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

[Perfect-Organism]

Man, I wish we had more time for this.  I am just reading the book now and it'll take a few days...  Anyway, excited to hear about the interview happening.  AVPGalaxy does great things for the fans with these interviews.  Really enjoying the world-building.

[The Alien Predator]

Man, I wish we had more time for this.  I am just reading the book now and it'll take a few days...  Anyway, excited to hear about the interview happening.  AVPGalaxy does great things for the fans with these interviews.  Really enjoying the world-building.

It took me two days to finish it, I literally no lifed it. I was that excited. 

[Perfect-Organism]

Man, I wish we had more time for this.  I am just reading the book now and it'll take a few days...  Anyway, excited to hear about the interview happening.  AVPGalaxy does great things for the fans with these interviews.  Really enjoying the world-building.

It took me two days to finish it, I literally no lifed it. I was that excited. 

It is a fast, fun read.  Tim Lebbon writes well for action sci-fi.  I just barely have time to sleep these days though...  So far so good..

[The Alien Predator]

Man, I wish we had more time for this.  I am just reading the book now and it'll take a few days...  Anyway, excited to hear about the interview happening.  AVPGalaxy does great things for the fans with these interviews.  Really enjoying the world-building.

It took me two days to finish it, I literally no lifed it. I was that excited. 

It is a fast, fun read.  Tim Lebbon writes well for action sci-fi.  I just barely have time to sleep these days though...  So far so good..

I agree.

Also with the older trilogy, Out of the Shadows for me felt like the best written. I really like Tim Lebbon's stories and he makes some good characters. Sea of Sorrows also had great characters and I loved the setting as it's set in the far future as well. But story wise, it's definitely Out of the Shadows (I also no-lifed that one as well. The other two books took me a while to finish though), In the end, all three books were well written.

I look forward to deciding which of this new trilogy will be my favourite story.

Did you read the other trilogy?

[Perfect-Organism]

Man, I wish we had more time for this.  I am just reading the book now and it'll take a few days...  Anyway, excited to hear about the interview happening.  AVPGalaxy does great things for the fans with these interviews.  Really enjoying the world-building.

It took me two days to finish it, I literally no lifed it. I was that excited. 

It is a fast, fun read.  Tim Lebbon writes well for action sci-fi.  I just barely have time to sleep these days though...  So far so good..

I agree.

Also with the older trilogy, Out of the Shadows for me felt like the best written. I really like Tim Lebbon's stories and he makes some good characters. Sea of Sorrows also had great characters and I loved the setting as it's set in the far future as well. But story wise, it's definitely Out of the Shadows (I also no-lifed that one as well. The other two books took me a while to finish though), In the end, all three books were well written.

I look forward to deciding which of this new trilogy will be my favourite story.

Did you read the other trilogy?

Yes, I read the other trilogy.  I was literally the first of us here to read River of Pain as it got to me by mail several weeks before it was published somehow.  That's how I got this thread started because I found out about Rage War in an ad at the end of RoP.

What can I say?  I really enjoyed the writing of Tim Lebbon's book Out of the Shadows, though the premise drove me bananas.  That was probably not his idea though.  He wrote that book as well as he could.  Sea of Sorrows was the weakest of the lot for me as well.  It literally sat on my night stand for months before I forced myself to read it in anticipation of River of Pain.  All the characters were two-dimensional somehow.  River of Pain was my favorite of the lot but that is probably because it covered my favorite period of the Alien universe.  From a writing perspective though, Tim Lebbon's book really took the cake.

[Xenomorphine]

Spoiler

I feel the Rage are a huge threat, their androids seem quite menacing and the weaponized Aliens made me look at Aliens as a whole in a new light. I knew Aliens are dangerous, but they seemed like a poor choice of a weapon until now... I'm glad this novel proved me wrong and showed the true potential of them.

[close]

Spoiler

What do weaponised Aliens do which changed your mind? All the other portrayals just seemed to amount to strapping some token guns on them and performing some limited co-ordination. I'm curious as to how an Alien could be harnessed for combat in a way which, say, robots couldn't.

