Why it's essential
Adapting a beloved franchise to audio-drama is no small feat, but Dirk Maggs delivers. The full-cast performance is captivating to new and old fans alike.
Featured in The Audible Essentials Top 100.
What is Alien: Out of the Shadows about?
Chronicling the events occurring between Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror classic Alien and James Cameron’s legendary sequel Aliens, this episodic audio drama follows the chaos that erupts aboard the mining ship Marion when two transport shuttles infested with violent, predatory Xenomorphs collide with the vessel. As the crew fights to survive, their distress call is received by an unlikely ally—Ellen Ripley, the sole survivor of the USCSS Nostromo.
Editor's review
Memoir and fandom editor Alanna is a proponent of empathetic, sensitive storytelling of all kinds. She has a soft spot for investigative journalism podcasts, author-narrated memoir, character-driven fiction, and poetry that lays bare the human spirit.
There was a running joke in my household growing up that I was somehow alien. It wasn’t just that I was a quirky child with eyes the size of dinner plates and a mildly conical head, but the fact that I was born precisely as the opening credits of The X-Files blared from the delivery room’s television. It was almost endearing at the time—the extraterrestrials of my youth were cute and cuddly and charming, ranging from Spielberg’s wrinkly, homeward-bound E.T. to the goggle-eyed, triangular faces of the grays plastered on mylar party balloons. But as I grew older, my brother introduced me to an entirely new kind of unearthly life-form when he queued up Ridley Scott’s Alien. Gone were the friendly interstellar critters I’d known—these towering beasties, with their metallic, razor-sharp teeth, eerily coated in frothy saliva, barbed tails, and killer instincts most certainly did not come in peace.
I’d always wondered how I’d fare against such a foe—Would I be headstrong and determined like heroine Ellen Ripley, or would I be doomed from the start like poor Kane? I got my answer when I popped in my earbuds and pressed play on Alien: Out of the Shadows, an audio drama with as much bite as a Xeno’s acidic blood.
When you consider how much suspense, how much horror, is built in 1979’s Alien when the title monster only clocks about four minutes of screen time, it should come as no surprise that the world lends effortlessly to audio. It’s not seeing the stalking Xenomorphs that makes them terrifying—it’s knowing they’re lurking in the shadows, unseen and waiting to strike. Their ominous sounds are vivid—drool spattering down from the rafters above, insectoid skittering through the ship’s air ducts, that unmistakable hiss as a smaller, inner mouth unfurls. And in Out of the Shadows, audio maven Dirk Maggs wields them to a visceral sensorial effect. Paired with a dynamic score and an atmospheric sound design that places listeners firmly in the far reaches of the galaxy, this listen is the very definition of immersive.
Equally impressive throughout this listening experience are the human performances. The full cast—which includes the late acting legend Rutger Hauer, Harry Potter’s Matthew Lewis, and Alien: Isolation’s Andrea Deck—is tremendous. While the performers originating new characters are markedly skilled in their ability to get you invested in their fate nearly immediately, it’s the pair of actors voicing those more familiar that create a deep sense of cohesion in the larger Alienverse. Hauer portrays Ash, the double-crossing synth responsible for the mayhem that erupted aboard the Nostromo, with the same staccato disconnect that Ian Holm initially brought to the character. Like Holm, he conveys a deep understanding of Ash’s motivations and relentless commitment to his directive. Laurel Lefkow, who voices Ellen Ripley, delivers an absolute knockout performance. Taking on a role famously originated by Sigourney Weaver, Lefkow offers a nearly indistinguishable performance, her low tone, dry delivery, and moments of bright brashness mirroring her on-screen counterpart.
Over the years, I’ve come to understand that, despite any resemblance in behavior or physicality, I am in fact just your everyday, run-of-the-mill human being. But the more I think on it after revisiting Out of the Shadows, the more I feel my lack of interstellar ties is something I should be grateful for. After all, I’ve heard what’s out there—and it’s better off left alone.
Did you know?
Rutger Hauer, who voices hostile synthetic Ash in Out of the Shadows, is no stranger to portraying androids in Ridley Scott’s fictional universes—Hauer famously played replicant Roy Batty in Scott’s legendary 1982 cyberpunk film, Blade Runner.
Before it was adapted into an audio drama, Out of the Shadows was an in-universe novelization by Tim Lebbon, part of a trilogy of tie-ins that were overseen by 20th Century Fox and considered canonical additions to the film series’s storyline at the time of their publication.
Step aside, Xenos—in Alien: Out of the Shadows, the corpse of a Drukathi, a mysterious race of doglike humanoid creatures, is discovered in a crash-landed ship on LV-178.
What listeners said
"This production was so brilliant. Got sucked in and fell in love with the crew. Wanted them all to make it even though was fully aware that wasn't going to happen. If you're an Alien fan then this is a must." -Gilbert, Audible listener
"Great story, wonderfully performed! I could have sworn it was Sigourney Weaver reprising her role as Ripley, excellent voice acting! LeChance was so good as well!" -Nate, Audible listener
"This book is the perfect follow-up to the original movie. The performances are outstanding, the story is legitimately tense, the new crew are just as endearing as the original, and the situation is even more dire. I enjoyed this from start to finish!" -Audible listener
Listen if you loved
Quotes from Alien: Out of the Shadows
"She saw an alien bearing down and clasping her to its chest, that long curved head raising, mouth sprouting the silvery, deadly teeth that would smash through her skull and free her at last from her nightmares."
"Pain was a difficult concept to conjure in memory, Hoop had said. Like tasting the best cake ever. Such thoughts only really meant anything when the tasting—or the pain—was happening.”
"This was a danger beyond humanity, one that had existed since long before humans even knew what the stars were."
About the authors
Tim Lebbon is a New York Times bestselling horror, thriller, and fantasy writer from a little village in South Wales. He has written more than 45 novels, including several in collaboration with Christopher Golden, as well as dozens of novellas and hundreds of short stories. He has written tie-in novels in the Alien, Predator, Helllboy, Star Wars, and Firefly universes.
Dirk Maggs is a British freelance writer and director. During his career as a Senior Producer in BBC Radio, he made radio drama adopting a cinematic-sounding approach, combining filmic story construction, layered sound effects, orchestral music, and digital recording technology. Maggs introduced productions in Dolby Surround in BBC Radio and termed the result, "Audio Movies."
About the performers
This production features a full cast of performers, including Rutger Hauer, Corey Johnson, Matthew Lewis, Kathryn Drysdale, Andrea Deck, Mac McDonald, and Laurel Lefkow.
