Rating: Summary: Alien vs. Predator: War Review: This book is for anyone who knows anything about Aliens or Predators or likes Mrs. Perry. It is a real treat to those of us who have read Aliens: Berserker. This book does start off kind of slow but begins to pick up pace later. Even with this factor you'll never want to put it down. It is a great addition to any sci-fi library. Plus it actually explains AvP: Hunter's Planet I think it was? Anyway...pick up this book if you're into S.D., Aliens, Predators, or just science fiction...it won't disappoint.
Rating: Summary: Should be read immediately after book 1 in this series Review: This book takes place right after the first Aliens vs Predator book Prey.
Stephani Perry definitely needs some more writing classes. Her old man, Steve Perry did an adequate job with Aliens vs. Predator: Prey but Stephanie is sloppy writer. Normally a writer will introduce her characters first and last names so that the reader is familiar with them. After the reader is familiar with the characters the writer can call the characters by their first or last names and the reader will understand.
Here she introduces 3 characters Lara, Jess and Ellis and on page 74 we find out their full names are Katherine Lara, Martin Jess, and Brian Ellis. Man was this annoying because Jess is normally used as feminine form where Jessie is normally the male form of the name. I had to figure out if this character was a man or woman for the first 74 pages. I minor point but did it ever decrease the readability of this book for me.
Other annoying things: They Capture a Queen alien matter of factly. Come on, capturing an alien Queen could have been a whole book in itself.
They free the Alien Queen on this planet but do we ever get the epic battle between Machiko Noguchi, the survivors and the deadly Alien Queen, or the Predators and the Queen? No!
The problem with all of Stephani and Steve Perry's Alien books and Alien vs. predator books is that there is very limited tension. The movies have you on the edge of the seat. Why? Because you see the monsters sparingly and when you do it's because they have snuck up on you and are ready to attack. Here the Aliens are jumping out the Predators and Human survivors with any build up of tension.
Predators Never Camouflage themselves or use any hunting skill. She writes them as if they were Klingons full of Honor, but have no hunting skills. Maybe Stephanie should write Trek. She definitely has no clue on how to write Predator
Third, she repeatedly calls the Drone Aliens stupid, but the queen is smart. Granted the Queen is one smart, tough creature, but as Ripley said in Aliens. Just one of those things managed to destroy my whole crew. Rewatch the movies Alien & Aliens and you'll see that the alien drone is anything but dumb. It's extremely cunning. In Alien, it had enough sense to outsmart her entire crew, and when the Nostromo was going to self destruct it tried to escape with Ripley in her pod.
Male charcters are totally pathetic. Lara the female character is a Colonial Marine the only one who isn't nuts other than the returning character of Machiko Noguchi. The men Jess is insane, Ellis is totally useless and didn't have to be in the novel he does nothing. Lucas Briggs is of course evil as the company rep. When did Aliens and Predator evolve into a hate men fest?
Apparently killing predators is easy all you need to have is an android to kill four predators for you (quickly) while a small five foot Japanese woman fights shorty a 6' 5" Predator. Yeah that's right, if you liked predator 2 then you'll like this book. If your like me and was amazed as Arnold got his butt kicked by the 7'5" predator in the original movie you'll have issues with this book. If you liked predator 2 and actually believe that an old out shape cop could kill a predator when Arnold couldn't, hey you'll love this!
These faults diminish what could have been a really great 5 star book. Still I recommend this book there are a couple good parts. I've given it 2 stars because I couldn't give it 2.9 stars
Rating: Summary: good but seriously flawed Review: This is a good book, but it has some serious flaws. First, as another reviewer noted, the preds are shown to be nothing but bloodthirsty murderers, not honorable hunters. Unlike most of you, i actually liked Hunters Planet, and feel that if Dark Horse is going to print the series, it should hold to continuity. I was therefore disappointed in the changes made in the history from book two to three. Good character development, good action sequences, and a decent plot give it 3/5 for me. I recommend it and the two others in the series (and I agree w/ the other reviewers that one is the best).
Rating: Summary: Fantastic Novel Review: This series contains 3 books: Prey, Hunter's Planet, and War. The first and third are absolutely spectacular. The writing is fantastic--beautifully descriptive, with believable characters, and most importantly, they fit seamlessly with both the Alien and Predator universes. The second is a different story--Hunter's Planet certainly isn't the worst book I've ever read, but it's far inferior to the other two in this series. It is an enormous let-down, both in terms of writing quality and just plain fun. It makes all Machiko's adventures in Prey seem meaningless, and the behavior of both the Aliens and Predators just doesn't feel right, doesn't feel like things they would actually do. (Note that the first and third have the same author; the second is different.)
