It’s been a long time since I picked up an Alien novel. I dug the Alien 3 novel based on the original script by William Gibson, and before that I read Alan Dean Foster’s adaptation of Aliens bach when it first came out.

But I was eager to dig into the universe again, I was itching for a solid novel set in the universe. Alien: Out of the Shadows by Tim Lebbon is that novel. And despite the fact, that it doesn’t quite work with some of the established film canon, it is considered canon within the universe.

And it features Ripley.

Set thirty-seven years after the events of Alien, and twenty before Aliens, Ellen Ripley’s shuttle, the Narcissus, responds to a call from a mining planet. We are introduced to the crew of the Marion, whose mining crew have discovered something. Some Thing. And now those things, the xenomorphs, have killed almost the entire crew, leaving Chris Hooper in charge.

He’s fighting to survive as the Marion loses it’s orbit, destined to crash on the planet below. The surviving crew are bloodied, and broken, and the wonder who the hell this Ripley is!
And Ripley is haunted by dreams and visions of her daughter Amanda, falling prey to facehugger and chestburster.

Thrown together, Ripley and the survivors come up with a dangerous plan, descend to the planet, get the fuel cells and supplies they need, and escape together on the Narcissus.

Fans may think they know how things will play out, considering it’s only Ripley and Jones the cat aboard when Aliens opens. But they don’t know all of it.

Lebbon introduces us to new characters, and throws us into a world we will recognize. You can see the smokey corridors and the lived-in, blue collar universe the series has created.

He tells a fast-paced tale, and it works. It works like gangbusters and feels like an actual cinematic installment in the Alien film universe. It works. There are scares, frightening moments, and Lebbon knows how to write for not only the xenomorphs but for Ripley. You can practically hear Sigourney Weaver.

Throw on a little Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner, with their brilliant scores for Alien, and Aliens, and this one just came to life as I dove into it.

And while the take care of all the Ripley related issues in this book, and make a good argument for why it took so long for her to be picked up, it sets up the possibility of a sequel…

Which there is, two in fact, Sea of Sorrows and River of Pain. I do believe I may have to hunt them down.

I was honestly surprised at how good this book was. It’s a spectacular entry in the Alien-verse.