Fantasy blog he tagged twelve essential sci-fi & fantasy film novelizations, including:Alien, by Alan Dean FosterRead about the other entries on the list.
Foster is something of a Godfather in novelizations—a successful author in his own right, he also penned many of the best-regarded examples of the form. Included on that list is Foster’s take on Ridley Scott’s Alien—which is remarkable, since he wrote it in just a few weeks with only an unfinished screenplay to work with, and never even got to see the final effects for the Alien itself before finishing the book. Foster manages to shade in the characters with motivations and backstories not onscreen while maintaining the pacing and sense of dread that made the film an instant horror classic. The book is a master class in technically accomplished writing, as Foster uses the tools of his trade to translate the sparse details of a script into a lush, horrifyingly detailed haunted spaceship tale, populated by characters you’ll feel for.
--Marshal Zeringue
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