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Xenonauts: Crimson Dagger
The year is 1958. The Soviet Union and the United States of America are entrenched in a Cold War. But for Mikhail Kirov, captain in the Soviet Fourth Army, life is relatively idle. After serving honorably in Hungary, Mikhail is stationed to the base of Zossen Wünsdorf, south of Berlin, where he lives in a government-issued house with his wife and six-year-old daughter. Gone are the days of quelling the Hungarian Revolution. The biggest challenge he faces now is teaching his little girl arithmetic. But things are about to change.
An object of unknown origin has been intercepted over the Atlantic by the Americans. Nuclear missiles are launched. The object crashes in Iceland. In a tense moment of necessity, NATO contacts the Kremlin. The Americans need help.
Crimson Dagger serves as a prequel to the video game Xenonauts, by Goldhawk Interactive, a real time strategy game set in the Cold War era. It is a story about cooperation amid extraordinary circumstances as rival superpowers are forced into camaraderie to combat a superior foe. Selected as the leader of this unlikely alliance, Mikhail must set aside he and the Americans' differences as they enter the unknown side-by-side, prompting the question: is the enemy of one's enemy truly their friend?
An object of unknown origin has been intercepted over the Atlantic by the Americans. Nuclear missiles are launched. The object crashes in Iceland. In a tense moment of necessity, NATO contacts the Kremlin. The Americans need help.
Crimson Dagger serves as a prequel to the video game Xenonauts, by Goldhawk Interactive, a real time strategy game set in the Cold War era. It is a story about cooperation amid extraordinary circumstances as rival superpowers are forced into camaraderie to combat a superior foe. Selected as the leader of this unlikely alliance, Mikhail must set aside he and the Americans' differences as they enter the unknown side-by-side, prompting the question: is the enemy of one's enemy truly their friend?
82 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2013
4 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Lee Stephen
11 books56 followersAuthor of the award-winning Destiny's Edge series, Lee Stephen has carved a place for himself where science-fiction and faith intersect. He is a native of Des Allemands, Louisiana, where he lives with his wife, Lindsey, his three sons, Levi, Lawson, and Linden, and their dog, Cocoa-Grace. In addition to writing, Lee has worked in emergency preparedness since 2005.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 28, 2016
This novella was good. It was not mind-blowing but gave some insight of the first encounter between human forces (soviets and americans) against a spaceship that crashed in Iceland after being hit by a nuclear device. Most characters are there, because a "away" team consists in 8 people or more. They are redshirts (if you get my drift).
Anyway... If you enjoy the game and want to read more, then read it. If not, there isn't anything new. It reads like a XCOM (Xenoauts) mission.
Anyway... If you enjoy the game and want to read more, then read it. If not, there isn't anything new. It reads like a XCOM (Xenoauts) mission.
August 25, 2024
This story is very extensive for it's short 90 or so pages. What you get is a unexpectedly great tie-in novella that manages to expand the lore of the videogame world that this story exists in. It also simultaneously mentions key references of the Cold War setting to anchor the story in that follows closely to ours in terms of historical developments.
The writer, Lee Stephen has great knowledge of the real world era of war that world was in and, albeit, encyclopedic knowledge of many of the worlds great conflicts. The only downfall of this story is that if you don't have much interest in the game, you not be interested in this novella all that much.
The writer, Lee Stephen has great knowledge of the real world era of war that world was in and, albeit, encyclopedic knowledge of many of the worlds great conflicts. The only downfall of this story is that if you don't have much interest in the game, you not be interested in this novella all that much.
