Aliens V. Predator Ultimate Prey - AvP Anthology

[Corporal Hicks]

Thanks Xiggz. Glad you enjoyed it. We do seem to be outliers on this one though.

I don't think I can cope with a re-read to do an episode on Colony War though. I think we may skip it.

No please please please do it.

Urgh. We'll see. It's really put a damper on my enthusiasm.

Great podcast as always gentlemen! I love the format of picking your favorites and followed by least favorites. I think also think it was a good move to end on some honorable mentions. Overall, I liked the novel. I think you guys were spot on with most of the stories following the same formula. I was like okay, when are the aliens going to win? Id say my biggest gripe was that I've always wanted to see an all out war between hundreds of preds and aliens but nothing in this one. I loved Scylla and Charybdis. The idea of a collector predator was fascinating. Also, the pred v pred is always appreciated and it really helps expand the mythos. Some of my honorable mentions were Hotel Mariposa, Homestead(definitely the most terrifying especially because my wife is pregnant) First Hunt  and film school. I really enjoyed Another Mother but I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had read phalanx. That short story had me laughing out loud at times. My least favorite was better luck to borrow and night doctors.  Overall I felt that it was a good read. Better than bug hunt, not quite as good as If It bleeds.7.0 out of 10. I can't wait for Byan Thomas Schmidt's Eyes of the Demon. It's gonna be killer!!

Thanks Greyback! Glad you enjoyed. I think at a push I would have to have called Night Doctors my least favourite. Other than the ending, where it really went off the rails, that one was actually pretty decent.

[BlueMarsalis79]

That's why I want it man.

[Corporal Hicks]

I can't imagine it'll be very fun to listen to me being depressed for an hour and a half.

[Adamantiumhip]

I couldnt re read it either. The mediocre way outweighs the good

[Voodoo Magic]

I can't imagine it'll be very fun to listen to me being depressed for an hour and a half.

Remember Forever Midnight?

[Corporal Hicks]

In all fairness, enough time had passed for that to be fun depressing!

[Kradan]

Remember Forever Midnight?

Exactly

[Wweyland]

I must confess that I did not enjoy this anthology at all. Only a few stories clicked for me, but the majority did not. I felt the AvP format does not really work well for short stories. I would have liked to have a story without any insufferable human characters, so something from a purely Predator POV. And as has been mentioned, no Predaliens?

Predator: If It Bleeds was far superior.

[BryanThomasS]

Hi guys, Im new here so sorry if this first topic is going to be controversial!

Im talking about the recent anthology AVP Ultimate Prey. I already found Maberry's bug hunt anthology to be a big let down so Im sad to say this is continuing so far. In fairness I am only a few stories in so I will mention my thoughts on them. And it could easily end up getting better . Mira Grant is a favourite of mine and her story is next for me.

One big thing is I noticed avpgalaxy mentioned a lot, and how this book respects canon. Which makes me think, how much did avpg actually suggest or give feedback? Because theres already a huge issue I noticed that they must have as well being even bigger super fans. So im wondering if they noticed and just got ignored or didnt bring it up.

That is this...aliens vs predators on earth.  Now every time an alien is on earth,  be it in comics, games etc its a potential doomsday/apocalyptic event.  In avp the movie, the preds deliberately chose a real isolated continent  with which to build a temple, far from any civilisations . They are hunters, not careless to the point of causing mass extinctions. Yet this has them dropping alien eggs willy nilly all over the place.   With no regard or care.  In avp requiem they end up on earth through pure accident, and wolf has to clean up and destroy all evidence of both species. Yet the amount of people here who witness or survive alien encounters, as well as the frequencey it happens, means stargazer , weyland yutani and the government would have a lot more sites and info on the species than they do. They could basically not turn around without finding major incidents. The preds are sloppy where they drop prey and dont bother hiding their presence.

Maberry is a decent writer but his stories tend to end up as tied up and work out in favour for the protagonists, which is a trope that carries on here for the most part and wonder if it was a conscious choice in stories chosen..

My thoughts on the stories so far.

Beyond top secret.  , this so far is probably the best. Its interesting that its in area 51, but again it see s to be inconsistent with the predator movies. Stargazer would be knowledgeable about predators already and maybe even aliens considering lexs staff in the last movie. But these seem totally unaware. But that said, it was solid otherwise.

Isla mantanzas aka avpvslavetrade. This was so eye rolling i thought i had turned into the undertaker.  I find it hard to believe a powerful group of amazon warriors were caught and enslaved so easily, and not only that, easily defeated aliens even in shackles.  This was aliens as cannon fodder in a time before even decent weaponry existed and felt like an obvious political message, albeit one we can all agree with (slavery is bad, yes) over a decent story. Worst so far.

Homestead was decent with an ok ending. But this was another one where preds seemed to drop eggs willy nilly with no regard. At least even the last story was isolated on an island even if it did make xenos look useless.  And the protagonist didnt see. Very likeable the way she didnt care at all about her dog. But otherwise ok.  Another solid story. But not very memorable

And the hotel mariposa.  This was the most grievous for a predator giving no care for the surrounding area and leaving traces of themselves for centuries. There were some good ideas but a bit cheesy in the end. Not badly written, just not a good avp story because of the predators disregard for surroundings and an ending that tied things up for the survivor a little too nicely

And all so far have felt extremely rushed especially the endings, though maybe that is to do with the format and possible space limitations. Im hoping a few stories can turn it from meh to good. The last few novels before this were really good (into charybdis , prototype and phalanx)  so maybe my expectations were too high

What did you guys think? Interested in all opinions and views!

Isla was based on a real historical incident. That really happened to those African warriers. Except the xenos and Yautja's.

[HuDaFuK]

In all fairness, enough time had passed for that to be fun depressing!

Forever Midnight was at least entertaining in a could-this-be-more-batshit? kinda way.

Also a Predator got boiled alive which was admittedly pretty gnarly.

[Still Collating...]

Every time I hear about that novel, it keeps on sounding crazier and crazier. 

[BlueMarsalis79]

Boiled Predator mmm...