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The Night Children

(Escape from Furnace #0.5)

Alexander Gordon Smith (Goodreads Author)

4.12 · Rating details · 611 ratings · 44 reviews

Presenting a new Escape from Furnace story, “The Night Children,” by Alexander Gordon Smith.

It is December 1944 and Europe is still gripped by war. In the densely forested mountains of Belgium one of the conflict’s most brutal battles is raging. Cut off from the front, a ragtag group of young British and American soldiers finds itself being hunted by a patrol of elite Germ ...more

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Kindle Edition, 98 pages

Published September 21st 2011 by Tor Books

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· 611 ratings · 44 reviews

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Oct 06, 2014 Karlyflower *The Vampire Ninja, Luminescent Monster & Wendigo Nerd Goddess of Canada (according to The Hulk)* rated it really liked it

Shelves: spooktober, tor-tor-baby, short-stories

I am at a bit of a loss as to how to review this novella, and at 64 pages I would call this a novella not a short story.

Tor shorts are a great way to get a taste of a writer's style and see if it's flavour matches our desires. Smith did exceptionally well here... I will definitely be checking out his Escape from Furnace series in the future. However, there was more to this one than most.... it felt cohesive and thought-out, not like the slapped together prequel that so many of these 0.5's can b ...more

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Sep 05, 2019 Jess ❈Harbinger of Blood-Soaked Rainbows❈ rated it really liked it

Shelves: top-100, a-z-challenge, tor-babies, historical-fiction, short-stack, paranormal-horror-supernatural, scary-scary-scary, here-be-demons, 4-and-a-half-stars

This is one of the best tor shorts I’ve read.
4.5 stars, a review to come, and Lockdown added to the top of my the pile. ...more

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Jul 07, 2013 Marsella Macabre rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Amazing, gives you a great background if you haven't started the Escape From Furnace series yet. And if you have, it clarifies unanswered questions about the meeting of Alfred Furnace & Warden Cross. Like in the series, you feel as if you're really there, during the war. Watching everything happen & discovering the "Night Children". If you haven't read the series yet, once you start, you'll notice similarites between the Night Children & the creatures Furnace has created. ...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Maria rated it liked it

I'm often reluctant to read anything WWII-related. Especially so when it comes to foreign authors. It's not that I believe that Russian historians and writers are somehow more truthful about the events that took place during that period or that they have some special *moral* right to explore and interpret those events - there is a great deal of idealization at work here and I fully realize that, and yet... and yet I can't help but find some of the accounts or - let's call them - re-interpretatio I'm often reluctant to read anything WWII-related. Especially so when it comes to foreign authors. It's not that I believe that Russian historians and writers are somehow more truthful about the events that took place during that period or that they have some special *moral* right to explore and interpret those events - there is a great deal of idealization at work here and I fully realize that, and yet... and yet I can't help but find some of the accounts or - let's call them - re-interpretations, alternative histories, written by non-russian authors (mostly english or american, but this is just because most of the authors I read in general are either english or american) a little bit naive, a little bit unrealistic, a little bit ridiculous.

I realize also that have no moral ground to stand here since I've been consciously and unconsciously avoiding any information or opinions on WWII that came my way, but, you know, it's kind of hard to cut it off completely considering where I live and when.

I mean, it's everywhere: from election propaganda to the 9th of May celebrations...

Anyway, what I want to talk about is not some highly disputable issue. No, what I want to talk about is an attitude.

