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Updated: New “Aliens vs. Predators: Rift War” Novel is Coming June 2022

A war is coming! Titan Books has just announced a new novel currently in the works that promises to delve further into the ongoing battle between our two favorite iconic creatures: Alien versus Predator!

Titled “Aliens vs. Predators: Rift War”, this new novel is being written by husband and wife writing team Yvonne Navarro and Weston Ochse who are no strangers to our favorite franchises. Navarro has written for Alien as far back as the original Dark Horse novelizations, having wrote “Aliens: Music of the Spears”. She also wrote “Reclamation” for “Aliens: Bug Hunt”, and has a new short coming out in “Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey”.

Weston recently penned the “Aliens: Fireteam Elite” video game prequel novel called “Aliens: Infiltrator”, in addition to having his own short stories in “Aliens: Bug Hunt” and “Predator: If It Bleeds”. Now Weston Ochse and Yvonne Navarro are back, this time putting a new spin on the creatures’ iconic clash.

Here is the book’s synopsis:

When the Predators choose LV-363 for a hunt and seed it with Xenomorph eggs, the result is bizarre alien hybrids and humans trapped between the Predators and their prey.

The planet LV-363 teems with exotic life, including a plant growing in the shadows of its deep rifts. The plant’s flower yields a valuable narcotic, and people are forced by the cartels to harvest it. When a Yautja (Predator) ship arrives for a hunting ritual, the Predators seed the rifts with Xenomorph eggs. The aliens emerge and the result is bizarre and deadly hybrids, with humans trapped between the Predators and their prey. These deadly Xenomorph hybrids—some of which possess the ability to fly—swarm out of control and may prove more than either the Yautja or the humans can defeat.

 New "Aliens vs. Predators: Rift War" Novel is Coming June 2022

Reported to be 352 pages in length, “Aliens vs. Predators: Rift War” is slated to be released on June 21, 2022 and is currently listed on Amazon.com for pre-order. And a big thanks goes to community member felix for the ‘heads up’!

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*Updated to include mention of co-author Yvonne Navarro.



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Comments: 52
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  1. SiL
    Quote from: VeteranSergeant on Oct 22, 2021, 09:53:40 PM
    Well, that's not true, even in the slightest, when it comes to writing the novelization for a comic book. 

    The concept has already been executed.
    As a comic, not a novel. It really doesn't matter whether the idea started as a dot outline or a comic or a movie or a screenplay, the novel itself still lives and dies by the strength of its ability to execute that story in its own medium. You can't just vaguely describe what's in the comic panels and slap "he said" or "she thought" after speech bubbles and call it a day.

    QuoteThere's a reason why there's no Hugo, or nor any other major literary awards for novelizations.
    Ah, award eligibility, the only true measure of an artwork's legitimacy  :laugh:
  2. VeteranSergeant
    Quote from: SiL on Oct 21, 2021, 07:48:39 PM
    Quote from: VeteranSergeant on Oct 21, 2021, 05:56:16 PM
    You're misunderstanding me. The heavy lifting in a good novel is the concept: the plot and characters. The rest of it is just grunt work, pounding out the word count. 
    That word count is what takes the concept to execution - it's not nothing, it's everything.
    Well, that's not true, even in the slightest, when it comes to writing the novelization for a comic book. 

    The concept has already been executed. Music of the Spears was a finished story, all of it created by Chet Williamson.

    There's a reason why there's no Hugo, or nor any other major literary awards for novelizations.

    Quote from: 426Buddy on Oct 21, 2021, 06:22:04 PM
    I can see you're not a writer.
    I'm probably one of the only people here who has ever been paid to write and publish anything, lol. Literally had something published this week.  That's neither here nor there, though it's embarrassing for you.

    I'm not shitting on novelizations or the art of crafting them. You guys are welcome to quibble on and on about how hard it is to write the words. She still didn't create the story for Music of the Spears any more than Alan Dean Foster wrote the stories for the original Alien trilogy, or Star Wars, for that matter.
  3. SiL
    Quote from: VeteranSergeant on Oct 21, 2021, 05:56:16 PM
    You're misunderstanding me. The heavy lifting in a good novel is the concept: the plot and characters. The rest of it is just grunt work, pounding out the word count. 
    That word count is what takes the concept to execution - it's not nothing, it's everything. There are plenty of stories with great concepts and just execrable handling that makes them unreadable.

