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

[TheBATMAN]

Well that's good news. Amazon UK has it listed as October 20th. I hope it hasn't been pushed back but if it truly is available as early as Friday I would have thought most websites would have had a preview by now? Everything is still strangely quiet.

I am much more hesitant with this one as aside from perhaps the original Concrete Jungle and South China Sea, I don't believe the Predators have ever really been done well in the novels. I dislike both the Hish and Yautja concept and I don't necessarily see why we need to delve into the culture of these Hunters. An air of mystery is what makes them fearsome.

At least a Predator invasion force is something we've never seen before. I largely enjoyed Out of the Shadows on the whole, so I hope this one is just as good. I also hope there's a justifiable reason why it needs to be set so far into the future.

[Ultramorph]

I agree that the silence is strange. I have my fingers crossed that maybe something is said tomorrow.

I didn't mind Flesh and Blood, and even Forever Midnight was OK in its own way.

I like that this is a big story, so I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of twists we get.

[Corporal Hicks]

Admittedly I've been in cloaking mode this last week but I'm back. I'm chasing up with Titan again. The editor had been out at conventions recently so hadn't picked up his emails.

[HuDaFuK]

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

Who really knows at this point, though.

One of the previous trilogy (can't remember which, either Sea of Sorrows or River of Pain) was out a bit earlier in the UK than the US, so I wouldn't be totally shocked if there were differing release dates.

[The Alien Predator]

Well that's good news. Amazon UK has it listed as October 20th. I hope it hasn't been pushed back but if it truly is available as early as Friday I would have thought most websites would have had a preview by now? Everything is still strangely quiet.

I am much more hesitant with this one as aside from perhaps the original Concrete Jungle and South China Sea, I don't believe the Predators have ever really been done well in the novels. I dislike both the Hish and Yautja concept and I don't necessarily see why we need to delve into the culture of these Hunters. An air of mystery is what makes them fearsome.

At least a Predator invasion force is something we've never seen before. I largely enjoyed Out of the Shadows on the whole, so I hope this one is just as good. I also hope there's a justifiable reason why it needs to be set so far into the future.

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.

The author said no, and he also said he wasn't going to be doing Predator pov stuff so seeing more of their culture really in depth would be the last thing I'd expect to see. He is avoiding to focus on them for the sake of keeping them mysterious.

The least we would get maybe is bits and pieces, like some human characters hide and spy on a group of Predators interact. Or they could be human captives before they somehow escape. I don't know. Something along those lines. So don't expect anything really detailed.

[TheBATMAN]

I hope that's the case, and the term 'Yautja' is just used in the marketing materials and back cover synopsis, rather than the manuscript itself.

[Ultramorph]

I hope that's the case, and the term 'Yautja' is just used in the marketing materials and back cover synopsis, rather than the manuscript itself.

You're in luck, because Lebbon has said that we won't be getting anything from the Predator perspective, and that the Yautja thing is just in the summary.

[HuDaFuK]

You're in luck, because Lebbon has said that we won't be getting anything from the Predator perspective, and that the Yautja thing is just in the summary.

I'm not sure he ever said the term Yautja isn't used in the novel itself, but he did say the book won't have anything from Predator perspective.

Yautja could simply be the term adopted by humans for the creatures in the story.

[Ultramorph]

That's true, it could be what the humans wind up calling them.

Book Depository, a UK site, has Rage War listed as coming out September 25 with free worldwide shipping, so anyone here in the US who wants to pick it up early might want to get it from there.

http://www.bookdepository.com/Predator-Incursion-Rage-War-1-Tim-Lebbon/9781783298334

[The Alien Predator]

You're in luck, because Lebbon has said that we won't be getting anything from the Predator perspective, and that the Yautja thing is just in the summary.

I'm not sure he ever said the term Yautja isn't used in the novel itself, but he did say the book won't have anything from Predator perspective.

Yautja could simply be the term adopted by humans for the creatures in the story.

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

I wonder though, how would the humans end up calling them this? Maybe a human heard a word and tried to pronounce it (likely butchering the hell out of it) and wound up with "Yautja".

I suspect they'd mainly call them "Predators" as that's a name that sometimes comes up in some works.

I like how in one crossover comic, the main hero got caught in the Predator's net and the villains were hiding and watching, one of them goes "we'll let our predatory friend kill him" and they just wound up calling it "Predator" as the word just stuck out of nowhere and seemed to fit. There's other AvP comics where random humans just so happen to call them "Predator" for one reason or another.

So I'm curious to see how it got to humans calling them what they call them in the novel.

[Ultramorph]

I'm curious to see if there winds up being an eventual team-up between the humans and the Predators, ala Three World War. I sort of hope not, but one never knows.

[HuDaFuK]

Given how the Aliens are being set up as "enemy of my enemy", I wouldn't be surprised if it happens at some point.

If they do do it, I hope they leave it for the second or third novel so they can at least build up to it properly.

[Ultramorph]

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!

[Perfect-Organism]

I can't believe I'm buying a Predator novel.  And yet, resistance is futile I guess.  Just lost all interest in Predators somewhere around AVP:R...

[RakaiThwei]

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.