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nation's review
3.0
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.
ladylothlorien's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
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!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Violence, Child death, Death, and Gore
Typical Alien Universe blood and gore but the MC’s experience with the aliens and losing his family was brutal. And because he’s traumatized, he thinks about it a lot.david_agranoff's review
3.0
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.
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.
wyrmbergmalcolm's review
4.0
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.
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.
verkisto's review
1.0
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.
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