Obcy. Zimna Kuźnia

Aliens / Predator / Prometheus Universe

by Alex White, Emilia Skowrońska (Translator)

RB-232 – warta miliardy dolarów ściśle tajna stacja badawcza, zwana Zimną Kuźnią – krąży wokół gwiazdy Kauffman w odległej, niezbadanej przestrzeni kosmicznej. Ośrodek finansowany jest przez Korporację Weyland-Yutani i zajmuje się głównie doskonaleniem i produkcją broni adaptacyjnej, broni biologicznej, sztucznej inteligencji i oprogramowania.

Najważniejszym projektem dowodzi Blue Grace Marsalis, uznana za wybitną, czołową genetyczkę na Ziemi. Korporacja zatrudniła ją, by znalazła sposób na kontrolowanie dziwnych bestii i nauczyła się manipulować ich DNA. Blue ma do dyspozycji żywe dorosłe osobniki, każdy w oddzielnej celi, oraz zabezpieczone w specjalnych skrzyniach jaja.

Na Zimną Kuźnię skierowany zostaje audytor, Dorian Sudler, który ma ocenić postępy prac i zamknąć nierentowne projekty. To jego zadanie, jest w tym ekspertem. Sytuacja zmienia się jednak diametralnie, kiedy Dorian po raz pierwszy widzi żywych Obcych i… gdy wirus atakuje oprogramowanie całej stacji. Czy badacze przeżyją niekoniecznie zależy od nich samych. Na RB-232 działał bowiem szpieg, którego zdemaskowanie może kosztować istnienie całej stacji i życie wszystkich jej pracowników.

To znaczy, jeśli Obcy nie dopadną ich pierwsi…

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Aliens, Fiction, Audiobook, Thriller, Space

448 pages, Hardcover

First published April 24, 2018

About the author

Alex White was born and raised in the American south. He takes photos, writes music and spends hours on YouTube watching other people blacksmith. He values challenging and subversive writing, but will settle for a good time.

In the shadow of rockets in Huntsville, Alabama, Alex lives and works as an experience designer with his spouse, son, two dogs and a cat named Grim. Favored past times include Legos and racecars. He takes his whiskey neat and his espresso black.

Alex is the author of THE SALVAGERS book series (Orbit, 2018), a magical space opera treasure hunt, ALIEN: THE COLD FORGE (Titan, 2018)(yes, THAT Alien), and EVERY MOUNTAIN MADE LOW (Solaris, 2016), a dystopian Southern American yarn.

Reviews

[Scott Sigler · Rating 5 out of 5]

SHORT REVIEW:
If you think the movie ALIENS was the high point of this franchise, you will love this book. If you think PROMETHEUS was a work of staggering genius, I suspect you will not.

LONG REVIEW:
As a lifelong ALIENS fan, I thought this book was awesome.

The characters are fascinating, and in true ALIENS tradition they are all pieces of shit in one degree or another. White captures the essence of the series, which is that human greed, arrogance and selfishness are just as (or more) powerful than the survival instinct in our species. This theme is is summed up in one of my favorite quotes from the second movie:

"You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage."
— Ellen Ripley

The franchise is marked by a consistent thread: if all the humans (and synthetics) worked together the way the xenomorphs do, the humans would easily win, but our foibles cause division, and within those slim cracks the xenos' teamwork flourishes.

This is the spirit that White captured so effortlessly. My five stars are primarily there because of his ability to capture the essence of the franchise, to make this book feel like it belonged between ALIEN and ALIENS, like it's been there all along and I just missed this movie because I was sick with the flu when it was in theaters.

I also give it five stars for the science. White put in a lot of wrench-time to tie ALIEN and ALIENS in with the later movies (which I will not discuss, because I am not a fan), and define a reproductive process that fits the two vastly different approaches. As an author, I can tell you this was no small feat. Anyone can write a "Book One," but it takes a particular mind-set to write a "Book Five" and make it fit with all the books in the series, especially when Books I-IV were all written by different people who had zero obligation to stick to a single canon. When you see, say, Season Eight of a particular TV show go completely off the rails because the writers don't bother to watch Seasons I-VII, or, say, a Season Five of a show that is a train wreck because the writers were just making crap up as they went along, you have a better understanding of how difficult White's job was in incorporating several elements of the ALIENS franchise together under one well-built roof.

The last thing I'll say is that the "bad guy" is quite fun. We've seen selfish shits in this franchise before (*cough-cough* Carter Burke, *cough-cough*). White's bad guy is a fucking psycho that comes into his/her own as the situation deteriorates.

