Embarrassed to admit I read this as well as several Star Wars novelizations by Alan Dean Foster when I was a teen. In the case of Alien, however, I read the book because I wasn't allowed to see the R rated movie of the same name (which is also the reason I read Peter Benchley's Jaws when I was 12).

So a belated thank you to Alan Dean Foster for this competently written but ultimately forgettable book--and for allowing me to get around not only the MPAA rating system but the will of my overly strict father.