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Aliens: Bug Hunt Preview Now Online!

On the 18th of April Titan Books will be releasing Aliens: Bug Hunt, the first anthology novel set in the Alien universe. Edited by Jonathan Maberry, Bug Hunt will feature short stories from returning Aliens authors such as Tim Lebbon, Dan Abnett, Yvonne Navarro, Christopher Golden and James A. Moore as well as several new comers to the property!

“The premiere short story anthology based on the movie ALIENS, featuring the Colonial Marines in deep space, doing what they do best hunting bugs! Eighteen brand new stories exclusive to this collection featuring the Colonial Marines in bloody conflict with the deadly Aliens. ALIENS: BUG HUNT will send the marines into deep space, to alien worlds, to derelict space settlements, and into the nests of the universe’s most dangerous monsters.”

 Aliens: Bug Hunt Preview Now Online!

The first short story in Aliens: Bug Hunt is now available online!

The first story in Aliens: Bug Hunt, Chance Encounter by Paul Kupperberg, is now available to read in full on the Google Books store (including the foreword from Jonathan Maberry). Head on over and check it out! Thanks to felix for the link.

Aliens: Bug Hunt is also available for pre-order on Amazon (US and UK). Alien vs. Predator Galaxy will also be publishing an interview with the various authors involved in the book shortly so keep an eye out for that!

Keep a close eye on Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest Alien and Predator comic and novel news! You can follow us on FacebookTwitter and Instagram to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien and Predator fans on our forums!



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Comments: 165
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  1. ClockworkHorror
    I'm on the second Dietrich story so far. As soon as I hit Exterminators, I decided to do a read of the first paragraph of each story to see what else I might be in for.:)
    I really like how Dan Abnett writes, so I enjoyed Reaper. The setup was good, I felt, though the payoff was meh.
    It's nice to have more Alien universe literature, but I've been feeling that it lacks that grounded feel that made the first two movies really shine. Relatable, realistic characters. Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. I have a feeling a lot of these authors want to make the franchise more fantastical than it needs to be.
    Or they just aren't paying close enough attention.

    Did anyone else read the roll call on Golden's story and CRINGE when he got to Spunkmeyer?
  2. Corporal Hicks
    For me the highlights of Bug Hunt were Broken, Deep Background, Empty Nest, Deep Black, Distressed and Dangerous Prey. These ones really made the anthology for me.

    The only one I didn't really like was Reclamation because it seemed so obvious the bugs were supposed to be Aliens and it was setting it up as a "Hicks is gonna go get revenge for his wife in Aliens" kind of thing. Felt like a very shoe-horned kinda of connection that I really don't like. I was especially disappointed because it was Navarro who wrote it and I remember really like Music of the Spears.

    I felt like the rest were just okay. All those Sulaco marine stories bunched together with Dietrich being front and centre in two of them. All the "bug" stories being bunched together. One of the stories (Burkes, I think) even seemed to have some editor notes in it.
  3. Lonely Universe
    Ugh. I got to 'No Good Deed' & it's about as silly as it gets. Really glad they made sure to say these aren't cannon. Still enjoying the book, though maybe they could have set some ground rules to make sure things stayed believable within the somewhat realistic Alien universe. It goes full on Jekyll & Hyde lol
  4. Engineer
    Quote from: SM on Apr 30, 2017, 08:34:21 PM
    Spoiler
    Perhaps not go into details about stories for the sake who haven't read them yet.
    I agree that Bishop violated his programming, and found it a little lazy.  It would've been more interesting if Bishop had found a way to save the hostages, without breaks the rules.
    [close]

    Yea sorry about that! Got a little over zealous with my last post. Lol. Thanks for the reminder; I went back and added the spoiler tags...

    But as for the rest of the stories...

    Spoiler

    Empty nest was interesting but it was a little predictable. Ended a little abruptly too, but not bad in general.

    Distress was also interesting. I wanted to know what that thing was! Too bad we never found out.

