The Rage War: A three part Alien / Predator epic by Tim Lebbon

[predxeno]

I just finished reading the trilogy, I'm probably in the minority here but I think this is perhaps the worst thing to happen to this franchise since Alien 3. 

I thought people hated the idea of Predators teaming with humans, hence the hate for the 1st AVP movie yet the publisher decided an entire trilogy constituting a friendship would be a good idea?  Also, the Aliens are supposed to be pure killing machines unable to be controlled yet even that simple fact about their nature was abandoned to fit the "Rage" story.

I also noticed that there plenty of other continuity mistakes as well.  In the first Alien movie, the crew don't use guns for fear that the acid blood will eat through the ship's hull yet the characters in Armageddon have no problem killing Aliens on a ship smaller than the Nostromo.  Furthermore, the Marines in the story are quite reliant on using thermal imaging when fighting the Aliens when the 2nd film made it quite clear that they don't show up on thermal at all (look at Dietrich's death).

Also... 

Spoiler

I felt Armageddon had perhaps the most useless ending I ever read, though maybe I'm missing the theme behind it.

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[Everlasting Undead]

I'm waiting for the delivery of my third novel (Amazon are being dicks about it all) but I have to agree with PredXeno and admit that the first two novels weren't all that I was hoping, either. From the sounds of it the third isn't going to offer any solace to that...

[The Alien Predator]

I'm waiting for the delivery of my third novel (Amazon are being dicks about it all) but I have to agree with PredXeno and admit that the first two novels weren't all that I was hoping, either. From the sounds of it the third isn't going to offer any solace to that...

SAME! It's really starting to piss me off.

What was the point of even pre-ordering the bloody thing?

[predxeno]

What's going on, guys?  I preordered my copy last week and it came right on time.  I live in the US tho, you guys live in the UK?

[The Alien Predator]

Mine was pre-ordered a week before the release date. I tried going to Waterstones to pre-order it like I pre-ordered the first two from there with no problems. They said they couldn't get the third book "because it's not published in the UK" and told me to go get it online.

What's the point of publishing the first two books in a trilogy and not a third? That's so illogical.

[happypred]

Predxeno...I think Lebbon's prose is stylistically quite awful, but his ideas are OK

[Ultramorph]

I've been slow starting this one with work, but I'm 50 pages in now. Liking it quite a bit.

Spoiler

NECA needs to get on a Yaquita figure! I like the different alien samples the Preds have, including the bio-mechanical arm. Reminds me of the NECA bio about the one who hunts non-organic life.

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[predxeno]

Predxeno...I think Lebbon's prose is stylistically quite awful, but his ideas are OK

I think his ideas could be great, but the ones in Rage War are just not fit for the AVP series; he took a series about Aliens and Predators and then warped it so that it focused on a brand new enemy that I imagine few people actually care for.  Tim Lebbon is a great author, Out of the Shadows proved that, but he just went completely in the wrong direction with Rage War; and in the process, he stepped over everything that made the two monsters great.  If The Rage War was a movie series, then AVPR would no longer be the most hated movie of all time, rather it would stand alongside redeemed sequels like Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, and Predator 2.

Considering however that The Rage War was a followup to the also terrible Sea of Sorrows and that some of Lebbon's original ideas were thrown out, The Rage War was probably doomed from the start.

[The Alien Predator]

Predxeno...I think Lebbon's prose is stylistically quite awful, but his ideas are OK

What do you mean by that?

Predxeno...I think Lebbon's prose is stylistically quite awful, but his ideas are OK

I think his ideas could be great, but the ones in Rage War are just not fit for the AVP series; he took a series about Aliens and Predators and then warped it so that it focused on a brand new enemy that I imagine few people actually care for.  Tim Lebbon is a great author, Out of the Shadows proved that, but he just went completely in the wrong direction with Rage War; and in the process, he stepped over everything that made the two monsters great.  If The Rage War was a movie series, then AVPR would no longer be the most hated movie of all time, rather it would stand alongside redeemed sequels like Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, and Predator 2.

