Alien Prototype by Tim Waggoner

Alien: Prototype by Tim Waggoner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 384

Publisher - Titan books

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

Dead cargo!

Venture, a direct rival to the Weyland-Yutani corporation, will accept any risk to crush the competition. Thus, when a corporate spy "acquires" a bizarre, leathery egg from a hijacked vessel, she takes it directly to the Venture testing facility on Jericho 3.

Though unaware of the danger it poses, the scientists there recognize their prize's immeasurable value. Early tests reveal little, however, and they come to an inevitable conclusion, they need a human test subject...

Enter Zula Hendricks.

A member of the Jericho 3 security staff, Colonial Marines veteran Zula Hendricks has been tasked with training personnel to deal with anything the treacherous planet can throw their way. Yet nothing can prepare them for the horror that appears - a creature more hideous than any Zula has encountered before.

Unless stopped, it will kill every human being on the planet.


My Review

Ooooh not Weyland-Yutani this time but their rivals who are equally desperate to get their hands on xenomorph, can you imagine. If they can get one of the aliens before Weyland they could finally complete if not take over. Anyone who could get that type of weapon (and actually manage to utilize it) they could rule the world. I LOVE the aliens franchise, even the movies that get panned, how could you not, the ultimate predator, I always thought the avp version was pretty brutal and scary, this takes it to a whole new level.

If you have never read or seen any of the books/movies you can pick this up as a standalone. The opposing company has sent out someone to infiltrate a pirate team, whilst they reveal is space spoils, food etc she is looking for the ultimate find, an alien. Accomplishing her mission they got to another space planet to conduct experiments because like Weyland-Yutani THEY NEVER LEARN. To be fair to these guys they only know of rumours et al. So we start off with an egg and then all chaos breaks loose HOWEVER this alien is different from any we have seen and is the deadliest so far!

I absolutely loved it, you think the alien cannot get anymore deadly, WRONG, it can and they manage to do it in this book. I always enjoy a synthetic, well a good synthetic, David and Ash are the worst and baddies, Bishop is my fave forever, I really like Andy and we get a newbie in this one.

We get the whole package in this one, from acquisition to outbreak and then the fight for life is truly on. We also have some of the human dramas, hang ups, bad behaviours like I always enjoy these books, how can you not but it is rare to have all the boxes ticked and for me, this one does. Some can also be a slow burner and let you get the build up before the chaos, this one we get action from the first few pages, 5/5!

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Predator: Incursion by Tim Lebbon book 1

Predator: Incursion by Tim Lebbon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 1 week

Pages - 270

Publisher - Titan

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

Predator ships stream into human space in unprecedented numbers. The Colonial Marines, controlled by Weyland-Yutani, respond to the incursion, thus entering the Rage War. This terrifying assault by the Yautja cannot go unchallenged, yet the cost of combat is high. Predators are master combatants, and each encounter yields a high body count. Then when Lt. Johnny Mains and his marines—the VoidLarks—enter the fray, they discover an enemy deadlier than any could imagine. Book one in an epic trilogy that continues in INVASION and concludes in ALIENS VS. ARMAGEDDON. The universe will forever be changed.



My Review

Opening scene, xenomorph choas and then we flip to the Colonial Marines who guard earth'/space boundaries (ish) - I am the first to admit I don't describe stuff perfect but you get the jist. Anyway they clock the Predators (the ultimate fighting aliens in the movie with Arnie Schwarzenegger, they can't see us when we have mud all over us and by us I mean humans) although in the book they are referred to as Yautja. Anyway there has always been a bit of barny/murder death kill between us (marines) and them but something isn't right and soon both realise that a bigger foe is coming and our only chance may be to put our differences aside and unite.

I LOVE the alien universe and also the predator so a book that sees crossover HELLO sign me up! It does jump about a wee bit to start with and a wee bit of time jump but once you get into it and understand what the chat it it is good. I felt we had echoes of Predator 2 with Danny Glovers character, a wee bit of a mash between Bishop/Ash/Andy in one artificial human.

If you haven't come to this from the movies/franchise and this is your first dance I think you will still like it but maybe not quite appreciate it just as much as us who consume all the movies (I am still quite new to the books so playing catch up). 4.5/5 for me, I have books two and three at the ready (this is a trilogy set but there are MANY of the xeno books), I absolutely recommend and look forward to book two!

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