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Aliens (Dark Horse Books)
Aliens: Original Sin
THE ADVENTURES OF ELLEN RIPLEY CONTINUE!
Nearly three centuries ago, the Weyland-Yutani starship Nostromo investigated what appeared to be a distress call emanating from the barren planet Acheron.
What the crew of the Nostromo found was an alien life form -- a hideous, slavering killer, quicker and more powerful than anything they had known before. Only Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley managed to escape with her life, destroying the Nostromo rather than give the monster a chance to reach Earth.
But she hadn't seen the last of the breed. Now, centuries after the death of the original Ripley, her clone has taken up the fight. And she has found, with the help of an android named Call, a brutal hired gun named Johner, and a paraplegic mechanic named Vriess, that there is more to the alien horror than meets the eye...
In this all-new Ripley novel, best selling author Michael Jan Friedman asks the unasked questions that pierce the alien mystery to its seething acid-chamber of a heart -- leaving nothing in Ripley's universe the same.
Nearly three centuries ago, the Weyland-Yutani starship Nostromo investigated what appeared to be a distress call emanating from the barren planet Acheron.
What the crew of the Nostromo found was an alien life form -- a hideous, slavering killer, quicker and more powerful than anything they had known before. Only Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley managed to escape with her life, destroying the Nostromo rather than give the monster a chance to reach Earth.
But she hadn't seen the last of the breed. Now, centuries after the death of the original Ripley, her clone has taken up the fight. And she has found, with the help of an android named Call, a brutal hired gun named Johner, and a paraplegic mechanic named Vriess, that there is more to the alien horror than meets the eye...
In this all-new Ripley novel, best selling author Michael Jan Friedman asks the unasked questions that pierce the alien mystery to its seething acid-chamber of a heart -- leaving nothing in Ripley's universe the same.
300 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 26, 2005
12 people are currently reading
591 people want to read
About the author
Michael Jan Friedman
374 books205 followersMichael Jan Friedman is an author of more than seventy books of fiction and nonfiction, half of which are in the Star Trek universe. Eleven of his titles have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list. Friedman has also written for network and cable television and radio, and scripted nearly 200 comic books, including his original DC superhero series, the Darkstars.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
February 28, 2011
Aliens Novels: Book 10, Original Sin / 1-59582-015-9
In my review of "Berserker", I lamented the fact that none of the aliens novels so far have strayed from the two basic plot lines of (1) mad scientist lets experiments get out of hand and (2) trained troops infiltrate hive in search of MacGuffin. I noted that in both these cases, it's difficult to sympathize with the victims because no matter how likable they are, they really should have known better than to muck with aliens. I've actually, in fact, been pretty surprised that none of the novels so far have taken place from an "innocent colony infiltrated by unexpected alien/egg" perspective, which would seem to practically write itself. Fortunately, along comes "Original Sin" to answer my request and in a thoroughly original and compelling manner.
"Original Sin" is the first of the aliens novels to key directly off of the film series, and it does so by following the survivors of "Alien Resurrection". Now, I liked the "Alien Resurrection" movie far more than most (although I did not think highly of the novelization of the same), but I would be the first to note that some of the characters in the film were not fleshed out thoroughly beyond basic, familiar stereotypes. Freidman has addressed that particular problem right out of the gate and wastes no time fleshing out the characters and motivations of the survivors, all against a backdrop of interesting action and constant narrative movement.
This deserves a mention: "Original Sin" is one of the best written aliens novels from a perspective of exposition-versus-action. Friedman seems to instinctively understand how to start with a bang, where to insert quick characterization within the action, and when to pull back the throttle slightly and feed a little more exposition to the reader. And after over thirteen of these novels (nine novels and four film novelizations), I deeply appreciate this talent.
The motivations of the survivors are elegantly simple - Ripley and Call are driven to protect humans and eradicate aliens; the rest of them are simply hoping that an eradication of the alien race will allow them to sleep well again at night. In order to provide a more deadly antagonist, Friedman has invented a shadowy organization (a bit more subtle than the usual W/Y setup) intent on growing and utilizing the aliens for their own nefarious ends. How much the reader will go along with this will depend, I think, on how much you need the aliens novels to fit a canon, but again, after thirteen of these novels, the series seems badly in need of 'mixing it up' a bit. Similarly, the alien species in "Original Sin" have been genetically tampered with, largely to provide a bigger challenge to Ripley/Eight.
Despite its unorthodox plot elements, I regard "Original Sin" as one of the best in the series.
~ Ana Mardoll
In my review of "Berserker", I lamented the fact that none of the aliens novels so far have strayed from the two basic plot lines of (1) mad scientist lets experiments get out of hand and (2) trained troops infiltrate hive in search of MacGuffin. I noted that in both these cases, it's difficult to sympathize with the victims because no matter how likable they are, they really should have known better than to muck with aliens. I've actually, in fact, been pretty surprised that none of the novels so far have taken place from an "innocent colony infiltrated by unexpected alien/egg" perspective, which would seem to practically write itself. Fortunately, along comes "Original Sin" to answer my request and in a thoroughly original and compelling manner.
