thing I didn't like was . Other than that, this was a near-perfect addition to the Alien universe. -
I listened to this on audio book. It was one of the best audio books I ever listened to. The production on this was amazing. The voice acting was top class and so was the music and effects. Highly recommended.
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Now this was fun, ludicrous amounts of fun. My first ever audiobook was a full cast drama and from there on single narrators took a lot of adjusting to. This was more along the lines of an old time radio play, full cast and bombastic special effects, sort of like listening to a dynamic dramatically charged action adventure. Short one, just enough for two good walks and, again, great great fun. Enthusiastically recommended.
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Alien: Out of the Shadows by Tim Lebbon and Dirk Maggs, the narration was a full cast of characters making this story suspenseful and extra thrilling! I love these Alien stories. This one is after the first movie. She has drifted in space for 37 years before being found. It wasn't an accident either! The twists and turns match the terrors!
Wow, loved the cast of narrators! Excellent! -
Amazing! Loved the sound effects, all the narrators and the story speaks for itself. Stupendous!
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2.5 stars
I remember watching the first Alien movie when I was way too young and have snippets of images stuck in my memory forever. This book had the potential to be very interesting as new discoveries about the aliens were revealed but none of these were explored fully.
I also found the omnipotent antagonist, Ash, just a little too convenient and sadly he was only used as a plot device, not a real character.
However even with all my gripes I must give credit to the full cast of narrators, they did a FANTASTIC job and created a real sense of theatre. Especially the actress that played Ripley, she sounded exactly like Sigourney Weaver. Because of the stellar audio production, I have upped my rating to 3 stars.
If you are a fan of the Alien franchise, then I am sure you will love the audio version of this. -
This deserves higher marks for production quality. The audio version was very enjoyable. The story however wa average (not bad just average). It did fit nicely within the canon of Alien movies without distracting us with alternate stories or personalities.
It was a nice very hours of escapism. -
The audiobook version was awesome!
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As I finished this story and sat back to reflect on what I have just read, I felt conflicted.
The story itself takes place between the Movie 1 and 2 of the original trilogy, which is really cool as it adds an additional adventure between Ripley's stasis sleep and Alien2 beginning. It turns out she was not in stasis the whole time after-all.
It is a fun read, but what prevented me to agree with an average 4-star rating is that it took forever to pull me in. Half Way through to be exact. The first half of the book was flat out boring. Explosive beginning turned into boring page flips until the second half. Once that came, however, a jolt of energy shocked me and things just WENT!
Characters: 3
Characters are just about what you would expect. Nothing too fancy or too deep, yet, fun to follow. Main attention grabber to me was actually Ash. Ripley, despite being the main heroine was my 2nd favorite. There is only so much grumpiness I can take, even though I understand her experience made her who she is. Understanding and liking, however, are two different things. She was not very likable to me. Now that is not to say Ash is an angel, but me being in House Slytherin, I gravitated to him more and kept waiting for his parts more than anything else.
All others are kind of blend in and become scenery, almost. Not unusual for a Sci-Fi/Horror book, but also a detriment to earn 4 or 5 stars in my book.
Story: 3
I felt the story was actually really good. It just did not need 350 pages to tell, 200 would have sufficed. I believe T. Lebbon tried to build the tension in the first half to deliver an explosive second, like most Sci-Fi/Horror flicks. It works well in the movies, I think because of the visual effects once the monster is shown. The book through either a reading medium or an author's writing style did not accomplish that effect, so instead story just chugged along very slowly making me fall asleep and be bored in general. Once it picks up, however, it really picks up. Definitely, a well earned 3 stars.
Setting: 3
Here I feel the same mistake as with the story happened, to my reading taste buds at least. So much of the story happened on the spaceship that the setting was often boring to me as well. I think maybe these kinds of stories are just better in a visual format, but on a page, going from one room to another and another, which look pretty much the same. Let's move from one spaceship to another one docked to the side. Smaller..still the same, though. Once they were on the planet and story picked up the setting changes and all the "DAMN" "OOOOO" "WOW" moments kicked in and the setting became much more interesting, deserving a solid 3 stars in my opinion.
All things considered, if you are a fan of the Alien series, I would definitely suggest you read this, you will have fun for sure. If you are not, however, this is a tricky one. Personally, I'd say if you are not a fan, move along. There are many other Sci-Fi/Horror reads out there that are just better overall. I tried this as an experiment and really doubt, I will read Books 2 and 3 of this series.
Roman "Ragnar" -
8/10
This was plain fun. I can’t imagine this is a highbrow novel and anything to write home about but as an audio full cast production it was really good. The cast was spot on, the pacing made me want to listen to more and more, and the production made this like a movie for my ears.
