Alien: The Cold Forge - Titan Books

[Samhain13]

Might have to check out their original work based on this interview alone. Has anyone else?

Definitely your interview.

I ordered his Big Ship while doing that interview (if it is our interview you're talking about) because of how much I enjoyed talking to him lol It such a fun book too. Really addictive. I've got his second in that series sat waiting next in line after my re-read of No Exit.

Interested to hear your No Exit thoughts as well.

https://www.avpgalaxy.net/literature/reviews/aliens-no-exit/

We still don't know exactly when this book is set right? Apart from it being in the Aliens-Alien 3 era.

There are dates on the start of some chapters. The main events happen around the last week of July/2179.

https://alientimeline.wordpress.com/2127-2179/the-cold-forge/

[Frosty Venom]

Ahhh, cheers. That's helpful.

So the main events happen between Aliens and Alien 3 (2179). But the Cold Forge was officially commissioned (2176) 17 years after the establishment of Hadley's Hope in 2159. Though the colony was only really fully operational in approximately 2165-2170.

[Hudson]

Might have to check out their original work based on this interview alone. Has anyone else?

Definitely your interview.

I ordered his Big Ship while doing that interview (if it is our interview you're talking about) because of how much I enjoyed talking to him lol It such a fun book too. Really addictive. I've got his second in that series sat waiting next in line after my re-read of No Exit.

Interested to hear your No Exit thoughts as well.

https://www.avpgalaxy.net/literature/reviews/aliens-no-exit/

We still don't know exactly when this book is set right? Apart from it being in the Aliens-Alien 3 era.

There are dates on the start of some chapters. The main events happen around the last week of July/2179.

https://alientimeline.wordpress.com/2127-2179/the-cold-forge/

lol

His thoughts on his reread of No Exit.

[Corporal Hicks]

This is actually the first time I've re-read No Exit since that review. I'm about 160 pages in, I'm not as enamoured with the earlier stuff as I was back then.

[Hudson]

This is actually the first time I've re-read No Exit since that review. I'm about 160 pages in, I'm not as enamoured with the earlier stuff as I was back then.

Ah, well post your retrospective thoughts in the novel reviews thread when you finish because I'm always curious about how our views evolve over time. I have my memories of that book being really interesting for the first 2/3, then kind of boring physical action with some red-shirts that wasn't all that interesting to read, and then also the ending that just kind of...stops.

I'm planning on reading Evenson's newest collection, A Collapse of Horses here before too long. I really like his more well known collection Fugue State, but really enjoyed his novella from a couple years back, The Warren. It's too bad No Exit doesn't live up to its potential. Just shows how little time the writers of tie-in books are given.

[Samhain13]

This is actually the first time I've re-read No Exit since that review. I'm about 160 pages in, I'm not as enamoured with the earlier stuff as I was back then.

I really liked the first half of that novel, it was on its way to become one of my favorites then the last act happened. In my headcanon the big guy had synthetic upgrades, that would explain how he able to get physical with the aliens a little, the story could be set further on the future where that's more common. Regardless it was still disappointing, suprised since its from the guy that wrote the Dead Space novels which I liked.

[The Old One]

Agreed, the Dead Space novel Martyr is superb.

[Corporal Hicks]

This is actually the first time I've re-read No Exit since that review. I'm about 160 pages in, I'm not as enamoured with the earlier stuff as I was back then.

Ah, well post your retrospective thoughts in the novel reviews thread when you finish because I'm always curious about how our views evolve over time. I have my memories of that book being really interesting for the first 2/3, then kind of boring physical action with some red-shirts that wasn't all that interesting to read, and then also the ending that just kind of...stops.

Those were my memories of it too. And looking at my review, that's what I said before. I think I just loved those earlier segments a lot more the first time than I have done this time. Don't get me wrong, I'm still digging the first parts. Just not as much.

In regards to that last third:

AvPGalaxy – The main criticism regarding No Exit was the abrupt way you changed from psycho-thriller to an action piece. The best description I saw was that "you really get the feeling that it wasn't the last half the author wanted to write, that there was some kind of mandate passed down". Was that the way you always planned it or was it something DH asked you to include?

Brian Evenson – Well... I guess there are several things I could say about that. There's definitely a transition there that may be partly due to me and partly due to the desire for a certain amount of action on the part of the powers that be. I can't speak for the powers that be and what they were thinking. I think on my side of the equation there were two things that had an impact. First, at a certain point I was thinking a lot about the way in which "Alien" and "Aliens" are radically different (in the same way that the two parts of my Aliens novel are) but yet somehow still kind of work together.

Second, the action component of it was originally meant to be shorter and to be followed by a more claustrophobic thing going on on the moon base that would return us to the kind of psycho-thriller thing we'd begun with. But once I was writing, I realized that the section taking place on the planet needed to be developed a lot more and that if I wanted to do what I did with the end that I'd need another 100 or 150 pages, which wasn't possible in the confines of the series. At the same time I tried to write the two halves in such a way that they'd balance against themselves, like what happens when you do a back-to-back reading of "Alien" and "Aliens". Despite that abrupt shift, I've heard from a lot of people that it's their favourite Alien novel (but of course those that don't like it probably aren't writing to me...).

[Engineer]

seeing a couple of my memes popping up on this thread... lol

[[cancerblack]]

About to catch up on a few years worth of books, audiobooks, podcasts etc that i've missed out on. Skimming this thread has got this novel and the periphery interviews to the top of my list for sure.

[The Old One]

Good.

[Kradan]

What i like about The Cold Forge the most is not the book itself but the fact that it was reason for 4 (!) podcasts (i'm f**king obsessed with podcasts)

[Perfect-Organism]

Hey Kradan, can you post the links?  With respect to AVPGalaxy whose podcast I truly enjoyed, I would like to listen to some more.  Love that book.

[Kradan]

No problem

https://www.podbean.com/site/EpisodeDownload/PB94EC66IVGQR

https://www.podbean.com/site/EpisodeDownload/PB91331EK3JYJ

[Perfect-Organism]

Thanks for that!