Carl is on hand with his recommendation of what to read whilst in self-quarantine.
To help beat the coronavirus blues, for the foreseeable future, members of team Future of the Force will be on hand with our recommendations of awesome literature to check out whilst in self-quarantine. Whether its lesser-known gems, New York Times Best-Sellers, or just funs reads – we’ll be here to keep you entertained during this difficult time.
The Complete Alien Omnibus By Alan Dean Foster
Ok, so this one is a bit of a lie and a cheat. The book actually contains the novelisations of the first three films only. Mainly due to the fact that it was published before ‘Alien: Resurrection‘ reared its ugly head and also because the novel of that film wasn’t written by Alan Dean Foster (that honour fell to A.C Crispin). But the book still delivers all the suspense, thrills and horror that the films contain in abundance. Foster is a master of writing novels of this kind and with the exception of the Star Wars novel ‘Splinter Of The Minds Eye’ which I personally loathed (Sorry, Alan), I don’t think the man has ever written a bad novel in his career.
All three novelisations of their respective films are pretty faithful to the source material and also include many of the scenes that were removed from the original releases only to make themselves known in the ‘Director’s Cut’ or the ‘Special Edition’. ‘Aliens‘ is the main benefactor of them all as the novel gives the reader every scene that was conceived and shot by James Cameron before 20th Century Fox decided that the viewing public wouldn’t sit through a two and a half-hour science fiction horror film (how times change). However, all three novels expand on what the audience saw on the screen back in 1979, 1986 and 1992 and in some ways, surpass them. For the uninitiated or for the audience out there that haven’t seen the films, the narrative and writing Foster uses brings the characters and the story to life in their mind’s eye with some style. The imagination and descriptive prowess Foster has in his locker is laid bare for all to see, read and enjoy.
Of course, several of the more horrific and gory moments have their power reduced somewhat on the printed page but that is to be expected. To those of us who have seen the films and know exactly how the scene plays out and how the scene looks in the finished product will get a kick out of reading them on the pages of the book. We know what is going to happen and we know how it’s all going to play out but it is great fun to read the descriptive version of the events.
The book is still available to buy in paperback form with a little bit of hunting down (eBay and Amazon still have copies) or the novels can be downloaded to an E-reader of your choice. And as they have great re-readability and will entertain the reader for a nice amount of time during our current lockdown, I say grab yourself a copy and allow yourself to be terrified once more by the Xenomorphs that hunt us in our nightmares.
Stay safe and look after each other.
Let us know if you have any suggestions of great books and literature our readers should check out and we’ll feature and share them with the FOTF community.
Stay safe.
The Future of the Force. The future of pop culture writing.
Carl Roberts is a Senior Staff Writer and Books and Literature Correspondent for Future of the Force. Aside from being our horror genre aficionado, he is also passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and the Indiana Jones movies. Follow him on Twitter @CarlRoberts2 where he uses the force frequently!
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Carl Roberts is the News Editor of The Future of the Force. Aside from being our horror genre aficionado, he is also passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and the Indiana Jones movies. Follow him on Twitter where he uses the force frequently!
