Just Finished Reading: Aliens Vs Predator – Hunter’s Planet by David Bischoff



The Company don’t know quite how to deal with Machiko Noguchi. After her experiences on Ryushi, where she was the lone survivor of an alien attack, and the mysterious absence that followed her position on a farming station can only a temporary one whilst they figure out what to do with her. So when billionaire Livermore Evanston offers to buy out her contract she jumps at the idea – despite her understandable misgivings. The proposition she is offered seems on the face of it too good to be true. Hired to track down and destroy another alien infestation, it quickly becomes clear that there is far more going on in the rich mans hunting preserve being set up off the normal trade routes – and Machiko, for better or worse, is about to be thrown right in the middle of it.


After enjoying the first book in this series (AvP: Prey) I was honestly looking forward to the sequel. Unfortunately, almost from the get-go, I was disappointed. The author quickly deviated from the understood parameters of the AvP universe by presenting – much to my shock – an alien carrying weapons (as if they needed any). Further, although dropping in many interesting ideas about Predator culture, he ruined it for me by having several hunter groups meekly following Machiko’s orders in combat. But the thing that ruined the whole book for me was the character of the android Attila who seemed to develop exactly what was required at just the right moment to get the main character out of trouble or to move the plot along with the right piece of information. Not only did it ‘discover’ that it could talk perfect Predator (and Machiko, who had lived amongst them, could barely communicate with them) but produced combat winning weapons at the right moment whilst previously being unaware of their existence. It all became very tiring very quickly and I almost, more than once, gave up in disgust at the sloppy plotting. This was a very disappointing sequel and should be avoided by all but the most die-hard AvP fans (who will still probably hate it – maybe more so).