It’s short, coming in at under 5 hours but there is plenty packed into that time. The main question is how does this fit in between Alien and Aliens but it’s dealt with in pretty much the only way they could do and it was predictable. But I didn’t care about that really. I’m not a massive fan of the movies, I enjoyed them but I’ve not seen them more than once or twice in passing, but this jumped straight in and felt like a worthy addition for any fan. The voice casting team nailed Ripley perfectly here and Ash was played really nicely too.
There isn’t much more I can add to this, I took a chance on it as it was free but it impressed me enough to pick the next one up straight away. -
I haven't watched any of the ALIEN movies nor do I want to. I received a free audio book copy of this during Audibles 25th anniversary. So I gave it a listen.
Going in with only a basic idea of the ALIEN universe I found it easy to slip into the story... well what little story there was too be had. The writing was very akin to the screenwriting of a major motion picture. Which means it was shallow, dumb, action packed and relied heavily on visual effects. The last was especially strange since this is a book and thus lacks visual effects.
This book amounts to SciFi porn.
Skip It. -
Though well-performed by all the cast members, within the limited time frame of events and the intensity of the action and imminent destruction, the format does not allow for the background material that the written word provides. The audio-drama, with its sound effects and the cast's dramatic performances, does capture the feel perfectly, but there’s no time to get to know or care about anyone but Ripley, who quickly takes over as the lead once she’s awakened, leaving Hooper in the dust. The rest of the cast is obvious fodder for the aliens’ and Ash’s machinations. Moreover, since this book is specifically labelled as canon, I found it difficult to sink myself into a story that I knew would have to end with a cop-out involving Ripley’s memories being conveniently wiped back to her exit from the Nostromo and Ash’s frequent transmissions drifting into nothingness.
Read more at Women Write About Comics -
Alien out the shadows was overall an entertaining dramatization of the original book for audiobook.
The story follows the 'Nostramus' 40 years after Ripley comes out of hibernation. The voice-over acting is quite good, and kudos for the actress that did Ripley- she sounded exactly like Sigourney Weaver! The audio special effects are also entertaining, but in the end the story reads like a linear video-game: humans chase the Alien, but are then ambushed and killed by the Alien. The ending was pretty climatic, and overall there is some entertainment value to the piece.... specially if like me, you think Ripley was fucking badass!
He's hungry...
3 Stars -
***** 5 Ripley stars *****Audio play, dramatized audio play.
Narrated by Laurel Lefkow (as "Ripley"), Rutger Hauer (as "Ash"), Corey Johnson (as "Hooper"), Matthew Lewis (as "Baxter"), Kathryn Drysdale (as "Snedin"), Andrea Deck (as "Kosinov"), Mac McDonald (as LeChance).4 hours 31 minutes
Overall: 5
Performance: (6!) 5
Story: 4
I'm so impressed!
This audio edition of Alien: Out of the Shadows is a dramatized version based on the book, meaning there's no narrator, but it is acted out like a radio play. There's a voice actor for each character, and they are acting their roles and not narrating them. So it's more an audio play than an audio book. Get it?
On top of that there are a lot of awesome sound effects and music score added. Like doors opening, computer sounds, ship creaking and sounds from equipment and weapons, elevator going down, alarms blaring, beeping sounds, echoes in hallways, basically everything you can think of to build an audible version around the characters, and making an atmosphere with music. And of course, not forget, the love-to-hate aliens or Xenomorphs. They tip toes, and clatter, shriek and scream as we all know from the movies. It was goosebump-inducing!
I literally had goosebumps listening to the first 30 minutes. It was all so... real! The sound effects, the "waiting-for-shit-hitting-the-fan" feeling, the slightly claustrophobic feeling of being on a space ship, and hearing Ripley's voice. I had to check the voice actor list twice to make sure that Sigourney Weaver wasn't in this. Laurel Lefkov, the voice actor of Ripley was SO good!
A little bit about the story.
Alien: Out of the Shadow takes place between the first Alien movie and the second, Aliens. After Ripley blew up the space ship Nostromo in Alien, she put herself (and Jones "Jonsey", the cat, remember him?) into hyper sleep. When Ripley wakes up in #2 Aliens 57 years have passed. This story takes place in the middle of this time gap, 30-ish years after the Nostromo.
The mining ship Marion with a small crew on board is orbiting around the planet LV-178 which is being mined for precious mineral. However, they dug too deep and the Marion gets into some "xeno-trouble" and then Ripley's drifting life boat gets picked up on their radar and they bring her aboard. Unlikely, you might say, but it's all explained in the story. And it was believable in my opinion.
What follows is true chaos in true Alien fashion. The crew and bad ass Ripley battles the vicious and violent Xenomorphs with barely any weapons, through both ship and mining hallways.
You know, the usual...
It was great listening to this!
Since what happens aboard the Marion is not mentioned in the following Alien movies, what happens to Ripley at the end is self explanatory. I've seen reviews saying it was a lazy way out, but I don't agree. What other "out" was there than what happened?
Highly, highly recommended if you are a fan of Aliens and murder and mayhem in space. And also of Ripley. Woot!
