Alien: The Cold Forge - Titan Books

Started by felix, Sep 14, 2017, 01:45:44 AM

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Alien: The Cold Forge - Titan Books (Read 116,448 times)

The Old One

The Old One

#345
I believe it takes place at the same time as Aliens or after.

The Cold Forge is definitely something new, there's no attempt to weaponize them - it's all about Plagiarus Praepotens and specifically I must say the protagonist and antagonists are also unlike any others I've seen before in Alien media.

The general outline might not be new, but I don't think it has any bearing on quality, positive or negative.
It's all in Alex White's excellent writing as you no doubt know.

Spoiler
I believe Alex White hinted at where the eggs came from, I don't remember off the top of my head.
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SM

SM

#346
Quote from: 426Buddy on Aug 13, 2018, 04:20:41 PM
I agree, but i wasnt really commenting on which one is better or why. Just that Cold Forge is the best thing since.

Its interesting that the general plot for Cold Forge isnt anything new, but the characters and the way things unfold really elevated the the story to something great. Also the Aliens were given great respect and written in in a way that made them feel like a scary and tangible threat to the rest of the characters.

Spoiler
Can anyone tell me where the eggs came from? I know they mentioned Burke in the beginning. I'm not sure when this book takes place in relation to the films.
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Spoiler
White said he thought they came from the Derelict, which doesn't really wash.  There's no indication in the book though - which works way better.  It's above the classification of the characters to know.
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The Old One

The Old One

#347
Perhaps they found the Torrens.

HuDaFuK

Quote from: 426Buddy on Aug 13, 2018, 04:20:41 PM
Spoiler
Can anyone tell me where the eggs came from? I know they mentioned Burke in the beginning. I'm not sure when this book takes place in relation to the films.
[close]

Per Alex White's podcast interview with Hicks:

Spoiler
He suggested someone at the company (other than Burke) found out about the derelict following Ripley's recovery, and a team was sent there to recover eggs some time between Ripley being picked up and the colonists finding it themselves. His reasoning was that it's never really made clear how much time elapses between Ripely being found by the salvagers and her attending the inquest aboard Gateway - it could be months, which would give somebody plenty of time to go and collect some samples.

I'm with SM though, I'm not really sold on that explanation and think the book's better without it.
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TheBATMAN

The only thing I dislike about the book is the time setting. There's no need for it to be set around the same time as Aliens. For me it would have worked better as a post Alien 3 story, all the more so when the acquisition of the eggs is is purposefully left ambiguous.

The Old One

The Old One

#350
That's the beauty of a canon that's undefined I suppose, you can set it after A3 yourself if you wish.
Spoiler

In my opinion there's two logical places the eggs came from that explains their limited quantity;
either it's post A3 and it's all they could retrieve from the ruin of the Derelict, or;
It's during/before Aliens and they found the Torrens, retrieving a number of eggs from it.
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Huggs

Huggs

#351
Well that's the thing isn't it? Before Isolation, there was no Sevastopol, no Torrens. Who knows how many other places that have yet to be created and brought into canon, that could more easily explain where the eggs came from?


On a side note, I'm having a very hard time believing that a company with such resources and a colony on LV-426 could have such a difficult time and constantly fail to gather specimens. Surely before or during the time the colony was being built, or during the early days of the colony, the company could've gotten their hands on something? Of course that would mean Burke was really out of the loop, but we didn't get to see the egg chamber. So who knows how many may have been missing by the time Newts parents got there?

I think they got what they needed, and have a company owned and operated Hive somewhere.

The Old One

The Old One

#352
I doubt that, or there would be no reason for Michael Bishop to go to Fiorina 161,
nor would it work with his displayed desperation.