There were a few small plot issues that took me out of the story for a bit. Usually, that takes the shine off a book for me, but in this case the rest of the work was so strong I was able to roll through it.

[Michael Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I've enjoyed my share of Alien tie-in works across comics and prose novels, The Cold Forge by Alex White might be the first to truly impress me beyond being a few days worth of solid entertainment.

Most Alien stories seem to involve beleaguered colonists or Colonial Space Marines getting more than they bargained for, with the authors content for their stories to exist as little more than a redux of one of the first two films. While this approach has certainly worked well and given this franchise's reading audience exactly what it expects, Alex White's approach is to raise the bar, and for that I'm grateful.

There are no colonists in (un)surprising peril, no marines battling for their lives. There are in fact no good guys or good gals at all. The Cold Forge is a secret research base for Weyland-Yutani, the megalithic corporation seeking to exploit and weaponize the infamous alien Xenomorphs. While there are various other research projects in progress aboard the space station, the aliens are the big money maker and the reason Cold Forge exists at all. Unfortunately, the researchers aren't delivering on their contracts and auditor Dorian Sudler is tasked with cutting the fat. He pinpoints as the primary loss leader Dr. Blue Marsalis, a bed-ridden geneticists cursed with a rare, incurable disease. Blue's mind is cutting-edge, but her frail body means she has to operate via a cybernetic interface with the station's android, Marcus. How these three personalities interact and cope, particularly once the inevitable excrement hits the proverbial fans, is the crux of Alien: The Cold Forge.

Although White delivers a bevy of Xenomorphic action, it's the human characters that really sold me on this particular novel. There's not a single likable individual in this whole book's cast, and I good and truly dug that. Dorian Sudler is a freaking psychopath, and I was absolutely delighted by the depths of his at-times shocking depravity. Once he learns about Blue's research into the alien lifeforms, his fetishization of the creatures is marvelous to behold. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Blue, whose discovery of a protein injected into victims during the face-hugger stage of impregnation leads her to exploit the Xenomorphs for medical advancement - primarily her own. Ostensibly, Blue is the closest character we have to a heroine in The Cold Forge, and it's mostly by default simply because of how evil and manipulative Sudler is. While she is certainly one tough cookie when push comes to shove, her utter lack of altruism makes her a pretty far cry from Ellen Ripley.

If you're looking brave souls doing heroic and adventurous derring-do in the name of all that's good and holy, you might want to look elsewhere. For me, it's flat-out intriguing to see two monstrous humans stuck in the middle of an alien outbreak and fighting for survival, working to one-up the other in their cat-and-mouse games to not only escape the doomed station but to seek out and destroy one another. Sudler and Blue are both Alphas in their respective fields, and putting them together is like throwing water on super hot oil. Their instant dislike of one another is palpable, and White does a great job keeping us on our toes as to who will eventually make it out on top, and how, given that Blue is so heavily dependent on cybernetic aid. While the Alien property has never been high in humor and upbeat chipperness, there's moments to The Cold Forge that are wonderfully nihilistic, carving out a new level of darkness for such a long-lived property.

In The Cold Forge, Alex White embraces the crossroads of sci-fi horror genres that the Alien property has lived in for so long. There's plenty of medical science, some of which even ties into how the Xenomorphs take on characteristics of the face-hugged hosts they're birthed from (in this case, chimps are the victim du jour), some sci-fi wizardry between Blue and Marcus (as well as a past romances between Blue and Anne, a security officer, whose dalliances with each other were furthered through the use of Marcus's android body, which raises all kinds of other intriguing questions), and a whole lot of horror and gore once things click into high gear. White gives this particular Alien story a score of various and compelling layers that help set it apart from the more traditional franchise fare, and it's all the stronger because of it. He stays true to the spirit of the franchise, but isn't afraid to cut loose and get daring where it truly counts, giving us characters defined by their determination at the expense of everyone else. Bravo, sir!

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from Titan Books.]

[Gerhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

So when the reader learns that the Cold Forge is actually a Weyland-Yutani research station, you just know that these so-called ‘research subjects’ will not act like typical guinea pigs. Pretty soon all hell will break loose. And, of course, it does.

“Why do you call it the Cold Forge?” Dorian asks …
“Because this entire station is dedicated to the manufacture of adaptive weapons, biological, artificial intelligence and software,” Anne replies, her matter-of- fact voice carrying through the cavernous central strut. “Kind of like the forges of old, where they used to make swords. Except we don’t make ships, missiles, or pulse rifles here. We win wars.”

Alex White has a rather gleeful aptitude for chaos and mayhem, and when the snatchers are finally unleashed (there is a particular and interesting reason they’re not called ‘xenomorphs’ specifically), it is extremely gory fun. Yes, the build-up to the apocalypse-style ending is admittedly a slow burn, but this makes the journey all the more worthwhile.