"Original Sin" is the first of the aliens novels to key directly off of the film series, and it does so by following the survivors of "Alien Resurrection". Now, I liked the "Alien Resurrection" movie far more than most (although I did not think highly of the novelization of the same), but I would be the first to note that some of the characters in the film were not fleshed out thoroughly beyond basic, familiar stereotypes. Freidman has addressed that particular problem right out of the gate and wastes no time fleshing out the characters and motivations of the survivors, all against a backdrop of interesting action and constant narrative movement.
This deserves a mention: "Original Sin" is one of the best written aliens novels from a perspective of exposition-versus-action. Friedman seems to instinctively understand how to start with a bang, where to insert quick characterization within the action, and when to pull back the throttle slightly and feed a little more exposition to the reader. And after over thirteen of these novels (nine novels and four film novelizations), I deeply appreciate this talent.
The motivations of the survivors are elegantly simple - Ripley and Call are driven to protect humans and eradicate aliens; the rest of them are simply hoping that an eradication of the alien race will allow them to sleep well again at night. In order to provide a more deadly antagonist, Friedman has invented a shadowy organization (a bit more subtle than the usual W/Y setup) intent on growing and utilizing the aliens for their own nefarious ends. How much the reader will go along with this will depend, I think, on how much you need the aliens novels to fit a canon, but again, after thirteen of these novels, the series seems badly in need of 'mixing it up' a bit. Similarly, the alien species in "Original Sin" have been genetically tampered with, largely to provide a bigger challenge to Ripley/Eight.
Despite its unorthodox plot elements, I regard "Original Sin" as one of the best in the series.
~ Ana Mardoll
October 12, 2016
To put it in perspective, this book was published 7 years after Alien Resurrection and 7 years before Prometheus. It is so far the only sequel (not counting the crossover
Aliens vs. Predator vs. the Terminator
) to the movie that saw the birth of Ripley 8 aboard the USM research ship Auriga, a clone of the original Ripley that was created 200 years after her death on Fiorina 161.
This book is no great masterpiece; it is a simple story, a quick read that contains some new revelations for fans of the series. It is a quick and entertaining read, with surprises and twists right until the end, enough to keep turning the pages. It goes a bit like this: in the years since the destruction of the Auriga in 2381 and the death of some of the smuggler crew of the Betty (Elgyn, Christie and Hillard), the surviving members Call, Johner and Vries have taken on Ripley 8 as their captain along with some new members: Krakke, Rama and pilot Bolero. They have been hacking into USM and government stations to gather info about a shadowy human organization that has been in contact with the race of the pilot of the derelict from Alien, here called Mala'kak (remember, that was before Prometheus and Engineers) and making deals with them for centuries. This is a conspiracy way beyond the type that we saw in the movies with Weyland-Yutani and low-level executives and androids. The first part of the book deals with the crew infiltrating a final space station where they get the final piece of info they wanted. Which leads them to Domes Epsilon, one of six maintained-but-unsupported garden colonies that lay across the system (or galaxy? the locations are not specified).
In the meantime, we get to know the botanists that live in the Domes colony. The characters have more dialogue and are more developed than the Betty crew, in that vibe of "get readers to like them so they can feel bad when they die". I don't want to spoil the story too much, but let's say that some aliens are released, and Ripley and her crew arrive to kick some ass and chew bubble gum. But they are all out of bubble gum. As mentioned, a few surprises ensue, and the ending sets up a potential sequel with a new purpose for Call, and an important nemesis now that the Betty crew have messed up the organization's (which they nicknamed "Loki") plans which means they are sure to get after them in a big way. Also, what about the other five botanical domes? Being a fan of the fourth movie, I might be a bit biased about this book and I really wish that Friedman had written at least one more adventure for Ripley and her crew. But I am probably the only one.
This book is no great masterpiece; it is a simple story, a quick read that contains some new revelations for fans of the series. It is a quick and entertaining read, with surprises and twists right until the end, enough to keep turning the pages. It goes a bit like this: in the years since the destruction of the Auriga in 2381 and the death of some of the smuggler crew of the Betty (Elgyn, Christie and Hillard), the surviving members Call, Johner and Vries have taken on Ripley 8 as their captain along with some new members: Krakke, Rama and pilot Bolero. They have been hacking into USM and government stations to gather info about a shadowy human organization that has been in contact with the race of the pilot of the derelict from Alien, here called Mala'kak (remember, that was before Prometheus and Engineers) and making deals with them for centuries. This is a conspiracy way beyond the type that we saw in the movies with Weyland-Yutani and low-level executives and androids. The first part of the book deals with the crew infiltrating a final space station where they get the final piece of info they wanted. Which leads them to Domes Epsilon, one of six maintained-but-unsupported garden colonies that lay across the system (or galaxy? the locations are not specified).
