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T.R. Napper's novel is a gritty and thought provoking addition to the Alien franchise. Fittingly, what stands out is his depiction of Bishop, an 'artificial person' who begins to understand life beyond human needs.
BEN O'MARA, Fri 9 Nov 2024; edited Mon 9 Dec 2024
T.R. Napper’s franchise tie-in novel about the reanimated android and fan favourite, Bishop, has been out since late last year. The novel is well worth revisiting now, however, given recent praise for the film Alien: Romulus, and as developments in software algorithms continue to capture the human imagination.
Much discussion of the film has noted David Jonsson’s engaging performance as its main android character, Andy. His struggle with updated, corporate programming and past directives to look after his surrogate sister, Rain, feels genuine and dramatic. Napper’s novel offers Bishop as a similarly compelling and uncanny representation of a machine built in the image of, and to serve, humans. Bishop was memorably portrayed by Lance Henriksen in Aliens (1986) and Alien 3 (1992 film). Napper’s version of Bishop is like Andy and he must navigate difficult choices in trying to protect a collection of soldiers and scientists from the overwhelming threat of the dreaded xenomorph.
Yet, where Bishop differs from Andy, and what sets the book apart, are the choices Bishop discovers. Choices born from his memories, relationships, skills and intellect. Choices that offer a chance to live more on his, “nonhuman”, terms after suffering so much loss and destruction from the aliens, and humans, pursuing him.
Serious genre chops
Napper’s novel is gritty and disturbing. Scenes featuring the Colonial Marines, who are sent to investigate a research vessel and the last known whereabouts of Bishop, depict them as tough, skilled and unflinching: with their foes, and themselves, even as the death toll mounts. Like the Marines, the mercenary soldiers competing in the search for Bishop are formidable, but their toughness comes from an efficient and callous effort to make a lot of money from the Weyland-Yuyani Corporation. Central to the novel's quest is Michael, the renwoned scientist leading research into the xenomorphs. He is polite, intelligent and also the man responsible for creating Bishop. He seems genteel early in the novel, even wise. But, creepily, has no qualms about conducting dubious experiments to unlock the secrets of a Xenomorph queen. And when the Xenomorphs themselves get loose, the body count is horrific.
The novel’s pace and tension are well crafted, too. A big part of Napper's craft is his use of prose that is active, clear and well structured, combined with a keen understanding of his characters. These techniques make the motivations and worries plaguing the characters easy to understand as they scrap and fight their way through the labs and corridors of the USCSS Patna vessel. The battles between soldiers and Xenomorphs are fast and exhilarating to read, mostly because the characters have so much at stake, to accomplish or lose, even in the compact form of a genre novel. A more sleek form of genre writing is perhaps one of the book’s few limitations. More time spent with some characters and moments from their past may have been fascinating. Yet, the propulsion of the story is still a real strength, and to be expected more generally of the genre.
Such emotional intensity does carry into the quiet and slow moments of the novel and with great effect. Captain Marcel Apone, the little brother of Sargent Alexander Capone, killed in the events of James Cameron’s film Aliens, reflects with sad finality on his mistakes after the bloody losses of a firefight. Xuan hides from the xenomorphs and feels gutted by the gruesome death of a man she loved liked a brother. Private Karri Lee, an Australian of Vietnamese background, misses her family in the aftermath of lethal sprays of acid blood from the Xenomorphs and their frightening reproductive cycle. The moments spent with characters trying to make sense of what is going on are both scary and touching.
Bishop: the artificial person with a soul choosing his own path
Napper’s skill in writing about the emotions and experiences driving his characters is most effective when telling Bishop’s story. Bishop has been through a lot by the time we meet him in this novel. He is awakened into a new synthetic body after losing his Colonial Marine team in James Cameron’s Aliens film, surviving being ripped in two by a Xenomorph queen and then disconnected by Ripley in Alien 3 because he fears he will never be “top of the line” again.
Such difficult experiences have given him memories that shape what he considers to parts of his consciousness. While his past leads to experiences that are not human feelings, they register in similarly powerful ways. This is in addition to his software for human protection protocols and other programming that guide his decisions and behaviour.
Bishop must now, however, deal with the xenomorph again, and with this a new challenge: being coerced by his creator to share critical data about the species that only he knows, and could result in rampant destruction. “While I trust you, Michael, once the information is freed from the locked room of my mind, and placed into that of a quantum computer, there is danger the information could be accessed by others”. Michael persists with Bishop, emphasising the choice he “gives” his creation to decide on whether to share the information, even removing the software inhibiting Bishop from risking human harm. This concept of choice defines much of Bishop’s journey in the novel and how his memories and experiences as a nonhuman being, the suffering he witnesses, the intimate nature of his connections with others in the face of great danger, his soul, come to shape his decisions.
Beyond Michael’s deceptive sense of “choice”, in the novel Bishop finds other ways to increase his ability in making choices without the restraints of human programming and from a greater understanding of what he has been through, and what he wants, rather than the often destructive needs of humans. Bishop begins to assert his own identity as a nonhuman being with a soul and a desire to forge his own destiny in a tumultuous and terrifying universe.
Bishop’s nonhuman soul and choices help to expand the range of stories about software algorithms. Too often these fictional algorithms are imagined and defined only by human needs and desires. Their choices limited to programming made by and for humans. For example, in Alien: Romulus, Andy stops being a corporate android and reverts to his role as a more caring, surrogate brother, but he is prescribed this role by a human. He was given little choice in the process. Similarly, in debates about the real world implications of ChatGPT, MidJourney and similar “smart” technology, albeit technology nowhere near as advanced as the forms of artificial consciousness like Andy or Bishop, it is debatable whether such technology has any real choice or agency beyond the control of human programming.
Hopefully, the company publishing novels in the Alien universe will provide another opportunity for Napper to write more stories about how Bishop evolves. Napper’s contribution sticks in the mind not only for its genre chops, but also for its nuanced depiction of one of its most well loved and intriguing characters, and what this suggests about our relationship with technology today and in the future.
Aliens: Bishop is available from Readings in Melbourne, Dymocks in Canberra, Amazon and other retailers off and online.
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