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.”
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 Facebook, Twitter 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!
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?
Which stories are canon? All the ones you like. Yes, I'm talking to you, whoever is reading this post right now.
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.
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...
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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.
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...
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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!!)
*Edited to add "spoiler" to original post
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...
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.
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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."
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Yea actually the Hicks story is the one I really liked so far, and...
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Havent really picked the book up since, been a week.
Dont let the comments deter you dude. You may enjoy it more for having low expectations.
Finished my current book last night so I should be getting started on this today.
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.
Made it through several more:
Deep Background
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Empty Nest
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Darkness Falls
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Hugs to Die For
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Deep Black
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Finished it, and of the last three, Dangerous Prey is really good and the other two are forgettable. Overall I'm disappointed.
My favourite so far. I would have liked
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in Aliens he clearly has no idea what they are up against. Having him facing off with them previously is a real stretchSpoiler
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
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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.
Blowback
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Exterminators
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No Good Deed
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Zero to Hero
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Dark Mother
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Episode 22
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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.
Also lol @ "Here are fifteen all-new stories" on the back (in bold, exactly like that) when the book actually contains eighteen stories
Looking forward to giving it a read in the not-too-distant future though.
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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.
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Having finished the story, that's the least surprising part!
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Well,
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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.
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.
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As for Bishop
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