    The story about the planet in andromeda with "blue moon centipedes" and xenos, was weak and forgettable. The alien variants reminded me of the old Kenner action figures. Lol

    I think that covers all the stories.... if I forgot one, that should tell you all enough about my opinion of it. Haha.
    [close]


    Quote from: The Cruentus on Apr 30, 2017, 08:55:06 PM
    I think it was one of the authors or something that said some of the stories would not be canon, so those that contradiction things are probably the ones that are just for fun, though canon stories can be contradictive as well  :P
    It was the lead author/editor who wrote the forward who said that. It bugged me that they never specified which were canon and which weren't. Almost like they were waiting to see fan reactions before committing to it. But really, just about every story had contradicts to the movies in some way, big or small...
  5. The Cruentus
    I think it was one of the authors or something that said some of the stories would not be canon, so those that contradiction things are probably the ones that are just for fun, though canon stories can be contradictive as well  :P
  6. SM
    Spoiler
    Perhaps not go into details about stories for the sake who haven't read them yet.
    I agree that Bishop violated his programming, and found it a little lazy.  It would've been more interesting if Bishop had found a way to save the hostages, without breaks the rules.
    [close]
  7. Engineer
    Spoiler

    Quote from: Lonely Universe on Apr 30, 2017, 06:57:11 PM
    Another couple stories in. The Bishop one is great & I would accept it as canon if they deemed it so.

    The Hicks one is fine but it seems implausible that he wouldn't have mentioned encountering a hostile organism before in Aliens. If there are things that devastating out there then the company wouldn't have as much interest in the Xenomorphs, the marines wouldn't have been so over-confident, the board at Ripley's inquest wouldn't have been so skeptical, etc...

    And what about the fact that bishop directly disobeyed orders, and killed two people despite his programming. That's never who bishop was, and that would also make him a liar since in aliens he says he could never harm or allow a human to be harmed by omission of action. I was mostly ok with bishops story, I just wish they had changed these two plot points to be more inline with what we knew to be true of bishop from the movies.
    [spoiler/]


    PS. I finished the book last night. Some of the last couple stories were much improved! I loved the "Hugs to Die for" and "Dangerous Prey" stories a lot. Tim Lebbons story was pretty good too. The story that...

    Spoiler

    Went back to fury 161, had a lot of potential but they kinda dropped the ball by never explaining where the xeno came from or what happened to the marines. It ended way too abruptly.

    And I had no idea that Dillan, Morse and the rest of the prisoners were really women this whole time! Lmao (double X chromosomes; biggest error EVER!!)
    [close]

    *Edited to add "spoiler" to original post
    [close]
  8. Lonely Universe
    Another couple stories in. The Bishop one is great & I would accept it as canon if they deemed it so.

    The Hicks one is fine but it seems implausible that he wouldn't have mentioned encountering a hostile organism before in Aliens. If there are things that devastating out there then the company wouldn't have as much interest in the Xenomorphs, the marines wouldn't have been so over-confident, the board at Ripley's inquest wouldn't have been so skeptical, etc...
  9. Engineer
    Does anyone know if Tim Lebbon's story (the last one, "Spite"), is a tie in to Rage Wars or not? I vaguely recall seeing that somewhere but not sure. If it is, I'm opting not to read that one until I've read the Rage War trilogy...
  10. 426Buddy
    Quote from: Lonely Universe on Apr 28, 2017, 04:20:05 AM
    Let's not hate wagon on the cover, it's fine. Even though I had seen the image for months, I didn't think anything of it at all until I saw the physical hardcover on the shelf. The xeno has a cute expression that reminds me of some of the classic Dark Horse art, like it knows it's up to no good lol. The choice of blues makes it look slick & its way better than what we've been getting with the Omnibus editions.

    I'm a big fan of alien art, it's something i've always loved. Unfortunately can't call this cover anything but a horribly photoshopped piece of garbage.Titan is mostly horrible when it comes to the art on their covers.
  11. HuDaFuK
    Got started on this last night. Chance Encounter was OK but nothing great. SM has already summarised what was good and bad about it. I really enjoyed Reaper, though. Loved the mystery angle to it.
  12. Engineer
    Spoiler

    The story about the escaped convicts and bounty hunters was the one I disliked the most... really did not like the Incredible Hulk angle. I like the avengers, just not mixed in with my Aliens. Also really disappointed a character survived and made it off of Lv-426.