This is going to sound peculiar, but I recommend reading the first and third and skipping the second, and not just because of the differing quality of the novels. The events of War actually take place between Prey and Hunter's Planet, and War is perfectly readable without reading Hunter's Planet. In fact, several scenes that were told in flashback in Hunter's Planet are RETOLD in War, only told far more descriptively, and even with important events completely altered! If I had the chance to start over, I would skip Hunter's Planet entirely.
I have read many science-fiction novels, and I rank Prey and War among my absolute favorites, worthy members of the Aliens and Predator franchise. On the one hand, it's like getting more of the movies--more terrifying bugs, more awesome Predators, more battles, more excitement--and on the other, there is a lot of fascinating new information about the culture of the Predators, things I always wanted to know but never thought I would. I love the star character, and appreciated the fact that she wasn't the typical mindless sci-fi babe. If you love Aliens and Predator, you might find Hunter's Planet mildly interesting.
(As a side note, the AvP movie borrowed a LOT from these books :)
Rating: Summary: If the movie is like this it'll rock Review: This year we finally have alien vs predator the movie. If they take the hint from this book it'll rock. We'll see.
Rating: Summary: What happened here... Review: To start off, I'll clear up what appears to be confusing some people, and then I'll write the review. This book takes place BEFORE Bischoff's Hunter Planet. It fills in the time when Noguchi was with the Predators, before she rejoined human society. So there.Now, the review -- This book, frankly, stunk. Picking up right after Aliens: Berserker, a year after AvP: Prey, and two years before AvP: Hunter's Planet, War was just a short, silly, boring waste of time and money. The characters from Berserker were still the same, still recognizable, but with roughly ninety pages to divide between the three of them, we just didn't get enough of them. Not to mention that through 2/3 of the book they were just sitting in an escape pod...As I've said, the only part of this book, besides the cover, that was any good was the two pages or so of Nirasawa and his revenge programming. Good stuff. This book has so much potential, and it was just a huge dissapointment to read. I'd recommend staying away from this one.
Rating: Summary: What happened here... Review: To start off, I'll clear up what appears to be confusing some people, and then I'll write the review. This book takes place BEFORE Bischoff's Hunter Planet. It fills in the time when Noguchi was with the Predators, before she rejoined human society. So there. Now, the review -- This book, frankly, stunk. Picking up right after Aliens: Berserker, a year after AvP: Prey, and two years before AvP: Hunter's Planet, War was just a short, silly, boring waste of time and money. The characters from Berserker were still the same, still recognizable, but with roughly ninety pages to divide between the three of them, we just didn't get enough of them. Not to mention that through 2/3 of the book they were just sitting in an escape pod...As I've said, the only part of this book, besides the cover, that was any good was the two pages or so of Nirasawa and his revenge programming. Good stuff. This book has so much potential, and it was just a huge dissapointment to read. I'd recommend staying away from this one.
Rating: Summary: Let's forget this book ever happened. Review: When AVP:War came out by SD Perry after 4 yrs when she wrote the first AvP: Prey novel, I was overjoyed that she came back to write another novel. Gee I was sorely disappointed. The book failed to follow the timeline of the series. The Predators were underated, the Marine main characters overated and overemphasized, and you hardly ever see Machiko (hardly had a role and her character was misdeveloped) in the book. Some of the Pred characters are back from the book Hunter's Planet by David Bishoff. But how can that be (Those who read Hunter's Planet would know what I mean). Aliens were harly in it either. Lack of consistency with the AvP novel timeline as well as lack of species development; as well as a lack of character dev. and epilogue in addition. I have been a AVP fan for a long time and well I was dismayed to say the least. Maybe she should go back and write Resident Evil novels, she wrote those well anyway.
Rating: Summary: From The Back Of The Book Review: Where only the fittest shall survive, humans stand the slimest chance of all.. Machiko Noguchi (from the TPBs AvP Hunter's Planet and AvP Prey) lived for the thrill of the hunt. She ran with the Predators until her human ingenuity marked her as an outcast. Now the thrill is over. Meanwhile, Jesse, Lara, and Ellis, remnants of a bug-hunter team (from TPB Aliens: Berserker) that wiped out an alien infestation in a Company space station, know too many sevrets to be allowed to live. They are being set up by a ruthless ambitious Company boss who will stop at nothing to silence them forever. An outcast human hunter and a trio of bu hunters. They are the most unlikely allies. Yet on the spamp planet Bunda, they must join in a desperate fight. Company hit-squads are already moving for the kill. Fearsome Predators are heading for a showdown with a ferocious colony of aliens. And between then stand four brave warriors in an all-out war between the galaxy's most savage life-forms - a war nothing human can survive.
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