In the meantime, we get to know the botanists that live in the Domes colony. The characters have more dialogue and are more developed than the Betty crew, in that vibe of "get readers to like them so they can feel bad when they die". I don't want to spoil the story too much, but let's say that some aliens are released, and Ripley and her crew arrive to kick some ass and chew bubble gum. But they are all out of bubble gum. As mentioned, a few surprises ensue, and the ending sets up a potential sequel with a new purpose for Call, and an important nemesis now that the Betty crew have messed up the organization's (which they nicknamed "Loki") plans which means they are sure to get after them in a big way. Also, what about the other five botanical domes? Being a fan of the fourth movie, I might be a bit biased about this book and I really wish that Friedman had written at least one more adventure for Ripley and her crew. But I am probably the only one.
March 27, 2020
Really a 3.5
I've read all the prior Aliens books and I've enjoyed all of them quite a bit, including this one. After the first Trilogy Dark Horse took novelizing comic book series they released. However, the last book published "Berserker" was published in 1998, so it's been quite a few years since Dark Horse returned to publishing novels in the Aliens series. I was pretty excited to see new novels being published and I was even happier to see they were original stories. These are more than just a round of novelized comic books, they are entirely new adventures.
"Original Sin," despite being written many years after the fact, picks up where Alien: Resurrection left off. This is sort of the adventures of Ripley, Call, Johner and Vreiss the survivors of the movie. In this story Michael Jan Friedman takes us on a jaunt through space where Ripley fights against a shadow organization that is working with the creators of the Aliens. This time they plan to save a biodome in deep space that has been sent an Alien egg. As you can expect, disaster ensues. Michael Jan Friedman keeps the action and terror going throughout the entirety of the book and sifts in tidbits of corporate intrigue similar to themes found in the Dark Horse comics published in the 90's. His cast of characters are pretty good and he writes them well enough in such a short action packed novel.
Basically, if you're a fan of the Aliens franchise I think Michael Jan Friedman did a good job working within the realms of the lore of the series. I, personally, thought Alien: Resurrection was a great movie, until the Alien queen gave birth to a new creature with a human womb. Frankly, that was just stupid. Friedman stays away from anything so ridiculous and instead gives us an Alien variant that feels a bit more plausible.
I think Friedman clearly planned to potentially write more stories with the way this ended and allusions to fighting the shadow organization in the future. But it's 2020 now and I'm not sure he'll get the chance to write that follow-up. After looking at the backs of the novels after this, they don't appear to have anything to do with what Friedman wrote here. That's sort of the downfall of this books end... it ends with you wanting more, but in true Alien fashion they hire someone else to take on the next adventure and it probably has nothing to do with what was written before... Honestly, that's a plight of this franchise, regardless of how much I enjoy it.
I've read all the prior Aliens books and I've enjoyed all of them quite a bit, including this one. After the first Trilogy Dark Horse took novelizing comic book series they released. However, the last book published "Berserker" was published in 1998, so it's been quite a few years since Dark Horse returned to publishing novels in the Aliens series. I was pretty excited to see new novels being published and I was even happier to see they were original stories. These are more than just a round of novelized comic books, they are entirely new adventures.
"Original Sin," despite being written many years after the fact, picks up where Alien: Resurrection left off. This is sort of the adventures of Ripley, Call, Johner and Vreiss the survivors of the movie. In this story Michael Jan Friedman takes us on a jaunt through space where Ripley fights against a shadow organization that is working with the creators of the Aliens. This time they plan to save a biodome in deep space that has been sent an Alien egg. As you can expect, disaster ensues. Michael Jan Friedman keeps the action and terror going throughout the entirety of the book and sifts in tidbits of corporate intrigue similar to themes found in the Dark Horse comics published in the 90's. His cast of characters are pretty good and he writes them well enough in such a short action packed novel.
Basically, if you're a fan of the Aliens franchise I think Michael Jan Friedman did a good job working within the realms of the lore of the series. I, personally, thought Alien: Resurrection was a great movie, until the Alien queen gave birth to a new creature with a human womb. Frankly, that was just stupid. Friedman stays away from anything so ridiculous and instead gives us an Alien variant that feels a bit more plausible.
I think Friedman clearly planned to potentially write more stories with the way this ended and allusions to fighting the shadow organization in the future. But it's 2020 now and I'm not sure he'll get the chance to write that follow-up. After looking at the backs of the novels after this, they don't appear to have anything to do with what Friedman wrote here. That's sort of the downfall of this books end... it ends with you wanting more, but in true Alien fashion they hire someone else to take on the next adventure and it probably has nothing to do with what was written before... Honestly, that's a plight of this franchise, regardless of how much I enjoy it.
