Reviews

Alien: The Cold Forge by Alex White

oporst's review against another edition

4.0

Started out fantastically but lost some energy as it progressed. I still enjoyed it on the whole and would recommend this book to Alien fans.

garethmk's review

adventurous dark hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

shadowkobolt's review against another edition

5.0

Great read

Not the most revolutionary story in the world but really well written with great characters. An interesting look at another part of the alien universe

upmosttoaster's review

adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

metrica's review

5.0

This is a great science fiction horror story from cover to cover. The main cast of characters are almost exclusively high functioning psychopaths, and yet they're still kinda likeable in their own ways. I can see why this book "raised the bar" for what readers can expect from an Alien novel. I love what Alex White has done here and I'm looking forward to reading more from them.

"This is that good shit. Mhmm" - me, about a hundred pages in.

apoc70's review

tense medium-paced

4.25

There was a little to much drama in the first third of the book considering the crew are supposed to be professionals.
But overal this is a well written book and the suspense really gets ramped up in the last two thirds of the story. 

adamchalmers's review

3.0

It was a fun, easy romp. Had a few cool ideas, but mostly just thriller-action that didn't really excite me.

thor's review against another edition

dark tense

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

it's an alien book and has exactly the kind of plot you might expect from an alien movie – they're on a spaceship and then the aliens are loose and it becomes a survival game. it's nothing groundbreaking or new and was an enjoyable read, though one of the protagonists was so evil i kept wishing for him to hurry up and get eaten. 

jennyalexandra's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A really outstanding work of sci-fi horror, both as a development of the existing Alien lore and a standalone story. The character work is outstanding with both protagonists being infinitely compelling. 

chromatick's review

3.0

I'm a huge fan of the first two Alien movies. The rest not so much.

This book falls into the "not so much" category. Nothing about the book is terrible, but it's nothing we haven't seen before, with the exception of a main character who is a cripple and spends most of her time piloting an android's body. You know exactly how this book is going to go from page one.

Another big issue I had with it is that the main "bad" guy was just so stereotypically bad as to be laughable. It also made him very uninteresting. Nobody in this book is good, so there isn't anyone you actually want to survive.

Anyway, as a rehash of aliens killing a bunch of humans it's alright. I'll probably forget about this book by tomorrow.