By Pat Cadigan

Titan Books, out now

An alternate fate of Ripley, Hicks, Newt and Bishop revealed…

Pat Cadigan’s novel is based, as the slightly unwieldy official title notes, on the first of the proposed scripts by William Gibson for Alien3 – rather than the second, which forms the basis of Dirk Maggs’ audio play from a few years back – gives a fascinating and intriguing look into the way that the Alien saga could’ve developed.

Unlike the final version that came courtesy of David Fincher (whether we are talking about the theatrical or the workprint version) this is very much a story about Hicks, rather than Ripley. In fact it’s not really a spoiler to say that Sigourney Weaver would not necessarily even have been required for filming. Newt has a key role to play, but even she is taken off the board quite early on events.

I won’t spoil the various twists of this version for those who haven’t delved into the backstory of the movie, but suffice it to say that it is very different from the Alien franchise that we know now, with some additions to the mythos that will surprise – and I suspect please – fans.

Cadigan takes the bare bones of Gibson’s screenplay and fleshes them out tremendously: we really get to know not just Hicks but all of the residents of the two space stations involved. There are some lovely callbacks to the characters from Aliens (all of which you can very clearly hear speaking the lines, notably Apone), alongside some very distinctive new personnel – many of whom become Xenomorph fodder in the most unusual way!

Verdict: A highly enjoyable excursion down a blind alley of Alien evolution. 9/10

Paul Simpson