May 20, 2021
Естеството на този тип мърч-четива, базирани на филмови сценарии, не предполага кой знае какво качество на прозата, но Майкъл Ян Фрайндман се е справил съвсем прилично и тънката книжка, придобита още през 2019 през една от безбройните онлайн промоции, доволно ме израдва. Доколкото успях да се ориентирам (че и с Aliens Вселената не съм особено запознат) романът е продължение на събитията от четвъртия филм Пришълецът: Завръщането и лейтенант Елън Рипли се подвизава два века след основите събития под формата на клонинга Рипли 8. Новата мисия я отвежда на една затънтена ботаническа колония, която трябва да бъде прочистена от досадните зъбатковци, а наглед локалната криза се оказва част от доста по-мащабен план...
July 13, 2023
Now I'm starting the "second wave" of Aliens novels from Dark Horse. The first set were just adaptations of comic series, this set are new stories.
Original Sin is a direct sequel to Aliens: Resurrection, picking up right after the end of the film. So this is "Alien Clone Ripley" as the main character. It seems to me the best Aliens stories usually have Ripley. Call, Johner and Vreiss show up as well.
There's some background given on the alien pilot from the original Alien movie, so we're getting some different info then what was released after the Prometheus films. In this case, there seems to be a conspiracy between humans and the "Engineers" regarding the Alien creatures. It's a cool take on the mythos.
Overall this is good for Aliens fans, especially if you enjoyed Aliens Resurrection. It's been a while since I watched that one, but I was able to pick things up fairly quickly.
Original Sin is a direct sequel to Aliens: Resurrection, picking up right after the end of the film. So this is "Alien Clone Ripley" as the main character. It seems to me the best Aliens stories usually have Ripley. Call, Johner and Vreiss show up as well.
There's some background given on the alien pilot from the original Alien movie, so we're getting some different info then what was released after the Prometheus films. In this case, there seems to be a conspiracy between humans and the "Engineers" regarding the Alien creatures. It's a cool take on the mythos.
Overall this is good for Aliens fans, especially if you enjoyed Aliens Resurrection. It's been a while since I watched that one, but I was able to pick things up fairly quickly.
August 18, 2020
Original Sin not only ushered in a new series of Aliens books, under a new publisher, but it also started the first of several original Aliens novels (the Bantam ones having been adaptations of graphic novels). I was looking forward to seeing what these books would be like, but I forgot that (a) it's hard to come up with an original story featuring the xenomorphs, and (b) they weren't exactly getting top-tier authors to write these. Original Sin isn't as bad as, say, Music of the Spears, but the prose is very plain, the characters are inconsistent, and the style is very tell-y. That it also serves as a sequel to Alien: Resurrection just hammers that nail right into the coffin.
It was probably a bad idea to get all of these Aliens books before seeing how low-quality the series would be. Now I feel compelled to finish them all.
John Shirley wrote one of the later books. Surely THAT one will be good, right?
It was probably a bad idea to get all of these Aliens books before seeing how low-quality the series would be. Now I feel compelled to finish them all.
John Shirley wrote one of the later books. Surely THAT one will be good, right?
October 26, 2023
I think I expected more from it
January 16, 2023
It's entertaining, even though at times it's forced or the author employs tactics in a "oh, check out this nifty plot mechanic" way. I say this would rank in at about 3.5 stars, so I'll roll it to 3
May 14, 2023
Fun, nice to see a book set after Alien: Resurrection.
June 9, 2012
Tie-in novels don't often aim high, but most of them at least come with the satisfaction of a good story. This one in particular misses the mark, and although some of the blame is on the author, a lot of it is the general difficulty in writing outside stories in the ALIEN franchise.
Compare, for example, to more well-known franchise tie-ins, such as STAR TREK. Paramount operates an ongoing STAR TREK office and partners with editors at Pocket Books to ensure that TREK titles don't stray into territory that might be explored in canon, they don't allow story elements that could permanently impact the canon or be contradicted later, for the most part. Apparently there's not any similar apparatus at Fox with ALIEN franchise titles, since the book generally strays into all of these areas.
Friedman is a capable author, but the book seems like he was given a few directives to make a splash with this title--this was the first of Dark Horse's mass market ALIEN franchise novels, and they clearly wanted to debut with one starring Ripley, and exploring the background of the overall franchise. However, as anyone who's seen the ALIEN films can attest, there's not a lot of extra territory to explore with Ripley. Anything that happened before ALIEN is irrelevant to the overall storyline, and the character doesn't have significant lapses in time between any of the films. Friedman took the only opening left available, which is to set the story after ALIEN: RESURRECTION, and while it's nice to explore Winona Ryder's character Call further, other character holdovers from the film that appear in the novel are more uninteresting than anything else.