What makes this such a great Alien novel is the characterisation. Doctor Blue Marsalis suffers from the debilitating Bishara’s Syndrome, which according to the Xenopedia is “a condition born from colonisation where descendants of colonists would manifest genetic disorders.”

Blue is largely confined to a medical bed as a result, and gets around by mind-linking to the android Marcus (another character called Anne enjoys having sex with Blue while she is ‘inside’ Marcus, which is one of the many fascinating ways that White plays with body and gender dysphoria. Also, it would not be a halfway decent Alien novel without some level of kinkiness to it.)

Instead of conducting research like a good Weyland-Yutani drone into weaponising the snatchers, Blue instead has a pet project on the side to seek a cure for her own disease, which will ultimately be the key to unlock a host of other genetic disorders. Here her efforts are focused on the face hugger, and how the parasite enters its victim:

Plagiarus praepotens is the ultimate builder, able to rewrite and reconstruct organic matter in seconds. It should’ve built her a brighter tomorrow.
She’d never bought into the foolish Company vision of a weaponised snatcher. It was as if she’d split the atom, and all they wanted were nuclear bombs.

It’s such a fascinating twist on the Alien lifecycle, so familiar to moviegoers through the seemingly endless cinema franchise, that one wonders why no one else has honed in on the snatchers as the ultimate expression of a virus. Blue is interested (fascinated) by what happens to the host at a molecular level:

It first became apparent at the moment of impregnation. The fleeting heat of a molecular change within the oesophagus of the chimpanzee, not a larva or worm placed into the subject, but a set of complex chemical instructions that went beyond the intricacy of anything humanity had ever seen.

It is also an uncomfortable, but obviously completely unintentional, reference to the current Coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world. And the reader quickly gets the feeling that Blue is obsessed to the point of losing all ability to see the bigger picture. Especially when another type of virus altogether comes into play.

However, Weyland-Yutani quickly notices that the Cold Forge is bleeding money and not producing results as per its ongoing investment. Hence it sends in Dorian Sudler, a cynical corporate ‘fixer’ who is so inhuman he makes the snatchers seem quite cuddly by comparison.

If that sounds extreme, the key to a good Alien book is that you have to paint in broad strokes. Dorian is a thoroughly detestable character, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Indeed, his Damascus Road moment at the end has nothing to do with personal redemption, and everything with self-immolation.

Actually, none of the characters are that likeable, human or alien. That White is able to inject some frisson of energy and excitement into his descriptions of the creatures is testament to his writing chops. This is an extremely well-written and thought-out book, and just goes to show what happens when you let somebody loose on the IP who understands what makes Alien, well, alien.

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alien: The Cold Forge
The Alien Series
By: Alex White
Narrated by: Michael Braun
I am thinking this is supposed to occur after the 2nd or 3rd movie but I think after the 3rd. The ship is called the Cold Forge but it has a small crew, mostly for the lab. The main lab doc is working with chimps, aliens, and alien eggs. But the crew gets a visit by the big brass to see results. But you know that all alien movies, nothing stays calm long!
Great narration!

[Oliver Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d heard this was good, but I wasn’t prepared for how good. One of the tensest, most absorbing novels I’ve read for a while. It has great characters, fantastic action and makes excellent use of the Alien franchise. On top of all that it has interesting things to say about AI, body dysmorphia and disability. Phenomenal.

[Chris Berko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really digging these new Alien novels, they are sooooo much better than the last couple of movies and either of the Alien vs Predator debacles. This is well written and has tons of good alien action. This would have been a good book even if it wasn't set in the Alien universe but since the movies are so well known and I've seen the first two about a billion times each, it was really easy to picture the things and that totally added to the enjoyment. Cold Forge was better then I expected it to be and it was so good I bought Alex White's other Alien novel Into Charybdis and I'm reading it now.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Alex White's Alien: The Cold Forge, a group of technicians, programmers, and scientists develop weapons for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in deep space on a station called RB-232, a.k.a. "the Cold Forge". Among their projects is one to weaponize the Xenomorphs, of which the station has many in an ultra-secure system of kennels. The kennels, unlike most of the ship's systems, can only be opened manually by a human, and there are automated gun emplacements trained on the exit doors at all times.

The Xenomorph project, codenamed "Glitter Edifice", is headed by Doctor Blue Marsalis, who has run into a stumbling block in her research. As the station's projects have failed to be profitable or produce tangible results, Weyland-Yutani dispatches an auditor to the station to analyze its operations and either find a way to make it profitable or shut it down. But things are not what they seem. One or more of the crew have their own motives in mind.

