Predator: Stalking Shadows

Predator Novels

by James A. Moore

An action-packed prequel to the new IllFonic video game Predator: Hunting Grounds - revealing deeply buried secrets in the battle between the ultimate hunters and their human prey.

This official prequel novel leads into the new Playstation 4 video game from IllFonic. Predator: Stalking Shadows is the bridge between Predator 2 and the current day continuity. U.S. Marine Scott Devlin takes on a new assignment that begins with the clean-up of a Los Angeles combat scene revealing what appears to be alien weapons and tech. His next mission, to an equatorial jungle, seems like an assault on a drug cartel until his team finds human bodies, skinned and suspended from the trees. Justifiably freaked out, Devlin digs deeper and discovers hidden truths, clandestine agencies, savage opponents... and an unexpected ally.

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Audiobook, Fiction, War

336 pages, Paperback

First published May 26, 2020

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

James A. Moore was the award winning author of over forty novels, thrillers, dark fantasy and horror alike, including the critically acclaimed Fireworks, Under The Overtree, Blood Red, the Serenity Falls trilogy (featuring his recurring anti-hero, Jonathan Crowley) and his most recent novels, seven Forges, The Blasted Lands, City of Wonders , The Silent Army and the forthcoming The Gates of The Dead (Book Three in the Tides of War Series) and A Hell Within, co-authored with Charles R. Rutledge.

Reviews

[Bill Riggs · Rating 2 out of 5]

A prequel to the video game for PlayStation that starts in the aftermath of Predator 2 and moves forward to the present day. The story follows Scott Devlin, a US Marine, as he is drawn into a murky world of government operatives, secret agencies and advanced technology. Scott soon meets Dutch Schaefer from the first Predator movie and quickly finds out the shocking truth of what has been happening in the shadows around the world - the truth about ruthless Predators from another world that use Earth as their hunting grounds.
While it is an entertaining story, the pace is slow, it seems to lack intensity and is probably of most interest to those that have enjoyed the game (which I have not played, nor know the plot).

[Amy Walker - Trans-Scribe Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Predator franchise has it's highs and lows, but generally has some very good films. The first three films in the series are all good for various different reasons, and whilst 2018's The Predator was generally seen as a disappointment that's still only one of the four films that's really classed as bad. Over the years the franchise has tried to expand out into different mediums, such as novels, comics, and video games. Whilst it's received acclaim in comics and games, novels tends not to be a medium where people sing its praises as much.

I've found that this can sometimes come down to the fact that it an be hard to capture a lot of the tension and horror that the films have on the written page, and that Predator books can sometimes feel a little flat. This is most certainly not the case with Predator Stalking Shadows, as I found it to not only be incredibly engaging and character driven, but at times was genuinely scary too.

Predator Stalking Shadows doesn't focus on just one event, on a singular predator incursion, and this really works to its advantage. Instead we follow Scott Devlin, a member of the US Marines, over the course of a number of decades as he slowly begins to learn the truth about the existence of these extraterrestrial hunters, and becomes drawn into the fight against them. As such, the book becomes more about him than the titular monsters; and this is such a good thing.

We get to see Scott as a relatively young man, fresh onto a special unit and going out on top secret missions. We get to see him get to know the soldiers around him, and we get to come to care for them the same way that he does. This means that when Scott and his comrades eventually end up in positions where they're going up against the Yautja you are hoping that these people make it through these encounters, and become genuinely heartbroken when some of them don't.

Not only was this so refreshing a development, I genuinely shed a couple of tears during one particularly poignant funeral scene, but I think it's probably the first time that I've ever really cared about a character death in the entire Predator franchise. Yes, it's disappointing when the cool marines die in the first film, and I genuinely hoped that Danny Trejo would have lasted longer in Predators, but this was the first time that I found myself caring about them as people, upset that they were leaving wives and children behind when they passed away.

But this is what the book is really good at. It's not a book about the spectacle of the predators, or the horror of being in their hunting ground, it's a story about the people in these situations. It's one of the most grounded, human stories in the entire franchise.