Each of the four ALIEN films explores a different genre genetically melded--like the alien xenomorph--to the host genre of science fiction. ALIEN was a horror film, ALIENS was a war film, ALIEN 3 was a prison film, and ALIEN: RESURRECTION was pure space opera. Joss Whedon was the screenwriter on the last of these, and introduced a character group that felt like an incomplete sketch for his later FIREFLY/SERENITY. I'm inclined to think that Friedman picked up on this same line of thinking for this novel. However, compare this to a more successful ALIEN franchise story such as Bissette/Dorman's ALIENS: TRIBES, and it's easy to see that tie in fiction for this franchise might be overall more successful staying away from the Ripley character and more within the heart of the Ridley Scott/James Cameron areas of the franchise.
More frustrating, Friedman explores the background of the franchise as a whole, and introduces an explanation in the novel (as promised on the cover copy) of why the aliens were there in the first place when the Nostromo found them in ALIEN. At this point, with Scott's PROMETHEUS, virtually all of this exploration is going to wind up well outside of what will now be official ALIEN universe canon. Again, this is frustrating, but I wonder if a better line of communication between Dark Horse and Fox might have stopped this from happening, particularly since the inclusion of this aspect of the plot doesn't really add much to the overall interest of the novel.
Don't think that the book is completely disappointing, however. The alien-infecting-the-colony aspect is pretty well done, and was actually the more interesting part of the novel. It's done with the right amount of buildup and even, surprisingly, with some humor. I wish that the novel had more focused on this area of the story and had been less driven to be an epic follow up to ALIEN: RESURRECTION, and that the editorial directive to explain the whole ALIEN universe wasn't really so big an aspect of the book. Friedman does the best he can to balance all of this, so I don't think he's to blame for the book's general iffy-ness. However, this does make me question whether reading other titles in Dark Horse's ALIEN novel line will be worth the effort.
Compare, for example, to more well-known franchise tie-ins, such as STAR TREK. Paramount operates an ongoing STAR TREK office and partners with editors at Pocket Books to ensure that TREK titles don't stray into territory that might be explored in canon, they don't allow story elements that could permanently impact the canon or be contradicted later, for the most part. Apparently there's not any similar apparatus at Fox with ALIEN franchise titles, since the book generally strays into all of these areas.
Friedman is a capable author, but the book seems like he was given a few directives to make a splash with this title--this was the first of Dark Horse's mass market ALIEN franchise novels, and they clearly wanted to debut with one starring Ripley, and exploring the background of the overall franchise. However, as anyone who's seen the ALIEN films can attest, there's not a lot of extra territory to explore with Ripley. Anything that happened before ALIEN is irrelevant to the overall storyline, and the character doesn't have significant lapses in time between any of the films. Friedman took the only opening left available, which is to set the story after ALIEN: RESURRECTION, and while it's nice to explore Winona Ryder's character Call further, other character holdovers from the film that appear in the novel are more uninteresting than anything else.
Each of the four ALIEN films explores a different genre genetically melded--like the alien xenomorph--to the host genre of science fiction. ALIEN was a horror film, ALIENS was a war film, ALIEN 3 was a prison film, and ALIEN: RESURRECTION was pure space opera. Joss Whedon was the screenwriter on the last of these, and introduced a character group that felt like an incomplete sketch for his later FIREFLY/SERENITY. I'm inclined to think that Friedman picked up on this same line of thinking for this novel. However, compare this to a more successful ALIEN franchise story such as Bissette/Dorman's ALIENS: TRIBES, and it's easy to see that tie in fiction for this franchise might be overall more successful staying away from the Ripley character and more within the heart of the Ridley Scott/James Cameron areas of the franchise.
More frustrating, Friedman explores the background of the franchise as a whole, and introduces an explanation in the novel (as promised on the cover copy) of why the aliens were there in the first place when the Nostromo found them in ALIEN. At this point, with Scott's PROMETHEUS, virtually all of this exploration is going to wind up well outside of what will now be official ALIEN universe canon. Again, this is frustrating, but I wonder if a better line of communication between Dark Horse and Fox might have stopped this from happening, particularly since the inclusion of this aspect of the plot doesn't really add much to the overall interest of the novel.
Don't think that the book is completely disappointing, however. The alien-infecting-the-colony aspect is pretty well done, and was actually the more interesting part of the novel. It's done with the right amount of buildup and even, surprisingly, with some humor. I wish that the novel had more focused on this area of the story and had been less driven to be an epic follow up to ALIEN: RESURRECTION, and that the editorial directive to explain the whole ALIEN universe wasn't really so big an aspect of the book. Friedman does the best he can to balance all of this, so I don't think he's to blame for the book's general iffy-ness. However, this does make me question whether reading other titles in Dark Horse's ALIEN novel line will be worth the effort.
June 22, 2016
As in most aliens-stories, you won't see the monster until it's too late. It's the same here. It's not until the very end we actually encounter the creepy aliens, and when we do... they doesn't feel like the monsters we've come to know and fear from earlier novels, games and movies.
The monsters are supposed to be of a new and more dangerous kind, but after reading the novel they feel... weaker, slower and more stupid than their predecessors.
