As part of Amazon’s daily ebook deals today, Alien: The Official Movie Novelization by Alan Dean Foster is on sale for the Kindle for only $1.99 (that’s down from the usual price of $7.99).

If you’d like a physical copy of the book, which is a novelization of Ridley Scott’s 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien, the paperback edition is available for only $6.61.

Note, the ebook deal is valid only for today, Sunday, January 4, 2015, until 11:59pm PST.

Check out more of today’s Kindle deals over at the MAIN SALE PAGE.

Alien 3. David Fincher’s 1992 film takes place right after the events of Aliens. An escape pod from the USS Sulaco crash-lands on a prison-run refinery planet, killing everyone aboard except Lieutenant Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). Unknown to Ripley, an alien organism was also aboard, which then begins killing the inhabitants of the prison.

Upon release, Alien 3 received mixed reviews and Fincher disowned the film after the studio dismantled and reworked it without his consent. An alternate version of Alien 3 (officially titled the “Assembly Cut”) with over 30 minutes of additional footage and alternate key plot elements was released on the Alien Quadrilogy DVD set in 2003, and later in the Alien Anthology Blu-ray set in 2010.

Titan Books recently reissued Alan Dean Foster’s Alien 3: The Official Movie Novelization, as well as his adaptations of Alien and Aliens. After re-reading Foster’s novel, I thought it would be fun to explore some of the differences between the book and the film and how unused elements from the screenplay were recycled for subsequent Alien films and Ridley Scott’s 2012 prequel, Prometheus.

Continue below for 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Alien 3: The Official Movie Novelization, and be sure to check out 15 things about the Alien and Aliens novelizations if you missed them.

Before the extended “Special Edition” of Aliens was released on LaserDisc and VHS in 1992, Alan Dean Foster‘s Aliens: The Official Movie Novelization gave fans of James Cameron’s 1986 film their first look at scenes that didn’t make the final cut.

Titan Books recently reissued Aliens: The Official Movie Novelization, as well as Foster’s adaptation of Alien and Alien 3. After re-reading Aliens: The Official Movie Novelization, I thought it would be fun to explore some of the differences between the book and the film and how unused elements from the screenplay were recycled for subsequent Alien films and Ridley Scott’s 2012 prequel, Prometheus.

Continue below for 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Aliens: The Official Movie Novelization.

Titan Books just re-released Alien 3: The Official Movie Novelization by Alan Dean Foster.

Thanks to Titan Books, we have an exclusive 7-page excerpt from Alien 3: The Official Movie Novelization, which you can check out right here below. Take a read from the book and let us know what you think!

The thing looked like the hand of a skeleton with many fingers curled into the palm. Something like a short tube protruded from the palm and something like a tail was coiled beneath the base of the hand. There, on the back, was a dim, convex shape like a glazed over eye. Disgusting! But if that was an eye and not some slimy excrescence… he moved closer to take a look. And the eye moved; it stared right back at him.

“Kane, answer me,” Dallas’ voice came from above, but from down below, there was no reply.

Alan Dean Foster‘s novelization of Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien was the first full-length adult science fiction novel that I remember reading. At this point, I had already seen Scott’s film on VHS – after begging my mother to rent it from the local video store. It wasn’t until I read Foster’s novelization, however, that I full understood everything my young eyes had seen. While reading, I began to notice several major differences between the book (which was based on an earlier draft of Dan O’Bannon’s screenplay) and the finished film. For one thing, the Space Jockey was nowhere to be found – and the Facehugger (as mentioned above) had an eye on its back.

If you’ve never read Alien: The Official Movie Novelization, Titan Books recently reissued Foster’s book and plans to reissue his adaptations of Aliens and Alien 3 as well. In addition to Foster’s novelizations, Titan Books is also publishing brand new Alien adventures from authors Tim Lebbon (Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi – Into the Void), Christopher Golden (Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire), and James A. Moore (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds).

Here we are celebrating May The 4th, also known as Star Wars Day, once again. And I was going to try and write up something based on the new movie coming out or something cool about the cast…but I decided to go a different route. Today, I’m going to tell you about some of the most influential Star Wars-related things that have occurred in my life, starting with the original movie.

