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

[Ultramorph]

Tim Lebbon was on a podcast recently, and he talked a bit about Rage War. He talks about it starting at 51 minutes:
http://www.projectiradio.com/special-guest-tim-lebbon-three-guys-with-beards/

Some new info:

Spoiler

Trilogy is set even further in the future than Sea of Sorrows, being set around 2690, which seem to rule out Decker coming back. He also mentions some anxious Skype calls when Alien 5 was announced, and that he had a lot of freedom in crafting the pitch.

[close]

Can't wait.

[The Alien Predator]

Tim Lebbon was on a podcast recently, and he talked a bit about Rage War. He talks about it starting at 51 minutes:
http://www.projectiradio.com/special-guest-tim-lebbon-three-guys-with-beards/

Some new info:

Spoiler

Trilogy is set even further in the future than Sea of Sorrows, being set around 2690, which seem to rule out Decker coming back. He also mentions some anxious Skype calls when Alien 5 was announced, and that he had a lot of freedom in crafting the pitch.

[close]

Can't wait.

This pleases me a lot.

Spoiler

In my headcanon, I like to set the "present" around the 2700s, and all the media is sort of like a report of events that happened that you can look into through research.

So Rage War being set in the 2690's is very close to my "present" setting.

Also, have you heard of the AvP game called "Last of his Clan" set in 2593? It was the furthest setting, I am glad Rage War goes a century after that!

I noticed a trend here, the SNES AvP game was set in 2493 and Sea of Sorrows went further into 2496 and then 2497 and then Rage War goes further than Last of his Clan. I know those games are very obscure and not a lot of people know of them, but it amused me.

[close]

Can't wait!

[Ultramorph]

I agree

Spoiler

the far, far future setting pleases me, especially since it means that W-Y has had almost 200 years to reverse-engineer the dog-alien tech and the xenos that they get ahold of at the end of Sea of Sorrows. I'm vet much looking forward to what they've come up with.

[close]

[The Alien Predator]

I agree

Spoiler

the far, far future setting pleases me, especially since it means that W-Y has had almost 200 years to reverse-engineer the dog-alien tech and the xenos that they get ahold of at the end of Sea of Sorrows. I'm vet much looking forward to what they've come up with.

[close]

Good points, also

Spoiler

The late 27th century might give the humans a slight chance against the Predators in a war, and according to the descriptions, they're STILL more advanced than us and giving us trouble even in the 2690's.

Also it doesn't sound odd that W-Y has endured for so long, some companies even today were around since the 1800's. I remember some products proudly stating how they've been making a product for a long time.

Also times change a lot, I remember someone saying how can W-Y control the Colonial Marines now, maybe between Sea of Sorrows and Rage War, they took control, a lot can happen in 200 years.

[close]

[HuDaFuK]

I remember someone saying how can W-Y control the Colonial Marines now, maybe between Sea of Sorrows and Rage War, they took control, a lot can happen in 200 years.

Maybe it's not what you're thinking of, but I questioned whether the USCM would still exist so many years after Aliens. Look at the military 200 years ago, and look at it now. The structure/organisation/units are all totally different. I find it hard to believe the Colonial Marines would even exist any more more than five centuries later.

[Ultramorph]

I'm also looking forward to

Spoiler

however much "future history" we get in the novel. I liked the stuff in Sea of Sorrows talking about the USM and Earth being terraformed, so I'm eager to hear what's been happening since then.

[close]

[The Alien Predator]

I remember someone saying how can W-Y control the Colonial Marines now, maybe between Sea of Sorrows and Rage War, they took control, a lot can happen in 200 years.

Maybe it's not what you're thinking of, but I questioned whether the USCM would still exist so many years after Aliens. Look at the military 200 years ago, and look at it now. The structure/organisation/units are all totally different. I find it hard to believe the Colonial Marines would even exist any more more than five centuries later.

Oh yeah, now I remember you bringing this up and it's quite a valid point.

I remember reading that this CMC is being controlled by W-Y, so it might have transitioned from a government military to a fully privatized military. So this may no longer be the same Colonial Marines.

I'm also looking forward to

Spoiler

however much "future history" we get in the novel. I liked the stuff in Sea of Sorrows talking about the USM and Earth being terraformed, so I'm eager to hear what's been happening since then.

[close]

I am definitely excited for that too. To see what happened in between. Do you think it might mention the W-Y report becoming public? Since the way the report is structured, it looks like it was released in a far future setting to the general public as if giving not just a lesson on the Xenomorphs, but a history lesson on them as well.

[Ultramorph]

Listened to that part of the podcast again this morning, worth noting that he also says there's about six months between the release of the Rage War books, so we can tentatively expect Alien: Invasion in April/May 2016 and AvP: Armageddon in October/November 2016.

As far as the Colonial Marines and W-Y still being around in the 27th century, I guess we can applaud the AvP universe for achieving Star Trek levels of social stability. 

[SM]

Since the way the report is structured, it looks like it was released in a far future setting to the general public as if giving not just a lesson on the Xenomorphs, but a history lesson on them as well.

It's not structured for 'general public'.  It's WY internal and security classified.

[The Alien Predator]

Since the way the report is structured, it looks like it was released in a far future setting to the general public as if giving not just a lesson on the Xenomorphs, but a history lesson on them as well.

It's not structured for 'general public'.  It's WY internal and security classified.

I thought I read somewhere that it mentioned it was released for the "public" Perhaps I mis-read it.

[HuDaFuK]

I thought I read somewhere that it mentioned it was released for the "public" Perhaps I mis-read it.

It's implied that it's given to the crew members to read in the book Seas of Sorrows, but they're on a secret Weyland-Yutani mission, so they can't really be called the general public.

[The Alien Predator]

I thought I read somewhere that it mentioned it was released for the "public" Perhaps I mis-read it.

It's implied that it's given to the crew members to read in the book Seas of Sorrows, but they're on a secret Weyland-Yutani mission, so they can't really be called the general public.

I see. Thanks for clearing it up for me.

[Ultramorph]

I may actually have to shell out for shipping and conversion and buy a copy from an English site. A month is too long to avoid spoilers. 

Then again, maybe this is karma for getting to see Prometheus a week early because I was studying abroad in England when it came out. 

[TheBATMAN]

I may actually have to shell out for shipping and conversion and buy a copy from an English site. A month is too long to avoid spoilers. 

Why? It comes out October 20th over here too.

[Ultramorph]

Lebbon posted on Facebook today that it's out Friday in the UK, and Amazon UK lists the date at September 25th.

Out on Friday in the UK (next month in the US)!

Who really knows at this point, though.