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

[Corporal Hicks]

Steve Saffel, an editor at Titan, responded on Lebbon's Facebook about the release date. Both the UK and U.S. will be getting it on October 20th:

As soon as I saw this thread, I went scrambling to get the details. The printer on the UK edition ran into trouble completing the embossing on the cover. That caused enough of a delay that the book will release on the same date as the US edition. That edition was moved to October 20, at the request of the distributor. It'll be well worth the wait, though, and while the UK fans have to wait a while longer, they get the book as a b-format trade paperback. Here in the US we get the smaller mass market!

And I was just popping on to say PR had finally responded to me to say it was October 20th. xD

[The Alien Predator]

I believe someone here asked Tim Lebbon on Twitter how the Predators will be portrayed as "Yautja" were mentioned on Amazon and if Lebbon read the previous books.

I believe that was me who asked that.

That's true, we don't know if the term "Yautja" would be used in the story itself.

As much as I love the Yautja, I really wouldn't want someone touching that in this new EU material. However considering that Lebbon had said he had never read any of the older stuff, or at least used it for these novels, I doubt we will see the Yautja term thrown about. What I can confirm is that we are getting honorable Predators as Lebbon had also answered my question regarding that.

That's neat, I wonder how it will be played out.

A Predator invasion is something we never really saw, I hope despite not showing much of their pov, we'd see some war rituals, doesn't have to go too in depth. The whole ritual aspect I found fascinating.

That's something I really loved about AvP Extinction, those little written intros before Predator missions.

How a captive Predator must be "ritually killed" by the "hands of a Predator".

Or how in one of the missions, you must "ritually cleanse" a predalien hive and bring the predalien queen's head to the shrine to show "Predator supremacy" before nuking the entire thing.

Also one mission where you capture the scientist responsible for experimenting on Predators and creating predaliens and take him to the temple for a "traditional Torture Ritual" (I'd hate to be that fellow.)

It doesn't go too in depth, but it gives you a small tease on their mysterious culture.

[HuDaFuK]

Or how in one of the missions, you must "ritually cleanse" a predalien hive and bring the predalien queen's head to the shrine to show "Predator supremacy" before nuking the entire thing.

One of the things I really enjoyed abut the Predator campaign in AVP2010 was the vitriolic hatred your clan leader shows towards the Predalien. "End this affront to our ancestry!" and all that.

[The Alien Predator]

Or how in one of the missions, you must "ritually cleanse" a predalien hive and bring the predalien queen's head to the shrine to show "Predator supremacy" before nuking the entire thing.

One of the things I really enjoyed abut the Predator campaign in AVP2010 was the vitriolic hatred your clan leader shows towards the Predalien. "End this affront to our ancestry!" and all that.

I absolutely loved that. I also loved how salty they got over the fact that humans were walking all over their sacred grounds.

Speaking of that game, in the first mission when you find the first dead Predator, your clan leader commands you to set off his wrist bracer because "we must not allow the humans to take our technology".

I wonder if in this novel we might capture some Predator technology or even one of them.

[Ultramorph]

It'll be cool to see how much alien tech humans get ahold of in this series.

[Ultramorph]

Despite what's gone on with the print editions, Amazon UK's Kindle version is available for purchase, and it has a "Look Inside" preview available, so we can get our first sample.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Predator-Incursion-Rage-Tim-Lebbon-ebook/dp/B01412PIMM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1443208728&sr=1-1&keywords=predator+incursion

[Corporal Hicks]

I'm trying to re-read Peter Briggs' AvP and all this new stuff just keeps coming in to distract me! I haven't read it yet but I'll post this up tomorrow morning so I don't take away from the latest Paradise Lost news.

And I've just finished it. Curious they involved the Aliens that early on. I wonder why they just didn't call all the novels AvP. Then again, I don't know how the rest of the book will turn out. Anyway, I enjoyed that little tease. I did see the reveal coming a mile off but I'm quite curious as to the Founders. Looking forward to reading more now.

[Ultramorph]

I just finished too, and I agree that the 'twist' was pretty obvious. I also don't love the use of capital X "Xenomorph," but I can get used to it. My guess is that

Spoiler

the Founders are whoever Call was working for, since the chapter was set roughly around the Resurrection era, and she seemed to have the same "get info, destroy the aliens" mission. It's definitely curious to see LV-178 being exploited pre-Sea of Sorrows.

[close]

Looking forward to reading the rest.

[TheBATMAN]

Spoiler

Agreed the time frame does seem odd. Only one sample chapter in and we already have a potential continuity error.

[close]

[Ultramorph]

Spoiler

Agreed the time frame does seem odd. Only one sample chapter in and we already have a potential continuity error.

[close]

I wouldn't be surprised if it's a goof. Sea of Sorrows wasn't originally supposed to take place as late as it did, so a mistake is understandable. Lebbon did say on a podcast that the novel is set around

Spoiler

2690

[close]

so who knows.

[Corporal Hicks]

That date would put it about 30 years before Resurrection. And well before the events of Sea of Sorrows ultimately took place.

[TheBATMAN]

I've been planning to re-read Sea of Sorrows for a while now and my memory is a little hazy. But am I right in thinking that until Decker fell through the Sea of Sorrows and had his little connection, no one had penetrated LV-178 since the Marion incident, meaning the xenomorphs cannot have come from there?

[Ultramorph]

That was the impression I got, too, but in this particular universe it doesn't surprise me that someone had gotten there first.

Another thing I noticed in the preview that's potentially telling:

Spoiler

the term "Human Sphere," which would of course seem to indicate that there are other Spheres for other races, like the Arcturians.

[close]

[Xenomorphine]

'Yautja'.

Damn it, Lebbon...

[The Alien Predator]

Sea of Sorrows begun in 2496 and the rest took place in 2497.

They manage to capture their Xenomorph on LV-178 after stumbling upon the mine.

So I was confused to see this sample take place in 2351 with "Xenomorph samples from LV 178"

I'm just gonna pretend it's 2651 if the Rage War takes place in 2690's. I mean, Steve Perry admitted a timeline mistake in one of his books on a thread dedicated to asking him questions. Also remember the first AvP game set "ten years after Aliens" somewhere in 2150 something? I just say "screw it, it's 2189".

So Tim Lebbon could've made a similar mistake.

Also, like in Out of the Shadows, he spelled Alpha Centauri wrong, it's not "Alpha Centurai". I don't blame him though, isn't it the editor's job to correct this?

It's just one of them little mistakes we gotta learn to ignore, like the huge one in the Space Jockey pilot room in River of Pain. I'm still excited to get this book and this sample was quite a fine read as an appetiser.

And Ultramorph, I noticed the "Human Sphere" thing as well. I found that quite interesting as it shows our space expansion to go in a spherical motion sorta. I wonder just how big our territories are in the far future. And I hope to see some Arcturians in this trilogy, since there were "plans for them".


EDIT:

Upon reflecting, I realized that

Spoiler

this may not be Weyland-Yutani involved since they were "bought out by Wal-Mart" around this era.

And Sea of Sorrows implies they begun to rise after Resurrection.

So the year thing may not be an error after all. Liliya could be destroying samples obtained by a different organization similar to how Call tried to destroy samples obtained by the USM.

So, this different organization may have stumbled upon the mines before Weyland-Yutani but kept it under wraps. The fact that this is a decommissioned Colonial-Marine vessel (key word - decommissioned) may imply that this may be the USM or something similar?

So perhaps this 2351 setting is just a prologue and the rest will take place in the 2690's, the Founders may learn that Weyland-Yutani captured a xeno and could be trying to foil it.

[close]