Alien: Covenant Origins

Good preview into earth

Well the preview into earths conditions was nice. There was some slow parts but overall some nice info about the universe. Would have been hard to keep interest as there was not much action. Good thing this story was created after already being a fan. If it was first story in order...I don’t know if it would create fans.

11 of 11 people found this review helpful

Corporate Espionage, No Monsters

I've been a fan of the Alien films for a long time. I didn't have the opportunity to see Alien Covenant in theaters, but have the film on Blu Ray, though I haven't seen it yet. I decided to wait until the prequel Book was published and read it and the film novelization before watching the movie. It is unusual that the prequel book, which should've been published first, was actually last.
There are no monsters in this book, as it is a tale of corporate espionage regarding the mission of the colony ship Covenant. The intrigue is well written and interesting, though not all questions are answered. Weyland -Yutani is not quite the corporate powerhouse in this book, though they are a conglomerate. The head Hideo Yutani is interesting. The organization that opposes him, the Earth Savers has a "prophet" who seemingly knows what monsters like in the dark. His nightmares have given the Earth Savers fuel for their fire. This plot point is similar to one in an earlier book, Alien Sea of Shadows. Please note: Spoilers.
Duncan Fields, the prophet, seems to have an empathetic link to the Alien warriors, similar to Ripley's descendant in Sea of Shadows. He had the ability to see through the Alien warriors eyes. Duncan Fields seems to have this ability as well, though the background is not explained fully. Still a great read. I read this book using Immersion Reading. Narrator Tom Taylorson, is excellent, with a beautiful, clear voice and is gifted with accents. It was definitely a highlight to hear this book as well as read it. Worth your time.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Hard sci-fi political intrigue in Alien Universe

If you haven't already - listen to this BEFORE the Alien: Covenant novelization!

Great reader, great writer - I love the Alien universe and and really happy to have an expansion of life on earth at the time of the Covenant launch with well voiced, interesting characters.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Pointless

I am a big fan of the Alien Universe especially the last two movies. I am intrigued by the story and ideology way more than the horror part of it. This book is pointless. Yes I understand the title of the book but, it is so generic. It's like if I wrote down a 200 page book of my experience and preparations for a vacation involving planes and airport traveling. There is very little substance of anything pertaining to the Alien Universe. As Trump likes to tweet.... SAD, so SAD.

29 of 35 people found this review helpful

good

nice edition to the timeline. no aliens are involved but i expected as much. still great though.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Great narrator, lackluster writing

The story is merely backstory of how Weyland-Yutani came about getting the Covenant mission to take place. There's violent employees, there's a lot of dialogue for the sake of dialogue, and there's minimal character development of the crew of the Covenant. Save yourself 8 hours and don't listen to this; you'll thank me later.

What kept me engaged in this book was the narrator and his artistic ability to have distinct accents and tonality per character (male and female). I'd listen to other books he's narrated simply because it's a talent for sure.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Confusion and Weak Story

Let me start this 1st by saying that I mean absolutely NO OFFENSE to ANYONE WHATSOEVER who did enjoy this "book". These are just my thoughts. That being said...PLEASE!!!! SAVE YOUR MONEY/CREDITS!! THIS BOOK (and I use that term loosely in this case) IS ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE!!!

Wow, ok first I HATE to say/write this about ANYTHING Alan Dean Foster has EVER written! I truly love his books and feel he's a fantastic author. I've never been disappointed with anything he's ever written! Until this hot mess came along - and I'd like to also go on record that I feel he was made to write this book and off of someone else's outline for the story as none of it seemed to be in his usual style and rhythm. Yes, I know, everyone can write a bad book and still get it published, one need only look at the mindboggling success of the 50 Shades of Suck to grasp this concept - a series that apparently I'm the only person on planet who hasn't read, will never read, and still slap forehead when thinking about how successful the series and movies are! O-M-G!! Seriously?!?! That being stated however, I still can't believe he wrote this!

Secondly, as if Alien: Covenant - the movie (the book, also by Alan Dean Foster, was actually quite good even though I wasn't particularly thrilled with where the story went, but that had nothing to do with Mr. Foster, he just wrote a book about the story the Sir Ridley Scott had decided to tell.), wasn't disappointing enough, now someone had the insane idea to create a book about what came before the doomed Covenant "mission"! If you thought Alien: Covenant was a hot mess, confusing, and basically had no clear path, they've finally topped it with this ridiculously confusing and very hard to follow "prequel" book!

I don't know if they thought this was supposed to clarify questions about why and who they choose for the Covenant mission but it's got so many "flashbacks", "flashforwards", and "flashsideways" in it, that you're just left going "Huh?" by the end. Speaking of which let me end as I began by saying:

"SAVE YOUR MONEY/CREDITS!! THIS BOOK IS ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE!!!"

AGAIN, THESE ARE JUST MY PERSONAL VIEWS AND THOUGHTS. I TRULY MEAN ABSOLUTELY NO OFFENSE OR DISRESPECT TO ANYONE WHATSOEVER WHO DID ENJOY THIS BOOK!!!
Lady Anne ^^ö^^

Post - Script:
If you're looking for an excellent Alien adventure, with a fantastic story and an AMAZING dramatization, pick up Tim Libbomen's(?spelling) new Alien: River of Pain which just came out on this past 2018's "Alien Day" (Alien Day is every year on 4-26 in honor of LV-426, the moon where the whole Alien series started with the Nostromo landing in response of that so called "distress signal"). A truly fantastic book/dramatization about the events that occurred just prior to the movie Aliens. Awesomeness!! - Lady Anne ^^ö^^

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

corporatocratic cyberpunk dystopia

Alan Dean Foster trusts that the mythology established by the Alien films is dense and interesting enough to sustain a story without needlessly shoehorning a xenomorph into the proceedings. All the monsters in this book are human. Instead of a monster story, what we get is a fascinating prequel to Covenant that does an admirable job of world-building and fleshing out characters from the film, while also serving up a fast-paced cyberpunk thriller. Tom Taylorson does a great job with the narration. If you didn't like Alien:Covenant, this won't change your mind, but if you love the Alien universe and enjoy marinating in its bleak and all-too-plausible dystopic vision of a future bursting with corporate shills, malevolent AIs and monsters with very sharp teeth--human and otherwise--then this book won't disappoint.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great book, clean content and a great story.

The story and plot are clear and believable. The characters each play a followable role. I'm down loading the next book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Bland and Uneventful

This story adds more depth to the political/business aspect of events on earth, however it does not seem to be interested in telling any actual story. This is filler of the mythos just for filler purposes; something to be told and put into the Wikia page. I'm disappointed in this purchase. There are much more interesting stories available on Audible concerning the Alien franchise and I'd recommend seeking out those.