[close]

[The Alien Predator]

Spoiler

I feel the Rage are a huge threat, their androids seem quite menacing and the weaponized Aliens made me look at Aliens as a whole in a new light. I knew Aliens are dangerous, but they seemed like a poor choice of a weapon until now... I'm glad this novel proved me wrong and showed the true potential of them.

[close]

Spoiler

What do weaponised Aliens do which changed your mind? All the other portrayals just seemed to amount to strapping some token guns on them and performing some limited co-ordination. I'm curious as to how an Alien could be harnessed for combat in a way which, say, robots couldn't.

[close]

Spoiler

These Aliens seem to not only be controlled, but are genetically modified and display a remarkable amount of intelligence such as knowing to tear off a wounded Predator's left arm to prevent it from blowing itself up.

Also, if you kill the weaponized Alien, it will self destruct and coat you in acid blood.

The Predator habitat was overrun by them and you see just the kind of damage they did and how it affected the surviving Predators by almost traumatizing them, and one cannot simply traumatize a hostile alien obsessed with hunting dangerous things.

A Predator was so filled with hatred at the devastation that she attacked innocent humans while her companion tried to convince her to stay calm and leave the humans alone while they try to think of what to do next as they land on a devastated human colony which was attacked by terrorists who were nanobotically controlled by the Rage via radio signals sent through subspace that concert neurons into nanobots.

The Yautja said they lost many ships, space habitats and even one entire planet to the Aliens that the Rage have unleashed upon them.

[close]

[Xenomorphine]

Spoiler

Just more obvious intelligence? Ehhh... That still makes them relatively easy to kill at range if you know they're infesting somewhere.

[close]

[happypred]

Right...what makes these weaponised aliens better than "normal" aliens apart from

Spoiler

heightened intelligence and more explosive acid blood?

[close]

Is that it? And why would tearing off a predator's arm

Spoiler

prevent a wrist bomb from detonating...do the aliens somehow disable the actual device?

[close]

[Corporal Hicks]

Re: Aliens -

Spoiler

I interpreted it (and it wasn't openly explained and it was sort of left hanging for the sequels) that the Aliens were being controlled as a result of some sort of biotech that the Rage had been able to implement into their synthetics characters. I think it was more the complete and utter control of them that made them more threatening.

The Aliens weren't really seen in open conditions, mostly close quarters making that self destruct (as in they proper go pop) a bit more deadly. And it was generally quite fast too. Drop in, overwhelm, move on. Worked quite well.

[close]

Re: Predator self-destruct -

Spoiler

As in the Predators don't get a chance to activate it. It's only ever shown activated via that panel and slicing it in half worked well enough in Predator 2 that City Hunter had to high-tail it back to the ship. No reason the same wouldn't work here.

[close]

As for questions - I've already got the obvious ones down about the Yautja and etc but some other good ones in there. Might actually send off today now.

And the questions have been sent.

I've also finished my review. Just needs some polishing and then I'll put them both up at the same time.

[The Alien Predator]

Yeah, Hicks explained it better.

Spoiler

I remember when Hashori was about to kill an alien, Lilliya tried to warn her not to but she blasted it with her plasma caster, and just when you think it's all well, the alien suddenly pops and coats acid everywhere. Hashori wasn't badly wounded, I assume she was far enough, but some acid splashed on Lilliya.

As for the Colonial Marines, they were literally overwhelmed and despite their uber advanced combat suits and weapons, one marine got his entire arm completely ripped off by an Alien and another marine got entirely covered in acid from an exploding alien he just killed, his combat suit changed on the molecular level to quickly shed the acid and harden to what blood remained so the marine was protected, however his suit power went down fast as it got drained by the task. It's only a limited protection, and many marines in veteran homes still have horrific scars from Alien blood burns.

The Marine that got his arm ripped off, the suit covered the wound almost like it were a Crysis Nanosuit or a Symbiote from the Marvel comics, then it absorbed the blood loss and injected it back into the injured marine while almost over-dosing him on "Phrail" which is a supreme painkilling drug. Towards the end, the same marine ripped off what remained of his arm as it was dangling all over the place and got in his way, the suit has shown to give a human the sufficient strength to be able to do such a feat.

