Just Finished Reading: Predator – Big Game by Sandy Schofield (FP: 1999) [226pp] 

He had been hearing the stories his entire life – the Monster and the Monster Hunter. His grandfather, the Navajo tribes wiseman, had told him the tale a hundred times. But this was the real world, this was the modern age and tales of monsters should have been left in the past where they belong. It was certainly nothing that Corporal Enoch Nakai of the US Army need concern himself with. Until that is they saw the streak in the sky and a party of soldiers from the base were sent out to investigate. Hours later a second team was sent to find out what had happened to the first and they discovered the craft – seemingly abandoned. The brass didn’t know what to make of it. Was it Russian? Was it some kind of spy plane? The scientists examining it had no idea either, but the base was put under lockdown until someone somewhere figured it all out. Corporal Nakai, it seemed, was way ahead of them. He’d seen, or rather sensed, something out there in the desert and it frightened him. Something was watching them, waiting until the right moment, testing their alertness. It was a hunter who crossed the desert as if born to it. Could this be the legend returned? If so, the Monster must be met and destroyed by the Monster Hunter and Enoch was beginning to think he alone knew who the Monster killer was. If he failed a LOT more people were going to die. 

This is an unusual read for me. Despite the fact that its science-fiction and tied into one of my favourite movie franchises, I don’t usually read books associated with it. A clear instance is Star Trek. Despite the fact that I’m a HUGE fan of the ST universe I haven’t read a single book from it. I have read a few from the Aliens universe (non-Predator related) but that, in itself, is unusual too. Anyway... I’d had this book for some time, although LONG after its publication date, and thought it was about time to actually read the thing. Overall, it was an OK read. The ‘monster’ was quite clearly a Predator from the movies and operated pretty much as you might expect. The Hero was OK, and it was an interesting ‘twist’ having him being a Native American and growing up with the legend of the monster which actually turned out to be more of a prediction. The combat was pretty well handled even if it was a little over the top at times. I did roll my eyes a few times at stereotypical writing, but I honestly wasn’t expected great literature here! The novel was entertaining enough to be a fast and generally fun read. I’ve been ‘planning’ to read some of the older Aliens novels (I have several omnibus editions in ‘the pile’) and I think I have a few newer Predator books too. I’ll see if I can fit in a few more this year. Reasonable.