Alien: The Blueprints

Although I don't have a great interest in the "Alien" series beyond the first two movies, the idea of a book that featured detailed diagrams of all the franchise's major vehicles and locations was tremendously appealing to me. Considering how claustrophobic and disorienting the series' sets tend to be, I have to applaud anyone who can piece them together into a cohesive whole. The finished result is something of a gorgeous mixed bag; lavishly detailed, authentic-looking, but feels like two books bolted together in the middle.For the first two-thirds at least, "Alien: The Blueprints" borders on five stars. The blueprints are big, clear, and superbly detailed, taking full advantage of the huge page size. They actually look like hard-copy technical readouts that would exist in-universe, complete with peripheral formatting and specifications. Highlights for me include a full set of deck plans of the "Nostromo," detailed descriptions for each of the vehicles in the first two movies, perspective views of Hadley's Hope and its medlab and operations center, sectional views of the APC and dropship, and a fold-out of the "Sulaco" with descriptions of all of its weapons and combat systems. Even the EEV and the Diahotai tractor from the "Aliens" special edition are shown in some detail.The commonly held consensus seems to be that each film in the franchise post-"Aliens" (or, if you're generous, "Alien 3") was mediocre, forgettable, or absolutely terrible. While I'm not here to review the movies, there's undoubtedly still some pretty impressive hardware on display in them. Unfortunately, the rest of the book seems to reflect that consensus. Only 50 pages are devoted to "Resurrection," "Prometheus," and "Covenant," compared with 93 for the first three films. The detailed specifications also disappear at this point, leaving only basic "length/width/height" information. The "Betty" and "Auriga" only receive external views; the blueprints of the latter aren't even annotated! The "Prometheus" blueprints are sharply executed, but again, are thinly annotated, and except for a plan and section of the Rover, only feature external views. The "Covenant" chapter fares better, with numerous views of the lander's interior, a double-sided foldout of the title ship, and plans of its bridge, cryogenic compartment, and nursery.In fairness, I can see why Titan Books would have divided up this book the way they did. After all, how many copies would "Alien Resurrection: The Blueprints" sell, and would the average man on the street even know that a sixth "Alien" movie came out in 2017? As beautiful as it might be, I'm somewhat disappointed at how unbalanced it is. There's still plenty of excellent material here, more than justifying a four-star rating, and "Alien" fans are sure to love it. I just can't call it a masterpiece.

'What? How can a book written by someone who was so heavily involved in the designs of the movies and the space ships be called 'inaccurate?" Who is this upstart to say such a thing?'Well, I used the blueprints to build a 3D model of the inside decks of the ships. First problem I ran into is that there is no scale on the drawings. Sure, you can look it up online to find the specs for the ship and extrapolate, but it isn't on the drawing. So then I built it all using Maya. While there is a cross-section drawing of Narcissus, there isn't one of Nostromo, so I had to do a lot of guessing for height of the decks, how much of a step-up or step-down everything was. But having built all the decks according to 600dpi scans of the deck plans... Ladders and access ways don't line up. Not by a little bit, but by the equivalent of several feet. Yes, to get from A Deck to B Deck, according to these drawings, not only does that ladder go down, but it also swerves a foot or 5 to the side or back. Other ladders are similarly inconsistent.This kind of inconsistency is extremely frustrating. It shows a lack of thought and detail, and frankly, I expected better. I also expect a published book to be free of basic grammatical errors (c'mon, basic subject/verb agreement isn't that difficult--any proofreader should have spotted those).Other notes that don't make sense: there are 2 medical bays, plus an isolation ward onboard ship. If Nostromo has an isolation ward, what was the big deal about letting the Captain bring Kane back on board with the Face Hugger? For that matter, since Nostromo landed several kilometers from the source of the signal, why not use one of the many mining vehicles to get there faster? It would also be easier to transport materials back to the ship. There are 2 shuttles according to the diagram, so why the fuss when there was talk of abandoning ship about there not being enough room? Use both shuttles. Both shuttles have 2 hypersleep modules, and there were only 3 people left at that point. There are 3 different types of doors, but no explanation of which type is used where. There are 2 places to access Mu/Th/Ur. Why? To get from engineering, where Ripley set the destruct system, to the shuttle(s), you have to run down a corridor, go down one ladder, run down another corridor, climb back up to the same level, and then run down another corridor. That is very bad design work.Furthermore, there is no place for the "Observation deck" to fit within the hull as described. Not unless the ceiling clearance is only 4-5 feet.Does this sound like petty nitpicking? Yes, yes it does. So why? Well, these are called "Blueprints." Blueprints are supposed to be accurate and to make sense. The blueprints for Nostromo don't. "They're more like guidelines than actual rules." So these are more rough approximations with a hefty dose of fudging than actual blueprints.