Considering however that The Rage War was a followup to the also terrible Sea of Sorrows and that some of Lebbon's original ideas were thrown out, The Rage War was probably doomed from the start.

I really enjoyed the Rage, I thought they were something refreshing for this series. I thought he went into the right direction with this trilogy, it was something new and unique as far as AvP is concerned. It went far ahead into the timeline than any previous works and created an entire new world. We see how humans technologically progress as well as see just how rough space still is even in the far future. Lebbon really respects the vastness of our galaxy, unlike most other sci fi. He also really explores how this affects our species, how some people suffer space sickness and such. He is all about world building which explored the entirety of humanity here rather than just isolated incidents here and there like the other stories set on colonies or space ships etc.

I think you are really over exaggerating by saying if this were a movie, it'd be considered the worst thing in the series. i couldn't disagree more, I get it, you really hate this series but that doesn't mean it'd suck if it were made into a film trilogy. I'm not saying it'd be the best thing, but it certainly wouldn't be the worst... unless the director were to royally f**k it up.

The monsters were still great, the Predators are still menacing. Just mentioning their name makes human colonists utterly shit themselves. Sure, in Incursion they may have been beaten by Marines during encounters, but they still took some down with them. You try avoiding target seeking nano-swarms in open spaces. 

But the Yautja are still treated as ahead, in Invasion we see how they can be a threat to the advanced Rage once the Predators arrive to assist the faltering Marines. And from the previews I've read for the third book, they seem to kick even more ass, both in space and on foot while the Colonial Marines and humanity in general are becoming toast to the Rage at an alarming rate causing Weyland-Yutani to

Spoiler

consider the most desperate apocalyptic solutions for the Human Sphere.

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The Aliens are also a huge threat, so what if they're controlled? That's the whole point of controlling them, because they're the galaxy's deadliest organism and you'd rather have them on your side. It's not like humans created a device to control them or something, they simply found alien tech and that made it more believable, for all we know, that could be Space Jockey tech (so they're still uncontrollable by us, as you pointed out earlier. Lebbon didn't screw this up, no, he reiterates it through Weyland-Yutani's admissions of their failed attempts to control Xenomorphs and why they are so interested in getting the Rage's tech to begin with.) I think this series made both monsters even greater.

I had no problem with Predators teaming up with humans, I thought that to see this on a larger scale was quite new and unique. Especially seeing us actually negotiate with them for once. They're still mysterious and inscrutable, there's still so much that they're ahead of us in, we may feel like we're "monitoring" them, but they're doing the same to us only better. They still have really mysterious alien technology beyond us even in 2692 AD.

I liked that this was an actual war, it starts off with the usual hunt cycle that 99% of other Predator stories are composed of, but then it goes into completely new territory. And the Aliens for once are a controlled army rather than just another infestation or solo incursion here and there like the other 99% Alien stories out there.

I'm sorry you didn't like the new direction man. Not everyone likes change, especially in their favourite franchises and that's quite understandable.

[predxeno]

Well, I certainly appreciate your perspective.  As an Alien fan tho, I feel it's insulting to turn them into another species' whipped dog.  Whenever the humans have conquered the Aliens in the comics or games, the Aliens have always found a way to resist.  I thought this could have been an excellent opportunity for Lennon to introduce a xenomorph protagonist who was free from Rage control (we already have human and Predator protagonists), but not even the Alien Queen herself (the only non-slaved Alien in the plot) was made into a creature of resistance in the story.

[Ultramorph]

Spoiler

Alexander gets wrecked, grafts xenos parts onto himself, and hijacks a Predator ship to follow Liliya. You can't say Lebbon lost creative steam in the last book!

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Another interesting bit of world-building I noticed

Spoiler

Palant mentions when she's examining Oscar that she's seen androids before, like it's not common. We also haven't seen any non-Rage synthetics in this trilogy. Nothing huge, but it seems to confirm that synthetics are fairly rare post-Resurrection and the whole getting and then losing civil rights thing.

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[The Alien Predator]

That's something I've noticed actually.