    The bishop story was good until he started disobeying orders and going off on his own mission, then killing two people despite his programming... that's never who bishop was!

    The first story had a cool setting... but that was it. And the "bugs" seemed like the xenos but then different like the writer couldn't make up their mind about it.

    The story about the flying propane-based organisms was just silly. And from a scientific/chemistry perspective, while a propane based organism is a possibility, on a world void of oxygen explosions and flammability aren't possible like that... propane can't burn without oxygen to feed it. That really bugged me and I couldn't get past it; especially when the marines started talking about how the whole atmosphere almost blew up! Plus I hated the idea that dietrich and Hudson were involved in a love triangle.

    The other Dietrich story, with frost, was okay. I had no major issues with that one, but the bugs seemed too much like the facehuggers to me (at least the Hicks story bug left almost everything about it in the shadows and to your imagination).

    The reporter story wasn't bad. I just didn't care for the style. And it was kind of a bummer that it skipped ahead to the "last stand" and we literally missed all the action.

    The pulse rifle commercial was boring to me.

    The Burke story I was really excited about. And it was good until it ended. And I re-read part of it several times because it seemed like I kept missing something... one second he's in a coma and the next he's got a grenade in hand and breaking free from the cocoon. I assumed that there was a scene missing, specifically the same deleted scene from the movie where ripley finds him and gives him a grenade, but there was no indication of a break and time-jump. But it was really disappointing that it ended with a chest burst. The whole reason Cameron deleted that scene was because the timing didn't match up with the incubation period. This story kind of disregards that altogether, which I really disliked. At least there was a mention of Burke thinking to himself that it was too soon...

    The story about the cowardly marine, was weird but I kinda liked it. Especially the visual of the loogie on his visor crawling towards the edge in an attempt to get to his face. I just thought it was a little unrealistic that a marine's initial response to a person trying to spit on them would be to shoot first and ask questions later, especially when they went into the mine to save those very people. I think this story would have been better as it's own thing, unattached to the alien franchise...

    Then the second story, Reapers, was good up until they revealed the creature. I think I would have like it better if the creatures were something bigger and more menacing. And this too probably would have been better on its own and unattached to the alien franchise.

    I think that covers all the stories I've read so far. Up next "empty nest."
    [close]
  13. Engineer
    Quote from: Ultramorph on Apr 26, 2017, 01:19:00 AM
    I read about half the book last Wednesday, but been too busy to read much more. I've liked the stories overall, but there is definitely some sloppy stuff. As for the Hicks story
    Spoiler
    I didn't read them as being xenomorphs, but rather some other xeno form.
    [close]

    Yea actually the Hicks story is the one I really liked so far, and...
    Spoiler
    I had the same interpretation. It was a "bug" but not necessarily the same xenomorph from LV-426. I actually liked how the creature was never really seen or described; it pretty much leaves it up to the reader how they want to take it...
    [close]
  14. Ultramorph
    I read about half the book last Wednesday, but been too busy to read much more. I've liked the stories overall, but there is definitely some sloppy stuff. As for the Hicks story
    Spoiler
    I didn't read them as being xenomorphs, but rather some other xeno form.
    [close]
  15. Engineer
    I got my copy in the mail on Friday last week. I'm about half way through it, and sadly, I'd agree with the general consensus. I'm feeling disappointed with the book overall. I think there's only really 1 story I really liked so far, and a couple that would have been better if they left certain plot points out. Others are just downright terrible. I've found a few mistakes (story-wise), and typos. But one thing I caught which I found particularly distracting was a simple math error... in one story, there's talk of a $25 million payment, with half up front. Unless "half" has a different meaning in the future, I was very distracted by the fact that they say, just a few pages later, they're going to collect the other $5 million owed... ??!??!??
  16. TheBATMAN
    It's not bad for a collection of short stories, but it doesn't really expand on the colonial marines in any real meaningful way. Continuing to populate this universe with various kinds of uninteresting bugs and parasites does nothing for me either.
  17. HuDaFuK
    Sad to hear the apparent consensus that this isn't much, I had high hopes it would at least be interesting.