A containment failure occurs, and Xenomorphs are soon loose on the ship. But who freed them, and why? Can the crew survive the Xenomorphs and come up with a plan? And more importantly, can they survive an even greater threat that could destroy them all?

I really liked Alien: The Cold Forge, though I'm taking a star off for two simple reasons:

1. The first 100 pages of the book were unbelievably boring. The book actually started to get interesting pretty much exactly 100 pages in. This means that over one-third of this entire book is boring, as it's only 281 pages long (or at least the Kindle version is).

2. I really disliked some of the characters, for different reasons (mainly Lucy and Blue)

Lucy just cries all the time, swears angrily at people (she needs anger management training), and generally has a permanent deer-in-the-headlights look on her face. Blue on the other hand becomes an OK character over time, but she suffers from a million and a half health problems and is portrayed as a bit of a victim. These health problems also make her a very depressing character to read, as the reader is constantly told about new problems she has, and about how she is incredibly frail and basically has one foot in the grave. Why you would throw a character like that into an Alien novel, where you have to be tough and ruthless to survive, is beyond me.

That being said, there's a lot to love in this book. One of the characters starts out as a sociopath and becomes a psychopath over the course of the book, and this was portrayed brilliantly, and to bone-chilling effect. The author must have done a lot of research into these personality types.

White's greatest achievement with this book, in my opinion, is that in a book where Xenomorphs are loose on a spaceship, killing off a crew who are helpless to escape and ill-equipped to fight them, the deadliest threat on board isn't even the Xenomorphs. White manages to create a threat far more terrifying and far more potent than the Xenomorphs, and this, in my view, is very impressive.

If you're a fan of the Aliens franchise, this is a must-read. The story can be a bit repetitive at times, with crew members being sent out amongst the Xenos time and again to fix this or that system and to get this or that back online, but the writing is sharp and the story original, and besides a sleep-inducing first hundred pages, it's a captivating and terrifying thriller the rest of the way.

Recommended!

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's put this book into context, shall we? I didn't expect too much because it is, after all, a horror in an SF setting just like the movies. We have a cross between Alien 3 and Alien 4 without so much of the goofy, with Weyland corp still being the bad guy, and very few actually likable characters.

Stir, mix, let steep in some xenomorph stew, wait for the stupid humans to do something nasty, perverse, and generally unlikable. *Hello, efficiency expert in a top secret lab!*

And then let things get out of control.

Honesty here: I was pretty bored by the formula leading up to the alien breakouts, with a slight exception to Blue, who suffers from a massive degenerative disease and who also uses (or abuses) a synth. Maybe I wanted something rather more ... original ... before everything went to hell. One thing I can say about the newer canonical movies is that they broke new ground even if they kinda broke the cannon (and some credulity).

But, in the end, I did end up enjoying the human monster twists, the glorified horror, and the bloodshed. Should anyone expect anything more from movie-universe tie-ins? Maybe not.

[kartik narayanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Game Over, man, Game Over!

Welp, that sentence doesn't come in the book but Alien: The Cold Forge manages to hit all the other beats from the Alien movies, especially Aliens.

A:TCF is a sleeper hit. I picked it up with low expectations since there have been so many hit or miss productions with this property. But, I ended up putting a night out just to finish it. This shows just how awesome it is. It takes all the elements that work, from Aliens, and manages to put a unique twist on everything. You will be able to recognize the inspirations but you will also be able to appreciate the uniqueness of the presentation in the book.

And this book has a further surprise. It has one of the most reprehensible villains ever written. But, secretly, I started rooting for this person. And I feel, this is how the character should have been played in the movie too. In addition, heroes becomes villains and vice versa.

Overall, if you are an Alien fan, this book is a must read. Go for it.

[Holly (The GrimDragon) · Rating 5 out of 5]

"She shoves him down and shows him all the wonderful things her body can do, devouring every inch of his flesh. She washes him in her fantasies, wringing every last drop of ecstasy from his bones, and showing him that he's been missing from her station life for far too long.

He is startled.
He is aroused.
He is accepted."

As a massive fan of the Alien franchise, this was a pleasure to read! I haven't read the newer canonical Alien trilogy, but I dig all of the novelizations, for the most part. In fact, the first Alien is in my top movie novelizations of all-time! The prolific Alan Dean Foster has written some of the best tie-ins ever, including my beloved Star Wars and Alien. For me, Alex White produced something that both pays homage to the spirit of the franchise, yet their style also results in something wholly original. 

"It is a symphony of death, a masterpiece of hellish design, raw will."