Even in Sea of Sorrows,

Spoiler

there's not much mention on Synthetics.

But Alien Invasion does mention Synthetics, I think one of the characters refers to how Combat Androids aren't "like those delicate things designed to look, smell and feel like humans."

I think it's mentioned when one of the Colonial Marines remembers Weyland-Yutani making Combat Androids and used similar swarm tactics to the Rage's Xenomorphs. The Androids were simple and easily destroyed, cheaply made too. But they abandoned this tactic because it wasn't that effective and used up a lot of resources.

Maybe they're more regulated. I have yet to read the third book lol. Hurry up, Amazon!

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By the way, notice how Liliya is

Spoiler

the most human Synthetic? I don't think she's an Artificial Intelligence, I think she's a genuine Artificial Consciousness. She's fully self aware. Maybe Call was too.

Unlike David, Ash or Bishop.

I think it's safe to say that Liliya is truly a person and not an object. Maybe that's why there's not many Synthetics, not just due to the rebellion, but also the moral questioning. Maybe people protested? Maybe this was considered actual slavery once machines became people?

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[Corporal Hicks]

I think his ideas could be great, but the ones in Rage War are just not fit for the AVP series; he took a series about Aliens and Predators and then warped it so that it focused on a brand new enemy that I imagine few people actually care for.  Tim Lebbon is a great author, Out of the Shadows proved that, but he just went completely in the wrong direction with Rage War; and in the process, he stepped over everything that made the two monsters great.  If The Rage War was a movie series, then AVPR would no longer be the most hated movie of all time, rather it would stand alongside redeemed sequels like Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, and Predator 2.

Considering however that The Rage War was a followup to the also terrible Sea of Sorrows and that some of Lebbon's original ideas were thrown out, The Rage War was probably doomed from the start.

I know our opinions rarely align, PZ, but I can't disagree with you more. The Rage is what sold me on this trilogy. They're fascinating and make a refreshing change to all the other Alien novels and comics. And that's what The Rage War really is - it's a completely new feel for the series. Not everyone is going to like it - obviously - but I'm digging it, especially as I'm becoming quite fond of other novels that have a similiar style to this.

I know I keep repeating myself with this description, but I consider The Rage War to be a soft hard-scifi. It's not quite as detailed and dry as some hard-scifi but it's taking that approach. The bigger scope of the narrative also means some of the detail is left out and we get some barely developed characters, but it's more about the story itself and I'm loving that.

We're not getting repeats of the same two or three stories, we're getting something brand new and galaxy-wide. There is just so much world-building going on and I love it.

Well, I certainly appreciate your perspective.  As an Alien fan tho, I feel it's insulting to turn them into another species' whipped dog. 

Considering how the Aliens are generally presented in the EU, I'm glad someone actually has a legitimate reason to be able to control them (technology from those who actually created them, I surmise!) and use them as they do.

[predxeno]

Well, I certainly appreciate your perspective.  As an Alien fan tho, I feel it's insulting to turn them into another species' whipped dog. 

Considering how the Aliens are generally presented in the EU, I'm glad someone actually has a legitimate reason to be able to control them (technology from those who actually created them, I surmise!) and use them as they do.

Well, I see the Aliens as characters unto themselves rather than plot devices to create new dangers for the protagonists; as I said earlier, having a hero xenomorph in the story whose goal was to free the rest of the hive from the Rage's control would have the story much more endearing to the AVP brand especially since we seem to be getting excess human and Yautja protagonists everywhere.

Many of Lebbon's ideas felt corny and rather fantastical for an AVP story; mind-controlled humans driven to commit terrorist acts against their will, a mad woman who wants to rule the galaxy, and a Faze that is rather conveniently found that upgrades all tech for the Rage free-of-charge (just to give the antagonists their technological superiority in the plot).  Also, as I said earlier, there are a lot of continuity and logical discrepancies in this story that make those of previous films look like child's play so that didn't help my impression either.

[happypred]

I think Lebbon fails to capture the essence of the "Yautja" (or the xenomorphs)