Alien: Out Of The Shadows

By Tim Lebbon

Narrated by Rutger Hauer, Corey Johnson, Matthew Lewis, Kathryn Drysdale, Laurel Lefkow, Andrea Deck, and Mac McDonald

Image From Goodreads

Even though I'm a writer I'm struggling to find the words tonight. Not for the review, that's fine, but for what happened today at Westminster.

I feel like these attacks are getting more and more frequent no matter where we are.

What is the world coming to?

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[An Audible Original Drama. As a child, Chris Hooper dreamed of monsters. But in deep space, he found only darkness an isolation. Then, on planet LV178, he and his fellow miners discovered a storm-scoured, sand-blasted hell - and trimonite, the hardest material known to man. When a shuttle crashes into the mining ship Marion, the miners learn that there was more than trimonite deep in the caverns. There was evil, hibernating and waiting for suitable prey. Hoop and his associates uncover a nest of Xenomorphs, and hell takes on a new meaning, Quickly they discover that their only hope lies with the unlikeliest of saviours... Ellen Ripley, the last human survivor of the salvage ship Nostromo.]

Alien: Out of the Shadows was an audiobook I'd been considering for some time.

I was skeptical about using my monthly credit for it on Audible though because it's just so damn short. I didn't think it would be worth it.

But Oh. My. God. Just wow. It was so so SO worth it.

It had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. 

I could visualise it all fantastically thanks to the Alien films. I think this short story slots somewhere between the first and second of those films especially as Ripley isn't the only character from the first film to make an appearance.

The characters were brilliant. Having a different actor for each was wonderful. It really helped in differentiating between them all. Ripley was just like in the films as well, sarcastic, headstrong and brave.

The use of the sound effects were done very, very well. Right from the beginning we had the crackly radio communications, the banging of doors, air escaping when an air lock was opened, gun fire, alien screams, everything. It made it feel SO realistic.

The plot was simple and straight forward, the tension was incredible and I loved the entire voice cast ensemble and the dark humour throughout!

Four and a half hours was the perfect amount of time. It didn't drag on and tied everything up so neatly that there aren't any gaping holes when taking the films into consideration.

I loved it!!

If you fancy something short that doesn't need a lot of concentration this is perfect for you. You don't even need to have seen Alien, it's great as a stand alone too.