Alien: The Cold Forge follows Dorian Sudler, a Weyland-Yutani auditor that is sent to remote station RB-232, known as "the Cold Forge." The station has 32 people on board and is participating in three special projects. Two of them have fallen behind and the third is running out of funding. We soon find out that RB-232 is shrouded in secrets. I'm sure you can figure out what the mystery may revolve around if you know the formula for Alien! HINT: Xenomorphs!

The thing with Alien is that it has proven time and time again that mankind itself is the real horror. As Lovecraft once said, the oldest and strongest emotion is fear. Because of that, people behave fucking terribly, whether from some form of fear or misanthropy or because they are just shitty humans. Truly, people are the scariest monsters and always will be!

White writes utterly vile (yet diverse) characters within this book. I struggle to think of a single likable person. The closest to a protagonist that we are given is Blue, a doctor that is suffering from a degenerative disease that leaves her bedridden. She uses a special interface that allows her to control an android body to move around in, which gives her such a unique story. However, it's hard to sympathize with her because she's.. well.. she's selfish as hell. She is driven by desperation to save herself. Ripley, she is not! Between her and the wank stain that is Dorian, there isn't a lot of altruism going on. But that works for this story. For this hostile setting. I loved that so goddamn much, which is rare for me. I tend to find a character or two that I gravitate towards and want to cocoon them in my skin forever, but I loathed these assholes! Seriously, some of the most downright despicable characters that I've ever read. And I read a lot of fucked up shit!

That's not to say that the Xenomorphs don't play into the horror. Because they do. There are some gritty, brutal, squishy scenes in this that are fucking gnarly. It's glorious!!

The Cold Forge was fucking grimy and chaotic and violent and compulsively delightful! Alex White has blown me away again with such brilliant writing in these two distinctly different books that I've read. GAH!!!

[Lena · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It is the intent of every murderer poured into a mold and painted pitch black. It is a symphony of death, a masterpiece of hellish design - raw will.”

Beautifully vicious in every way.
All the shades of human monsters slamming up against the true black of something without even the concept of morals.

Unique among the alien stories is that our badass MC woman is severely disable. But the fight on her!

Enjoyable action/horror/SciFi movie of an audiobook. 4.5 Stars

[Quiet · Rating 2 out of 5]

An appreciated albeit underwhelming addition to the Alien series. The Cold Forge follows the formula established by the original Alien, and which has been wonderfully recaptured in the prior novels Out of the Shadows, Sea of Sorrow, and River of Pain, and offers a fresh new story that can be read on its own without any prior knowledge of the series to enjoy.

This is a Horror book, not an action book as found with the Aliens series of novels/media. That plural means a lot; if you want "Hoo-huh!" and lots of guns and explosives, then the plural Aliens is where to go; for horror and intensity, it's the Alien series.

Again, this story maintains the formula of the original Alien. You have a space-station laboratory owned and maintained by the nefarious Weyland-Yutani corporation, and on-board are a bunch of relatively decent people who are increasing levels of shady working on generally evil stuff like killer computer viruses and commiting experiments on monstrous alien creatures which are always, time after time, too dangerous to contain, and who eventually become murdered by same experiments an creatures. The formula requires that at least one person goes crazy, that an android is present, and that you get at least one scene of a facehugger ramming a tentacle down someone's throat and a chestburster living up to its name, then as many other scenic kills by the titular Alien/Xenomorph (or, in this case, Snatcher--- which is a stupid name, sorry!) as possible.

It's a series, so--- I mean, if you don't like predictability at all, ever, then this series probably isn't for you. If you're a fan of cheap sci-fi and like a reliable, swift horror book for bedtime, then this is a great series of comfortable books to get involved with.

And this book is reliable; it sticks to formula 95%, but---
Probably the largest problem I have with this book is the extreme pandering to the Identity-Politics demographic, for the simple reason that such things have never existed in the Alien universe (as far as I'm aware) and it feels completely out of place. The lead character of this story is the ultimate in Minority points, a black lesbian cripple with gender dysphoria whose main enemy is a straight white man (Oh noes!), and the main problem here is that she's a shitty person, nearly as shitty as the chief antagonist, but we're supposed to sympathize with her for no reason. Or, more likely, we're supposed to sympathize because she's a black lesbian cripple with gender dysphoria whose main enemy is a straight white man, and ignore that she's a thief, endangers others, morally inconsistent, grossly self-centered, and is generally unlikable.
I honestly could not figure out the purpose of this character, repeatedly thought (and reallllly hoped) that she was a red-herring before the actual Hero/Heroine appeared, but every time I thought that the author was going to make a radical move towards her and address her awfulness in a meaningful way he backs off and it doesn't pay out, especially when it comes to this series.

