The AVP franchise is getting some more love in the form of its first anthology novel: Aliens vs. Predator: Ultimate Prey. The upcoming book was announced today by Writer/Editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt, who put together the Predator anthology book ‘If It Bleeds’, which we loved.
It’s rather appropriate that he’ll be partnering with Jonathan Maberry for this release, as he was the editor and wrote a story for the Aliens anthology ‘Bug Hunt’. Maberry also contributed to Predator: If It Bleeds. The editing duo will be putting together 15 stories that see the Aliens and Predator clash again.
As well as editing, Bryan Thomas Schmidt will be writing one of the stories, and Jonathan Maberry will be collaborating with Louis Ozawa Changchien for a story of theirs set after Predators. Louis Ozawa’s name jumped out at us as he was the actor who played ‘Hanzo’ in Predators.
Here’s the full announcement courtesy of Bryan Thomas Schmidt:
I am pleased to announce my return to the world of my beloved Yautja movie universe. My seventeenth anthology as editor, and 4th for Titan will be my latest collaboration with Jonathan Maberry:
ALIENS VS PREDATOR: ULTIMATE PREY, Edited by Jonathan Maberry & Bryan Thomas Schmidt is a collection of all original stories that bring these two powerful franchises into collision. These stories will be more than bug hunts or monsters fighting one another. We’re amassing a slate of diverse writers who will elevate the themes to feature tales of racism, intolerance, culture clashes, and the horrors of war. Stories will run the gamut from intense psychological drama to nail-biting paranoid horror to humor to poignant tales of people and cultures caught in the grip of war.
Authors: David Barnett – Roshni “Rush” Bhatia – Maurice Broaddus – Curtis Chen – Delilah Dawson – Jess Landry – Jonathan Maberry & Louis Ozawa Changchien – Susanne Lambdin – Seanan McGuire – E.C. Myers – Yvonne Navarro – Chris Ryall – Bryan Thomas Schmidt – Steven Sears – Scott Sigler
15 new stories set in the movie universe, coming in December 2021 from Titan Books. It’s the one anthology fans have most been requesting and Jonathan and I have wanted to do it for 3 years, ever since he did Aliens: Bug Hunt and I did Predator: If It Bleeds, both for Titan, which were great successes.
These are studio approved tie-ins. We’ll reveal more details when the time comes but this exciting project has been fast tracked for quick release and we look forward to brining it to fans.
As stated in the announcement, a slew of writers will be involved here, including some returning franchise contributors such as:
- Bryan Thomas Schmidt who edited Predator: If It Bleeds and co-wrote its ‘Drug War’ story
- Jonathan Maberry who edited Aliens: Bug Hunt, wrote its ‘Deep Black’ story, and wrote ‘Gameworld’ for Predator: If It Bleeds
- Seanan McGuire who wrote Alien: Echo
- Yvonne Navarro who wrote Aliens: Music of the Spears and contributed to Aliens: Bug Hunt
- Scott Sigler who recently wrote Aliens: Phalanx and the ‘Dangerous Prey’ story for Aliens: Bug Hunt
Bryan Thomas Schmidt has revealed to us that that Scott Sigler’s story here will be a sequel to Aliens: Phalanx! We can’t wait to dive into this slate of stories late this year. Thanks to Bryan Thomas Schmidt for the news!
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Hotel Mariposa. Ive already mentioned further up the thread but this was an early favourite of mine and stayed that way until the last few stories. I really loved the explanation for why the building behaved the way it did.
Then Another Mother came along. I haven't read any other shorts set in Ataegina before and I really enjoyed the setting, the language and the people, from such a short story there was a real sense of "lived in" history there. I'd actually like to read a Predator only novel in that setting.
But then my favourite of the entire book was saved until last, Kyodai. Again the setting was compelling as was the writing style it was quite unusual, elegant even. I know the ending probably wouldn't please everyone, but again it was unusual in a field where there can be a lot of similarity.
Similarity is possibly one of the main criticisms I'd have of the book but I suppose there are fairly finite possibilities for squeezing AvP into a short story format. A couple of the stories were possibly a bit too heavy handed with themes in places, such as slavery etc and a couple ended with a bit of an anti-climax.
Overall though I enjoyed it, and am just really happy books concerning these creatures are still coming out and that there's still a keen market for them.
Sorry I meant i need to pick this anthology up so I can read the sequel. I read Phalanx already when it came out, it was amazing
I completely understand. Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed it! There were just a lot of structurally similar shorts within the anthology, so it was those that were quite different that stuck out to me, especially when the majority of the book were of really good quality anyway.
You should! One of my top 5 Alien novels of all time.
That's a major bummer, I better hurry and pick this up so I can read the sequel story
It was a tough one to write. Getting a Yautja and a xenomorph together in that limited word-count was tricky (I'm pretty wordy to begin with).