The Night Children: An Escape From Furnace Story has both delighted and disappointed me. It reads like a fairy-tale. And how could it not with lines like these:

The forest was gripped by a profound, deafening silence—as if it were holding its breath, as if it were watching them go. How old is it here? Donnie wondered. How many centuries have these trees stood sentinel? He had never in his life felt so insubstantial, so fleeting, as here among these voiceless methuselahs, this ancient and unforgiving place. It would swallow them all whole as punishment for their trespass, without making a single sound

And a fairy-tale it is (half the time I imagined hobbits instead of soldiers treading through the silent forest), but the premise is all wrong. My guess is that Alexander Gordon Smith aimed for the Pan's Labyrinth kind of story, but has severely underestimated
WWII. In the face of the very real horrors of war, his imaginary monsters seem weak.. and ultimately not real (they are not, but they should have seem). And linking these monsters to Nazis... really? Isn't the most terrifying thing about Hitler that he was not Satan incarnate, but a man, just like everybody else? ...more

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Oct 31, 2015 Alex ☣ Deranged KittyCat ☣ rated it it was ok

Shelves: short-stories-novellas, adult, mystery-thriller-horror, less-than-100-pages, ww-related

"The forest watched them walk. The lunatic moon grinned down at them. And it was all he could do not to scream."

The Night Children takes place during WWII, long before Lockdown and I was reluctant to read it because I dislike WW-related stories. I picked this up because I was curious about the wheezers and warden Cross.

The story centers corporal Donnie Brixton and his men as they attempt to locate a missing squad. On their search they come across Joan Forbes, a British flight sergeant, who w ...more

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May 25, 2017 Blake Palmer rated it it was amazing

This a prequel to all of the other escape from furnace books. This one was really cool because it ended up solving a bunch of stuff that was a mystery in the actual original five books. This one's protagonist is a soilder in war who is trying to escape a nazi army while at the same time trying to find a captain who had gone missing. This one was probably one of my favorite book in the series. ...more

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Oct 10, 2017 Ted Lantvit rated it really liked it

Response: This book is really good! If you have read the Escape from Furnace series, then you would like this book. This book explains Warden Cross’s story (the prison director who rules the Furnace Penitentiary). I liked this book because it is very detailed on the events that takes place and explains how the Warden Cross became the head of the Furnace Penitentiary.

Plot: This book takes place during the Nazi invasion. There are 4 rogue men who are all on different sides of the war who teamed up Response: This book is really good! If you have read the Escape from Furnace series, then you would like this book. This book explains Warden Cross’s story (the prison director who rules the Furnace Penitentiary). I liked this book because it is very detailed on the events that takes place and explains how the Warden Cross became the head of the Furnace Penitentiary.

Plot: This book takes place during the Nazi invasion. There are 4 rogue men who are all on different sides of the war who teamed up together to fight these strange creatures of the night. The men are all alone in the woods where the strange beasts live. The men are scared out of their minds because the beasts are picking them off one by one until there were only two left. The two men quickly realized that if they want to survive, the will have to start killing the beasts. One of the men named Kreuz had a bag full of explosives powerful enough to blow up a full camp of soldiers. The men knew the beasts were coming for them, so they had to act quickly before they get attacked. They rigged the bag to a body of one of their friends hoping the beasts will take the bait. Everything was going to plan until the fuse came undone and the trap did not do off. Kreuz had an idea. He picked up the pistol that was on his belt and shot the trap. The two men were saved. Then a group of soldiers overheard the explosion and came quickly to the scene. The group of soldiers found Kreuz and stopped in front of him demanding him to surrender. Kreuz was explaining the story until a bunch of black suits came on in and killed the men while Kreuz’s friend was still hiding in the grass. The black suits surrounded Kreuz but did not kill him. Then Kreuz heard a strange voice in his head. This voice asked, “did you kill my children?” Kreuz was terrified but somehow answered, “yes.” The voice asked, “did you do this alone?” Kreuz was very quiet and stook there until the voice asked again. “Yes” Kreuz replied. The voice laughed and told him to kill his friend. Kreuz obeyed and shot him in the head. The voice called Kreuz to him and the black suits followed him. Kreuz became the Warden for the worse prison for boys in the world where nothing but evil happens, and soon he tried taking over the world with his evil monsters.