The book also features the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch, and shows what he's been doing in the years since the first Predator film. He's the character that we occasionally see fighting the predators, and whilst these moments are fairly fleeting they do help to carry the story along, giving readers brief moments of action as the rest of the book works on character and world building. For as many times as we get to see Dutch in action against the creatures we also get second hand stories about what he's been doing and how his mission has been getting on. Rather than feeling cheated by these, hoping for a 'show don't tell' approach instead, they feel a lot more real. We're supposed to be following Scott and his particular journey, so it makes sense to stick with him and instead of seeing Dutch's moments seeing them through Scott's eyes; which is learning about them after the fact.

I don't know much about the game that this is setting up, Predator Hunting Grounds, and imagine that it's more laying some very background framework for the game and explaining why Dutch is still around, as I do know he appears in the game. But I have to be honest, I wouldn't have cared half as much about the game before reading this book. The book makes it feel like there's a more cohesive world inside the Predator franchise, it makes it feel like the films and this new game are connecting in more than just name and IP. And better yet, the book manages to stand on its own and stays a brilliant piece of work without needing to connect into the game.

Predator Stalking Shadows is easily one of the best Predator novels that I've read. It captures the feel and tension of the films without relying on it to make its story. It centres on realistic people, it makes you care about the characters and the world in ways the franchise hasn't before. A masterful piece of fiction.

[Xavier]

Constant time skips ruined my immersion and any suspense that was built over a chapter is lost when the next chapter is 1+ year(s) later.

It's really too bad because continuing the story from the end of Predator 2 and bringing back Dutch from the original movie was genius but the execution sucked. Maybe this gets better later in the book but I really don't care to continue.

[Chris The Lizard from Planet X · Rating 2 out of 5]

When Predator: Hunting Grounds was announced I was pretty surprised and excited, especially when I saw who the authors were. Both authors have previously written for Predator, with Morris having actually co-written the most recent Predator novel, The Predator’s novelisation. And Moore was responsible for The Predators: Hunters and Hunted, the prequel novel to The Predator that is leagues ahead of the actual film, and easily one of my favourite Predator novels! He’s also written some great entries for the Alien series.

With the recent Predator: Hunting Grounds game being a multiplayer focused game, I was very curious to see how “Stalking Shadows” actually tied into the game. Though not sticking exactly to the lore from Hunting Grounds, the connection is focused around Dutch’s story as told in Illfonic’s OWLF recordings, and presumably the new Dutch tapes. Beware spoilers below:

I’m sorry to say I actually struggled with Predator: Stalking Shadows. That was primarily because it felt like it took two thirds of the novel for anything really interesting to start to happen. Though not mentioned in the synopsis, the back of the actual novel prominently declares that DUTCH IS BACK! and while he makes an appearance at the beginning of the novel, he’s not the focus of the book at all.

Instead, our attention is on Special Forces Marine Scott Devlin, who spends the majority of the novel being less informed than the reader and Dutch, and it became frustrating for me waiting for things to kick in. We follow the military career of Scott from 1997 to 2023, where Scott spends most of the novel working other roles within the military – as a clean-up squad, and then counter-terrorism – but comes across the aftermath of several Predator encounters, before he is eventually brought into the fold.

And while his accidental involvement in Predator activity is a nice mirror to the thematic setup of Predator: Hunting Grounds, that it takes so long of the novels page count to actually get him up to speed with us is a frustration I have with tie-ins. This frustration is increased by the small number of Predator novels we get, because I just want to get to the new and exciting!

That said, I did genuinely like the characters that Moore and Morris crafted. Devlin came across as a very intelligent and likable, and the bond between his closest unit members was really satisfying. Devlin’s friendship with his second in command, Marcus, was also particularly satisfying to see develop and grow.

However, in terms of actual Predator focused scenes, there was just too little. With Dutch’s return introduced so soon in the novel, I just wanted Devlin to get caught up to speed and involved with the legendary Predator character much earlier! That Dutch was actually in this novel made it something of a huge deal! 20th Century Fox had been very protective of the character in case Dutch ever made a return on the big screen that he wasn’t allowed to be used in the Predator expanded universe. I wanted to spend more quality time with him! Not waiting for Devlin to get caught up with me!

