Books
‘Alien: The Cold Forge’ Author Alex White Takes On the Xenomorph [Interview]
It’s no easy task taking the reigns of a beloved franchise and spinning a tale, even contained, that will please fans. But Alex White, author the most recent Alien tie-in novel, “Alien: The Cold Forge” which is out today from the mighty Titan Books, is confident his unique spin will take readers on an unexpected journey.
I sat down with White to talk about his new book and our mutual love of all things Alien.
Tell us how you got into writing?
I’ve always been a big movie buff and when I was in high school I used to complain to my friends about every movie we went to go see. So, understandably, one day they told me, “If you think you can do so well why don’t you write a movie.”
So I started writing movies in my study periods, went to college and did some independent screenwriting studies and found out I don’t really like the movie industry very much so I turned to writing novels.
Before we talk “Alien: The Cold Forge”, do you have a genre of choice? Or is your writing driven by an idea first, genre considerations second?
I always start with an idea first. That usually results in world that’s described as “genre-bending” when the intent was just to stay true to the original idea.
“Alien: The Cold Forge” is actually a perfect example. The idea came from a user experience conference I was at. Double came in with their latest telepresence robot and presented through it. It was essentially an iPad on a Segway with a face, where the face was the presenter. I thought that was so cool for an Alien novel, the idea of having a character go through a contaminated area in a telepresence robot and help other survivors and see how the other survivors would deal with that person and feel about that person when they didn’t have actual skin in the game, so to speak. So everything for the book sort of coalesced around that idea.
So when it comes to presenting this idea to Titan Books – who has a lot of these extended universe “Alien” books going back to the nineties – how much do you need to line up with what’s come before? Is there a story bible, do you need to connect to the cannon films?
Yes, I had to pitch to Titan and the idea needed to fit into the canon books they’re currently putting out. So I couldn’t just pitch any old thing, I had to really workshop the idea with the editor, Steve Saffel, before sending the pitch to FOX who have to give final approval.
Do you reach out the previous authors to let them know you’ll be continuing on in the world? Do you use their characters?
Oh yeah, though I was not allowed to use their characters. I could use movie canon characters if I wanted to, but they didn’t end up being very useful to the plot, so there are some passing references but that’s it. It’s mostly a self-contained story with some far-reaching, broader implications to the world.
I should say that only the five books that Titan have commissioned are considered canonical. The older, nineties books, belonged to Dark Horse all those years back. And they were extended universe cannon with their Earth War series where essentially Alien 3 never happened and Hicks and Newt were the main characters. So luckily I didn’t really have to compete with the whole back catalog of 20-some novels and all comics thankfully.
Some passionate Alien fans have felt, let’s say, underwhelmed by Scott’s recent Prometheus and Covenant and can get pretty vocal about their opinions. Does that translate to the book world? Dipping your toes into a big franchise, do you worry about Alien fans coming after you if they’re not happy with what you do in the world?
Well, I’ll tell you, surprisingly enough it can get pretty ugly. I was on a panel with an author who writes a Robin Hood series and I mentioned she mentioned getting death threats. I was shocked. Then the writer next to me who writes Arrow books said he’s gotten five for six and so on.
But if you think about it, the fans who read tie-in novels are really the super fans. They are the ones who care most about the franchise and that’s why I do appreciate them. Most of the feedback so far has been very positive… well, there was someone on Bloody Disgusting (yes, I read the comments!) who was saying the book would suck because it was the same plot as Alien: Resurrection.
But I want to say, here now, if you, commentor on Bloody Disgusting, are reading this, I promise you this is not the same as Alien 4, which I would also strike from the cannon if I could. That and the AVP movies.
Whoa, wait. Alien: Resurrection‘s got a lot to love! That production design is worth the return, love the cast, and that underwater scene is conceptually strong!
It’s got Michael Wincott doing what he does best!
Yes! That was when they were really starting to push the CG alien hard to mixed effect. And it seems like Scott’s been going down that road.
Watch the making of Covenant. There’s a lot more practical work going on then you might think. Go find the Adam Savage Tested stuff and see everything there. A lot of that set was real. It’s pretty amazing.
Alright, most important question time. Are you an Alien guy, or an Aliens guy?
Complicated question, complicated answer involving growing up. When I was a kid we weren’t allowed to have horror movies or action movies in the house. I lived in the middle of nowhere in Alabama where all the other kids around me were watching the most insane, violent, awesome stuff, and I wasn’t really allowed to. Then, finally, Terminator 2 came out and it won Oscars for its special FX so my parents took me to the video store and we rented it with some family friends and we watched it and my parents were like, “oh my god, if your mind ruined?”. No. It was amazing, I loved it and I wanted more.