Characterization: Kreuz is one of the main characters in this book. He does change very little in this book because he is an evil person in this book. He starts off as a leader of the Turkish squad and later leads a big prison called Furnace where dark things happen.

Recommendation: I would recommend this book to anyone who has read the Escape from Furnace series of any age and gender because The book explains how the Warden Cross became the head of the Furnace Penitentiary and became the most evil person in the world. ...more

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May 14, 2020 Emilie Riviere rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this book, the small details that showed the past of the Escape Furnace made me shiver! I'd suggest reading this after the furnace series. ...more

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Jun 02, 2014 Grw rated it really liked it

First of, this is a good short story, combining the Second World War and ghost / supernatural events.
It's as well written as everything the author does, there's some good characters, some nice twists, a decent plot and everything else.

However, I just can't see where, or indeed why, it fits into the "Escape From the Furnace" series. It really doesn't give any extra background information about the characters form those books, although it doesn't detracts anything either.

I'm not even sure in whi ...more

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Feb 12, 2015 Katherine rated it really liked it

Shelves: good-ya

I am not much of a horror reader, but this series has been on the edge of everything I've read for a while. I decided to give this little starter story a try to see if I was at all interested.
The short story is pretty good. I enjoyed the progression that the main character goes through throughout the story. The whole thing is told like a third person journal, written out on a timeline. It gives a sense of just how quickly the world descends into madness for these soldiers and how the most major ...more

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Aug 26, 2013 Shandra rated it liked it

A short story that gives us a glimpse into one of the major evil characters in the series. We get to see how he becomes what he is throughout the series. I would've liked to see more explanation on what the night children are exactly, like how they came to be. All in all, a good prequel to the series.

P. S.
This is a really quick, enjoyable, dark series. :0) ...more

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Jan 13, 2017 Xavier rated it it was amazing

AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...more

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Aug 13, 2019 Henri Moreaux rated it really liked it

Shelves: europe, americas, military-war, paranormal, historical, young-adult

I was looking at starting the Escape from Furnace series and saw there was a prequel so I figured I'd start here.

This book, well, novella, is set in Belgium in World War 2, a group of American servicemen are sent out to discover what happened to a prior team of men. On this journey they stumble into some beings that are none to friendly to say the least. In fleeing from these beings they run into a group of Nazis who are also losing men to said beings. After some initial friction to two groups ...more

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Apr 18, 2018 mckenna ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ rated it it was ok

Shelves: didnt-finish, novels

This book was definitely well written but I ended up finding it pretty uninteresting. It’s nice to have a little more backstory to the Escape From Furance series but this wasn’t the most captivating installment for me personally.

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Dec 18, 2016 Jez rated it liked it

Shelves: owned, young-adult, sci-fi, dystopian, horror, ebook, fiction, 2016, series

Not sure if this classes as a spoiler but it might to some people. This book is about how (view spoiler) ...more

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Oct 03, 2017 704robert91 rated it it was amazing

pretty good explained back story of escape from furnace evil stuff

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Mar 14, 2018 Virginia rated it it was amazing

Great Read

I love the background given information for the series. I'm usually not a fan of world war books but this was very well written.
...more

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Nov 10, 2018 Jordan Fuller rated it it was amazing

Alexander Gordon Smith does it again! Short but fantastic prelude to Furnace. You must read!

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Mar 17, 2012 Hilary rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, young-adult, read-in-2012, horror, ebook, science-fiction, short-stories

I expected more from this little story. It didn't really answer any questions. Yeah, it was kind of interesting to see where it all kind of started. At least, we got to see where Furnace and Cross first met, and among the soldiers was a woman named Joan Sawyer (wonder who she's related to?!) which was nice, I guess. But I want to know what Furnace is making these monsters for! To rule the world? And I want to know more about Furnace and where he came from. At this point in the story he has alrea ...more

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Nov 07, 2011 E.A. rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, sci-fi