It’s made increasingly frustrating by the fact that I can’t even see how Devlin ties into the actual game. Is he supposed to be Zeus? It all just feels empty. The OWLF recordings do a more satisfying job of filling us in the activities of Dutch and OWLF in tracking the Predator activities than Stalking Shadows does.

There are a total of three actual Predator scenes throughout the book . We get a single chapter with Dutch’s team early on, which brought the Predator scouts from the game into play. When Devlin and his team is finally brought up to speed, we get our most interesting encounter in which the characters secure a downed Predator ship and end up fighting some Predator Hounds who are not described like any of the two versions we’ve seen so far, before the surviving Predator is anti-climatically killed by throwing some grenades into a cave.

The final encounter with a pair of Predators rounds out the end of the novel, and while having a lot more emotional impact than the other two encounters, it didn’t seem to have as much actual page space. The Predators themselves don’t feel particularly interesting either. They tend to only last the chapter that they’re encountered in, and while they take some human lives, they don’t feel particularly intimidating. They’re not given the chance to have any character themselves.

Most disappointing to me is how the big encounter between Dutch and the female Predators in the OWLF recordings isn’t the big action piece that it should be! It’s just recalled by Dutch to Devlin. Devlin just doesn’t seem to get to actually participate in much of the actual interesting developments that the recordings mention, or that the novel itself hypothesises. He’s just there

I think another reason I feel let down by Stalking Shadows was the fact that I enjoyed Predator: If It Bleeds, and The Predator: Hunters and Hunted so much more. Hunters and Hunted in particular feels like it did a similar story in a much more satisfying manner. It had a mentor figure who had survived the Predators, a team who was specifically after the Predators and actually up to speed from the very beginning, and a singular threatening Predator throughout the course of the novel.

Ultimately, I feel that a better attempt to fill in the caps between Predator 2 and Predator: Hunting Grounds would have been another anthology. If Titan or 20th Century Studios didn’t want to focus solely on Dutch, a better way to cover the events and developments while keeping Dutch looking like a legendary figure would have been short stories from members of his team, or OWLF, that looked on him from afar, but also got to tell mini-stories like the chapters of Stalking Shadows seemed to want to.

Predator: Stalking Shadows is very well written in regards to crafting its characters, but I just feel like the plotting decisions could have been better. Unfortunately, I do feel that Predator: Stalking Shadows is one of the few Titan books that I don’t think I’ll be revisiting. I’d rather re-read Jim Moore’s previous Predator novel, or Bryan Schmitt’s Predator anthology, or Dark Horse Comics’ Predator Novelizations.

[Kasper Kade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. Cool to hear what Dutch has been up to since the movie.

[cosmic_truthseeker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reads largely as a military thriller with threads of Predator weaved in. This is also one of the first full novels to be released since 20th Century Studios deemed Alien, Predator, and AvP to be separate continuities, and it does some work to further establish the separate Predator timeline.

I've never been big on military stories. They're not really my thing. I like Aliens stories with the Colonial Marines because I like Alien and the soldiers are often on the back foot.

So when a lot of this book was focused on military operations, I wasn't sure it would grip me, but the tone and the presence of the Yautja (at first as a background element, later as the foes) got me involved, as did the characterisation of the protagonist, Scott Devlin.

Yes, Dutch Schaefer is back, but he's a side character whose main purpose is to drag Scott into the secret war against the Hunters.

Each chapter is focused on a specific event that leads Scott into this world. There are time jumps, but I - personally - feel like these were implemented well, rather than having chapters that drag out the mundane scenes, avoiding the repetition of same-old-same-old. We get quick summaries that verge of "tell not show" but get us into the action that matters.

The dynamic of Scott and his team was great and felt real. The battle scenes were well done, capturing the chaos without leaving me clueless as to what was happening. And the Predators felt lore-accurate in terms of motives and actions.