March 20, 2015
Good intents not necessary lead into something good. That’s the story of the computer game called Xenonauts by Goldhawk Interactive. The original idea was really nice. To make it short, the game was planned as direct (yet unofficial) successor of the famous game from 90s. The one called X-COM: UFO Defense. Even though X-COM series had really bad luck with sequels back then, the first game was so fresh and unique that it’s still remembered even today and a lot of people (me included) still play and love it. And, of course, a lot of people wanted to re-create the original X-COM. There was ALTAR Interactive’s trilogy, there was UFO: Extraterrestrials by Chaos Concept, there were some fan-made attempts… Goldhawk Interactive was another group of people to try. And it was a good thing, because most of those, who tried before them didn’t achieve much. Unfortunately, lack of creative thinking led the whole project into the dead end. Goldhawk Interactive re-created the original X-COM very close to the original (up to the point, where it started to feel like a cheap rip-off), but were unable to add anything new, anything that was supposed to make their project special and unique. The only really fresh thing about it was that the game took place during the Cold War period. But the idea wasn’t really used in game, it was just there and didn't really matter. But this novella tried to use exactly that - Cold War concept.
Technically, this novella is a prequel to the game that is supposed to tell us how it all began. Which was a nice idea, thanks to how game don’t have a proper introduction and sends you right into action. Unfortunately, it’s also where novella fails. Just because there’s not much to describe and there won’t be much difference between if you will read the novella and if you won’t. In both cases it’ll be just “humans met aliens” and that’s it. You won't learn anything new about the setting of the game from reading. This novella literally fails to extend the game story and just threw some new names in it.
And I also can’t say that it’s nicely written. It’ll be really nice if author will learn a thing, or two about ballistics and human anatomy before starting writing nonsense like the one we can find here. Even though you can’t ask much realism from cheap Sci-Fi, some parts of this work are extremely inaccurate, up to the point where they’re laughable. Author do aim for something more than what we’ve seen in both authorized and unauthorized novelizations of the original X-COM game, though. He tried to add some images to remember and some sort of moral too. But lack of skill makes all that gone in vain.
Talking about X-COM novelizations. Official one was made by American writer Diane Duane, while unauthorized one was made by Russian writer Vladimir Vasilev. In this novella we have a story that revolves around the Cold War and the main character here is Russian, while author himself is American. So, it’s like we have 2 in 1 this time. What’s bad about it is that lack of research led author into some laughable results again. Like when he’ll try to describe daily life of Russian citizens, it’ll be all about pelmeni and borscht. Add matryoshka, samovar and some vodka and it’ll be the most laughable stereotype of Russians. And it’s really sad, since author’s goal here was not to follow stereotypes, but to break them. The thing is - author did the best he can to describe both Russians and Americans as good guys. I mean, usually when you mention Cold War and cheap Sci-Fi together, while keeping American writer in mind, the first thing that jumps to mind is an army of vodka-powered Russian cyborgs on their mechanical bears, who wants to conquer the world, and brave American commando to save the day while smoking the cigar and wearing sunglasses. This novella is nothing like that. It tries to show that both Russians and Americans are people with hearts and souls. But there are two things about that. First, it feels really weird to get something like that in the novella based on computer game, in which all that doesn't really matter. And second, lack of skill ruins the idea a lot. So, it turns out to be not deep and nicely written enough to be considered as proper work and somehow out of the place to be a part of game-based work.
In conclusion, if you’ll ask me if it’s any better than X-COM novelizations, I’d say it’s a bit (very tiny bit, but still) better. But if you’ll ask me if it’s good, or not, the answer will be no, it isn’t. The idea about fighting the old stereotypes about two superpowers was good, but author was unable to do much with it, while as an addition to the game this work does exactly nothing. Well, it’s not like Xenonauts deserved the novella to begin with thanks to lack of its own unique face, and it’s also important to mention that this novella is available for free for everybody, who purchased the game in Steam, but still, it’s a really poor writing. Unlike the X-COM novelizations there’s moral. But still, it’s just way too poor and not worth your time. Even though it’s just a short novella. Good intents not necessary lead into something good.
Technically, this novella is a prequel to the game that is supposed to tell us how it all began. Which was a nice idea, thanks to how game don’t have a proper introduction and sends you right into action. Unfortunately, it’s also where novella fails. Just because there’s not much to describe and there won’t be much difference between if you will read the novella and if you won’t. In both cases it’ll be just “humans met aliens” and that’s it. You won't learn anything new about the setting of the game from reading. This novella literally fails to extend the game story and just threw some new names in it.
