Having survived a return to the planet where Ripley first encountered the alien which haunts her nightmares, her ship apparently malfunctions killing all aboard except for her. Ejected from the Sulaco, her lift boat crashes on the Fury 161, a penal colony for dangerous prisoners, but she has not come alone...

Alien 3 (248 pages. Originally published in 1992) is the novelisation of David Fincher’s dark take on the Alien universe, written by the genre stalwart, Alan Dean Foster.

Following the success of the first two films adaptations it was really a no brainer to give the gig to Foster, who had shown that he could take the raw material and add the extra grit and depth which a film is incapable of. It was to be Foster's last adaptation for the Alien franchise, as many of the changes he wanted to make to the story to make it a better novel were not allowed, which seems surprisingly short sighted given how well his previous two books were received.

While he was not allowed to change the overall story he did have access to the script, so the book contains many scenes which did not make it into the original cut of the film. What you get in the novel is pretty much what ended up in the Assembly Cut version of the film, plus Foster does his usual good job of filling in the gaps left by the movie, like motivation and character interaction.

Given the restrictions imposed on him, as a writer and the original material he had to work from, Foster has turned in another fine example of how to do a film novelisation. These books have been out of print for a considerable number of years so in this anniversary year it’s a pleasure to see Titan reissuing the series. It’s a good chance to pick one up before these once more disappear.

7

Charles Packer