Prey: Alien vs. Predator

Before the AvP movie, there was the Alien/Predator crossover found in comics by Dark Horse and then brought to paperback form by Steve Perry. All the books in this series takes place in the future while humans are settling on new planets. Here we have Machiko Noguchi conducting her business on a hot wasteland world for the Coporation. Predators, the species called yuatja, have begun seeding the planet with alien eggs so they may perform a Hunt. The Hunt is a right of passage for young yuatja to join the warrior caste. Sure enough, the humans on the planet are caught in the middle when the facehuggers begin using their "cattle" beasts as hosts. During the Hunt, and older predator/yuatja is injured, found, and brought back to the settlement. This sets up the alliance formed by Broken Tusk (the predator) and Noguchi. This book is the beginning of a fun series. We get to see into the predators' background and society in a way that doesn't make them look evil and nasty like the movies. They are honor-bound but still a warrior based society. We are further satitsfied by being able to learn various words of the yuatja language without going all Klingon-geekfest on it (no offense meant to those Trek fans out there reading this). It's a well done book and a great adventure that goes deeper than the comics. You can also pick up traces of the story that influenced the writing for the movie AvP set in modern day. Noguchi and Lex (from the movie) are very similar characters in these circumstances. Well done and the other books are just as enjoyable.

This is such a great book. If you are a AVP fan you should definitly read this book. This book is very good comparing to the movie which just came out. So i would suggest if you really want a good AVP experience you should read this book rather than spend $10 on the movie. I am have done filmmaking before and if I were to direct the film i would rather turn this book into the film. So read this book and find out for yourself why this book is so good.

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 :)

This book is the BEST! THe book concentrates on the two main characters, the first being a Japanese woman named Machiko Noguchi, and the second being a two and a half meter tall Predator named Dachande. (a.k.a: Broken Tusk) Dachande and his hunting party land on a planet populated by humans to plant Alien eggs so they can hunt them. But an accident causes Dachane to be put in the medical centre, where he is nursed back to health. He then gets the idea that humans are not so bad. Then he and Machiko form an unlikely alliance to kill the Aliens. The funniest part was when Machiko was attacked by an Alien, and Dachande runs of with her to a safe place so he can examine her wounds. It's this part when he finds out that the 'warrior' is a female. To him it's a shock. Also during this part the two of them attempt to communicate, but without much luck, so in the end he names her Da'dtou-di in his language. The saddest part is when Dachande is attacked and badly wounded by the Alien Queen. Machiko drags him into an escape pod, but not before the Queen shoves it's sharp claws into Dachade's back. They escape, but Dachande is dying. Before he dies, he gives Machiko his mark. Then he dies. This part made me cry, it was so sad. He was the only 'good' Predator I knew. But two years later, another Predator hunting party lands on the planet, and Machiko goes to the Leader. He nearly shoots her, but then he goes to examine her. He then finds out that she is Blooded. He askes her if she came to hunt, and she said yes. The both of them will then learn a lot from each other. This book is sooo good, it should be made into a movie, with no changes, staight from the book. The people who made the Alien movies and the people who the Predator movies should join forces and make this super book into a movie. I hope that one day, it will become a movie. One can only wait.

After the interesting but poorly executed Alien trilogy by the Perrys, and a well executed but uninteresting Alien novel from Bischoff, I was fairly skeptical when I came to this one, but it was worth it. This was easily the best book so far in this Aliens/Predator series. The aliens are an unknown threat who are to be "contained until the Marines arrive." The colonists are just normal people, not Marines or, in fact, essentially armed at all except for a few personal sidearms.But where this book is really interesting is in the exploration of the Predator, or "Yautja," culture. While occasionally their thought processes are a little too human, that's okay, because they are biologically similar.The action is fun and fast, the characters interesting, and, if not perfectly believable, they aren't bad either. The confrontation with the Queen was a little anticlimactic, but other than that this was a really good book.Definitely recommended.