Aliens vs Predator: Prey - Stephani Perry, Steve Perry

...have a limited number of Aliens running round. Then a second party of Predators, mainly juveniles but also with several more experienced warriors and one main leader, will go down and kill the Aliens as a rite of passage.

The problem is that humans have only recently colonised Ryushi and they find themselves falling prey to the Aliens. Also by accident one egg contained a Queen Alien meaning that rather than a limited number of Aliens ...
...The lead character is the colonies leader Machiko Noguchi, an asian female with a cold manner. She has similarities to Ripley in the 'Aliens' series, although she is never a stereotypical machine-gun toting bad ass. She carries alot of baggage but is still one of the first to realise what is going on and try to organise some kind of defence against it.

The second main character, rather refreshingly, is the lead Predator - Dachande. ... more

Having been a big fan of the 'aliens' and 'predator' franchises for some time I saw in a shop a series of books, detailing events where the two worlds combined.

This was before the 'Alien vs Predator' film, and came about from the 'Predator 2' film when an Alien skull is seen and the watcher assumes the Predator has hunted this creature before.

'Prey' is the first in this series of novels and some of the plot elements from this book end up being used in the 'Alien vs Predator' film, although for me this story is alot stronger and would have entertained an audience more than the script they went with.

The book centres around events at a remote ranching colony on the planet Ryushi. This world has been a hunting round for Predators (technically kown as 'Yaujta') for generations as part of their manhood ritual. The Predators seen the Alien ('Xenomorph') as the ultimate prey. To test themselves a hunting party will capture a queen and then use her as a production line for eggs. These will then be sent down to a planets where they will hatch and go through the cycles till you have a limited number of Aliens running round. Then a second party of Predators, mainly juveniles but also with several more experienced warriors and one main leader, will go down and kill the Aliens as a rite of passage.

The problem is that humans have only recently colonised Ryushi and they find themselves falling prey to the Aliens. Also by accident one egg contained a Queen Alien meaning that rather than a limited number of Aliens their population can grow out of control.

The lead character is the colonies leader Machiko Noguchi, an asian female with a cold manner. She has similarities to Ripley in the 'Aliens' series, although she is never a stereotypical machine-gun toting bad ass. She carries alot of baggage but is still one of the first to realise what is going on and try to organise some kind of defence against it.

The second main character, rather refreshingly, is the lead Predator - Dachande. He is a legend amongst his kind and an excellent teacher. The passages shown through his eyes and thoughts are very well written as it shows what he's trying to achieve with his teachings to the next generation of warriors and gives good insight into the Predator society and honour system. The other Predators are also names and given personalities of their own and it was nice to see that in an alien species there are still the traditional 'goodies' and 'baddies'.

Traditionally the Predators don't hunt humans because they recognise the intelligence in them and see them above game animals. However when an accident leaves Dachande injured and a headstrong Juvenile in charge this line in cross and the humans become fair game to Predator and Alien alike.

The story is very well written and you get real insight into the characters and good explanations for their actions. The novel was the original of it's kind and despite beng slightly biased towards the Predators it does show both franchises in good lights. Fans will also be pleased that the Alien Queen is featured and given the respect her fans would want and expect. The descriptions of the action sequences and deaths are excellent as the writers knew that most of their target audience would be fans of graphic novels where the imagery is already drawn out for you.

The ending is original and very well done. There are some good plot twists from about 1/2 way through the book and it leaves things open for a sequel nicely. I've read some of the later books and I don't think they match up to the insight and style of this first book. The way the joint franchise has grown into books, computer games and films shows what a success this first attempt was and I believe it would be enjoyed by more than just fans, although they're likely to be the one's who get most out of it.

Small edit: for those who are interested you can go to amazon.com and search for this and then read the first 10 pages free over the net. It gives a good flavour of what it to come
 

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