Writing an adaptation several years after the fact, I do think it's a bit silly not to have the author at least sample the original material. Same as when River of Pain recreated scenes from the Special Edition of Aliens but then got them wrong compared to the film. A fifteen minute sit-down with the Blu-ray would've sorted that, but apparently they didn't bother.
Alex White has clearly played Isolation, and the Alien encounters so obviously inspired by it in The Cold Forge are leagues ahead of anything in this novelisation.