The Alien series is utterly formulaic; there's Good (generally a morally consistent woman who utilizes intelligence to outwit murderous creatures and psychopathic men/robots) and there's Evil (the aliens, the corporate Male (sometimes female) figure from Weyland-Yutani, and corporations themselves (this is a series that began when everyone thought Japanese corporations were going to take over the world after all)). But that isn't the case here, and while it's easy to go "Yeah wow! Breaking up the formula!" that's not actually what happens; it's still an Alien story through and through, which is why this book is still enjoyable because it sticks to formula. What sucks here is the main character, who is utterly lousy and thoroughly unlikable, and there's no real justification for this other than the fact that the author believed too much that Victim-politics would make up for her weak characterization, which it does not--- at all.

Call me obnoxious, but the big draw of what made the Alien series so damn cool (and what continues to make it refreshing in its formula) was that the original protagonist was a woman who not only overcame her own short-comings but was also an immaculately constructed figure of sympathy for her earnest morality and the depths she will explore to maintain her vision of right and wrong. She could be black, asian, whatever; what's important is what she did. And that isn't the case here with this book, and so having a majorly fractured component in the formula, the Heroine herself, is a big problem.
So although it's an enjoyable book that largely sticks to formula, it deviates where it should not have. If you're going to take on writing for a series whose audience depend on consistency, then you need to write to that audience, and not to some Gender-Studies barista who filled you up with hocus pablum one time.

[Alan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't hate this book, and I wouldn't call it terrible. But it wholly unlikable from the lazy writing style to a cast of utterly reprehensible, unlikable characters. Even the "protagonists" you were supposed to root for were terrible beyond redemption. It's like the author took the couple of adversaries from the Alien movies and stuffed them all in one book, but not before making them thorougly despicable.

[Mili · Rating 3 out of 5]

I flew through this book at times cause I love the Alien franchise and Alex writes amazing dark scenes and the action is thrilling! The first 100 or so pages weren't entirely my thing but the rest was so much fun. The Xenomorphs are described in a way that made my mind create the most amazing 4k movie scenes haha. The survival was tense, the gore where limbs are torn off and flesh was being devoured were fking awesome I had to slow down to cherish them some more. Blue is one of the MC's and I like her addition to this plot. She has a disease that deteriorates her well being, she is practically bedridden and doesn't bother moving much cause she has an AI she can connect with mentally and uses as her own body. She runs a project on a station experimenting with Xenomorphs. Blue is smart and has a strong and determined mindset. Then the other MC Dorian comes in the picture he is very prominent in the story and you kinda start with him in this book...he is a character made to hate. So much so that it literally made me like the book less. He kinda ruined it for me. He is this dominant/ self centered prick that only thinks of sex and then to fire someone after using them for the last time. He does NOT like weakness, it disgusts him. I honestly did not like how much he was part of this story, at points I got so annoyed that I wanted to skip his parts. He was one of those characters where his arrogance should've killed him off somewhere at the start. I wish this was more balanced out, sure it is a personal preference but it really bugged me cause it broke the book in two for me. Purely on that character. Cause the writing/ other characters and action was perfection when it comes to the Xenomorph fandom :)

3.5stars

[Nicholas · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is nothing original in this book. Please ignore the five star fandom ratings. The only deviations this book has with other Alien entries is the lack of ANY character that you actually want to survive. Also the black lesbian cripple who pilots a white male android. Seriously.... They cut out the three-legged dog with one blind eye and diabetes because then the novel would have had something you actually wanted to survive. This is pure dreck. Further, it was crass. Within the first paragraph we are subjected to a character that is the most egregious stereotype of masculinity. And the stereotypes just kept coming from that point. The author has clearly embraced a concept of gender that is wholly wrapped in the most base stereotypes one can imagine. I had 8 hours left in this audio rendition and I stopped. My time will not be wasted on this crap. I actually got a refund from Amazon. My disgust with this book is beyond.... Avoid at all costs.

[Ta || bookishbluehead · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t know how or why this book found it’s way on my TBR. I was never a huge Alien fan, except for the first one, so it’s not a huge surprise for me that I didn’t enjoy this book.

Let’s start with the characters: I HATED them. There wasn’t one person in this book that I thought was a bit likable and I think that was intended, but it didn’t help with getting through this book. They were super intelligent researchers but made the stupidest mistakes. In the end I was rooting for the Xenomorphs.

To be honest, the whole concept of this, why they even started researching the Xenomorphs was beyond me. At that point I was ready to leave the book behind and it didn’t get better from their on, I should have just dnfed.