It makes much more sense in my mind that the chain of events went like this;

The Derelict is present on LV-426.
Nostromo touches down due to a distress beacon, they leave and the rest is history but they don't deactivate the beacon.
Years later the Anesidora deactivates the beacon, the events of Alien Isolation take place- Sevastopol station's
explosion propels the Torrens out of the system on an unknown trajectory.
The Torrens is found, with a limited number of eggs onboard and one deceased adult Alien.
The eggs are brought aboard The Cold Forge for study.
As far as they know these are the only ones in existence.

They have no knowledge on the Derelict until the time of Ripley's inquest,
or this takes place after Carter Burke failed and the Derelict was destroyed.

The reason I refer to Alien Isolation is due to the beacon, and the end of the events that emerged from it.
It ties into the original Alien in a legitimate way that no other EU story has other than The Cold Forge.

Eggs coming from anywhere else other than the Derelict to prompt the events of TCF
around the same time as Aliens/A3 would be too convenient in timing to be believable.

HuDaFuK

The trouble with them coming from the Torrens is there are something like 60-odd Aliens on the Cold Forge to start with, plus a bunch of eggs left over. And that's not even counting the ones that didn't survive to adulthood; I recall the novel mentioning Blue ends up terminating most of the specimens before they mature, because she's only interested in the Facehugger.

Seems like far too many to have come from Verlaine's ship.

The Old One

The Old One

#354
Quote from: HuDaFuK on Aug 14, 2018, 07:12:45 PM
The trouble with them coming from the Torrens is there are something like 60-odd Aliens on the Cold Forge to start with, plus a bunch of eggs left over. And that's not even counting the ones that didn't survive to adulthood; I recall the novel mentioning Blue ends up terminating most of the specimens before they mature, because she's only interested in the Facehugger.

Seems like far too many to have come from Verlaine's ship.

That leaves the only conclusion that they must have been all they could salvage from the wreckage of the Derelict then.
IMO

Huggs

Huggs

#355
Quote from: The Old One on Aug 14, 2018, 06:52:24 PM
Sevastopol station's explosion propels the Torrens out of the system on an unknown trajectory.
The Torrens is found, with a limited number of eggs onboard and one deceased adult Alien.


I'd always assumed the Alien was propelled out into space along with Amanda when she opened the airlock. And the torrens didn't seem like it was out of control when she boarded it, immediately post Sevastopol explosion. Ad wasn't it basically destroyed in atmosphere?

The Old One

The Old One

#356
You're right, it was destroyed in atmosphere.

As for being propelled elsewhere, that doesn't necessarily mean quickly but just enough so that the trajectory changes.
An object propelled in a vacuum will keep travelling until it hits something.

Huggs

Huggs

#357
Quote from: The Old One on Aug 14, 2018, 08:21:12 PM
You're right, it was destroyed in atmosphere.

As for being propelled elsewhere, that doesn't necessarily mean quickly but just enough so that the trajectory changes.
An object propelled in a vacuum will keep travelling until it hits something.

Maybe it ran into Big Chap? Poor fella. Probably thought "Finally, after years of waiting...Food!"

Boards the Torrens

"aw dammit. Well, it beats being outside."

The Old One

The Old One

#358
 :D

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#359
Quote from: HuDaFuK on Aug 14, 2018, 07:12:45 PM
The trouble with them coming from the Torrens is there are something like 60-odd Aliens on the Cold Forge to start with, plus a bunch of eggs left over. And that's not even counting the ones that didn't survive to adulthood; I recall the novel mentioning Blue ends up terminating most of the specimens before they mature, because she's only interested in the Facehugger.

Seems like far too many to have come from Verlaine's ship.

Unless a Queen developed on the ship? I think I actually prefer the idea of the eggs coming from somewhere other than LV-426. The intent was that the eggs were procured before Aliens took place and it seems like it maybe a bit tight on continuity to pull that off. I do like the idea of it connecting to the lore elsewhere and have them coming from the Torrens.

Also, I'm currently halfway through another re-read/re-listen for this weekend's podcast and I am just so f**king annoyed at the staff of the Cold Forge for not having back-ups of everything on portable storage in a safe somewhere.

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