The Marine still died eventually, not from Aliens, but because he eventually succumbs to the shock of the loss of his limb and the suit ran dangerously low on power and the drugs it was blasting into his system.

[close]

[Xenomorphine]

Spoiler

Hmm... Shall have to reserve judgement until/if I read it, but what's being described doesn't sound terribly different to what ordinary Aliens should mostly be capable of.

If they're being deployed to kill everything in the immediate area, army ant-style, I still say a simple missile with a warhead would get the job done a lot quicker and more efficiently. The only reason I can imagine Aliens being used for such a purpose is the terror factor - but that's a steep price to pay when other weapons would be much more effective.

Prediction: Whatever group is controlling the Aliens will find themselves overwhelmed in the same way ye olde General Spears did, complete with a cry of, "They were just using us, all alooooong!"

[close]

[The Alien Predator]

Spoiler

Also Predator weaponry was dulled by the acid blood. Either these Yautja used the cheap trainee Walmart Predator equipment of the AvP movie, or the Xenomorphs had a modified acid blood that bypassed whatever acid proofing the Predators use for their Alien hunting gear.

Not all Predator equipment seemed to be affected, just at leas one's wristblade was said to be dulled, or I think it was his spear, I'm not too sure. Some other Predators were doing fine and one managed to slaughter an entire horde of Aliens before going down with valour. His corpse was mangled by all the acid blood he was exposed to, but he did manage to nab the Synthetic general before dying.

[close]

[Corporal Hicks]

Spoiler

If they're being deployed to kill everything in the immediate area, army ant-style, I still say a simple missile with a warhead would get the job done a lot quicker and more efficiently. The only reason I can imagine Aliens being used for such a purpose is the terror factor - but that's a steep price to pay when other weapons would be much more effective.

Prediction: Whatever group is controlling the Aliens will find themselves overwhelmed in the same way ye olde General Spears did, complete with a cry of, "They were just using us, all alooooong!"

[close]

Gedimen or Wren (can't remember who) said it best - urban pacification. If you can actually control the Aliens, they'd be the perfect way to go in and not actually destroy (for the most part, blood doesn't help that) the infrastructure. It's not ideal...but it's better than just nuking something

Spoiler

Personally I don't think it'll be as simple as them turning. It'll be down to the biotech they come across that lets them control the Aliens being reversed or used against them

[close]

[The Alien Predator]

Spoiler

If they're being deployed to kill everything in the immediate area, army ant-style, I still say a simple missile with a warhead would get the job done a lot quicker and more efficiently. The only reason I can imagine Aliens being used for such a purpose is the terror factor - but that's a steep price to pay when other weapons would be much more effective.

Prediction: Whatever group is controlling the Aliens will find themselves overwhelmed in the same way ye olde General Spears did, complete with a cry of, "They were just using us, all alooooong!"

[close]

Gedimen or Wren (can't remember who) said it best - urban pacification. If you can actually control the Aliens, they'd be the perfect way to go in and not actually destroy (for the most part, blood doesn't help that) the infrastructure. It's not ideal...but it's better than just nuking something

Spoiler

Personally I don't think it'll be as simple as them turning. It'll be down to the biotech they come across that lets them control the Aliens being reversed or used against them

[close]

That makes sense, it saves you the whole rebuilding afterwards, just clean up the mess. XD

Also, Xenomorphs would be a great psychological weapon as well, used to incite fear and prevent riots and such. That is implying that society eventually doesn't get too used to them and thus fear them less. I mean, nukes are scary, but we've had them for so long that it's not much of a fear factor until the event that someone detonates one, that's when panicking starts all over again.

It'd be scary to see terrorists get their hands on Xenos... oh wait... 

Speaking of terrorists, wasn't there a group mentioned in the book? Called Red something? By 2692, they're not that big of a threat, but they were said to be very anti corporate. Lebbon did a lot of world building here.