[Jonathan Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great tale

Great tale, I hope to write a full review shortly.

But for now, great tale!

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alien: The Cold Forge gets what works about the first three Alien movies (yes, I think Alien 3 has plenty of stuff in it that works), and the Alien: Isolation video game, and continues in the same vein to tell a story about obsession, espionage, and the will to survive. Alex White understands that the scariest monster in this universe is and always has been Man, and goes about showing that the sort of cold, corporate, greed-driven evil represented by Weyland-Yutani and Seegson can also give birth to evils much more intimate and personal.

This is not a happy book ... but most of the media set in this world doesn't tell happy stories, even if it sometimes gives you semi-happy endings. Another reviewer compared this book to works like David Fincher's Seven, and Cormac McCarthy's The Road, in terms of tone, and I wouldn't disagree. I happen to like both of those works very much, and I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

I loved this story's protagonist, Blue, because I didn't particularly like her. She's not all that more sympathetic than the primary antagonist (the most sympathetic characters in the book are an android named Marcus and a couple of the secondary Cold Forge workers who are just trying to do their jobs). Crippled by a progressive genetic disease, Blue is bedridden for a large portion of the novel, which sets her up with some extreme difficulties to overcome once things, as they inevitably do in this universe, all go to hell. She uses a combination of wits and will to survive, and I found myself rooting for her despite her negative character traits. She's no Ellen (or Amanda) Ripley, but that's OK ... we've already gotten to know those characters, and don't need them recycled.

What I didn't like quite as much was the primary antagonist. I don't think I've ever seen someone quite like Blue in a book before. I've seen people like Dorian, whose ruthless corporate efficiency moves toward sadism and psychopathy in a way that I don't think will surprise many readers. He's still compelling and extremely fun to root against, so I'm not knocking a star off or anything, but I'd liked to have seen just a little bit more in his character that felt new.

The writing's great--I think even better than White's first novel, which I also enjoyed--and the pacing is perfect. Everything hums along and keeps you reading until the bitter end. There's enough tech, science, and medicine to keep things feeling grounded without causing your eyes to glaze over, and I thought the descriptions of the Cold Forge itself really helped set the scene.

If you're a fan of the universe or just of dark Sci-Fi in general, this one's a strong recommend.

[John Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A taut thriller worthy of the franchise

As a fan of the original movie and a lover of science-fiction horror, I was giddy with excitement at a novel set in the Alien universe. That it would be written by Alex White, whose Every Mountain Made Low moved me, just made it more amazing. If you are a fan of Alien, or sci-fi horror in general, get this book. You’ll devour it. Or perhaps it will devour you, and you’ll be glad for it.

[Jola (czytanienaplatanie) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uniwersum Obcego rośnie w siłę, również w mojej biblioteczce, a „Obcy. Zimna Kuźnia” Alexa White’a jest już moją szóstą powieścią z agresywnym i przerażającym ksenomorfem w roli głównej. Jaki jest fenomen tej serii, że mimo powtarzającego się schematu brutalnych zmagań o przetrwanie, każdą kolejną część czyta się tak dobrze?

W mojej ocenie jest to dodatkowy aspekt, o który każdy z autorów wzbogaca fabułę czyniąc ją mimo stałego rdzenia, wyjątkową. Tym razem Autor zdecydował się wprowadzić drugiego potwora, który jest niemal lustrzanym odbiciem ksenomorfów – człowieka. Bezdusznego, okrutnego psychopatę, drapieżnika korporacyjnego Doriana Sudlera, dla którego jedyną wartością jest optymalizacja rozumiana jako zwiększenie zysku firmy kosztem ludzkiego życia. Z przerażeniem, odrazą, ale i fascynacją przyglądałam się działaniom Sudlera zdolnego do najgorszej podłości.

"Bestie rodzą się z ludzkiej słabości"

Na stacji RB-232, gdzie Weyland-Yutani, słynąca z nieetycznych eksperymentów korporacja, prowadzi badania nad bronią biologiczną i wirusami komputerowymi dochodzi do zniszczenia zabezpieczeń i uwolnienia potworów. Prowadząca badania genetyczne ciężko chora Blue Marsalis, korzystająca z ciała androida, gdy jej własne zawodzi, podejmuje desperacką walkę nie tylko z grasującymi po stacji drapieżnikami, polującym na nią Dorianem, ale i swoimi ograniczeniami. Jej osobista walka o życie, determinacja i gotowość do podjęcia ogromnego ryzyka czynią z niej bohaterkę, z którą łatwo się utożsamić, mimo jej moralnie niejednoznacznych działań.

