maybe helps that I bought Alan Dean Foster's "novelization" before the film came out,
and it matched the assembly cut rather than the finished version. Also generally made the story and characters a hell of a lot more coherent than they ended up in the film.
(The Porcupine From Purgatory katsu revival trust, Mon 2 Sep 2024, 9:39, archived)

Actually yeah I had the novelisations of the first three films too, maybe that's why I like it.
Weirdest part of the books which sticks in my mind is when you get a couple of paragraphs about what Jonesy the cat is thinking when playing with a bit of string.
( Aardvark and so at last, I understood, Mon 2 Sep 2024, 9:50, archived)

I've still got those three books, it was all you had in them days before they released the films on sell-through VHS.
I just read that ADF did the novelisation for Covenant too, might get that for old time's sake.
(The Porcupine From Purgatory katsu revival trust, Mon 2 Sep 2024, 11:04, archived)