    Finished my current book last night so I should be getting started on this today.
  18. Hudson
    I thought the Bishop one was decent, just some missed opportunities and a terrible ending.

    This book is very poorly edited. I've caught a "Ridley" in place of Ripley, an author using the word "corp" in place of corps (as in Marine Corps), smaller typos, and one author confusingly referring to Weyland-Yutani as W-T. Also, "double-X" instead of double-Y chromosomes when referring to the Fury 161 prisoners.  ::) I've also read in an Amazon review that author's notes are left in one of the stories? If someone has caught that I'd be interested in page numbers.

    Made it through several more:

    Deep Background

    Spoiler
    Pretty good account of an embedded journalist, I thought it had a good ending. This is more of the type of story I was hoping for.
    [close]

    Empty Nest
    Spoiler
    I remember this one being decent, but kind of forgettable. The inclusion of Xenomorphs and other creatures so often throughout this kind of cheapens the idea that the Colonial Marines were unprepared in Aliens.
    [close]

    Darkness Falls
    Spoiler
    This took me three sittings because I kept falling asleep. Features Xenomorphs birthed from centipedes. Silly.
    [close]

    Hugs to Die For
    Spoiler
    This one was decent because of the characters. Mostly focused in an attack by a giant pile of facehuggers.
    [close]

    Deep Black
    Spoiler
    This one is probably my favorite in the book so far, about a special ops team that returns to Fiorina 161 and discovers a ship has landed and the crew has been killed by aliens. This is the one where the author refers to WY as W-T for some reason, and referenced "double-X" chromosomes. Other than that, I thought the story was well done and really interesting, a good concept that hasn't been explored. Unfortunately it ended right as it could have potentially got interesting. So, in many ways, another missed opportunity. Seemed like a good start to a novel though.
    [close]

    EDIT:

    Finished it, and of the last three, Dangerous Prey is really good and the other two are forgettable. Overall I'm disappointed.

  19. Engineer
    Quote from: HuDaFuK on Apr 20, 2017, 05:02:00 PM
    Also lol @ "Here are fifteen all-new stories" on the back (in bold, exactly like that) when the book actually contains eighteen stories :laugh:

    Perhaps they aren't counting some stories as "all new." For example, Dark Mother isn't really new, it was just a different perspective for the final moments of one character from the movie. Kinda trying to give them the benefit of the doubt here... lol
  20. Hudson
    Spoiler
    Did you (or anyone else) find it really random for Dietrich of all people to essentially voice two stories in a row? I'm not totally sure she was portrayed consistently either.
    [close]
  21. SM
    RE: Exterminators

    Spoiler
    The bugs were appropriately gross, if somewhat derivative and it made Dietrich into a bit of damsel while neglecting her position as a medtech.  The last line was corny, but liked it.
    [close]
  22. Hudson
    Deep Background on the other hand, I just enjoyed pretty well. That's more of what I was looking for, original stories with original characters. It ties in with film canon if you want, but it doesn't bend over backwards to integrate at the expense of the story like some of the gimmicky movie tie-ins are doing.
  23. SM
    RE: Blowback
    Spoiler
    Another story that started well, continued well, but then when posed with what looked like an impossible task - didn't tell us how they achieved it.
    [close]
  24. Hudson
    Quote from: Russ840 on Apr 20, 2017, 09:54:43 PM
    Finished the first two now. Although i am enjoying them, i am really not likng how many different alien speices there seem to be in this universe now. What i loved about The Alien series is that it gives you the impression that alien life is a drastically rare thing. This book, so far, has introduced three new species and it seems, by what others are saying, many more are featured. It cheapens things, for me, a little.

