Having made my way through the entire current series of Alien novels from Titan Books, which began with Alien: Out of the Shadows in 2014, I’ve now reviewed all of them on the blog. I even managed to write an article for Polygon, in which I ranked the entire series (and which can be found here).

This didn’t place them in chronological order, however – and there wasn’t enough space in a single article to do them justice in terms of imparting details on the content and quality of each book. So, with links, here’s my chronological list of reviews:

Alien: Out of the Shadows (2014)

Alien: Sea of Sorrows (2014)

Alien: River of Pain (2014)

Alien: Invasion (2016) – the second part of the Rage War Trilogy, which began with Predator: Incursion (2015) and ended with Alien vs Predator: Armageddon (2016)

Alien: The Cold Forge (2018)

Alien: Echo (2019)

Alien: Isolation (2019)

Alien: Prototype (2019)

Aliens: Phalanx (2020)

Alien: Into Charybdis (2021)

Aliens: Infiltrator (2021)

Though Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay was also published in 2021, it doesn’t form part of the same continuity as the above novels – featuring an alternate take on a sequel (originally written by William Gibson) to Aliens that contradicts events taking place during the final filmed version of Alien 3. The books above do take place at different points in the history of the Aliens universe, fitting in and around the films as a (loose) single narrative within the same continuity, should fans want to read them that way – there’s plenty of references not just to the movies but to events in other books dotted throughout the series.

Interestingly, video game Aliens: Fireteam Elite also fits into the continuity of this book series, with Aliens: Infiltrator being a direct prequel tie-in to the game and plenty of events from the books referenced in-game, as well as the appearance of more than one character who originated in the books. Perhaps the best and most surprising cameo of all is from one of the main characters in Mira Grant’s superb Young Adult novel Alien: Echo, who is present among the Colonial Marines in the game. No spoilers as to who that may be, but it’s a superbly handled reveal for fans who’ve been paying attention to the books.