Aliens: Infiltrator

A Novel

By: Weston Ochse

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

The official prequel leading into the upcoming Aliens cooperative third-person survival shooter video game, Aliens: Fireteam, from Cold Iron Studios.

Dr. Timothy Hoenikker arrives on Pala Station, a Weyland-Yutani facility. Lured there by the promise of alien artifacts, instead he finds a warped bureaucracy and staff of misfits testing the effects of Xenomorph bio-materials on living creatures. Unbeknownst to the personnel, however, there is an infiltrator among them whose actions could spell disaster.

Also on staff is Victor Rawlings, a former marine who gathers together other veterans to prepare for the worst. As the personnel receive a delivery of alien eggs, the experiments spin out of control, and only the former Colonial Marines can stand between the humans and certain death.

©2020 20th Century Studios (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Really good story

Amazing story! Probably one of the best books in this series. One complaint though… There better be a sequel and it better talk about the end of this book because it was pretty abrupt leaving us all on a cliffhanger.

Intriguing possibility….

Spoilers ahead!
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I think the latest outpouring of Alien books have been really enjoyable for fans of the creature and the genre. I wasn’t expecting high art or much more than rehashes with some spins, but “The Cold Forge” was an absolute rockstar entry that might very well be the next trilogy, if not movies, then in some format other than books.

It was apparent the way this ends on a cliffhanger, that *something interesting* was definitely happening on the other, unknown parts of the ship(s), but the concept of an albino Alien somehow being…”extra,” by virtue of the “black goo,” had me enthused about how the species might evolve to become even more challenging, and by that extension, even scarier.

“Alien 3” tickled that, but never really hit it out of the park, the same way “Alien: Resurrection” had some really great ideas, but the tone was kind of all over the place (but, it was certainly pretty to look at).

This book holds that kind of frustration for me. I would have given it 4 stars or more, if the albino had a payoff, but it doesn’t, not after building it up with such an intriguing possibility. Of course, the cloaking capability of the other was equally fascinating, but again, neither build up to a payoff where their unique abilities mean anything.

These stories are parables about how humankind thinks it has everything under control, until it doesn’t. They’re also parables about greed. However, one can only keep (ironically) milking the same idea (think: Jaws), before one-upping whatever came before, just pushes them into absurdity, and they lose meaning, credibility, and therefore, the ability to frighten.

Which is why this book and “Aliens: Into Charybdis” (the sequel to “Aliens: “The Cold Forge”), are so frustrating. They’re on the right path, slowly evolving the mythos into something larger and weaving in something new, fresh, and that makes the creature of collective nightmares that much more impossibly frightening.

But instead of going for that brass ring, perhaps the studio heads or whomever really holds the rights to this IP, throttle it from changing too much.

I don’t know if it’s because we’re supposed to anticipate Ridley Scott completing this film series as his magnum opus (he’s not got that much time), or what, but it’s not difficult to figure out what happens with David and the crew of “Alien: Covenant.”

Maybe the sequel to this will redeem it, but that should not be necessary, because there were already 2-3 great ideas here already.

Either wrap that old canon up, or let some new blood come in and complete a new vision of what might frighten us in the cold darkness.

Great

One of the best yet, reader is great, cool story, great characters, i would love more of these

I liked it.

Bronson Pinchot did a great job. Story was a little predictable but good. I would recommend to anyone who is familiar with the Alien franchise.

Great!

The performance was fantastic, great change of characters. The book felt like it captured the feeling of the original series with a totally different piece of the larger story. Loved it!

Amazing!

I played aliens fire team elite, and this book was an amazing prequel to it! I’ve been a fan of the aliens series since the 80’s and thoroughly enjoyed the characters and narration. This was a tour de force of the most epic kind. I highly recommend this to any true aliens fan!

Excellent cast of characters

This might be my favorite story, and cast of characters (not counting Aliens) of the series. While it was another secret lab stashed in deep space, the characters made it so much more interesting.

There were scientists with sordid pasts, colonial marines turned scientist, private security, and of course, the always douchey Weyland-Yutani corporate stooge throwing monkey wrenches left and right.

As always the company stashed the scientists in the middle of nowhere (for safety and secrecy) to perform experiments on Xenomorphs. They are tasked with trying to understand the creatures as well as to try to monetize their findings.

Scientists, being too smart for their own good, managed to make the Xenomorphs even more dangerous with their experiments. Then they all escape their cages, wreak havoc on the station, and kill pretty much everyone. Sadly, the only people who learned a lesson were the ones who died for the sake of making the company richer.

Excellent listen; the narrator was amazing!

Leon895!

The place is Paula Station, LV 895, January 12th, 2202. Cruise, a Colonial Marine Laboratory Assistant on his third deployment encountered Xenos. Cruise managed a graduate degree in Xenobiology. He experimented with what he called Rat-X. There were Xenos and there was xenos (Rat-X). Cruise discovered that Rat-X bled acid and developed acid-resistant armor. Government scientists on Paula Station were to help Marines survive on the battlefield, similar to camouflage. Unfortunately for Paula Station, there was an industrial espionage scientist aboard the station. The mutated experimental xenos, Leon895 escaped the lab. The experiments continued with a new supply of captured xenomorphs and volunteer prisoner test subjects. Welcome to Half-Life’s face-huggers. After the face-huggers completed their life's mission, the real research began with the adult xenomorphs. Then all hell broke loose. Seven was in charge. An exciting conclusion to be sure, perhaps the beginning of the Predators.

Great prequel to lead up to Aliens: Fireteam

Very great story, enjoyed the corporate perspective, espionage, and former marines, can't wait to play the upcoming Aliens: Fireteam!!!

Loved this one.

loved the story, and thought the narrator's performance was flawless. Ill be looking for other works by this author and the narrator.