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Alien: River of Pain cover art

Alien: River of Pain

Written by: Christopher Golden, Dirk Maggs
Narrated by: Anna Friel, Philip Glenister, Colin Salmon, Alexander Siddig, Marc Warren, Michelle Ryan, William Hope
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Publisher's Summary

Ellen Ripley finally returns to Earth, only to discover that LV-426 — where the crew of the Nostromo first came into contact with the deadly xenomorphs — has been renamed Acheron.

Protected by Colonial Marines, the colonists seek to terraform the storm-swept planet against all the odds. But in the face of brutal living conditions and the daily struggles of a new world, there is humanity and hope. Anne and Russell Jorden — two colonists who are seeking a fortune that eluded them on Earth — are expecting their firstborn child.

The birth of Rebecca Jorden, known to her family as Newt, is a cause for celebration. But as the colony grows and expands, so, too, do the political struggles between a small detachment of Colonial Marines and the Weyland-Yutani scientists posted on Acheron. Willing to overlook their orders in order to serve the Company's interests, these scientists have another far more sinister agenda — to covertly capture a living Alien.

The wildcatters discover a vast, decaying spaceship. The horseshoe-shaped vessel is of particular interest to Weyland-Yutani and may be the answer to their dreams. But what Anne and Russell find onboard proves to be the stuff not of dreams but of nightmares.

This terrifying, cinematic, multicast dramatization — directed by the multiaward-winning Dirk Maggs, best known for his adaptations of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere for the BBC — is the sequel to Audible Original's Alien: Out of the Shadows (nominated for Best Audio Drama at the 2017 Audies).

Starring Golden Globe-nominated Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies, Limitless), Alexander Siddig (Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Game of Thrones), Michelle Ryan (Bionic Woman, Doctor Who), Colin Salmon (Alien vs Predator, Arrow, James Bond), Marc Warren (Mad Dogs, Saving Private Ryan, Hustle) and Philip Glenister (Outcast, Life on Mars), with special guest star William Hope returning as Lt. Gorman from James Cameron's Aliens.

©2017 20th Century Fox (P)2017 Audible, Ltd.

What the critics say

"Filled with tension and stellar voice performances, River Of Pain is edge of your seat good." ( Buzzfeed)
"Frightening." ( Yahoo Movies)
"Dirk Maggs continues to create masterful audio drama that only gets better.... Maggs coaxes fantastic performances from his cast to convey the characters' dread while also creating a good balance of sound effects. Listeners will remain on high alert about what may be around the next corner." ( AudioFile)
"Superbly detailed sound-design and remarkable sonic effects... a truly unique listening experience." ( HeyUGuys)
"Terrifying." ( NME)
"The cast is an outstanding smorgasbord of familiar genre talent." ( Starburst)
"No expense has been spared on this blockbuster Aliens sequel." ( Loaded)

What listeners say about Alien: River of Pain

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

mindgasm

stop your life.
crawl in a safe space
close the lights
put on headphone
try not to pee on yourself

this is mind blowing.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great Addition to the Full Cast Alien Novels

#Audible1 This is yet another great full cast audio from audible. There are three in the Alien world and they go together quite well. Good acting and sound effects. I think a lot comes from the Alien Isolation computer game which I also have so. Four hour running time is perfect for me and I hope we can see more of these full cast audios coming from Audible.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely amazing! A must for any Aliens fan.

I can't express how much I love it. Will be listening to it again and again. Given how the reboot movies turned out. This is a much appreciated dive back into what makes Alien so good.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Decent overall story with terrible voice acting

Pros:
The setting of LV426 post colony pre aliens(ie alien 2) is great and offers a lot of potential.

The strain between the marines and the company is a dynamic we haven’t really explored in depth and it pays off

The voice actors for ripley and newt do a very good job approximating the original actors voices.

Cons:
The voice acting is very bad for a lot of the secondary characters (especially newts mother)

A LOT of time is spent on newts family which is unfortunate given their dialogue is VERY poorly written.

There is a love triangle side plot which does not pay off in a satisfying way

Many characters do not react in intuitive ways and often leave you thinking, “thats not how people talk”
Or “no one in that situation would do that unless a writer needed them to for the plot”


Im not going to go into detail on my problems with the aliens or the plot to avoid spoilers but i would suggest you give this a miss unless you are a die hard alien fan and you don’t mind skipping through pointless dialogue.

If you want a great alien audiobook (with an admittedly weak ending) id suggest alien: out of the shadows instead.

A real disappointment.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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A well acted audio book.

Great performances by the audio actors and an entertaining story. Nicely fills in the blanks between Alien and Aliens. Recommend listening to Alien: River of Sorrow first (timeline is between Alien (1st movie) and this book), but not necessary. 👽

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good backstory to Aliens

Top notch performances, tense story. My only quibble is that it's a lot of characters to keep track of, but that becomes less of a problem the further along the story goes. :) Another great Alien audio drama.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Pretty good prequel to Aliens

This story is a prequel to Aliens and tells the story of Acheron’s colonists before the arrival of Ripley and the marines. This is basically just a backstory to Newt, speaking of Ripley her VA is stupendous, and to a lesser extent Burke’s VA, the others are lackluster, but that’s the only problem I have.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great listen

really enjoyed the story. A couple of issues with character development and line sdeleiverwd with no real feeling regarding the situation. but minor gripes as I finished the story in one solid session.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • Lou
  • 2023-02-17

Production makes up for story shortcomings

The “old flame” drama was an entirely unnecessary distraction that killed story tension earlier on. Maybe the author thought Brackett (or any man in the story, really) would be incapable of genuinely caring about the welfare of a child not his own? That element just plain sucked.

That rant aside, the story doesn’t offer anything new making RoP familiar rather than intriguing, but the production itself, from sound effects to acting, did an excellent job capturing the spirit of Aliens.

Overall, it’s worth revisiting now and then.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wish this was a movie

I really like the performers. The story works so well with Aliens. They should have used this story for a movie.

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