Alien: River of Pain

Filled in the part of the story between [b:Alien 35125 Alien Alan Dean Foster https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1332019229s/35125.jpg 35062] and [b:Aliens 939559 Aliens Alan Dean Foster https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1179635547s/939559.jpg 35106]. Too much of this audio drama sounded less like reality or acting, and more like it was being dramatically read from the page after little or no rehearsal.

Not exactly the book I thought it was going to be. Though for those who are looking for some type of filler that leads them up to the Aliens movie, this is perfect for you. Fill in that big gap of what happened to LV-426 before Ridley returns to it. Did a great job at giving you more contacts for new, so you can like her even more as a character. Also some new additions. And, of course, more marine madness. Another worthy addition to the world of Alien.

I came to this via the “Audible Original Drama” version of the book and as a long-time fan of the film series I felt like this could add something a little more to the universe for me. The dramatisation makes it a lot quicker to get through the story and is well worth a listen. The voice acting is excellent and production is too; fans of the films will enjoy the extra sound effects.

The story itself expands on what happens prior to the Aliens film and to anchor it within the canon there are snippets of Ripley's story in this one. While I found these a little repetative I expect someone who isn't as familiar with the films would see benefit in the contextualising of the River of Pain story. The voice actor they have to play Ripley did an excellent job, she sounds almost exactly like Sigourney Weaver.

I was curious to see how the story would play out given my foreknowledge of survivors based on the films. I wasn't disappointed on that front and was pleased that my assumptions weren't all correct about how the story ends.