Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual (Book Review)

As with the last book review this is posted in full on http://thefoundingfields.com/

There’s little denying by this point that Alien is a franchise which has definitely seen better days. Even ignoring the various elseworlds comics and expanded material which failed to meet the narrative strength of its early films, efforts of a resurgence recently fell flat. With Prometheus resembling little of the universe people love and Aliens: Colonial Marines triggering cries of betrayal which still echo across the planet, it now seems unlikely we’ll ever see the glory days of 1979 and 1986 repeated again. As such this was exactly the right time for this to be reprinted. Despite having been brought back to try and capitalise upon Colonial Marines, the Technical Manual proves to be the best thing we’ve seen in decades.

As this isn’t the traditional work of fiction we cover on The Founding Fields, there isn’t too much of a plot to cover. Ultimately divided into two parts, the Colonial Marines Technical Manual explores the two best known aspects of the films: The titular Colonial Marines and the xenomorphs of LV-426. The former are explored in detail while the latter, set after the events of Aliens, follows scientists trying to piece together what happened. Examining the truth behind Ripley’s initial reports of the events on the Nostramo and LV-426. Both are explored in detail, with the former is explored far more than the latter.

While Aliens displayed many memorable aspects of the military, it did little to explain them. The famous APC and smart gun were both enigmas. Whatever we knew about them we got from fleeting scenes,only very brief moments which told us very little of what they were or how they worked.  The Technical Manual does wonders to detail them and make them feel like proper military equipment.