I really wish T.R Napper had written Bishop in the early 90s.

Bishop is the sequel Alien 3 should have had. When time travel is a thing, I’ll be starting a gofundme to send Napper back to ‘95 to prevent the Alien films from disastrously going off the rails.

Bishop is true to the first three films, fits perfectly into the Alien universe, and gives us a story far, far superior to the ‘97 disaster that was Alien Resurrection.

Napper’s novel is pacey, fun, hits all the right notes and carries many of the hallmarks of his work – diverse and interesting characters, A+ kinetic action scenes, An Aussie in a prominent role, and an unerring ability to keep a reader turning the pages.

As you’d expect from the title, the story concerns the android Bishop, wrecked by the alien queen in Aliens and left for dead in Alien 3. His story continues here, as the colonial marines seek him and the data on the xenomorph that his synthetic brain contains. We follow Aussie marine Kari Lee and… actually, just read the novel. I don’t want to spoil it.

If, like me, you’ve seen Aliens 10+ times (I lay in bed as a child covering my mouth so a facehugger couldn’t get me, so maybe I saw it a little too young), or even if you just love a good action-heavy, plot-driven SF novel every so often, you’re going to love this book. It’s not what I would call a thinky novel, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun, and exactly what I hoped for when I read its blurb.

Five Xenomorphs/Aliens/Space Beasts out of five.

P.S: I saw Alien Resurrection at the cinema when it came out. I - a 17 year old schoolkid - used money saved from my part-time job to see my favorite franchise murdered in a hail of hot cinematic garbage.

Join my gofundme - napperbackto95 - and you can help right the wrong that was done to that innocent, trusting teen.

P.S.S. The gofundme will be live when time travel is a thing.