I would have loved to have a full novel to develop that structure. Another full Ataegina novel probably ain't in the cards, though.
Ahhh. That's fair. Yeeeaahh. I think I agree there. The shorts I loved in Bug Hunt, I loved more than the majority of the solid stories in Ultimate Prey. Too many shorts in Ultimate Prey, while good and enjoyable, were still following something of a typical template.
Its better than bug hunt but i still felt disappointed.
Scott Sigler and Mira Grant saved the day for me . Scotts story as a sequel was worth it alone and wish it had been a full book
I think you misunderstood - I thought Ultimate Prey was the better book, I just liked a few of the Alien stories more
My thoughts exactly when comparing to the other Anthologies. Looking forward to your written review and potential podcast.
It was great to see Sigler and his characters back with Another Mother. I loved seeing how the world had evolved since the end of Phalanx, and was particularly interested in the interactions with the Predator. It was a solid read, but it did still stick to the usual AvP template so while I really enjoyed it, it wasn't in my overall favourites.
Kyōdai was brilliant. It broke from the template which works for me. As with Another Mother, I do love the sequels, and Predators is an entry that hasn't been taken advantage of enough so I particularly enjoyed returning to the hunting preserve. Loved the focus and depth on Eiji. The ending though...
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I'm working on my written review now. Of the 15 shorts, I disliked only 2. I can see what HuDa is saying about the ones he enjoyed more in Bug Hunt tipping it over, but for me I think the majority of the shorts in this being actually good vs the poor-to-okay of the majority of Bug Hunt means as an over-all package I prefer Ultimate Prey over Bug Hunt. I'm leaning in the 8 direction for Ultimate Prey, whereas I'd probably only got for a 5 or 6 for Bug Hunt (I need to do a proper review there).
But realistically, I'm not going to sit and read an anthology through in one go going forwards. I always pick them up for the specific stories.
I'd rank it above Bug Hunt though. Simply because it seemed to have far fewer bad stories than that did. Having said that, I think I liked the best Bug Hunt shorts more than pretty much anything in this one (although to be fair, that likely has more to do with me generally being a bigger fan of Alien than a reflection on the quality of the writing here).
Another problem that I already touched upon is the fact a lot of these shorts felt kinda samey - people are somewhere, Predators and Aliens show up, they fight, Predators win, people move on. The backgrounds and specifics changed but otherwise a lot of the stories were remarkably similar. I haven't read them since they came out but I recall a lot more variety in both Bug Hunt and If It Bleeds. I guess there's only so much you can do when your key focus is on Aliens fighting Predators. Only Kyodai really seemed to mix the theme up any.
Still, I don't wanna sound too down because I enjoyed this for the most part and I'm really glad we're getting more of these collections.
Another Mother I found to be perhaps a little lacklustre, but that's solely because Phalanx was so exceptional. Mostly I think it was just because the novel was so immersive, taking so much time to build the world and characters, that this felt a bit lightweight in comparison. Still, it was cool to be back on Ataegina and it was a lot of fun seeing them meet the beasties from the other half of the franchise.
To be honest, it's been a bit of a trend with these anthologies that the shorts serving as prequels/sequels to other stories have invariably disappointed me (while some have just been downright awful). Safe to say Kyōdai broke that trend. Possibly my favourite in the whole book. I loved the author(s)'s style. A bit like Isolation, I was worried that being based around Hanzō's brother would feel forced but it was worked in a way that totally made sense.
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Better Luck to Borrow was probably the worst one yet. It reminded me in no small measure of that giant centipede story in the Bug Hunt anthology, which is about the worst official Alien story I've ever read. Tonally it was all over the place and the portrayal of the titular creatures, especially the Aliens, often completely missed the mark. Add to which it was loaded with what is seemingly a hallmark of bad Alien/Predator literature - awful dialogue. Just dire.
Film School was refreshingly ace. Loved the set up, the location was vividly portrayed, some cool creep-out moments courtesy of the sonar scanning system the characters set up, and the way it started in media res and was told in first person really helped it stand out. (A lot of these stories, both good and bad, are suffering across the course of the book from being a bit samey in structure.)
Night Doctors was a bit of a weird one in that despite having a few moments I hated (Hicks has already covered them above), overall I wound up loving the story. I guess it had so much going for it elsewhere I could overlook the faults. Special mention to the idea of researching Aliens to
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I did quite like the mad scientist in this one. I thought she was particularly "fun" in how she was written. Loved the whole Alien vaccine thing too. That's something I've found myself toying with in my various attempts to actually finish writing a fan production, so I dug that.