This is an excellent book with fantastic illustrations of all the Aliens franchise spaceships and vehicles including Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. This is a great companion volume to the Colonial Marines Technical Manual. My only minor complaint is that I would have loved for it to have also included blueprints for some smaller hardware like the pulse rifle, smartgun, and motion tracker, but admittedly those appear to be outside the intended scope of this book. My other (legitimate) complaint is that the bifold foldouts are completely wasted by only including two pages' width of content, rather than the available three. The Sulaco and dropship in particular would have made stunning three-page spreads. My wife, who has worked in a print shop, informs me that lining up content between such pages can be very difficult, but it is obvious from the rest of the "normal" two-page spreads this was no issue at all for the printer. Despite that lost opportunity, this is a great book that belongs on every serious Aliens fan's bookshelf. Recommended.

I ordered this well over a year ago and it has finally arrived! 16 months later and at first glance I am really happy with this, but as you progress through the book, you realize that the author or designer had run out of steam.I want very much to give it a 5 star rating but feel too many people will automatically opt for this. The Nostromo and Hadley's Hope are amazing! Absolutely incredible! But as you get further the designs and intricacies diminish and peter out. The Auriga especially - I understand that the design is hard to recreate. The size of the ship for one and the fact that not much of the ship was viewed, but just don't bother. This could have been released individualy as the Nostromo blueprints, followed by the Hadley's Hope blueprints. They did try to supply blueprints for the Covenant and Prometheus, but again, not that exceptional. Some of the work is too small to really impress, with a wallpapered texture of shapes, to fill the space in between. I would have also loved to have seen the Sevastopol. Of which there are ample layouts and designs to reference.Exceptional but half finished.

"Alien: The Blueprints" is a collection of brand new blueprints and technical drawings covering all of the major vehicles, ships, locations, and technology of the Alien movie universe, from 1979's "Alien" to the most recent movie "Alien: Covenant", and everything in between.Presented in one impressively oversized hardback edition composed of 156 pages, each movie is presented in sequence and provides forensically detailed information on the likes of the iconic UD-4L dropship, M577 APC, the Nostromo, Sulaco, Hasley's Hope colony building, the Betty, and the Prometheus, with additional notes and commentary regarding the production of the sets and props for each movie, and with a couple of huge fold-out blue prints for some of the larger vehicles.In terms of complaints I really have only one, that being that by far the most detail is expended on the first two movies (lets be honest, they're your favourites anyway!), with the subsequent film not receiving quite the same level of detail.Despite this, the book is an important compendium for the Alien fan that is best enjoyed alongside the likes of the Colonial Marines Technical Manual - another excellent read!

I do not know why only few things were ever published for Alien blueprints, considering the amount of ships and bases that were shown in the movies (including Prometheus and Covenant). This book (which is quite big) is of an amazing quality and it is dedicated to illustrate all the machinery, ships and bases of the Alien universe, in detail with list of components also illustrated. It is a must have for fan of the movies but it is also a must for those who play the Alien RPG, this will produce a lot of interesting info for you and let you show to your players the ins and outs of the areas they are visiting. The price is low when you think about the quality and quantity of the info inside this book.

Wow this is such a good book. I am not really interested in the other Alien films to be honest i got this for the Aliens stuff as ive been obsessed since i was 11 years oldwow the detail is so good, being able to see inside the sulaco and know how the dropships got stored was so good, the APC and dropship is in it and a nice fold out page too

This book is simply amazing - and its big! The plans are clear and insanely detailed and despite the size even has foldouts for some of the larger diagrams. And ... oh yeah, there's floor plans too, woohoo! I'm chuffed to bits with this one. Don't think - just buy it. NOW!