There's a lot of questions left unanswered. Not the kind which makes you think or ponder, but the other kind. the one where you just gets irritated:
One of the most interesting bits of the Aliens expanded universe is how every new author adds a bit more to the mythos. This is the exception. It's hollow, plastic and two dimensional. There's not a single character I cared about. There was nothing exciting and nothing to make me want to read on.
A pity really, and I don't even think it's the authors fault. It reeks of executive medling, but I might be wrong there.
The monsters are supposed to be of a new and more dangerous kind, but after reading the novel they feel... weaker, slower and more stupid than their predecessors.
There's a lot of questions left unanswered. Not the kind which makes you think or ponder, but the other kind. the one where you just gets irritated:
One of the most interesting bits of the Aliens expanded universe is how every new author adds a bit more to the mythos. This is the exception. It's hollow, plastic and two dimensional. There's not a single character I cared about. There was nothing exciting and nothing to make me want to read on.
A pity really, and I don't even think it's the authors fault. It reeks of executive medling, but I might be wrong there.
November 20, 2019
This book is just plain awful!
Spelling and grammatical errors run rampant in this garbage-fest. The new characters that are introduced are flat and one dimensional. Plus nothing stays constant from one chapter to the next.
Like the reporter guy. In one chapter he is so angry at Ripley and Call for scaring him and he is swearing to himself that he will scare them back if it's the last thing he does. Then in the next chapter he's willing to sacrifice himself so that Ripley can live? How exactly does that make sense!?!
Then we have the aliens themselves. Right on the cover of this book it says, "Ripley and Call face the deadliest aliens yet!" Yet in the book, the only difference between these aliens and the other aliens they have faced before was that their heads were a little bigger, and their skin had a slight blue tint to it. However they act completely like the other aliens that they have faced before.
This book is nothing but a waste of time. If you're a fan of the Aliens series, do yourself a favor and pass this one by.
Spelling and grammatical errors run rampant in this garbage-fest. The new characters that are introduced are flat and one dimensional. Plus nothing stays constant from one chapter to the next.
Like the reporter guy. In one chapter he is so angry at Ripley and Call for scaring him and he is swearing to himself that he will scare them back if it's the last thing he does. Then in the next chapter he's willing to sacrifice himself so that Ripley can live? How exactly does that make sense!?!
Then we have the aliens themselves. Right on the cover of this book it says, "Ripley and Call face the deadliest aliens yet!" Yet in the book, the only difference between these aliens and the other aliens they have faced before was that their heads were a little bigger, and their skin had a slight blue tint to it. However they act completely like the other aliens that they have faced before.
This book is nothing but a waste of time. If you're a fan of the Aliens series, do yourself a favor and pass this one by.
June 18, 2017
Честно казано не съм сигурна колко звезди да дам на книгата. Историята бе интересна, но първата половина ми бе на моменти досадна. Разбира се осъзнавам и че по начина и написване читателите имат възможността да се привържат повече към някои от героите и тяхната история. Все пак с напредването на историята ми ставаше по-любопитно как ще се развие поредната битка на Рипли. Нещо, което бих искала да кажа за българското издание е, че слава Богу не е пълно с правописни грешки от недоглеждане или по други причини. А това често може да бъде голям проблем за мен и впечатлението ми от дадена книга. Може би бих дала 3,5 звезди, но за целта ще оставя няколко дни да минат след прочитането на книгата, за да си дам по-ясна представа за това до колко ми е харесала :)
December 29, 2019
A good read, but with a lot of mistakes. Nice to see some familiar characters, but the new characters aren't introduced or described, they're just there. In the most obvious mistake, Ripley recites some quotes that Ash said in the original movie, but she quotes what he said in an early draft of the Alien script, not what he actually said in the Alien movie. Makes me wonder if the author has even seen the film, or if he just Googled some Alien quotes. Fairly average story, large parts don't make sense, but overall it works (if you overlook the mistakes and the bits that don't make sense), and was a fairly enjoyable read.
July 16, 2017
There are 2 reasons for this score. 1st is I am a huge fan of the Alien movies. 2nd is because the author tried to create a world with such deep conspiracy.
Apart from that sloppy writing with no suspense, unanswered questions and forgettable characrets.
Apart from that sloppy writing with no suspense, unanswered questions and forgettable characrets.
May 31, 2017
Not a masterpiece but still a nice light booklet for the lazy afternoons. ;)
June 10, 2018
I love anything from the alien universe and I was so excited to find another story with Ripley. It's good to know she's still out in the universe kicking xenomorph butt.
February 11, 2020
I picked up Aliens: Original Sin because I've been craving some new Alien related material. I honestly didn't care what it was, I just wanted a good, compelling story featuring interesting characters in dire situations with aliens causing them problems. I've tried a few things prior to settling on Original Sin and, in all honestly, they almost killed the craving entirely and not in a good way.