That was when a friend of the family revealed he had a treasure trove of 80’s action movies, Predator, Alien, Aliens, Warlock… we watched Alien. I enjoyed it, I was scared, but Aliens was where it was at for me. It was easy to grasp the concepts, gives you a rush.
What makes Aliens so accessible is that all the stuff that was so subtle in Alien is turned up to 11 in Aliens. The evil corporation, Ripley, everything. It’s what Cameron does. Of course, now that I’m older I love Alien just as much. Especially after joining the corporate workforce, it really speaks to me.
Me too, man. Alex, thanks for your time and thanks for doing your part to keep the Alien franchise alive.
You got it, man.
“Alien: The Cold Forge” is available now.
Books
‘Scary Movie Night’ Review: A Hitchcock-Themed Thriller Full of Juicy Twists But Not Much Else
A secluded mansion. A group of friends each harboring secrets. A party built around one woman’s love of Alfred Hitchcock. These are the ingredients laid out to begin Scary Movie Night, the sophomore novel from Miranda Smith and follow-up to her breakout debut, Smile for the Cameras.
They’re all, standing alone and taken together, very promising ingredients, and when Smith starts to bounce all those secrets and all that seclusion around with a little murder in the mix, they make for some juicy plotting. But fun twists and macabre themed party nights do not a thriller make. There is fun to be had here, but for all its reliance on classic horror tropes and the films of a master of cinematic suspense, Scary Movie Night never quite finds a way to become something more.
Movie blogger and influencer Tippi (yes, she’s named for Tippi Hedren from The Birds) is going through a rough patch. Her upcoming marriage was just called off, and she’s planning to hit the Cannes Film Festival then travel the world as a newly single woman, even shifting her career focus from movies to travel in the process. Her friends Ava, Marlowe, and Constance are supportive, but they also know it might be the last time they see Tippi for a while, so master party planner Ava comes up with the perfect sendoff: A themed scary movie night party, complete with costumes, hosted at the elegant estate of Tippi’s grandmother, Marmee.
Marmee, you see, has her own history with the glamour of Hollywood, and even has a private cinema set up in her mansion. It’s the perfect venue for the perfect night, at least until Tippi starts receiving vaguely threatening notes from her ex, and the first body turns up.
See what I mean about all the ingredients being there? This book starts with so much promise, particularly when guests turn up for the party and reveal their various movie costumes. There’s so much to chew on, and Smith wastes no time diving directly into the drama of it all. The book moves primarily through Tippi’s first-person perspective, so we get the lowdown on her friends, their various relationships, the quarrels that have defined previous social interactions, and much more. It’s a series of rich veins all tapped at once, and it feels like the book is genuinely going somewhere quite fun.
Here’s the thing: The book does go somewhere quite fun; it just gets there in a way that I found both frustrating and often unfulfilling. The characters aren’t defined by their choices in the book so much as they’re defined by what Tippi tells us about each of them, and while the notion of Tippi as an unreliable narrator is key to the plot, her supporting cast never really gets a chance to sit up and exist as anything other than archetypes in her head. The dialogue doesn’t help matters in this regard, and I kept finding myself wishing one of Tippi’s friends would just seize the narrative, just for a moment, so I’d get some sense of these people beyond the broad brushstrokes of the protagonist.
Which brings us to the issue of Tippi as the narrator in the first place. Like the Hitchcock blondes on which she’s clearly modeled, we’re meant to learn about her through her choices, and constantly question whether or not she’s made the right ones. Why did she leave her ex with a wedding looming? Why is she changing career paths? Why does she have to be talked into her own going-away party? How she reacts to these things, and what she’s really after, will be what defines her, but here’s the thing: Tippi, for all her Hitchcockian layers of plotting, never steps forward as a fully formed character. Like the Hitch films playing in the background during the party, she’s more like a suggestion of a character than a person.
Writing first-person present-tense is tricky under the best of circumstances, but doing it when your protagonist is meant to be harboring secrets of her own is especially challenging, and it just…never quite entirely works here, and drawing very direct parallels between her and Hitchcock’s various leading ladies doesn’t really help matters.
But here’s the really interesting part: I wouldn’t be invested in any of these issues were it not for a story that genuinely kept me reading. For all of this book’s shortcomings, and I found a few, it ultimately holds together because Smith has a genuine gift for plot twists, and secrets, and the kind of juicy drama that makes a thriller keep barreling forward on the page. There’s good stuff in here, even if it’s sometimes overshadowed by missteps, and that means that while Scary Movie Night might not obsess you or give you nightmares or stick in your head for weeks on end, it will entertain you. I wanted more from this book, but I also want to see what Miranda Smith writes next, and that’s an achievement in itself.
Scary Movie Night is available July 14 wherever books are sold.
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