This story answered a lot of questions I had about the origins of some of the characters. It takes place during WWII and though it isn't historically accurate in all of the information, it didn't bother me. This series is Science Fiction and this story fit well into the rest of the series with the same great descriptions. There are some aspects that are described in great detail while other instances Gordon lets my own imagination fill in the blanks. I found the characters to be unique and reali ...more

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Nov 24, 2015 Jacquelyn rated it liked it

Shelves: nook, novellas-novellettes, horror

I almost stopped reading this ten minutes in, because I'm not interested in war stories and it seemed to be going very slowly. After skimming for a bit to see if I'd miss anything worthwhile, I came across the first supernatural horror and decided to continue reading in earnest from there. While I don't usually go out of my way to read horror, I can appreciate the hard work that goes into crafting a terrifying story that doesn't cross over into trying too hard and becoming a parody of itself. An ...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Kelly Moore rated it really liked it

I love a good prequel, and this one didn't disappoint me. I should've read book 3 in the Furnace series before I read this, but I think it's fine to read this one after the second book. I definitely HAVE to read the third one now, because the WWII connection is so interesting, and I've heard Death Sentence is when that idea is introduced. While the Furnace books take place in the future, this prequel goes back to WWII and give some very creepy background about the origins of some of the nightmar ...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Brooke rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-of-my-books

Great prequel to the series! It explain Cross and how he become who he ended up to be! I wish it would have explained more about Furnace but that's ok! The only other thing i wish was different was the descriptions of everything, they were the same as in escape from furnace books!! Overall it was nicely written! ...more

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Jul 01, 2014 Angelica Castillo rated it it was ok

Shelves: hot-and-cold-reading-challenge, a-to-z-reading-challenge

The Night Children, a prequel of Lockdown, took place in World War II. It offered the story of how Warden Cross, one of the most powerful men in Furnace Penitentiary, came to be. It answered some of my questions but I was disappointed when this novella did not contain the Summer of Slaughter and other factors that led to the construction of Furnace because I wanted to know more about it.

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Jun 13, 2016 Jaylin Parsons rated it it was amazing

Amazing

This book has been the most emotional trip of my whole life. The way it's written, the details intertwined with it, and just the complete over all story makes you feel as though you lived the experience with the characters. This is one book I suggest reading. Even if you had yet to read the original series of escape from furnace. ...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Bookbringer rated it liked it

Shelves: dystopian, read-2013

The first book in this series is the only one I've read by Gordon, but it was so awesome. In my whole life, I've given 10/10 four times, and Lockdown was one of them.

BUT.

This novella was not nearly as good.

It was boring and unrelated to the main story.

Meh. ...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Amanda - Go Book Yourself rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult-fiction, fantasy, short-story

I found this novella to be a pointless let down. It didn't really answer any of the outstanding questions from the series and was also badly structured. I'm glad it was only a short story as I would have rapidly lost interest. ...more

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Jul 11, 2013 Megumi rated it it was amazing

It was quite short, but worth it. Just as good as the other books that he has written though it's not much of a prequel, just a story that includes the Wheezers... But either way, it was well written and I recommend it to anyone who likes these sort of books. ...more

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Jul 29, 2015 Lorre rated it really liked it

The setting of the story is a forest in The Belgian Ardennes during WWII.
Four young American soldiers are searching for other soldiers that have gone missing but what they discover in the forest is beyond creepy! I still get shivers down my spine thinking about it!

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Feb 20, 2012 Jess rated it really liked it

Another freakishly addictive story...can't wait for the 4th book to be released. I want answers!!! ...more

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About Alexander Gordon Smith

Alexander Gordon Smith

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Alexander Gordon Smith is the author of the Escape from Furnace series of young adult novels, including Lockdown and Solitary. Born in 1979 in Norwich, England, he always wanted to be a writer. After experimenting in the service and retail trades for a few years, Smith decided to go to University. He studied English and American Literature at the University of East Anglia, and it was here that he ...more