Alien: River of Pain

An Audible Original Drama

By: Christopher Golden, Dirk Maggs

Narrated by: Anna Friel, Philip Glenister, Colin Salmon, Alexander Siddig, Marc Warren, Michelle Ryan, William Hope

Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins

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.

Critic reviews

"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)

The Gap between Alien 1 and 2

I love it! It explains everything that happened between the first and second part of the movie. But i love Out of the Shadows more than its sequel.

It Doesn't Replace Reading the Book, But It's Good

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I picked up Audible's Alien: River of Pain audio drama. It seemed like an interesting alternative to the usual audiobook material I listen to, so I wanted to give it a shot. I have a massive collection of old 1940s, 50s, and 60s radio dramas in digital format, consisting of radio programs like The Weird Circle. This Audible Original was not entirely dissimilar to those experiences.
In place of the narrative, an ensemble cast performed the dialogue while digital Foley was used to provide the drama with background noise and contextual sounds that enhanced the three-dimensionality of the overall experience. Though this audio drama was missing the writing style of Christopher Golden's actual novel, it did capture his written dialogue quite nicely. Impressively, even without the story elements from Golden, it wasn't at all difficult to follow the events as they were taking place.
River of Pain provides us with details of the events taking place on LV-426 from the point the earliest terraforming efforts were underway. This fills us in up to the loss of contact that led to Burke enlisting Ripley to join the Colonial Marines as they made their way to the fateful--and fatal--encounter with the xenomorphs infesting Hadley's Hope. We benefit from getting to know characters we barely met in Aliens being fleshed out, in addition to meeting characters we'd never known to exist. Additionally, we catch a glimpse of the overall decency of Gorman before his final moments of life during the events of Aliens.
The experiences on LV-426 are placed in the appropriate location in the timeline with relatively frequent snapshots of the events we're familiar with from the movie. We're treated to events we know well, from Ripley's discovery by the salvage crew to her waking up from nightmares in the hospital, from her demotion to the moment Burke requests that she join the expedition to the colony.
All things considered, I feel like this drama might have been a more immersive experience than a standard audiobook, but it's not something I'd consider a substitute for the book itself. There's certainly plenty missing in erasing the narrative of the story, especially when written by someone as talented as Christopher Golden, but this does have its unique value.
There were too many exceptionally talented individuals lending their voices to this audio drama, so I'll focus on the performances that stand out the most. The dialogue from Ripley was so amazing that I initially assumed they'd simply pulled it straight from the movie. I occasionally felt the same where Newt's dialogue was concerned. Captain Brackett's dialogue was performed spectacularly well by the voice actor involved in bringing him to life.

Exciting But With Major Flaws

The child actors — and especially the dialogue they were given— are appallingly bad and annoying. A major flaw in an otherwise entertaining space drama.

Wish it was a movie.

There were moments during this that I felt like I was in the corridors of Hadleys Hope. This whole trilogy is a guaranteed screenplay bonanza. In my opinion.

Inside Hadley's hopeless situation

Great performance. Best dramatization on here so far. Believe I would have made the story bleaker however. I could mostly tell the geography of the story just through the sounds and performance. The story rhymes in a dramatic sense with all the Alien motifs.

*spoiler*

I would have killed off Damien and Newt's mom together in meaningful way. That aside I do like Damien enough to hear another tale should it ever be written. Also, there were some hamfisted corny lines that made me cringe but those were far and few between.

Non-stop action

I felt like Demian, from the start something was always happing with no breather. Even though say I appreciate the reality of the child being left behind.

Highly recommend if you enjoy Alien Series

I enjoyed this very much is is a great opening to what happened following Alien and the build up of Aliens. this book illustrated the chaos that was on LV-426 (Acheron). it is an easy listen and casted well.

Alien

I loved it. I liked the fact that different actors did their specific parts.

Great Audio Drama...Origin of Newt!

4.5 Stars overall. This mini book brings out "Newt's" origin and how the colony wound up as it did before Ripley revisits in "Aliens." It was quick...around 4 hours. if you seen up to ALIENS ..then this is good filler for background lore. The voice Actors are great... especially the Captain. Good sound effects...and like over 20 people they used for the cast! Great production value!

Very indepth story.

The casting was very good, however the casting for Ripley was the most dead on soundalike I've ever heard. Great backstory for names mentioned in the movie and a built upon scene cut from the original film.