Obviously, there was a fair bit of setup for the game to which this novel is a prequel, so threads were left untied, but it was still a solid story all round.

Downsides come from moments of meandering, odd directions, and certain aspects that weren't explored as thoroughly as I would have liked. The writing was good but nothing mind-blowing.

Another negative for me (but not a contributor to my overall rating) is that it references The Predator, which is a film I despise and wish would be retconned from the Predator continuity.

And in terms of connecting to my personal canon for Alien, Predator, AvP as one universe, though, it fits in overall if certain elements are ignored - and I feel they can be ignored without direly affecting the story, and could possibly even be explained away with future-tech from Weyland Corp etc.

[Christopher Shields · Rating 2 out of 5]

The problem with the ALIEN / PREDATOR / Colonial Marine fiction universe is that it is pretty much comprised of hack authors bringing adult science fiction down to a teen fiction level. This book is an example of an author who wrote a military science fiction book without knowing anything about military science fiction, military, or science. It's a guilty pleasure of mine to see how an author handles weapons in their story ... are they accurate or are they like a kid trying to write their first action story? Sadly, in this case, it is the latter.

The story would have made a good sequel to Predator 2, bringing Arnold's character "Dutch" Schafer back into the story line, but Dutch is played off like some sock puppet attempting Deus Ex Machina. The main character is a bad ass Marine who gets transferred to a black ops type unit that is run worse than the Muppet Show. EVERY mission the main character goes on they encounter a predator in one way or another. There are government agencies "working" with each other to their own ends creating a kind of juvenile friction, cut and paste characters, main characters that you realize early on are just there because they are warm bodies filling a narative space until they can get conveniently killed off in some forelorn hope of generating reader sympathy for the main character. Dutch moves in and out of the story in a way that is hardly believable and then there's my guilty pleasure ... military hardware.

How does the author handle their weapons? Writing about weapons is as much a stickler for me as proper weapon training. I cringe when I see people who don't understand proper trigger discipline or who swing their loaded (and unloaded) weapons around at a shooting meet. The same goes for authors like this one who apparently don't understand that a missile launcher does not fire rockets. A rocket launcher fires rockets, a missile launcher fires missiles, yet several times in the story, the main characters come under rocket fire from missile launchers. The main characters hump through the jungle carrying HK MP5s instead of M4s, and their sidearms are "revolvers" (never a make or model given) instead of the more traditional semi-automatic handguns that most military forces equip their special ops with. I was seriously waiting for the author to start using the word "clip" instead of "magazine", except that like in the movies, the characters literally fire full automatic for long minutes without ever reloading and then there are the soldiers, trained soldiers with years of experience, referring to their weapons as "guns". The description of the weapons in action also felt like an amateur had written it, with one part of the description sounding like the bullets were firing their selves. I had to go back and listen to that part twice before I realized that it made no sense and just moved on.

Specifically, there was one part of the audiobook that I had to rewind and just laugh at. This probably isn't a fault of the author, more of the person who read the book aloud, another person who had little if any real world experience with military hardware, but the narrator referred to the weapon manufacturing company "Heckler and Koch" as "Heckler and Coke" and that was like doing 100mph and hitting one of those speed bumps in a parking lot of a shopping mall.

There were other instances of poor combat writing and very poor military behavior. The main characters encounter some hostages and proceed to use their food, water, and first aid kits to help the hostages rather than keeping those items for their selves. It's a covert mission but this group of soldiers expose their selves to aid the refugees. Five soldiers try to pass around their supplies to 25 refugees. Another instance has the team on a covert mission in the desert, going for a strike to take out some important people, the team comes under fire, takes casualties, and retreats to a ... camp? Here's a "covert" strike mission ... with a fully equipped MASH unit and semi-permanent tent camp set up within fallback distance. How do you covertly set up around a target if you've set up a complete camp just a short distance away?!

Characters even carry grenades in their shirt pockets.

