after the indulgence of a literary minded horror book i thought i'd try something a little low brow, and i picked up this novel which is set just after alien. to my surprise it was very very literate and also a remarkable story. this knocked me down in terms of exciting, i was turning pages faster than ever, what the hell was going to happen and there were so many great characters and dialouge, it was humorous in parts. 

it was easy to imagine these poor people attempting to survive one horror to another, bonding together from environment to environment, and all in the desperate attempt to get to an escape that would have been hell had they made it. the introduction of ripley and jones was a great touch, and the ending was satisfying. it was a great idea and would have made an excellent film in sequence of the greater story arc.

when alien first came out i loved the idea of horror in space, it was new and executed very well. it's a grand story and the introduction of covenant and prometheus take us to bigger questions and a larger universe. in this particular novel the small universe meets the big one but there are no answers, just survival.