Alien: Prototype and Aliens: Rescue left a pretty bad taste in my mouth so I was hesitant to try another story set in the universe. The setting of OS kind of suckered me in, though, as I was so intrigued by the prospect of going beyond the ending of Alien: Resurrection and having another adventure with Ripley 8, Call, Johner, Vriess.
My fears were totally unwarranted.
Aside from one small non-canon plot point (made so by the prequel films, Prometheus and Covenant), this was everything I could have wanted from a post Resurrection outing. Author Michael Jan Friedman has the voices of the characters down so perfectly that it was easy to imagine the dialogue coming directly from the mouths of the actors who originated these roles. Ripley 8 was equal parts creepy, tragic, and badass, and the setting and storyline fit the tone and atmosphere of the series perfectly.
I'm actually sad that the series did not continue in this direction as every other book from this period of Alien tie-in novels chooses a different era to take place in and do not feature these characters.
I want more.
Resurrection is still canon. These characters are still out there, still viable, and their continuing adventures is something I would definitely continue to spend time and money on, whether it be in novel or comic book form. Considering how polarized fans of the franchise can get, it almost makes sense to just expand in all directions with the series. The prequels are there for people who want to have more in the way of beginnings. There's the material with Amanda Ripley that caters to people who prefer the era between Alien and Aliens. And more stories building off of Resurrection could be fascinating and help keep things from going stale or overcrowding any one time frame for the franchise.
Anyways, I'm ranting.
Aliens: Original Sin. It's great. I really dug it and I want more.
Maybe I'm the only one who liked it this much.
Alien: Prototype and Aliens: Rescue left a pretty bad taste in my mouth so I was hesitant to try another story set in the universe. The setting of OS kind of suckered me in, though, as I was so intrigued by the prospect of going beyond the ending of Alien: Resurrection and having another adventure with Ripley 8, Call, Johner, Vriess.
My fears were totally unwarranted.
Aside from one small non-canon plot point (made so by the prequel films, Prometheus and Covenant), this was everything I could have wanted from a post Resurrection outing. Author Michael Jan Friedman has the voices of the characters down so perfectly that it was easy to imagine the dialogue coming directly from the mouths of the actors who originated these roles. Ripley 8 was equal parts creepy, tragic, and badass, and the setting and storyline fit the tone and atmosphere of the series perfectly.
I'm actually sad that the series did not continue in this direction as every other book from this period of Alien tie-in novels chooses a different era to take place in and do not feature these characters.
I want more.
Resurrection is still canon. These characters are still out there, still viable, and their continuing adventures is something I would definitely continue to spend time and money on, whether it be in novel or comic book form. Considering how polarized fans of the franchise can get, it almost makes sense to just expand in all directions with the series. The prequels are there for people who want to have more in the way of beginnings. There's the material with Amanda Ripley that caters to people who prefer the era between Alien and Aliens. And more stories building off of Resurrection could be fascinating and help keep things from going stale or overcrowding any one time frame for the franchise.
Anyways, I'm ranting.
Aliens: Original Sin. It's great. I really dug it and I want more.
Maybe I'm the only one who liked it this much.
September 9, 2025
Definitely 3.5 stars if I could give that as a rating.
During the early portion of the book I was really skeptical about continuing the story of Ripley, especially the Ripley from the mess of a movie that is Alien Resurrection, but by the time the action kicked off, I found myself really enjoying the book.
Navigating the aliens in a jungle is a cool setting that I haven’t seen so far in the book series, and I also found myself rooting for the colonists Angie and Phillip. I definitely appreciated that the colony was only a few people so I could really appreciate each death.
It’s not the first book I’d recommend in the series, but I’d say it’s worth the read if you’re one of the few people who enjoyed Resurrection or if you’re really into the lore.
On one down note though, I don’t love the idea of the Engineers and Earth being in cahoots. Not sure if that’s still canon with how Alien Earth plays into things (regarding how humans know about the xenos pre-Nostromo), but I’ll try to forget that part of the plot existed.
During the early portion of the book I was really skeptical about continuing the story of Ripley, especially the Ripley from the mess of a movie that is Alien Resurrection, but by the time the action kicked off, I found myself really enjoying the book.
Navigating the aliens in a jungle is a cool setting that I haven’t seen so far in the book series, and I also found myself rooting for the colonists Angie and Phillip. I definitely appreciated that the colony was only a few people so I could really appreciate each death.
It’s not the first book I’d recommend in the series, but I’d say it’s worth the read if you’re one of the few people who enjoyed Resurrection or if you’re really into the lore.
On one down note though, I don’t love the idea of the Engineers and Earth being in cahoots. Not sure if that’s still canon with how Alien Earth plays into things (regarding how humans know about the xenos pre-Nostromo), but I’ll try to forget that part of the plot existed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2021
Disclaimer: This less than glowing review has more to do with my own baggage than the writing itself.
The Good:
Some very good pacing when the you-know-what hits the fan.