The action is cliched. The story is long and full of weak parts that really feel like the author tried to duct-tape entire sections together while saying "hold my beer", you see the ending coming a long time before it happens and the real ending to the story is so sophmoric that you'll just hang your head ... the ending of this story is kind of like that Robot Chicken Star Wars skit where Boba Fett takes on all the Ewoks and gets Princess Leia in her slave dress in the end and then it pans out to three fanboys with one of them saying "that's the greatest story evah!".

9/10 of this book really feels like that kind of high school writing. The ending of the story is so Mary-Sue that it's just ... bad.

I finished this story out of a courtesy to the author, and since I'd paid for it out of my audio book club membership, but it was a trudge to finish even with someone else reading me the story while I drove over hundreds of miles listening and imagining the images in my head. Since the advent of audiobooks, I've been catching up on the Predator / Alien / Colonial Marine fiction and ... yeah ... most of it really isn't good.

This could have been a good, maybe great book, it had the material, but it didn't have the foundation or the staying power and ultimately it comes off as a piece of high school fan fiction written by the pimple faced, denim jacket wearing nerd in algebra class who has SLAYER written in big letter ink on the front of his Trapper Keeper.

[Manny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a disappointment from a character I love. An amazing creature (Predator) and a returning character (Dutch; Arnold's character in the first movie) and so much potential not well developed in the end. Basically the story went like this, every chapter was a year after the events of the two first movies and nearly the same plot happened in every chapter, jungle or somewhere in the world, a predator and a group of soldiers dealing with the Predator. No originality in how they dealt with the creature, nor the plot or even how Predator killed some of these guys. If you've seen any of the Predator movies you've read this book.

[David Vinther · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't a bad read by any means, but it just really didn't deliver what I wanted from a Predator series book. There just wasn't enough action in this book for me. The fights with the aliens was just too few and far between, and didn't seem to last very long when they did happen. The book was just all set up. Even the parts where the soldiers were in an area where there could be an encounter with a Predator, it just didn't seem all that suspenseful. Disappointed.

[Andreas Foteas · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book follows only the story of the main character with very few encounters with Predators, Schaeffer and Stargazer. It is just the standard trope of recollection of stories with army grunts that do some tours around the world, told by their ranking officer. Too big of a letdown. I was expecting more Predator engagements and a larger Schaeffer presentation.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly great read. It is a bit of a slow burn but is very character focused. Every character is easy to keep track of (which is a problem in most military based books) and by the end I felt actually moved. Keeping the character of Dutch in the background and building out the story at a slower pace might not work for some, but it sure as hell worked for me.

[Ross Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action packed with great characterisation. The pacing and implementation of the backstory is handled brilliantly and it has a surprisingly emotional finale. The overall resolution is a little inconclusive but that’s understandable given that the novel leads into the recently released video game.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only reason I read this book was because the back cover proudly proclaimed the return of Dutch from the first movie. He shows up in the first chapter and then has "cameos" throughout the rest of the book, which was still fine with me. The book is actually about another soldier who inadvertently finds himself thrown into the mix of shadowy government organizations seeking to acquire as much info and tech about the alien hunters while seeking to find answers of his own; it focuses more on his "regular missions" and how they occasionally intersect with moments involving the Predators usually the aftermath of such an incursion. The character development is fine; the book held my interest from start-to-finish, and I found myself enjoying the book overall. It was a pretty fast read for me; I read it over breaks at work.

I think its biggest weakness is that it has so many time jumps in it. Each chapter is at least a year later, and the book moves from 1997 to 2023. So it's not like there can be a huge amount of character development because each chapter is about a specific moment in each year and then jumps ahead in time with the next chapter. I do think there is some character development, but it's more "subtle" than obvious. I think the second biggest weakness is regarding Dutch. This character was kept "protected" and was made unusable in the Predator Extended Universe in case Arnold Schwarzenegger ever returned to make a second movie. So when he appears at the very beginning of the movie, it's already been ten years since we last saw him in the jungle environment of the first movie (at least this novel got rid of the awful story told to Dutch's older brother by the general, about how Dutch started exhibiting bizarre symptoms, so he was dropped back into the jungle to die or survive on his own; or, this novel changes that story into a fairy tale the general made up to satisfy Dutch's older brother in Dark Horse's Predator comics and get John Schaefer off his back). I was hoping he'd make more appearances in this novel, but he was reduced to the occasional cameo, which was a bit of a disappointment. I still loved it when he appeared, and I did feel like he could have ended up like he was described in this book after hunting down Predators during future incursions after his experiences in the jungle. So even though Dutch does return, he's still not a main character and does not appear as much as I would have liked in this story. Finally, there were some moments in the book where it did seem to lag a little bit; not enough to ruin my enjoyment of the story, but it did seem to slow down at times.

