Andrew E. C. Gaska

A brilliant introduction into the universe of Alien role playing. The system is clean, well hinges, and the coupling of stress dice with mechanics to stimulate deterioration of function in life threatening situations was well thought out, and sensible. In some ways, and interesting premise and better than the sanity system for Call Of Cthulhu. I look forward to many more supplements, and support material, on creatures other than the Xeno morphs, and would like some concentration on the various corporate factions and states other than the United States.… (plus d'informations)

This is, surprisingly, the first original novel (i.e., not a novelization) set during the continuity of the 1968-73 films. But the book is kind of a novelization of the first film, the only one of the five to never be novelized (publishers just reissued Pierre Boulle's original novel with a film tie-in cover instead), and kind of a sidequel to it, as it mostly focuses on minor characters from the first film, and characters who were introduced in later ones.

The main human character is Landon, one of the not-Charlton Heston astronauts from the original film; Conspiracy reveals that he had a much more involved adventure on the planet of the apes than one might have guessed based on the film. It's kind of neat to see the early scenes of the original retold from his viewpoint. Taylor is kind of an asshole when he's not the protagonist. There are also lots of flashbacks that fill in Landon's pre-Liberty 1 life, especially a space mission he undertook a few years earlier along with Maryann Stewart, the female astronaut who dies in suspended animation in the film's opening. To be honest, I struggled to care about him at times; the present-day stuff was interesting, but the flashbacks ultimately came off as pretty pointless.

The main ape characters are Galen, a veterinarian who briefly appeared in the original film, and Milo, a scientist who was introduced in the third film as a close friend of Cornelius and Zira who'd we never heard of before. Galen experiments on Landon, while Milo uses information from Landon to recover the Liberty 1 from beneath the water, setting up and explaining one of the particularly contrived aspects of the third film. To be honest, this is one of those tie-ins where it feels like its whole purpose is not telling a story, but sewing up holes. It does a good job of sewing up holes (I liked the explanation for why the Liberty 1 crashed to begin with, or why someone would even send a rescue mission after a ship that seemingly couldn't return), but Gaska's own story isn't always particularly compelling.

The book is graphic novel-sized (I think it was published by a comic book publisher) and profusely illustrated by some greats of the sf/comics world like Andrew Probert, Dave Dorman, and Thomas Scioli, which was really neat. Worth reading if you've thought a lot about inconsistencies in the Planet of the Apes films (which I have), but maybe not if you just want to read a great story.… (plus d'informations)