I love the characters of Ripley 8 and Call so I was very happy to learn a bit more about them.
The space biodomes were a new and interesting setting.
The Meh:
I don't like the character of Johner and Alien: Resurrection is my least favorite movie in the franchise because of this character (love Ron Perlman--don't like Johner). I was hoping that this book would give Johner at least one redeeming quality (it tried in the Epilogue but it wasn't believable to me).
The Bad (a personal pet peave):
The over 15 "somehows" in this short book. I'm reading this book to find out what happened--don't "somehow" me. Your job as a writer is to explain the "somehow" somehow ;)
The Good:
Some very good pacing when the you-know-what hits the fan.
I love the characters of Ripley 8 and Call so I was very happy to learn a bit more about them.
The space biodomes were a new and interesting setting.
The Meh:
I don't like the character of Johner and Alien: Resurrection is my least favorite movie in the franchise because of this character (love Ron Perlman--don't like Johner). I was hoping that this book would give Johner at least one redeeming quality (it tried in the Epilogue but it wasn't believable to me).
The Bad (a personal pet peave):
The over 15 "somehows" in this short book. I'm reading this book to find out what happened--don't "somehow" me. Your job as a writer is to explain the "somehow" somehow ;)
July 14, 2022
The second half is a pretty standard Alien adventure with people fighting xenos in the jungle. It’s nothing special. There’s some substance, however, to how it connects to the larger “canon” pre-Prometheus. As a sequel to the Resurrection film, it connects threads to the original “space jockey” in an intriguing way and even sets up some future android-related escapades that unfortunately never got published. It’s a pity; I’m always curious to see more non-xeno-focused parts of this universe get fleshed out.
February 28, 2022
A really fun story that gives you more fun adventures with the crew of the Betty and Ripley-8. The characters are all well drawn and the plot is a lot of fun but this book gets...weird. It mostly works but a few late book reveals definitely made me a bit skeptical and it doesn't really explain why ANY of Alien: Resurrection happened if xenos are still out there. Oh well, it's fun just don't think on it super hard in terms of canon. Ripley gets a dog, so that's dope.
March 5, 2020
Only media based post-Resurection (aside from Alien/Predator/Terminator comic). Asks a lot of questions about possible human alliance with Jocky/Engineer species, which assume will never be answered. Freedman is great writter and the his take on Ripley 8 is spot on.
December 25, 2020
Franchise book#19
Second novel series #1
Second novel series #1
April 2, 2025
A very good continuation of the movie
September 14, 2022
2.5 stars for the Return to Aliens, but not enough actual aliens or Ripley.
June 3, 2021
I really like that the used clone Ripley, expanding on her and continuing her story. It really neat.
May 1, 2022
The book started off pretty slow but had a decent ending.
June 13, 2018
This gets a solid 3 stars - 3.5 would have been my choice if I could fraction-star things... :)
Basically the book has a bunch of the elements I want to find in an Aliens book/piece of media. These things are done (for me) fairly effectively. However, I found the cast too large to engage with, I constantly lost track of who was who, what their background stories were, and that took quite a lot of the tension out of it, as I often found I didn't care that much about character fates.
But I enjoyed it, had no problem getting to the end. So 3 stars it is.
SPOILERS
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.
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Book is a sequel to the Alien: Resurrection film. I enjoyed having characters I already knew, with faces I already knew, in it - made a change from normal situation with Aliens books.
I would read a sequel to this book if there is one - but I don't know, and will just keep reading
I liked that we had lots of creeping around, wondering where the aliens would come from in the books. And I liked the location it mostly played in - a big greenhouse was a pretty spooky place to have crawling with Aliens.
Basically the book has a bunch of the elements I want to find in an Aliens book/piece of media. These things are done (for me) fairly effectively. However, I found the cast too large to engage with, I constantly lost track of who was who, what their background stories were, and that took quite a lot of the tension out of it, as I often found I didn't care that much about character fates.
But I enjoyed it, had no problem getting to the end. So 3 stars it is.
SPOILERS
.
.
.
.
Book is a sequel to the Alien: Resurrection film. I enjoyed having characters I already knew, with faces I already knew, in it - made a change from normal situation with Aliens books.
I would read a sequel to this book if there is one - but I don't know, and will just keep reading
I liked that we had lots of creeping around, wondering where the aliens would come from in the books. And I liked the location it mostly played in - a big greenhouse was a pretty spooky place to have crawling with Aliens.
May 27, 2012
Michael Jan Friedman takes up Ripley’s tale following the events of Alien: Resurrection. Joined by Call, Johner, and Vreiss, Ripley takes on a mysterious organization whose agenda includes home delivery of Alien eggs. The books seems a little light. It’s a setup for more stories to follow and I think it would have made a better comic mini-series than a novel.
Published in mass-market paperback by Dark Horse Books.
Published in mass-market paperback by Dark Horse Books.
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