It lost me a little when you start having the main character talking out loud to the Queen, and seemingly being understood. Didn't dig that. So the last 2 or so pages just made me
Still broadly agree with the opinions above and Hotel Mariposa remains my favourite, I really don't mind AvP in earth/present day settings. Enjoyed the descriptions of the Predator in Abuse Interrupted too although it's noticeable how many of the stories focus on the Predator being female which I'm not sure is needed.
A couple of less enjoyable ones but I don't really like doing writers down if I can help it. "You never go full Kenner" really made me laugh though 😆
Blood and Honour was awful and although I've only just started Better Luck to Borrow, irrespective of your review, I can already tell it's gonna be rough.
Everything else so far I've found to be varying degrees of good.
I will say though that Homestead and Abuse, Interrupted were both very well written, they just didn't grab me like Hotel and Planting did for whatever reason.
Finished Film School.
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But like with a lot of the shorts, the Aliens do get a bit too steamrolled for my liking. The book leans a bit too heavily towards the Predators. I think the only ones that have made the Aliens a bit more formidable have been Top Secret and Hotel. But still not enough.
I'm 11 shorts into 15 and so far I've only disliked 2, so we're leaning in the good direction.
Carbon Rites? Do you mean Blood and Honour? You said you rather liked Carbon Rites in your review earlier.
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Abuse, Interrupted - Really enjoyed this one. Yvonne redeemed herself from that awful short in Bug Hunt here. Very intense short. Action could have been a bit longer, but I really enjoyed it. Though I must say that part of me that hates the humanized female Predator wants to shake my fist at Illfonic for making the booby/female figure Predators canon.
Better Luck To Borrow - Absolutely hated this. Down there with Blood and Honour. Some interesting bits with the chemicals but that was it. Silly premise. You never go full Kenner. And that bit with the Predator and the saw. Why??? So daft.
Now, that I'm looking forward to!
Thanks.
Man can you believe how bad the writing was in blood and honor?
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Hey there, I thought that might be the case! You are the most passionate fans Ive ever seen so I kind of suspected that if I thought of that you had too!
I was just curious about it and in no way meant it to be bashing so please dont take it as that!
Also Mira Grant came through, I thought her story was genuinely really good. I am a huge fan of hers, I am feeling more optimistic about it now. Theres only one story I would classify so far as mediocre, the rest all have their charms .
Please don't forget to use the 'Spoiler' tag when talking about significant plot elements of a recently released book. It's the black and yellow circle in the text options.
The book says it's "set in the expanded Aliens vs. Predators Universe." So take that to mean what you will in terms of being in line with canon.
As Hicks explained we were asked about world-building elements in regards to continuity & some technical stuff about the Aliens and Predators, but that input wouldn't lead to any major shift in basic plot or setting.
Not always, thinking of AvP Eternal or AvP Sand Trap.
Honestly I just imagine there being other cleaner Predators or a Government / Corporate group came in to clean up the mess in the Earth stories.
The last two are among my favs in the book.
First off, welcome to the boards! We had no say over plot or settings. We were just asked about continuity details and the like. It didn't always mean our responses had to be taken into account. As Hudson said - "don't ask me, man. I just work here."
Im talking about the recent anthology AVP Ultimate Prey. I already found Maberry's bug hunt anthology to be a big let down so Im sad to say this is continuing so far. In fairness I am only a few stories in so I will mention my thoughts on them. And it could easily end up getting better . Mira Grant is a favourite of mine and her story is next for me.
One big thing is I noticed avpgalaxy mentioned a lot, and how this book respects canon. Which makes me think, how much did avpg actually suggest or give feedback? Because theres already a huge issue I noticed that they must have as well being even bigger super fans. So im wondering if they noticed and just got ignored or didnt bring it up.
That is this...aliens vs predators on earth. Now every time an alien is on earth, be it in comics, games etc its a potential doomsday/apocalyptic event. In avp the movie, the preds deliberately chose a real isolated continent with which to build a temple, far from any civilisations . They are hunters, not careless to the point of causing mass extinctions. Yet this has them dropping alien eggs willy nilly all over the place. With no regard or care. In avp requiem they end up on earth through pure accident, and wolf has to clean up and destroy all evidence of both species. Yet the amount of people here who witness or survive alien encounters, as well as the frequencey it happens, means stargazer , weyland yutani and the government would have a lot more sites and info on the species than they do. They could basically not turn around without finding major incidents. The preds are sloppy where they drop prey and dont bother hiding their presence.
Maberry is a decent writer but his stories tend to end up as tied up and work out in favour for the protagonists, which is a trope that carries on here for the most part and wonder if it was a conscious choice in stories chosen..
My thoughts on the stories so far.
Beyond top secret. , this so far is probably the best. Its interesting that its in area 51, but again it see s to be inconsistent with the predator movies. Stargazer would be knowledgeable about predators already and maybe even aliens considering lexs staff in the last movie. But these seem totally unaware. But that said, it was solid otherwise.