And I also can’t say that it’s nicely written. It’ll be really nice if author will learn a thing, or two about ballistics and human anatomy before starting writing nonsense like the one we can find here. Even though you can’t ask much realism from cheap Sci-Fi, some parts of this work are extremely inaccurate, up to the point where they’re laughable. Author do aim for something more than what we’ve seen in both authorized and unauthorized novelizations of the original X-COM game, though. He tried to add some images to remember and some sort of moral too. But lack of skill makes all that gone in vain.
Talking about X-COM novelizations. Official one was made by American writer Diane Duane, while unauthorized one was made by Russian writer Vladimir Vasilev. In this novella we have a story that revolves around the Cold War and the main character here is Russian, while author himself is American. So, it’s like we have 2 in 1 this time. What’s bad about it is that lack of research led author into some laughable results again. Like when he’ll try to describe daily life of Russian citizens, it’ll be all about pelmeni and borscht. Add matryoshka, samovar and some vodka and it’ll be the most laughable stereotype of Russians. And it’s really sad, since author’s goal here was not to follow stereotypes, but to break them. The thing is - author did the best he can to describe both Russians and Americans as good guys. I mean, usually when you mention Cold War and cheap Sci-Fi together, while keeping American writer in mind, the first thing that jumps to mind is an army of vodka-powered Russian cyborgs on their mechanical bears, who wants to conquer the world, and brave American commando to save the day while smoking the cigar and wearing sunglasses. This novella is nothing like that. It tries to show that both Russians and Americans are people with hearts and souls. But there are two things about that. First, it feels really weird to get something like that in the novella based on computer game, in which all that doesn't really matter. And second, lack of skill ruins the idea a lot. So, it turns out to be not deep and nicely written enough to be considered as proper work and somehow out of the place to be a part of game-based work.
In conclusion, if you’ll ask me if it’s any better than X-COM novelizations, I’d say it’s a bit (very tiny bit, but still) better. But if you’ll ask me if it’s good, or not, the answer will be no, it isn’t. The idea about fighting the old stereotypes about two superpowers was good, but author was unable to do much with it, while as an addition to the game this work does exactly nothing. Well, it’s not like Xenonauts deserved the novella to begin with thanks to lack of its own unique face, and it’s also important to mention that this novella is available for free for everybody, who purchased the game in Steam, but still, it’s a really poor writing. Unlike the X-COM novelizations there’s moral. But still, it’s just way too poor and not worth your time. Even though it’s just a short novella. Good intents not necessary lead into something good.
April 7, 2022
A 100 page novella setting up the story to the PC strategy game Xenonauts. Still worth a read if you like cold war, X-files type military sci-fi. A crashed UFO, gray aliens 👽 with mind control and reptile creatures with lasers. I'd give it 4 stars if I hadn't played the game, but it's cool to see a book tie in that is not fan fiction, but well written, and just the right length for an afternoon or weekend read.
June 20, 2023
Really loved this book. Very emotional
February 14, 2025
Surprise addition to Xenonauts game, got me hook up on rest of Lee Stephen books
October 28, 2014
This gives some background story to an independent pc game based on the X-com series. Given what it is, I'm glad they found an author who can write. He did a good job with the action, and there was some minor character development, but beyond that there wasn't all that much to the story. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable.
July 29, 2015
Xeno
Well written
,interesting, compelling with well fleshed out characters. I enjoyed this book. If you like this genre I definitely recommend it.
Well written
,interesting, compelling with well fleshed out characters. I enjoyed this book. If you like this genre I definitely recommend it.
October 29, 2015
En helt okej långnovell som lyckas sätta tonen för spelet.
October 8, 2016
I really loved the game, and after finishing it, I noticed this freebie tagging along. Not my genre, but hey, Xenonauts.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews