Aliens: No Exit

Aliens / Predator / Prometheus Universe

by B.K. Evenson

Aliens: No Exit After thirty years of cryogenic sleep, Detective Anders Kramm awakens to a changed world. The alien threat has been subdued. Company interests dominate universal trade. Terraforming is big money now, with powerful men willing to do anything to assure dominance over other worlds. Full description

Genres: Aliens, Science Fiction, Horror, Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published August 27, 2008

About the author

Pseudonym for author Brian Evenson.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for something more from a pulp novel based on a movie series written by an author mostly known for writing literary fiction. I didn't really think think this would happen but I hoped for more. There are a few moments where I could see that a 'good' writer was guiding this action-based plot along, but it was mostly what one would expect from a book about Aliens. It was entertaining, and I enjoyed it more than any of the Alien movies I've ever seen. I never got the Alien movies, and think there is something wrong me for not enjoying them at all. Sort of the same thing that is wrong with me for not really loving The Exorcist, or even really liking The Shining.

With a title like this, Aliens: No Exit I would have split the book into two parts. The first would have had lots of aliens, gore, new aliens bursting out of chests, killing, maimed people being put through shredders and all the other delightfully grotesque acts that happen in this book, but then the main character would die after having lived in a living hell of a world populated by homicidal big corporations and freaky bug like creatures.

Then there would be a brief interlude of nothing but pure consciousness of the main character, who realizes he is dead and free from the world, and he can now live in the memories of his happier past before the Aliens and evil people of the galaxy.

This would get cut short when he found himself in a drab drawing room with uncomfortable furniture sitting across from an evil executive from an awful corporation and an Alien, who no longer is being genetically driven to kill in order to propagate it's DNA. In this after-life scenario the main character now finds he still hears the Alien as hissing, but now for some reason he understands what the Alien is saying. And it's not interesting, it's so boring and self-centered that it makes the main character wish he still had a plasma pistol so he could put himself out of this misery. And the executive, he can only talk about the bottom line, about corporate shin dings, about himself all the intergalactic coke he used to snort up in the executive bathroom and other inane things that the main character can not stand to listen to.
The main character than realizes that this might be more of a hell then being trapped on an alien populated planet, because at least there he might have a chance to escape. The novel would end with the main character trying to lose himself in thought, thinking about the existential freedom and happiness Sisyphus must have felt being condemned to push that rock up the hill forever rather than being stuck for eternity in this room.

I probably would have given that book four stars.

[David Agranoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aliens: No Exit by Brian Evenson

Brian Evenson is currently one of my favorite writers. Dark horse has been doing a good job getting some pretty high class acts to write Aliens and Predator novels over the last few years. John Shirley who is my favorite author wrote excellent books in both universes, Jeff Vandameer a Predator novel and now Brian Evenson, the respected international horror guild award winner author and head of the creative writing program at Brown university. I was very interested to see what the department head at an ivy league school did with the Aliens universe.

I loved this novel, Alien tie in or not the first chapter was powerful, a scary powerful suspense piece heightened by our knowledge and deep understanding of the Alien-verse. Evenson has skills to bring the chills and seems to really enjoy playing in this setting. While mid-chapter flashbacks are often discouraged Evenson seemlessly weaves in the main character's back story and uses it greatly enhance the suspense.

The story is about a Detective Anders Kramm who specializes in Xenomorph encounters. After his family is killed he has himself put in hypersleep, with orders to only be woken if there is an alien emergency. Thirty years go by and then he is brought in to investigate the deaths of the companies top scientists. On the surface it looks like an alien attack, but something is a little off. Anders gets the feeling the company wants you to believe it was the work of Xenomorphs but Anders doesn’t believe it.

This book is excellent, the human characters are well drawn and Evenson elevates the tie-in novel to art as only a few authors have. If you’re an Alien fan you should read this but if your not check out Evenson’s novel Last Days which is one of my favorite novels of the last few years.

[Elodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai vu ce livre sur le promontoire "nouveautés" à la médiathèque, et j'avais envie de sortir un peu le nez de mes recherches pour mon roman et de me divertir avec un bon truc SF. De ce point de vue, je n'ai pas été déçue !

Je dois tout d'abord dire que je suis complètement étrangère à la saga "Alien", je n'ai jamais vu aucun des films qui ont été faits, et ce principalement parce que 1) je déteste les films d'horreurs et 2)... je déteste les films d'horreurs (ah mince, je l'ai déjà dit...). Du coup c'est avec une belle ignorance que j'ai empoigné ce livre et que je me suis dit eh bien après tout pourquoi pas !

Ce qui est bien c'est que même sans aucune connaissance des films, on peut très bien lire ce livre sans problème, sans être perdu. Ça se lit bien et assez vite, c'est assez divertissant - et gore, par la même occasion - mais je suppose que ça reste dans la veine des films qualifiés "d'horreur" sur les sites que j'ai consulté. Bon, ça reste un divertissement pour ma part, j'ai trouvé certaines scènes un peu bâclées, et le tout aurait pu facilement faire une petite centaine de pages en plus et ajouter quelques éléments un peu plus intéressants, pour rendre le tout un peu plus détaillé, plus fouillé. Plusieurs fois j'ai eu l'impression de lire juste un roman destiné à faire dans le sensationnel, dans l'horreur et le gore.
L'histoire en elle-même n'est pas mal, l'histoire d'un type qui se réveille après trente ans de sommeil cryogénique et se retrouve une fois de plus plongé dans le cauchemar Alien, après avoir perdu sa femme et sa fille ; les personnages sont assez bien crayonnés et le tout reste assez plausible, j'ai suivi - quelques fois en retenant mon souffle, leur lutte dans un monde où même les amis peuvent très bien être des ennemis, en fin de compte. Je ne parle même pas de la description des bestioles, parfaite pour vous filer la chair de poule (je lisais en même temps mon livre sur Jack l'Eventreur, et certains soirs je me demandais comment je pouvais ne pas faire de cauchemars avec la quantité de sang que les deux bouquins vous jette à la figure, lol.)

Oui, c'est un bon livre si vous voulez vous "détendre" quelques heures (entendez par là lire autre chose que des bouquins "sérieux") et si vous aimez les situations inextricables avec des bébêtes qui se cachent dans le noir et qui n'attendent que l'occasion propice pour vous arracher les tripes !

[Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Alien leans in to eat you, and then the impossible happens -- a second mouth pops out of its first mouth! The horror! You can't picture anything scarier. Unless... could it be that the Alien has a third mouth hidden inside its second mouth? No, that would be TOO scary. There's no way the Alien would be mean enough to act that scary.

The Alien then proceeds to eat you with its second mouth, and your last thought is that you're let down there wasn't a scary third mouth after all.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems like in every Aliens novel the majority of humans in the group has to die. I'd like to see that changed, but I suppose that would go against the trope established in the franchise.

This was a good novel overall. An aliens troubleshooter is awakened after 30 years of cryosleep in order to investigate a new Aliens outbreak. However, Weyland Yutani is involved, so you know things are never going to be simple. We find out there's corporate espionage afoot, and humans are being hunted by Aliens soon enough.

Overall, this "second wave" of Aliens novels from Dark Horse has been very good. The first wave wasn't bad either, but it was based on comic series, whereas this series is all original novels. Great series for Aliens fans.

[Will Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has got to be one of the worst alien books I have read. I am noticing a trend with these books. The ones that came out in the early 2000‘s seem to be the worst and the books from the 90s and the current books are great. This book is just all over the place. The author doesn’t answer any of the questions he poses and leaves a lot of plot points unanswered.The story just sort of stops. I don’t know what the writer was going for with this but it was just garbage. There was a part where people were fighting aliens barehanded without any real issue and that really rubbed me the wrong way. definitely skip this one.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this book is great. After thirty years in cryosleep, an expert on Aliens is unfrozen so he can investigate a series of grisly deaths that may have been caused as the result of an Alien infestation. The plot thickens when it begins to seem as though the attacks were actually faked by the nefarious Wayland Corporation. Interesting setup, yes? Unfortunately, the book quickly devolves into the typical hack-and-slash Alien storyline, with well-armed humans gunning down wave after wave of Alien attacks. Then it just gets stupid. When one character grabbed an Alien by the tail and began swinging it around as a bludgeon, I knew the book had finally jumped the shark. Ultimately, the novel just stops rather than ends, as though Evenson simply lost interest and decided not to finish it. Too bad, because Evenson writes much better prose than most other Alien/Predator authors, and NO EXIT would have been great had it managed to live up to the promise of its beginning. Four stars for the first half and two stars for the second.

[Caleb Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nifty distillation and combination into one story of what made the movies "Alien" and "Aliens" great. I slightly prefer the first half, with its paranoia and uncertainty, where a character relives a traumatic event in excruciating detail, then is unsure if the memory is accurate after all, or a character's name is given and then the others aren't sure if they heard it correctly or not. The second half is more action-oriented, albeit still creepy -- this is the count-the-remaining-bullets kind of action -- and includes the wonderful character of Bjorn, who has some great (and odd) dialogue, considering he could have been a standard-issue space mercenary. It ends on a high note, too.

[Dan Vo · Rating 5 out of 5]

AWESOME BOOK.. the end just has to be so serious.. every part in the book makes me want to have another story.. continuing what happens in this book.

[Horror Guy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as part of the complete Aliens omnibus volume 7.

[Exanimis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Franchise book #24
Second novel series #6

[BIGnick BIGnick · Rating 3 out of 5]

“No Exit” is a flawed but entertaining addition to the Aliens series. There’s some genuine chilling scenes and a great use of androids. The first half is pretty solid but then some glaring plot holes show up and some character moments that seem out of place or unearned:

The main characters have a three day trip and not enough food for everyone so they put themselves in cryo? Why? They can’t stand some hunger pains? You can go up to 30 days without food!

Plantus decides they need to bring in anyone who might be connected with the evidence because they don’t want anyone else to get killed which is noble but counterproductive considering the importance of the evidence and likelihood that the main characters will be killed and the crucial evidence lost if they go back to get the other witnesses.

What’s the deal with Bjorn? Is he somehow enhanced and if so how? He bleeds so he’s not an android. A really strong guy can’t just crumple an airlock door with a crowbar or smash through a Cryo chamber with only bloody knuckles to show for it. This is never explained.

The whole time Kramm is wanting to go back into Cryo but when they ask for a volunteer to stay awake, he says, I’ll do it. “I’ve been asleep 30 years and I’m not quite ready to go under again just yet.”
What? I get he may have a change of heart but that’s never been shown.
Also, Kramm should’ve gone in Cryo since he is 30 years out of date with their flight technology. He also kisses Frances even though, to him, he just watched his wife get murdered only weeks ago…seems to be moving on a little fast.

Frances suggests communicating with the moon to see if they can come to a truce. This makes no sense. The whole point of them being trapped on the planet is so the moon people can kill them. Kramm and his cohorts have nothing to offer whatsoever.

The end is a bit unsatisfying. It hints at a sequel which I would have liked to have read but clearly never got green-lit.

Even with it’s plot holes this entry is still far superior and more entertaining than Diane Carey’s dismal additions to the franchise.

[Malcolm Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Isobelle Fox · Rating 2 out of 5]

The "plot" of this story is so ridiculously and needlessly convoluted that it would take a novel length dissertation to untangle it. There would be little point in so doing, though, because for all of the convolutions, it is really just the same old thing as far as aliens novels go. Speaking of the aliens - they don't make any real appearance until about the last quarter of the book, and then its business as usual. In the end though? Well, there is no end, because this book simply stops. There is no resolution to the main "plot" points, there is no resolution for the characters, and there is no resolution for the action. There simply is no end to the story. Its not really a cliff-hanger either, per se. Its more like the writer just gave up in what would have been the last chapter.

I've read all of the aliens novels except "Steel Egg" at this point, and they are pretty predictable and often badly written. This one had competent writing in a purely mechanical sense, but just about everything else about it was lack luster.

[Danny Dahms · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid 4 stars. The first half of the book is definitely stronger, with the horror introduction to the aliens via personal flashback, and then the murder mystery-esque plot.

It sort of peters out a little at the end, with a somewhat guessable twist of WY being behind everything to drive down their competitor’s share price before buying them out, and then a bunch of WY scientists using our survivors as guinea pigs.

Still though, detective Kramm was one of the smartest, most fleshed out protagonists in all of the Omnibus stories and I really enjoyed him piecing together how to deal with the aliens. I was also really happy that Bjorn got out alive. 4 stars here, a little better than Criminal Enterprise.

[Mr Broderick · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best Alien books I've ever read. I'd put it in the same category as 'Alien', 'Out of the Shadows' and 'Prototype'.

Puzzled why some object to the second half - these are people who are used to the aliens been around and so know how to fight them, hence swinging one around by its tail fit the narrative.

Love kind of 'romance' between our two 'heroes' - makes it unique compared to most others.

[Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, this wasn't as much of a hate read (the other one-star reviews in this series and the Bantam series turned out to be so), but I'd hardly describe it as a pleasure read, either. I mean, this would have been a two-star book, TOPS, save for that ridiculous ending. I've seen middle books in a trilogy end with fewer loose ends than this one.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book from the franchise "Alien".

It is 22.00. My mind isn't really clear to write my review now.
I'll do it tomorrow :D

[Gregoire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Une histoire dans le cadre de la série ALIEN
Vite lue vite oubliée A réserver aux amateurs du genre

[clumsyplankton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really hoped for more

[Sierra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was really intetesting. It had a great build up and I liked the Detective alot.
This really good until about half way through, than it kind dwindles and takes a pretty straight route. It still really good, but I really like the crime investigation with the alien sprinkled in.
And the flash back were awesome because they help build up the main guy, but it never went anywhere. Like he survival alone, in the dark, for long, I kept expecting him to suddenly snap, or switch, change gears and become this survivalist. Simone just as scary as the aliens can be...but it never happened. Kind of felt let down honestly.
I like it, but I feel the book could have been more.

[Clément Hossaert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a good hunt and some and well utilized characters. It's a pity the writer gave them the blockbuster treatment without giving them full grown personalities and dilemmas. Frances and Kramm are too one-note. But the writer developped in his gloomy mind some pretty strong passages and a very good understanding of the Alien world. The confrontation between Weyland-Yutani and Planetus is one of the highlight of the book and makes for a pretty clever plot. Some scenes, described without much empathy or apathy are skillfully rendered thanks to a sharp vocabulary and a bold sense of what to show and what to hide. I would definetly read a follow-up, if there is one. We need more Alien-based novels, by writers who know what they're dealing with: survival, fear, trauma. The only part of Alien that felt missing is the whole mother-child relation which is where the movies hit so deeply.

The whole notion of the Alien, which is the epitomy of the Unknown lacks some of its appeals because the writer develop his version the Alien as a paint-by-the-numbers creature... We all know how the Alien works, the writer shouldn't be restrained by his respect of the movies and the universe developped. Maybe going a little wild, a little crazy with the very structure of the Alien's developement would instill a much welcome unpredictability to the whole matter.

But! Overall, a good book, efficiently written, with some gut spilling moments and some very strong ideas that echoes back to some of the best short stories of Brian Evenson.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sat with this one a while because I really enjoyed it but in some ways it was a bit of a letdown. There’s this huge mystery at the beginning and I was really into it, to the point where it didn’t really matter that there weren’t alien encounter scenes (other than the main character’s recurrent nightmares about his really messed up alien encounter). I really wanted to know what was going on! But ultimately the resolution of the mystery was a disappointment. At that point is when the alien encounters ramp up to 11 so I didn’t have long to be disappointed before I was back on the thrill ride. So on the one hand I really enjoyed this book as an Alien Universe book but I should have set my expectations lower for the mystery aspect. Still highly recommend!

[Nation Hirstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not too different than what you might expect from the cover, but better in all the ways it is different. Mostly you forget this novel was written by Brian Evenson, but when you remember, it's because you've stumbled upon a sentence or paragraph that could only come from a master. Most of the sentences and paragraphs, however, make me wonder about the boundary between a master's economy and a hack's simple lack of depth. But aside from its entertainment value, the best part of this book is the way it addresses those preconceptions that even the broad-minded still often have of genre fiction.

[Samuel Da silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

il est bien mais ca reste dans la serie des aliens.
faut pas en attendre des miracles

[Anaïs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Le titre spoile tout !