I was six when the first Star Wars film hit theaters and, as we all know, that’s a highly impressionable age. The film amazed me, as I’m sure it did virtually everyone. But the true influence at that time was the line of toys that accompanied it. My first three figures were Darth Vader, R2-D2, and C-3PO. I remember being angry that the local stores were sold out when we were out shopping, but my ever-awesome Aunt Cathy managed to find those three action figures somewhere and gave them to me for my birthday about a month after the movie came out. It was the beginning of 35 years of collecting, though I had no idea of that at the time.

For Cyber Monday today, Amazon is offering up to 75% off on more than 900 Kindle ebooks.

Check out the main Cyber Monday Kindle Deals page to browse the selections, which can also be browsed through by category (science fiction, mystery, literature and fiction, non-fiction, etc). Prices are as low as $.99 for eBooks by Jack Higgins, Barbara Hambly, Alan Dean Foster, Alice Walker, and many more.

Here’s a few sale items that caught my interest:

– Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho – $2.99
– Henry VIII: Wolfman by A. E. Moorat – $3.99
– The Theory of Relativity: and Other Essays by Albert Einstein – $2.99
– The Time of the Dark: The Darwath Series (Book One) by Barbara Hambly – $1.99
– Spellsinger: A Spellsinger Adventure (Book One) by Alan Dean Foster – $1.99

May the Force be with you all! Geeks of Doom will be posting a couple of Star Wars articles today, May 25, for Universal Day of the Jedi, which celebrates the anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars movie.

This year, Universal Day of the Jedi also celebrates the anniversary of Timothy Zahn’s novel, Heir to the Empire. The initial release of this novel 20 years ago this month is significant, because it was quite literally groundbreaking: its impact would open the floodgates for an amazing deluge of Star Wars novels and comics – turning the Expanded Universe into an EXPANDING Universe.

Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy, of which Heir to the Empire is the first part, is widely regarded by many fans as one of the best series of Star Wars books to ever have been released. Some fans even consider the trilogy to be the equivalent of the closest we may ever get to a Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. Timothy Zahn has continued his journeys into the Expanded Star Wars Universe through the years – exploring deeper into the history and legacy of Grand Admiral Thrawn, the continual growing relationship between Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade, and also the mysteries behind the enigmatic Outbound Flight.

I figured with this month being the anniversary of Zahn’s masterpiece, and also with today being Universal Day of the Jedi, it would be a good opportunity to take a look back at some of the finer examples of Star Wars novels over the years.

Pocket Books has indefinitely postponed the release of four planned new Star Trek universe tie-in novels, all of which had storylines that take place just after the events of JJ Abrams’ Star Trek film, so as to not interfere with the film’s sequel plans.

After the huge success of Abrams’ Star Trek movie, which was released in theaters May 2009, Pocket Books had announced their plans to release the four new Trek tie-in novels in Summer 2010. Just last week, TrekMovie posted the summaries and preliminary covers for the planned books.

The novels were written by some big name scifi/Trek authors — Alan Dean Foster, Christopher L. Bennett, David Mack, and Greg Cox — which makes this postponement news even more disappointing for Trek fans [i.e., me].

Zachary Quinto has posted a 5-minute audio sample of the Star Trek novelization’s audiobook, of which he is the narrator.

Listen to the clip here below.

Quinto, who stars as Spock in the newest Star Trek film, voices all of the characters in the full 8.5-hour audiobook, which is based on the film adaptation by Alan Dean Foster and includes parts of the story that did not make it into the movie.

Speaking of Quinto, who attended the MTV Music Awards this weekend with his Heroes co-star Hayden Panetierre, the actor attended a fundraiser last week where he got the chance to shake hands with President Obama. Quite amusing, considering how the President has repeatedly been compared to the character Spock, with several photoshopped images of Obama with pointy Vulcan ears and eyebrows. Quinto is a big supporter of the President and had campaigned for him during the election.

There’s pictures from Quinto’s encounter with the President over at ZacharyQuinto.com.