Regarding the time jumps: I was "meh" about them, overall. I do not know if they helped or hindered the story; if the chapters had not been entitled with the year in which they took place and the story was told as if it was going from one moment to the next, I don't think it really changed anything. Well, other than maybe the character development; I probably would have thought the character development was not as good as it could have been if the chapters were all consecutive over a shorter period of time.

As it was, it was still a fun book to read. Most of the Predator stories I have read were printed by Dark Horse Comics, and I did not think they were necessarily the best stories. The best ones printed by Dark Horse were probably the first two involving John Schaefer (the Cold War story was a lot of fun to read, as it took place in Siberia), then one involving a SEAL time fighting a Predator underwater (I liked that one more because of the artwork), and Big Game (involving a Native American U.S. soldier fighting a Predator after it wiped out the soldier's unit while on some kind of maneuvers in the American Southwest). There was also a fun short story about a big game hunter in Africa who barely survives being hunted by a Predator. And who can forget the Batman vs. Predator crossover stories? The first of those was the best, and they probably went in the same order they were printed in terms of best-to-worst. I did read the first movie novelization way back when, and I have read a couple of novels as well (Forever Midnight and South China Sea) that I enjoyed. So, yeah, got a little off the beaten path, there, but I did find myself enjoying it, overall. I'd probably rate it 2.7 - 2.8 stars, rounded up to 3 stars, and I'm glad I took a chance on reading it.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tenía mis dudas respecto a este libro debido a las varias opiniones mixtas acerca de él. No obstante, decidí darle una oportunidad y no me siento tan decepcionado. La novela se centra mayormente en un joven soldado norteamericano que se abre camino en el ejército para luego toparse con unas misteriosas misiones encubiertas. El desarrollo de este personaje me pareció muy bien manejado, aunque hubiese preferido un enfoque mayor en el otro personaje estelar: Schaefer Dutch. El mítico protagonista de la primera película retorna en esta novela para seguir su lucha contra los Predadores a lo largo de unas cuantas misiones que añaden peso a su trágica vida luego de los traumatizantes eventos de Valverde. Dutch está marcado por la venganza, incapaz de escapar a la verdad sobre la existencia de unos seres bestiales que se dedican a la caza de humanos por deporte. Cada misión que encabeza suma a la carga que arrastra consigo, pues cada encuentro, aun cuando resulta exitoso, resulta fatal para algunos de los miembros de su grupo.

Predator: Stalking Shadows muestra de forma muy real y casi desgarradora lo que significa estar consciente de una cruda realidad que elude a las personas comunes. Dutch y Scott (el protagonista de la novela) nos muestran lo terrible que es enfrentar a tales pesadillas vivientes en la forma de los brutales Predadores. Y lo que implica vivir portando esa verdad hasta el amargo final, ya sea cayendo en combate o llegando milagrosamente a una edad en la que pelear sea imposible.

[Malcolm Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really solid sequel to the first two Predator films. Kicking off straight at the end of Predator 2 and having Dutch return from Predator 1. The story follows Devlin, a soldier initially tasked with securing the site where the Predator spaceship left the crater. Of course, he doesn't know a thing and, as the years go by, he learns a little more.
This has a great blend of new material following Devlin and his circle of friends as he finds his way deeper into the mystery and missions set in jungles and urban areas where Predators have done their thing which kept the feel of the films.
The story did a good job giving the peripheral characters substance. They're not just cannon fodder foe the Predators, but living, breathing people that mean something to Devlin.
I go into these books hoping for a good time, but nothing more than that, this book really impressed me with its staying power. It'll be one I'll think about for some time.
This book claims to be the prequel for the video game Predator: Hunting Grounds. After a bit of research (I've not played it) I can safely say it has nothing to do with that failed project.

