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Alien: River of Pain

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Alien: River of Pain

By: Christopher Golden
Narrated by: Jeff Harding
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About this listen

When Ellen Ripley finally returns to Earth, she learns that the planet LV-426 - now called Acheron - has been colonised. But LV-426 is where Ripley and the crew of the Nostromo found the original Xenomorph - the killing machine known as the Alien.

Protected by the Colonial Marines, the colonists seek to terraform the storm-swept planet. Two such residents are Anne and Russell Jorden, seeking a fortune that eluded them on Earth. On Acheron, Anne gives birth to the colony's first newborn - Rebecca Jordan, also known as Newt.

The wildcatters discover a vast, decaying spaceship. The horseshoe-shaped vessel is of particular interest to Weyland-Yutani and may be the answer to their dreams. But what Anne and Russ find onboard proves to be the stuff not of dreams but of nightmares.

©2014 Christopher Golden (P)2017 Audible, Ltd Adventure Fiction First Contact Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-Ins Science Fiction Dream Solar System

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All stars
Most relevant
So this narrator thinks all women, but especially Ripley, speak like breathless little girls on the verge of tears all the time. It's so frustrating - has he that low an opinion of women? Do we all sound like that to him?
Story itself is fine, standard Alien fare - I'm listening to fall asleep so I'm not looking for literary excellence, and since I've never written a novel, I'm not going to critique something that sells so well.

Narrator ruins Ripley

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This is definitely a good read/listen for those interested in the preceding events to James Cameron's Aliens. Though it presents some new canon, such as there already having been both a colonial marine and Wetland Yutani scientific presence on the colony of Hadley's Hope, the story resolves in a way makes both RoF and Aliens enjoyable.

However, the story is quite predictable and misses out on building on the initial premise of the failing maintenance of the atmospheric processors on Acheron possibly leading to further catastrophic events, similar to how Alan Dean Foster's novelization of Alien presented the issue of dwindling O2 supplies during the hunt for the xeno on the Nostromo.

The performance of Jeff Harding is very good, with a lot of separation between acting out the different characters.

Interesting take on the last days of Hadley's Hope

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Really enjoyed it, I've already read the book and enjoyed the story, but I think that being able to listen to it being read to you gives your imagination more freedom to see the story .
The book is very well read.
I enjoyed this version even more than the audible original live action radio play version.

Great story and excellently read

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loved the link between Alien and Aliens, good story. I would recommend to any Alien universe fan.

enjoyable

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The title says it all. This is how to write an Alien story. It does have a couple of minor negatives but overall other authors should take note.

This is set just prior to the film Aliens and you may be asking, well we know what happens... well this is where this story shines.

The characters are well fleshed out and not interchangeable as in other Alien stories. The story is also well paced and the author is able to still draw tension, threat and hope from a great story we thiyght we kind of knew.

My small gripe with it would be is the author includes scenes from the movies as a kind of timeline narrative. This is completely and utterly not needed. It pulls you away from the main story and adds nothing. The last couple of chapters drag the story out for no reason. And a little anticlimactic. The story should have stopped earlier. There is an extremely obvious point for it to stop as we know what happens after that.

But my small gripes aside, as a filmmaker I can easily see this as a movie we never asked for but really should be make. Overall cracking stuff.

Alien done right (a movie in waiting)

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