Rating: 
Summary: SKIP THE MOVIE, READ THE BOOK!
Review: If you havent seen the movie..DONT! What you need to do is buy this book. This book is one of the best Ive read, I never got bored of it. The Alien 4 movie was prob. one of the worst movies Ive seen this year, but the book is so damn good. I am a really big alien trilogy fan, but Alien Resurrection movie was the worst, i liked Alien 3 better. This book is indescribebly good, it has more to it than the cheap movie. All im saying is that even if youve seen the movie, buy the book, you wont be dissapointed.
Rating: 
Summary: An above average novelization, but flawed
Review: Most novelizations of films are little more than breathless descriptions of what happened on screen. They had more of a place years ago when people did automatically buy videos or DVDs, and once your favorite film left the cineplex, you might not see it again for years...so the novelization would let you "relive" the film. That's not necessary anymore, so the only function they can have is to fill-in information that might have been left on the cutting room floor.A.C. Crispin makes a sincere effort with "Alien Resurrection", and it doesn't read too badly. It does fall short of a real novel in it's dramatic structure and characterization. She makes a token attempt to fill in backgrounds, even first names, for characters who in the film often are killed off before we get a chance to know them. (Personally, I think this is a flaw in the movie, as we can't possibly care about the death of a character we have barely been introduced to.) Since the novelization came out at virtually the same time as the film was released, I am guessing that it had to be written before viewing the finished film and that it is largely based on older versions of the script and maybe rough cuts of the movie. There are numerous deviations from the finished film, none of them cosmically important but if you enjoy certain bits of dialogue -- especially some of the very humorous throw-away lines -- it is disconcerting to see them stated differently or clipped or just dropped entirely. What I was hoping for WAS that the novelization would fill in some of the critical information gaps in the film -- especially Call's motivation in joining the smuggler crew of the Betty and heading out to the Auriga to destroy the alien breeding experiment. This is confusingly told in the film. If Call is so concerned about the Betty crew, why doesn't she do something to prevent them from ever kidnapping the cryo-sleepers BEFORE they reach the Auriga? Why does she allow all the cryo-sleepers to be impregated and killed? Wouldn't it have been simpler for her to have joined the crew of the Auriga and sabotaged the experiement from within the military? Anyways, I will have to live with the ambivalence (or Joss Whedon's slightly wobbly, undercooked script) because the novelization provides no real answers. Still, most novelizations I have read are complete and utter dreck and this one definitely is not. I think it's a serious attempt to create a companion piece to the film. I just wish the author had stuck with the details a little more clearly.
Rating:
Summary: They've Done It Again!
Review: One question...who can write a novelization that is better than the movie it's based on? Answer...A.C. Crispin and Kathleen O'Malley, of course. Crispin did it before in her practically epic novelization of V years ago, and now she's back, with her wonderful co-author from Silent Dances and Silent Songs, to write another. I was blown away after reading this book. Ironically, the movie didn't give this book enough credit. The book gave a lot more insight into Gediman and Wren's motives for conducting the experiments, and made Perez, Distephano and Purvis more than just meat. The story is not only given to us from the point of view of the prey (us, that is), but also from the point of view of the Aliens. Which was very unsettling, and wonderfully wicked of Crispin and O'Malley. The descriptions of the deformed cloans and the Newborn were especially vivid, and actually put the ones on screen to shame. Having read the book before seeing the movie, I cared more for Ripley and Call than I would have after only seeing the movie. Don't get me wrong, Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder were brilliant. The best parts were what they didn't say (don't take that the wrong way either). I love it when a sequel refers to its predecessors, because it ties eveything together making you think. And the book contained more of a connection with the previous movies than the movie did, which was odd. There were references to Jonesy (Ripley's cat, that was killed in the first one), Newt (the little girl, who Ripley basically adopted in the second movie, and died somewhere between Aliens and Alien3), and also Ripley's own daughter (who died not being able to see her mother again while Ripley floated in deep space for 50 years). Crispin and O'Malley took Joss Whedon's screenplay and ran with it, making it their own story, and adding things that would never have been able to be done on screen because of time restrictions. That's what's great about novelizations, though, isn't it? This book is just more proof of the fact that Crispin and O'Malley are masters of their craft and should be given more shelf space in the stores. This book is wonderfully written with skill and vivid details. A wonderful addition to a series in need of a story like this. It was fun to read, and at the same time made you stop to think about cloaning, and what role humans play in the universe, and how much control we have over nature. Bravo to A.C. Crispin and Kathleen O'Malley for another wonderful novel! Here's hoping for more!
Rating:
Summary: Let the terror of space begin again!
Review: Ripley is the Best. If the movie is going to be like the book then go see it. This book has all the suspense of Alien, Aliens, and Aliens 3. It gives a good showing in the feelings department of the main characters. How people can go too far. The character Ripley is done great. She soul search on what she is. Call personality turns out to be the safe guard for the entire group. The rest add up to be great minor characters. This is a book worth reading. It also worth going to see the movie.
Rating:
Summary: A winner of a book.
Review: She died to save humankind from a species that would have destroyed it. She died with an embyronic queen alien growing inside her, knowing it was the only way. So how can Ellen Ripley be alive again now? Decades later, aboard a laboratory ship in Pluto orbit? And what's become of her unwelcome passenger?
I can't believe I read this book through to the last page. Its gore and grossness factor goes far beyond my usual tolerance, which is why I found myself unable to watch the movie on which it's based. But I picked the novelization up anyway because of A.C. Crispin's other work, and she hooked me before I finished the first chapter. Her villians are the kind any reader will love to hiss, her Ripley is the most poignant of heroines, and each of her secondary characters is a memorable individual. Even the aliens themselves gain a certain creepy sympathy in the hands of Crispin and co-author Kathleen O'Malley. Add to this a fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping story line, and you've got a winner of a book. Media tie-in or not, it makes no difference.
Rating: 
Summary: Ripley's back - or is she?
Review: Talk about making the best of a bad job! This book is definitely - no offence to the scriptwriter, Joss Whedon - an improvement on the screenplay. In the film there are some gaps you could put the Titanic through, but the book fills them in admirably. Alien3, in my opinion, detracted from the sweep of Aliens, but Alien: Resurrection redeems the series somewhat, and the novelisation is an epic in itself. A.C. Crispin and Kathleen O'Malley, I salute you.
Rating:
Summary: You'll need this one
Review: The movie? What can I say? It was O.K. However, for this latest entry in the Alien series you better read this book before renting the video or you will be confused indeed. I'm surprise the other people on this message board haven't mention this. It's so good to read a novel that explains something that for some reason coouldn't be place on film. I've never heard of A.C. Crispin before, but he obviously knows what he's doing.
Rating:
Summary: Alein Resurrection
Review: This book has finally brought out the alein s way of thinking
In the prevouis 3 movies i.e. novels, we heard the human side
Now we really find out about the alein side
Watching Ripley grow from a single cell to a full grown woman (alein mix) we see how the aleins really think. The humans that are in this picture (novel) are in for a big suprise
The aleins are smarter, bigger, and more human than we would like to think
This book takes off slow and builds to an incrediable speed. I read it in less than 4 hours
I could not put it down
I am a Ripley and alein fan since the beginning
And now, I can't wait for more
We all know how the aleins outsmarted us in the first three
Did they do it again
Now they could be on earth
Only time will tell
Rating:
Summary: an amazing read
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read.The way he captured the essence of the movie was amazing hopefully this will spark some incentive into Warner books to put the other three back into print.I found the way he brought Ripley back to life so much better than the movie I couldn't put it down
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