Autorowi znakomicie udało się oddać klaustrofobiczną atmosferę horroru, który opanował stację. Chaos, panika i desperacja ludzi próbujących przeżyć w obliczu nieuchronnej zagłady jest tłem dla starcia dwojga głównych bohaterów – Sudlera uosabiającego korporacyjną bezduszność i Blue będącą symbolem walki o przetrwanie wbrew wszystkiemu. Otrzymujemy więc nie tylko mrożącą w żyłach akcję, ale i pogłębioną analizę psychologiczną postaci, poznając ich motywacje, lęki i wybory w sytuacjach ekstremalnych.

Dynamiczna, napędzana dialogami i nagłymi zwrotami akcja osadzona w dusznym i klaustrofobiczny klimacie sprawiła, że tę historię pochłonęłam w tempie błyskawicznym, ale największe wrażenie wywarła na mnie perspektywa, z jakiej Autor ukazał człowieka i ksenomorfa, czyniąc z nich równie bezwzględnych, przerażających i fascynujących zarazem drapieżników.

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Character-heavy, it takes awhile for the aliens to appear as a presence, and they still stay in the background throughout, while the point of them is still a large part of the story. Yes, that sounds disjointed, but it makes sense if you've read the book. You have two strong leads here, and neither good people - Dorian is a certifiable sociopath, a 'company man', and Blue a cold, determined scientist who will compromise morals if she has to. Neither are characters you'd normally root for. Dorian doesn't have empathy, and Blue only has convenient emotion when it suits her. The story shifts primarily between these two, both with interesting backstories and purposes on The Cold Forge.

[Darth Jader · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are a fan of the Alien series, this book is a must read. Not so much for one looking to get into the series. The book is very, very slow until about page 100, then it picks up speed but the plot essentially is the same and winds back on itself for the remainder of the book. I would have given this four stars despite all this if it weren't for the fact I absolutely hated two of the characters and thought their development throughout the book was horrible (looking at you Blue and Lucy (who is probably the weakest side character ever)). I did love the setting and the action and survival arcs were enough to get me through. It's a decent addition to the Alien franchise, but nothing great.

[T.R. Napper]

Had a blast. Dorian Sudler is a diabolical antagonist.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely punishing!

[Livia Miron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Egg-cellent Alien novel! Truly a gift to fans of the Alien universe from another fan.

[D.L. Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome read. Really enjoyed this. Great addition to the Alien universe.

[Jas · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Not gonna lie, I went into this with pretty low expectations.
Earlier this year I read a few of the other Alien novelisations and at best they were fun yet repetitive, but at worst they were boring and a little ridiculous.

I not only had an absolute blast reading Alien: The Cold Forge , but it felt like a totally unique story in the ever-expanding Alien universe.

Okay...yes, This book has everything we can come to expect from a Xenomorph book/film: a crew isolated in deep space tries to survive a breakout of aliens with acid for blood, people die blah blah blah. But author Alex White dared to make it so much more and for that I'm grateful.

The famous Xenomorphs (or snatchers, as they are referred to in A:TCF) actually take a back seat to something a lot more interesting: the main characters. Blue Marsalis is a geneticist with a rare and incurable disease meaning she spends her time either in bed or cyberlinking with an android so she can work, and Dorian Sudler is a narcissistic sociopath whose job is to assess the Forge's projects (one of which Blue is in charge of), and considering their progress and worth, make decisions to save The Company money. Watching these heavily flawed personalities constantly clash and boil to a bloody climax was more exhilarating than any scene with an alien.

The entire franchise, the books and films, are not lacking for brutal Xenomorph killing sprees, so Alex White's novel was a well needed breath of fresh air for the 39 year old series. I sincerely hopes he writes another.

[Bene Vogt · Rating 4 out of 5]

True story, I have seen the first ALIEN movie about 20 times, not because of a particular fondness but because I really really would love to like it as much as just about everybody I know. But I just don’t, it does just not click for me. I do appreciate the concept, the design, the acting and the direction, but it just fails to have any effect on me. I’ve also read literal dozens of ALIEN comics in hopes to find I’m looking for there, not they tend to just retread either ALIEN or ALIENS with small variations and are thus also not my thing (the less written about the terrible prequels, the better).
Not that I’ve probably disqualified my opinion for just about anybody likely to read this: this is where I finally find the ALIEN story I searched for the last 25 years. Hands down. Claustrophobic, horrifying, smart, a somewhat fresh take in the entire concept, and not for the squeamish.

[Barret Marshall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst aliens book ever!
This was about a ceo beating women to death. Most of the book was these beatings, the aliens did not play a large role. Sooooooo disappointed !

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, but frankly by the end I hated every single character in the book.