Audible, out April 26

Three centuries after Hooper and Ripley battled Xenomorphs on LV-178, the aliens are back – and they’ve got a score to settle…

Dirk Maggs’ adaptation of James A. Moore’s novel, published by Titan a couple of years back, completes the trilogy of adventures that were designed to tie in between the first two films in the saga. At the time it seemed a bit odd that this one was set in the 25th century, but the reason for that quickly becomes clear as Alan Decker’s illustrious forebear pissed the aliens off considerably. Far more than once. Maggs slips in more references to the main saga than were in the original novel – we get an indication as to what happened after Alien: Resurrection for a start – and we get a reason for the tech involved not really having moved on very much in 300 years.

Some of the audio devices Maggs used to great effect in the first two stories make a reappearance here (although, as with the original novel, we don’t get the regular updates as to time and place) and he’s brought in a very wide variety of voices so that, despite the very large cast, you’re never unsure for a moment as to which group of mercenaries, scientists or Company workers we’re listening to. The battle sequences, in particular, must be a nightmare to design, given that only one side of the equation can actually speak!

The tension is allowed to mount during the first hour without constant firing of automatic weapons, with some enjoyable flashbacks to the first two audios (the decision to remount scenes from Aliens in the second audio paying off handsomely here). James Hannigan’s music score once more is an important character in its own right – no more so than in the final scenes on the planet where the emotion rather than the action is quite rightly scored – and I really wish a standalone release of that were possible.

Although this is the last of that trilogy, a new story has just been published (The Cold Forge – read our review here) and I’d be lying if I said that when I read that I wasn’t thinking of how it will eventually appear on audio…!

Verdict: A stunningly effective piece of audio cinema. 9/10

Paul Simpson