    On the flip side I've read plenty of stories where I disliked the concept but the writing was so good I didn't care.

    Quote from: 426Buddy on Oct 21, 2021, 06:22:04 PM
    I get your point but making a good adaption not as simple or easy as you make it sound.
    One only needs to look at terrible adaptations of great source material to see there's a lot of skill and conceptual heavy lifting needed to adapt stories between mediums.
  4. 426Buddy
    I can see you're not a writer.

    I get your point but making a good adaption not as simple or easy as you make it sound. Certainly not "grunt work" and certainly requires more than just describing what was in the comic panels.
  5. VeteranSergeant
    Quote from: SiL on Oct 19, 2021, 10:42:32 PM
    The novelisation was still well written and fleshed out in interesting and creative ways. It's a bit disingenuous to dismiss the quality of the piece because somebody else wrote the foundation.
    You're misunderstanding me. The heavy lifting in a good novel is the concept: the plot and characters. The rest of it is just grunt work, pounding out the word count.  Music of the Spears was a complete story already, where she was just filling in the gaps and describing in words that which had been told in pictures in the comic. Perhaps adding some expanding dialog. And it takes skill to write well, but it is an entirely different skill from coming up with a story idea and characters.

    On the other hand, in theory, the short story in the Bug Hunt anthology was completely her idea, and it was a bad idea.  You can't write a good novel on bad ideas. 

    So sure, maybe her novelization of Music of the Spears was great. I haven't read it since it came out. But that still wasn't her story. It was Chet Williamson's. Whatever this Rift War ends up as, it appears to be an original story by her and her husband, and will have to stand or fall on the merit of those ideas.
  6. [cancerblack]
    Not quite, fan-fic is something that (generally) the creator expects other people to give attention to. A one shot with the lads and plenty of beer is a great adventure but is never thrust upon the community at large.
  7. Corporal Hicks
    Quote from: SiL on Oct 19, 2021, 10:42:32 PM
    The novelisation was still well written and fleshed out in interesting and creative ways. It's a bit disingenuous to dismiss the quality of the piece because somebody else wrote the foundation.

    Indeed. They don't just write out the comics - they expand on it. There's more going off than just describing the events of the panels and re-writing the dialogue. I disliked Reclamation myself - largely because of how highly I held Music - but it being adaptation takes nothing away from her.
  8. Some Old Dude
    Quote from: VeteranSergeant on Oct 19, 2021, 08:26:06 PM
    Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Oct 19, 2021, 07:29:59 AMAs much as I dislike the mentioned stories above, they did write other entries - Weston wrote a great short in If It Bleeds and Yvonne's Music of the Spears is one of my top 5 Alien novels. She's also writing a short in the AvP anthology so we'll see that one soon too.
    Maybe, but she didn't actually write the story for Music of the Spears, she adapted and wrote the novelization it.  The story for Music of the Spears was written by Chet Williamson, so all the conceptual heavy lifting was done by him. 


    F*****g Chet.

    https://imgur.com/a/USgd7rj
  9. SiL
    The novelisation was still well written and fleshed out in interesting and creative ways. It's a bit disingenuous to dismiss the quality of the piece because somebody else wrote the foundation.
  10. VeteranSergeant
    Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Oct 19, 2021, 07:29:59 AMAs much as I dislike the mentioned stories above, they did write other entries - Weston wrote a great short in If It Bleeds and Yvonne's Music of the Spears is one of my top 5 Alien novels. She's also writing a short in the AvP anthology so we'll see that one soon too.
    Maybe, but she didn't actually write the story for Music of the Spears, she adapted and wrote the novelization it.  The story for Music of the Spears was written by Chet Williamson, so all the conceptual heavy lifting was done by him. 

    My only hope is that she didn't originally write that short in Bug Hunt with Hicks as the central character, and that was an editorial change down the line, which is a possibility. There seems to have been a lot of shoehorning in that anthology to get characters from the film in there. And I mean, the Dan Abnett story is 100% an unused Imperial Guard story he had lying around, with all the 40K elements taken out and replaced with Colonial Marines references, lol.

