A review by wyrmbergmalcolm
Aliens: No Exit by B.K. Evenson

4.0

I must admit this one really surprised me. Having previous read and been quite disappointed with Criminal Enterprise, the other book in this two-book omnibus, I wasn't expecting much. That I received a convincing jump scare in the first few pages from a book! I was subsequently hooked. The main part of the story is very much a mystery and investigation as they travel to the site very much akin to a detective investigating a crime scene. Okay, it's pretty obvious early on who the bad guys are as well as their agenda, but considering the lack of any alien activity in an Aliens book, I really enjoyed the story. The second half of the book does feature aliens in a big way and, conversely, I did prefer the story leading up to this point. A lot of what takes place has been done before. It reads well and the pacing is good, it's just nothing particularly special. Also the aliens themselves seem to be a much weaker version than others. In other alien stories, humans are being ripped apart like tissue paper and are pretty much dead the moment they even see an alien. In this book the humans are regularly grappling with them as if they're just big dogs or something and on a few occasions an unarmed human even goes into hand-to-hand combat against them.
In the end, the ending was, well... it was what it was. Without giving anything away (I hope), it's one of those endings that are somewhat unfulfilling but not a total loss.
I read this in two days and enjoyed the experience. One of the better stand-alone Aliens books.