Novelization by Keith R. A. DeCandido.
Based on a video game developed by Creative Assembly and published by SEGA in 2014.
Review by William D. Tucker.
This novel tells the story of Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley, the heroine of four Alien movies played by Sigourney Weaver back in the day. Amanda spends her childhood separated from her mother who goes out on various long-haul space trucker assignments, and she is left in the care of her deadbeat alcoholic stepfather back on Earth.
Ellen disappears on a job somewhere out in the cosmos, and teenage Amanda decides to cut loose from her piece-of-shit stepdad, and get out into space to find her mother come hell or x-tro infestation.
Amanda knows that her mom worked for the Company, and the Company only cares about profits, not people. However, the Company is also into covering its ass, and so they provide financial relief and job assistance to young Amanda, who initially resists their offers, but caves when she realizes that they're offering the only viable path to uncovering the truth of her mother's disappearance.
What I like about this novel is how it portrays the Company's invasion of all aspects of life planetside. Amanda's earthbound existence consists of an obstacle course of hyper-corporatized, make-work beauracracy and an education system that seeks to strip people of all humanity according to a regime of bogus standardized tests and credentialing ordeals. This is next-level crapitalism.
The putrid norms established by the Company infect all levels of society, creating a social reality where everyone is trying to get over as best as they can, even if that means fucking over your friends, your family, yourself.
Amanda takes after her mother, and refuses to let a world constructed upon greed, incompetence, and lies keep her down, and this strength of character inevitably puts her on a collision course with human evil.
And, yes, there's the iconic double-jawed beastie from beyond the stars . . . this novel plays the hits for sure.
Look, this is media tie-in product. It ain't Proust. But it's a worthy elaboration of the cynical nightmare world of the original Alien flick. So, if you're into that . . . here's some more punishment.