    Though either way, Reclamation is not really a very good story. But, in fairness, military fiction might be out of her wheelhouse and she writes better characters and stories in other frameworks.
  11. [cancerblack]
    Quote from: VeteranSergeant on Oct 18, 2021, 08:43:44 PM
    As far as flying Aliens, inherently not a terrible idea, but they're probably going to fly via Tyranid Magic, rather than physics.  Every flying species we've ever known, going back to the dinosaurs, had tremendous wingspan to body mass ratios. A flying Alien would theoretically have to be pretty small with giant wings, and wouldn't have a very thick carapace. To be able to also to do any heavy lifting like carrying off the weight of a full sized man?  It would be gigantic. the pteranodon with its 6m wingspan is estimated to not weigh more than 60 to 70 pounds.

    Keep in mind that being comparatively small/light doesn't prevent being hyper-dangerous. Haast's Eagle, which weighed about 15kg and had a 3m wingspan, was "able to kill adult moa weighing up to 230 kilograms". There's a lot of scope to make it work.

    But you're probably right in regards to how it'll be handwaved.
  12. Corporal Hicks
    Quote from: VeteranSergeant on Oct 18, 2021, 08:43:44 PM
    Quote from: Trash Queen on Oct 16, 2021, 11:44:44 PM
    Yes apparently, we must have dumb shit attached, every single f**king time.

    And with the mediocrity of Infiltrator, this' one to look forward to.
    One half of this author team is the guy who wrote the exceedingly slow paced and blandly boilerplate Aliens: Infiltrator, and the other half is his wife, the one who wrote that absurdly stupid short story in the Bug Hunt anthology about Hicks' previously-unmentioned wife who died to the Aliens, but Hicks never mentioned anything about her or knowing of the existence of hostile, dangerous Aliens that slaughtered his entire previous squad, and instead seemed thoroughly unimpressed by the idea of another "bug hunt."

    Might as well accept this is going to be a dumpster fire.

    As much as I dislike the mentioned stories above, they did write other entries - Weston wrote a great short in If It Bleeds and Yvonne's Music of the Spears is one of my top 5 Alien novels. She's also writing a short in the AvP anthology so we'll see that one soon too.
  13. GreybackElder
    I loved the rage war trilogy. I hope this one lives up to the that? I like the idea of the DNA reflex being toyed with. To be fair the story its seems like it's pretty generic. How many AVP novels have the same trope. Ritual hunt + aliens + colonists.  = AVP.  What I absolutely loved about Tim Lebbon's rage war trilogy it's scope. It expanded across the whole galaxy with focus on characters on spaceships, space stations and planets. I feel like going back to a colony is a step backwards.
  14. VeteranSergeant
    Quote from: Trash Queen on Oct 16, 2021, 11:44:44 PM
    Yes apparently, we must have dumb shit attached, every single f**king time.

    And with the mediocrity of Infiltrator, this' one to look forward to.
    One half of this author team is the guy who wrote the exceedingly slow paced and blandly boilerplate Aliens: Infiltrator, and the other half is his wife, the one who wrote that absurdly stupid short story in the Bug Hunt anthology about Hicks' previously-unmentioned wife who died to the Aliens, but Hicks never mentioned anything about her or knowing of the existence of hostile, dangerous Aliens that slaughtered his entire previous squad, and instead seemed thoroughly unimpressed by the idea of another "bug hunt."

    Might as well accept this is going to be a dumpster fire.

    As far as flying Aliens, inherently not a terrible idea, but they're probably going to fly via Tyranid Magic, rather than physics.  Every flying species we've ever known, going back to the dinosaurs, had tremendous wingspan to body mass ratios. A flying Alien would theoretically have to be pretty small with giant wings, and wouldn't have a very thick carapace. To be able to also to do any heavy lifting like carrying off the weight of a full sized man?  It would be gigantic. the pteranodon with its 6m wingspan is estimated to not weigh more than 60 to 70 pounds.

    A cool *idea*, but depends how much science you like in your science fiction.
  15. Xiggz456
    Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Oct 18, 2021, 05:33:06 AM
    Quote from: Xiggz456 on Oct 17, 2021, 04:07:30 PM
    Weird that we have a release date for this novel but don't have a date for AVP: Annihilation which was teased in the Gibson novelization.