    It certainly doesn't explain how they failed so bad in the film if the Colonial Marines spend most of their time battling monsters already. Cheapens is the right way to describe it. Gonna try and get through some more of these tonight. I mostly want to read Sea of Sorrows and River of Pain, but I'm already 2/3 in.
  25. Russ840
    Finished the first two now. Although i am enjoying them, i am really not likng how many different alien speices there seem to be in this universe now. What i loved about The Alien series is that it gives you the impression that alien life is a drastically rare thing. This book, so far, has introduced three new species and it seems, by what others are saying, many more are featured. It cheapens things, for me, a little.
  26. Hudson
    Call me crazy, but this book might actually be getting worse as I progress:

    Blowback
    Spoiler
    Another melodramatic relationship story, but with Dietrich at the forefront this time instead of Hicks. Features many characters from Aliens, but we don't really get anything new or interesting about anyone.
    [close]

    Exterminators
    Spoiler
    Somehow another story where Dietrich serves as the main focalizing character. Dietrich and Frost battle some bug-type aliens with a bunch of other anonymous characters. It ends on a really dumb inside joke relating to the film. I actually fell asleep reading this one.
    [close]

    No Good Deed
    Spoiler
    Some bounty hunters chase some guys with a price on their head down to Hadley's Hope and battle them in the streets along with some Xenomorphs.
    [close]

    Zero to Hero
    Spoiler
    Kind of a comic-relief break about a cowardly corporal. The Colonial Marines fight a bunch of zombified miners.
    [close]

    Dark Mother
    Spoiler
    Picks up from where Burke is taken by an Alien in the film. We learn that he was a bed wetter and that his mother brings in exactly 72% of the family income as a prostitute.
    [close]

    Episode 22
    Spoiler
    I really really stupid transcript of a TV show episode detailing the history of the pulse rifle, except we're told that the pulse rifle was designed by a guy who's day job was to run a barbecue food truck while working in his workshop in the evenings.  :laugh:
    [close]

    I think the overall thing disappointing me so far is that instead of this being true to a document like the Technical Manual and expanding upon what was established there, it's just trying to emulate Starship Troopers.
  27. HuDaFuK
    Eugh, I was really hoping against hope the cover wouldn't look so ass once I actually had it in my hands... but it does.

    Also lol @ "Here are fifteen all-new stories" on the back (in bold, exactly like that) when the book actually contains eighteen stories :laugh:

    Looking forward to giving it a read in the not-too-distant future though.
  28. SM
    The Hicks story started well, ended a bit on the nose.

    Spoiler
    Leaving aside the thing about some stories fitting with canon and some not, was Hicks supposed to be up against Aliens in that story?
    [close]
  29. Hudson
    Finished Broken and Reclamation. Broken is pretty good, probably my favorite of the first four so far. The ending is really bad though, very tacked on and unnecessary. Also, silly and logistically improbable.

    Reclamation didn't do a whole lot for me either and also seemed unnecessary in terms of developing character motivation. I don't feel like I really got anything new or interesting from the character development we were exposed to. Just felt silly.
  30. Ultramorph
    Reading "No Good Deed," surprised when it said
    Spoiler
    WY was colonizing all 3 moons of Calpamos. I wonder what happened to all the Engineer artifacts on LV-223?
    [close]


    Having finished the story, that's the least surprising part!  :laugh:

    Spoiler
    Bates went full Accelerant Wars!
    [close]


    Well,
    Spoiler
    Burke's childhood was dark..
    [close]
  31. SM
    London was the protagonist, but he was a bit too one dimensional
    Spoiler
    ie. being completely defined by gambling
    [close]

    And yeah, I did note the lack of Marines in the story too.  As I said above - had some good bits and some not so good bits.
  32. Hudson
    Came in the mail today. First off, very handsome volume. I imagined it would be a smaller format like the other Titan books, but the larger page format is fine too.

    Read the first two stories so far. The first one feels phoned in to me, like the author isn't much of a fan. The second one was better and more relevant (what did the first one have to do with Colonial Marines?), but I didn't find the end to be very satisfying. Seemed to suffer from a lack of clear protagonist/focus. I wasn't really sure who to care about the most. Both well-written so far.
  33. SM
    They were obviously different
    Spoiler
    being 5 metres tall.  But for all that extra size, they did seem to be cut down pretty easily.
    [close]

    As for Bishop
    Spoiler
    he killed the Company F pirates when he remotely turned their breathing masks off
    [close]
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