By Owen Williams

Carlton, out now

A guide to the entire Alien screen franchise (bar those pesky Pedator encounters) – from Prometheus to Resurrection. With added VR.

I’m pretty sure that this is the first licensed product that’s covered all of the Alien films “in-universe” to include the two recent prequels, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. It’s not exactly a franchise known for its internal continuity but in this highly enjoyable guide, Owen Williams has attempted to bring everything together.

There’s more than enough in the straightforward text (or “old world handbook” as the back cover describes it) to attract buyers, despite the £25 cover price. Written in-universe as a manual for new recruits to the United States Colonial Marine Corps, it doesn’t waste any time reminding them that the Corps is in fact owned by Weyland-Yutani!

Each movie gets its own section, with a “mission briefing” (i.e. synopsis), and a list of key personnel as well as what we learn about the Xenomorphs during that encounter, and some important transmissions from the relevant ships alongside plenty of illustrative photography from the movies. These sections also include guides on how to kill the little bastards, and (perhaps slightly more importantly), how not to get killed by them. These do feel somewhat randomly dropped in to the text, and I do wonder if the text would be better served with such sections interspersed between the movie entries.

Williams provides plenty of Easter (or should that be Alien) eggs in the text – the description of the encounter on Fiorina 161 says that the Xenomorph impregnated either a dog or an ox, which depends on which version of the movie you watch, and there are more than a few digs at some of the scripting decisions in the films – as well as a classic selection of quotes (most of which are correctly ascribed!). Anyone with any working knowledge of the franchise is going to guess what’s on the final page…

But of course that’s not all that this book is. There’s also the VR element to it, for which you need to download an app and then scan the pages in the centre of the book for the interactive experience. It’s not on a par with some of the larger-scale Alien live encounters that were out last year, but there are more than enough jumps and nasty moments to suit most fans – landing a dropship is tricky, but watching an alien egg open in real time is something you just can’t look away from.

Verdict: It would be good if the text was fact checked again before a second printing to eliminate some of the captioning and other errors, but despite these, this deserves a place on Alien fans’ shelves. 8/10

Paul Simpson

Images TM & © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.