A Predator Story worth the time!

Dutch is Back, but this isn't what makes the story worth the time. Almost everything we know about the Predators from the films is mentioned. Dutch's story is eventually revealed, which isn't really a surprise. The main character is fleshed out as good as any Soldier would lively admit.

The Predators are mentioned only when the need is relevant. Sure there are things that could have been developed more about them, but the mystery about them is what makes this story click.

The Story is well written and moves at a casual pace when needed. The performance is pretty good, except when Dutch is portrayed. I'm not a fan of Dutch's voice in this. Still this is completely worth the read or listen.

Predator & AVP Fans should enjoy this one. If you enjoyed Tim Libbon's Rage War series (which goes into more detail on the Predators), then you'll have fun with this one too.

9 people found this helpful

Could Have Been Great - It Wasn't.

I get it, video game books are hard. Sometimes you don't have much to work with and sometimes games ignore the books and render your work non-cannon even if you produce something good. Be that as it may, Resident Evil and Halo have managed to deliver some solid novels to us, and I really enjoyed the recent Predator anthology book. I also love the game this is based around (primarily a Predator player myself). The framework of the game could have offered us a good story, and every now and again it looked like this novel was headed that way. Except it would be a fake-out and we'd have to wait again. It's like waiting for the promise of fun with the fun never being delivered. The book can't stop telling us how badass the characters are, but showing and telling are two different things. The writing is about as subtle as Jesse Ventura and Old Painless, with the author telling us how we should feel about everything and everyone - dividing people into good and bad without complexity. There's no real depth to Dutch or really any other character in this work. Everyone else is a stock character, including the black best friend who we know is going to die. I mean, the moment we met him, I'm going "yep, you're the one who is going to die and give us angst." The bad guys were bad for...reasons. I guess money? What's more, the climax of the book (the death of the friend) didn't really mean anything because the reader predicted it, and then the main character moves onto a command role...and all is well? Well that's a dud of an ending. Where is this going? Nowhere. Where the book was at its best was setting up the Predators through seeing their handiwork. This writer could build suspense pretty well. I'm impressed by that, if nothing else, because suspense is difficult. Especially since we know the monster. The problem is we got several false starts. We start building up, you're ready for something to happen. Okay, time jump. Build up again. Okay, time jump. Every time jump, the energy of the story dissipates. So the suspense never meant anything, throwing away the best asset of the work. Now the story did try and build a mystery for us, but got repetitive in that regard. We can only see a main character ponder something we already know for so long (meanwhile the story grinding to a halt time and time again) before readers get bored. It's okay for the characters to not know things we do. Let characters figure it out. But goodness sake I don't need eight hours of this nonsense. Tell me a story. As far as the Predators went, none of them were more than obstacles. The description of the Sharkskin one was interesting, but it had no personality. The original Predator was a sadistic game hunter. Predator two gave us the more honorable blood-knight who picked LA because it wanted to make a splash. Three gave us a group of Bad Bloods who break many of the rules the second Predator established for us. Even the awful new movie gave us two different preds with different motivations. Go to the expanded universe and you can see even more diversity among the Yautja and characterization of them. None of that is present here. They're just things to be opposed. What's more, never did I feel like I wanted the humans to triumph. When the original Predator wiped out Arnold's team who'd been established as 80s action movie badasses through cleverness and stealth, I was impressed by it. Arnold had to get craftier and more resourceful to beat it. Harrigan had to be more determined than mortal men could possibly be to beat his. These guys...just blew them away. Who cares. This was the wrong way to write a predator story. The original Predator was subversion of action movie tropes. This work seemed to forget that and plod along without even delivering on the action throughout more than half the book. This could have been good. The writer is not unskilled in word craft. In this case, the narrative itself is the failure, not the line by line.

6 people found this helpful

Good to see what happened to Dutch

The majority of this book follows Scott Develin as he progresses through his military career from Special Operations to eventually encountering “Hunters” on operations in the jungles of South & Central America. It was pretty cool to see elements of the first and second movie incorporated into the book. We also finally get to find out what happened to Dutch after the conclusion of the first movie.

My only major complaint with the authors is their total lack of knowledge of the military rank structure. Scott would have made Sergeant within five or six years of him enlisting and unless he went to a commissioning source (OTS, OCS, etc.) he would have not been promoted from an enlisted man to a Captain magically. Also, the majority of soldiers typically stay in 20 years and retire at a very young age. Very rarely do you see people stay past 20 years unless they are on the path to E-9 as an enlisted soldier or a General Officer as an officer. They should have consulted with someone before completion of the book.

5 people found this helpful

I loved this book!

I want to see it made into a movie. I got so engrossed listening to it that I lost a whole day! Mr. Cronin did an excellent job in my opinion. He captured each of the characters perfectly. I would love to read more Predator books by Mr. Moore and Mr. Morris. You are a very good team!

4 people found this helpful

A predator story

I enjoyed this story takes place after Pretator 2.
And is explore a on going time line. They name the chapters after the years. So it is an interesting narrative. So check this out when you can.

2 people found this helpful

THIS!!!

This is the direct sequel to PREDATOR 2 that we all deserve!!! I’m going to have to listen again real soon. Good stuff!!!

2 people found this helpful

a bit hard to enjoy from other Predator stories

it was a bit hard to enjoy the normal human panic and wonderment when going against a predator, the voice narrator often confusing and missing the original Dutch's accent plenty of times and reading some of the story almost too dryly. the story felt more of slow description of actions than real thrill of movement and felt completely off instead of sliding into something that can be accepted into the predator series lore, despite tying in to the only recent predator movie. it felt like the story really had no substance other than meat packing of human soldiers clashing heads with government types then getting blown away. still a somewhat good story, but I don't know that it's one I can fully accept into the lore, but more as an author's vision than complete canon.

1 person found this helpful

Disappointing

Seems rushed, like there was a deadline to meet. Storyline jumps and creates gaps in continuity. Narrator seems to struggle with a decent German accent. No decent character development. Storyline seems patchy. Very disappointing overall.

1 person found this helpful

What happened to military rank structure?

There are many reviews written in this title, both praising and denigrating the work. Sometimes it's the little things in a book that really stick in my mind.
Here it is a complete departure from Army rank and promotiy structure.

So, the main character is an outstanding soldier but is still a private after 10 years in? The next rank he achieves is "Sargent" which he holds for an extended period of time and ends up as a forty something captain? This is the record of a dirt bag, not a high achiever.

Incredible

Hey Hollywood. Stop listening to people who aren't good writers. Get this guy. Get a script. Call Arnold. Get it done. Arnold is perfect age for this. This was one of my favorite books in the last ten years. Extremely well written. Thoughtful. Smart. ACTION PACKED. I cannot recommend this book entirely enough. If you are a predator fan. Don't think twice.

Get this book.