Well written but ultimately forgettable sci-fi techno-thriller, ostensibly set in the "Alien" universe. I was hoping that this novel would bridge the gap between Prometheus and Alien: Covenant (especially since there was never any English-language novelization of the former), as well as explain more about how and why the Covenant colonization mission came about, and the choosing of its destination, Origae-6. Instead, I got a somewhat vaguely sketched conspiracy/cult, determined to prevent the Covenant mission from ever leaving Earth by executing a number of botched plots involving kidnapping, sabotage, and more. A bit of a struggle to get through, really. ( )

3.5 stars. This was a decent prequel to Alien Covenant. While I did not enjoy the way Prometheus and Covenant basically retconned the origins of the Xenomorphs, this story was at least interesting. It follows the crew of the Covenant as the prepare for their impending launch. There is a conspiracy by a "religious" organization to stop the launch.

Their "Prophet" has had visions of vicious creatures out in space waiting to destroy the human race. They believe that humans must remain on earth and fix the damage they have caused rather than send people to create colonies elsewhere, because it will ultimately bring about the extinction of the human race.

After thwarting multiple attempts at sabotage and murder, the Weyland-Yutani group are prepared to launch the Covenant in their attempt to colonize another planet and save the human race.... Boy are they in for a surprise! ( )

The question to ask yourself before reading this novel is, do you need an actual Alien present in the story, to enjoy an Alien novel. If the answer is yes, you will surely want to skip this novel. If however, you're open to the idea of learning more about the world in which the Alien movies exist, by way of a techno-thriller with a rather strange cult as the antagonist, then this book is sure to please. I admit I'm one of the few fans of the Alien Covenant, so I was eager to delve more into the crew of the ill-fated colony ship. The novel surprises by not even taking the obvious route of making the leads of the movie central to the story here. Instead, we have Lope (played by Demián Bichir in the movie) and Rosenthal (played by Tess Haubrich whose head memorably gets found in the water in the movie) taking point on an Earth-bound investigation involving a strange prophetic cult and numerous attempts to stop the launch of the titular ship, ranging from sabotage to kidnapping to an outright kamikaze run. The novel takes a while to settle down on who exactly is the protagonist in this story. We get a cast of different characters, including Yutani himself but the book doesn't hit its best stride until it finally settles down with the pair of security officers from Covenant. Along the way, we get some filler, including a small but ultimately superfluous look at the final crunch to get Walter ready. The story bookends with Daniels and her husband Branson, who goes practically unseen in the movie. The most intriguing aspect of the story is the Prophet and his dark Gieger-esque visions that drive the worst fears of his followers. The original movie always pointed to some kind of foreknowledge of the Aliens prior to the Nostromo and the adventures of Ripley. The movie Prometheus seemed to explain this and added a touch of destiny with the meeting with the Engineers, but this novel seems to take things further with an almost supernatural element. Now the encounter with the Alien no longer seems cosmic coincidence but veridical destiny. It's a spooky touch that on the surface looks simply to justifies the Alien connection, but Foster makes it work well. After reading this, I say let Alan Dead Foster have a crack at a Bond novel. ( )

Alien Covenant Origins comes after Prometheus the film and before Alien Covenant the film/novelisation. It's entirely earth bound with no alien encounters but instead is focused on how Weyland Corp came to Weyland-Yutani Corp after the disappearance of Mr Weyland in Prometheus.

Interestingly the company seems far more caring and socially responsible here than in the latter novels/films where people and employees are seemingly an expendable resource.

As a book it flowed well and was quite interesting, as part of the franchise I felt like it didn't add a whole lot and the whole 'There Be Demons Out There' storyline seemed a bit wasted when it doesn't amount to much overall in the scheme of things.

Overall, interesting but I wouldn't say it's required reading, however that being said I haven't read Covenant yet so perhaps it does add to the depth of story in the following novel. ( )