Isla mantanzas aka avpvslavetrade. This was so eye rolling i thought i had turned into the undertaker. I find it hard to believe a powerful group of amazon warriors were caught and enslaved so easily, and not only that, easily defeated aliens even in shackles. This was aliens as cannon fodder in a time before even decent weaponry existed and felt like an obvious political message, albeit one we can all agree with (slavery is bad, yes) over a decent story. Worst so far.
Homestead was decent with an ok ending. But this was another one where preds seemed to drop eggs willy nilly with no regard. At least even the last story was isolated on an island even if it did make xenos look useless. And the protagonist didnt see. Very likeable the way she didnt care at all about her dog. But otherwise ok. Another solid story. But not very memorable
And the hotel mariposa. This was the most grievous for a predator giving no care for the surrounding area and leaving traces of themselves for centuries. There were some good ideas but a bit cheesy in the end. Not badly written, just not a good avp story because of the predators disregard for surroundings and an ending that tied things up for the survivor a little too nicely
And all so far have felt extremely rushed especially the endings, though maybe that is to do with the format and possible space limitations. Im hoping a few stories can turn it from meh to good. The last few novels before this were really good (into charybdis , prototype and phalanx) so maybe my expectations were too high
What did you guys think? Interested in all opinions and views!
It was probably the weakest story of the lot and I agree that they tried to cram too much into such a short story.
I got inspired to re-read "Phalanx" so I could immediately re-read its sequel "Another Mother" back to back. I forgot just how much I enjoy the world of Ataegina.
Just returned to Ultimate Prey after re-reading Turnabout/Rematch for a recording tonight. Literally just finished Blood and Honor too. Not much to say on this one. Wasn't a fan. Felt like a new fan trying to write fanfiction, overly relying on Xenopedia for terminology and etc. Also felt like the author was trying to do too much within a short story which contributed to that fanfiction feel. Really didn't like the nicknames given to the Predators. Didn't feel fluid at all.
Also one of the stories mentions LV-223
Not really. Two of them were going to go with more black goo elements but we advised against it given the continuity was set to the AVP movie universe. But even those didn't really get into the lore of the prequels too much, just used their elements.
Night Doctors kept a little with its reference of...
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I absolutely loved both the variety of settings and timeframes of said settings. Which made me thankful that there's more than one timeline that allows there to be stories where Xenos aren't a recent creation but something much older.
The last two entries were probably my favorite and were both sequels (to Phalanx and Predators) but all the stories were worth multiple reads. All in all I'd give this a 9/10 and would strongly recommend!
The world building was great but it felt like the story ended too fast, out of nowhere. And from her previous novel, I know she can write some good action, but literally skipping it the moment I thought things are about to get chaotic was quite a punch to the face. The reason I'm complaining about this is that the action was very poor IMO in most if the stories. Not described well and the aliens are shown to be a bit weak. I don't feel like the preds deserved all those wins. IMO the action was memorable in about 3 stories. Maybe it's not even the lack of well written action but the problem when a story introduces the action or sets it up but doesn't pay off like in Planting and Harvest.
I read all the stories and I have mixed feelings about this. Overall I really enjoyed it, but a few details really annoyed me. Beware of spoilers cause I'm talking about the whole book.
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I really didn't appreciate most of the present day stories. Just feels off. Scotts story was great, but it became a bit too easy for the gang to destroy the aliens. In Phalanx you feel the fear that these creatures created for the people. But a pred that never hunted aliens ever was destroying them with no problem. Only two Praetorians/Hive Guards are a problem and they're killed in a few seconds! The predator didn't use this story's OP plasma caster on the Queen just for the sake of a challenge. And after loosing so much blood (again stated, not shown in hard fights much) I thought we're finally gonna have a main predator that dies, but no... So yeah, that annoyed me. Scott still writes great stories and characters but he wasn't really fair to the alien side and therefore the story felt like it didn't have any real stakes or tension.
And no predalien, not a single one! Come on....
Some stories were a bit too predictable. More than the previous two anthologies.
Still. almost all of the stories had memorable settings. To me, there were hit and misses, but I applaud the effort. I really appreciate the bravery and creative freedom to try new things. This is an overall win. I wish that next time in addition to the new settings (just no more present day avp please) they try new core narratives and new story conclusions. Soon I might write in more detail to highlight what specific stories I really liked.
What I'm finding if I read 2 or 3 AvP shorts from different authors in one sitting is that there's only so many ways you can describe a first encounter with one of the creatures, or a battle between them, before it starts to lose its effect so any variation on the theme is great.
I'm up to First Hunt now which I'm looking forward to, but I'm also already looking forward to going back and reading through everything again when I finish the book which shows they all have something good and interesting to offer.