Alien Prey

Shockers Series

by John Peel, Eric Cherry (Illustrator)

Josh and his fellow rebels have always found their ordinary hometown of Baine's Hollow boring, but suddenly things begin to take on an eerie new significance as something seems to be preying on the minds of the town's inhabitants. ---- Amazon

154 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 23, 1993

About the author

John Peel is the author of Doctor Who books and comic strips. Notably, he wrote the first original Doctor Who novel, Timewyrm: Genesys, to launch the Virgin New Adventures line. In the early 1990s he was commissioned by Target Books to write novelisations of several key Terry Nation Dalek stories of the 1960s after the rights were finally worked out. He later wrote several more original Daleks novels.

He has the distinction of being one of only three authors credited on a Target novelisation who had not either written a story for the TV series or been a part of the production team (the others were Nigel Robinson and Alison Bingeman).

Outside of Doctor Who, Peel has also written novels for the Star Trek franchise. Under the pseudonym "John Vincent", he wrote novelisations based upon episodes of the 1990s TV series James Bond Jr..

Reviews

[Paula Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Josh Manning and his friends Paul, Ben and Beth find their home town of Blaine's Hollow incredibly boring. They have turned to juvenile delinquency, but can't even get arrested! However, things get weird when a surveyor shows up in town, and is warned not to go to The Hollow, as people have died there. This gets the kids questioning their town and existence. Why does their TV channel not get any news, and why are they watching stuff like Leave It To Beaver? Why won't their fathers tell them what work they actually do at The Factory? They set out to discover the mystery behind The Factory and The Hollow.

Fun, quick read that is really only let down by the fact it wasn't longer (it clocks in at just over 150 pages, with illustrations) in order to flesh out its story and themes. I would have loved a richer, detailed plot about alien spiders taking over a small town found here! There is also the fact that it's a bit of an uneasy mix between standard YA middle grade. The short length (albeit not that much shorter than most YA at the time) and illustrations suggest this is aimed at middle grade, but the gore and violence, and plot in general, is more YA. The twist at the ending was a bit silly.

No matter whether it's aimed at middle grade or YA, it's an entertaining horror tale with some good twists.

[BRANDON · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was actually surprised by how good this story was. It's out there, all of the Shockers books have a little screw loose, but it reminded me a lot of some of Christopher Pike's books. I'm not typically a fan of alien invasion horror. I like my horror spooky and my aliens in sci-fi books, but the build up and uncanny quality presented in Alien Prey held my attention. Peel could have given almost any excuse for the strange behavior of the townspeople and it would have made for a good story because he lay a solid foundation of eeriness. I read another book by a different author that used a similar premise and it did not work out, the result was much more uncomfortable thn spooky.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josh and his friends never liked the town they were in, so they cause trouble in it for attention. But the boredom is all over when they break into the factory all the men in town work at, its empty! Theres something going on, and they're going to find out what.