Flesh and Blood

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family. These words have always rung true. Sometimes you love your family. They're the greatest thing that ever happened to you. You'd be lost without them. Other times you wish you'd have never been born. The family you are part of just happens to be a major embarrassment to you, or they just plain don't like you. So, unlike friends who you can pick and choose as life goes forward, family is part of you no matter what. Sort of like what marriage is supposed to be - til death do you part. That's the underlying theme to the novel Predator: Flesh and Blood by Michael Jan Friedman & Robert Greenberger, the latest in a long running series of novels based on the original movie. Andar Ciejek gave up on his family years before. He couldn't handle what they stood for, or how they had gained their fortune. Worst of all for him was having to deal with his cousin Derek. So, as soon as the opportunity presented itself, he left everything he knew to start his own life. Years have passed since making his exodus from the family compound and he's content with his life. That is until he receives word of his estranged father's death. This tragic event forces him to leave the life that he has grown accustomed to, and the woman he loves too boot, to head out to a far off world owned by his family for the reading of the will. To make matters worse, once he arrives on world for the family gathering, something else has come to the very same planet. One group is there to split up a family fortune; the other is there to make trophies of the humans. The predators have come to crash the party. I have to admit that I really enjoyed the novel. Far more so than the previous predator novel Forever Midnight. They were as different as night and day. To be fair, the writing styles are completely different, and that plays a huge factor. Like Forever Midnight, the authors attempt to delve into the culture of the alien Predators. Like humans, especially in this particular novel, the Predators are divided up into clans. Are they simply extended families or are they all members of the same bloodline? I'd suspect the former is more likely the case. However, unlike Forever Midnight, the authors don't go out of their way to play with the predators, to use artistic licence to try and make the race more interesting. In fact, all speech is eluded to, not actually written out. I found the predators to be a more honourable race this time out, and despite the fact that they're cold blooded killers, they value skill and honour above all else. The characters, even the predators, were more fleshed out, and thus I found far more interesting to read about, even if they only managed to survive a few pages. For the first time ever, I even felt empathy for a - gasp - lawyer in this novel. The few times I've read about lawyers in other novels, they've typically been money grubbing sleaze balls. The action was fast p

This was a MARVELOUS book! The main story between the feuding family was written VERY well, and the story with the Predators was equally as good, and tied into the human's story beautifully. Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger totally outdid themselves on this, I found myself staying glued to the book for hours and not wanting to put it down... the only thing I'll give away is that this book really went back to basics... the hunt being sacred, all of those weird things J.S. put into "Forever Midnight" were gone. Such a breath of fresh ever, and right now, I'm glad F.M. was written, because if not for that book, I don't think this would have been written. Really, if you wanna pick up Forever Midnight, go for it... but this is a much better read all the way around, and truelly won over an old school Predator fan. Thank you to the authors who wrote this! Outstanding!