Alien Covenant: The Movie Novelisation
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Publisher: Titan Books
Genre: Fiction, Movie Tie-In
ISBN: 9781785684787
Reviewed by: Sandra Scholes
Based on characters created by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shussett, Alien Covenant is a long-awaited movie tie-in that centres on future man's need to find other life on distant planets and the sheer horror of what they discover once there.
We start with Sir Peter Weyland interacting with his creation, David an android who he hopes will grow with him. David has his own questions about why he made him and in whose image, though Weyland is only interested in David playing Vagner's Das Rheingold. This piece in itself is a metaphor of mankind outstretching its reach; Weyland mentions that the gods reject mankind to leave earth for the heavens to Valhalla, but as the gods are doomed, whatever they do brings them tragedy. This accurately describes what happens in the Alien movies; man's need to know more leads them to act greedy and then the destruction starts.
Such a beginning gives enough of an insight into Weyland's desires that it propels the reader to want more, and more is what we get. For the reader there is the reality that Weyland looks at what he has created and addresses him as such, yet in reality he has created a synthetic person to serve him and cater to his base whims; Peter is a curio, a plaything to him and only sees how impressed he is at his man-made humanoid who is more perfect than him, and knows it.
Weyland isn't only interested in creating new life, he has a need to have it searched for and found for further testing. The crew of the Covenant have landed on Ongae 6 to take samples of any life forms there. It all seems routine, except for what they find in Sector 106 by Ledward who unwittingly puts the crew in danger. Elsewhere Lope and Walter have found an abandoned ship with a name that will be familiar to those who watched Prometheus. Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, chief science officer on board, but no sign of her whereabouts or whether she is alive or dead.
Foster builds up the tension in the book, lwtting avid movie buffs abd Alien fans get mid way through the story before the aliens start to emerge. The aftermath og the alien's rampage is creepy in its own way; how they propagate their young is disgusting yet gripping when you are the one reading about it.
Anyone who has seen them become infected by them will not be surprised to see that they don't survive the unnatural pregnancy. To read this book is to see the danger around the crew play out and not be able to do a thing about it except read in fascination. Fans of the series who have been waiting fir another movie will like how it turned out.