    Spoiler
    Don't hold your breath
    [close]


    Just updated the main post to include mention of Yvonne Navarro. Both Navarro and Ochse are writing this one. Not the first husband and wife team we've seen on an Alien novel. I'm curious to see how this one turns out - Music of the Spears is one of my favourite Alien novels. Also worth noting, Titan is sticking to Aliens vs. Predators again .

    Wait what??? Did our collective trepidation for a Shirley AVP novel give Titan pause? I need answers lol
  16. Bughuntwilson
    Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Oct 18, 2021, 05:33:06 AM
    Quote from: Xiggz456 on Oct 17, 2021, 04:07:30 PM
    Weird that we have a release date for this novel but don't have a date for AVP: Annihilation which was teased in the Gibson novelization.


    Spoiler
    Don't hold your breath
    [close]


    Just updated the main post to include mention of Yvonne Navarro. Both Navarro and Ochse are writing this one. Not the first husband and wife team we've seen on an Alien novel. I'm curious to see how this one turns out - Music of the Spears is one of my favourite Alien novels. Also worth noting, Titan is sticking to Aliens vs. Predators again .
    Avp anhilatiohn was cancelled?
  17. Corporal Hicks
    Quote from: RidgeTop on Oct 17, 2021, 10:43:54 PM
    Quote from: Kradan on Oct 17, 2021, 10:24:31 PM
    That's the WAR I've missed  :D

    Haha, didn't even realize I helped ya out there, so much war!

    Quote from: SiL on Oct 17, 2021, 09:43:13 PM
    Flying Aliens aren't new, but I actually like Aliens and kind of don't need them to get super powers to remain interesting every other book, y'know?

    EDIT

    That said the EU is the place for this and I'm just getting a grumpy bitch :laugh:

    Yeah don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of the whole "bigger, badder" trope, but with the Xenos I do enjoy seeing some DNA reflex in action.

    It's kinda funny - we went so long without the DNA reflex being toyed with at all, to a f**king lot of it lately. Nothing wrong with it IMHO. Just depends on execution.
  18. Corporal Hicks
    Quote from: Xiggz456 on Oct 17, 2021, 04:07:30 PM
    Weird that we have a release date for this novel but don't have a date for AVP: Annihilation which was teased in the Gibson novelization.

    Spoiler
    Don't hold your breath
    [close]


    Just updated the main post to include mention of Yvonne Navarro. Both Navarro and Ochse are writing this one. Not the first husband and wife team we've seen on an Alien novel. I'm curious to see how this one turns out - Music of the Spears is one of my favourite Alien novels. Also worth noting, Titan is sticking to Aliens vs. Predators again .
  19. Mr.Turok
    Sounds terribly generic, very disappointing. Maybe it will be written well but damm its sad that its just another run of the mill story of humans trapped in the middle of a ritual hunt again.
  20. RidgeTop
    Quote from: Kradan on Oct 17, 2021, 10:24:31 PM
    That's the WAR I've missed  :D

    Haha, didn't even realize I helped ya out there, so much war!

    Quote from: SiL on Oct 17, 2021, 09:43:13 PM
    Flying Aliens aren't new, but I actually like Aliens and kind of don't need them to get super powers to remain interesting every other book, y'know?

    EDIT

    That said the EU is the place for this and I'm just getting a grumpy bitch :laugh:

    Yeah don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of the whole "bigger, badder" trope, but with the Xenos I do enjoy seeing some DNA reflex in action.
  21. SiL
    Flying Aliens aren't new, but I actually like Aliens and kind of don't need them to get super powers to remain interesting every other book, y'know?

    EDIT

    That said the EU is the place for this and I'm just getting a grumpy bitch :laugh:
  22. RidgeTop
    Sounds interesting to me, and it's good to see AvP getting a bit more media.

    Personally don't have a problem with flying Aliens, there's precedent for them such as DNA War, well flying facehuggers anyway. Also liked how they looked in the arcade games:

    https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/alienspredatoraliens-versus-predator/images/9/9b/Flying_xeno2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180724000348&path-prefix=hu

    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KAHC2I3aVR8/maxresdefault.jpg
  23. Kradan
    So, now we're getting Alien: Colony WAR and AvP: Rift WAR ? So much WAR around

    Not to mention we alredy had AvP Rage WAR trilogy

    And Aliens: Earth/Female WAR. Aaaaand AvP: Three World WAR. And just AvP: WAR.

    Is there any WAR I missed ?
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