[Diogo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must say that I was surprised with this book, first I love the concept of the video game Predator:Hunting Grounds and then it is amazing to see the return of the main/legendary character of all the Predator franchise, Arnold Schwarzenegger (Major Alan Schaeffer "Dutch"). The story is centered on U.S. Marine Scott Devlin, a clean‑up operative in Los Angeles after the events linked to Predator 2. We can follow his journey, tracking his investigations around the globe (Equatorial jungle, Scottish Highlands, Mexico). The different scenarios and missions were solid and full of suspense and mystery.
The protagonists - Scott Devlin and his Team (Marcus, Lau, Flynn). They have backstory, a solid friendship/fellowship, humour and determination. The way they behaved felt like a realistic battalion. The cooperation between Scott Devlin´s Team and Dutch´s Team was marvelous. The Predator interventions and appearances were fantastic, a ritualistic hunting with a raw brutality and brutal deaths.

If you are indeed a Predator fan, I really recommend this book and also advise to try the video game Predator: Hunting Grounds.

[Terry Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coming into Stalking Shadows, I had low expectations (it is a prequel to a video game); however, I was pleasantly surprised. First, the connections made between the original Predator movie and Predator 2 and The Predator were fun. Part of the attraction of books like this--in the AvP universe--is the shared universe. It was particularly fun to see Dutch return and get a glimpse of what he had become. Second, the pacing was solid: “Dropping in” on the protagonist, Scott Delvin, every few months or even years was a smart move by James A. Moore. It allowed characters and plotlines to develop at an organic and intelligent rate while keeping the action relatively high. It sort of felt like an episodic video game which--for this genre--absolutely works. The only criticism I would offer would be the one-dimensionality of the characters. Delvin and Dutch are just good through and through while the villains--both predator and human--are bad. Not much development in either direction. That being said, this book was a quick and enjoyable read.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Predator: Stalking Shadows follows the story of Scott Devlin who is a US Marine soldier. As he carries out his usual mission, he discovered brutal acts are being carried out against the people he is trying to stop. I.e. terrorists and drug cartel members. As he explores even more, he uncovers more secrets to this horrifying discovery. At the same time, we are re-introduced to Dutch Schaefer who teamed up with Scott to stop those hunters.

Overall, it was a great story. the predators are portrayed based on how we saw them on TV and how strong a fighter they are. They really gives the protagonists a hard time which should be the case because going on one on one, the predator should be a more superior fighter hence, the humans would have to team up to stop them. With regards to the humans, I suppose to a certain extent, I do care about what happen to them and I like how they bond together and fight as one.

[peachrings · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't played the video game, so I admittedly don't know how well this book ties in or doesn't. However, I'll say that I found the writing to be mediocre and clunky at times (disappointingly, as I enjoyed James A. Moore's other Predator book, Hunters and Hunted.) Scenes featuring the titular aliens are very minimal, and the main character didn't interest me much. Most of this reads like a standard action/military book, complete with all manner of clichéd soldiers padding out the background. I know that's somewhat par for the course for this franchise, but compared to many of the other novels I've read, this one was particularly skimpy on actual Predator content. If you like Predator for the action heroes and fight sequences, you might very well enjoy this, but if you're interested in the alien itself, you'll no doubt find yourself skimming like I did.

[Mr Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Predator sequel that should have been.

A time-hopping story set throughout the Predator series that follows the life of Scott Devlin (a badass marine of course) as he slowly gets introduced to the hunters and their history. Battling with the increasing attacks from the hunters, terrorists and getting some extra help from Dutch (yeap that one).

I really enjoyed this book, Scott was a good character who wanted to learn more and be better at his job than just a gun-blazing marine. The fight scenes are well written and really feel like a hunt than just a battle. It links in nicely with the films with nods to other stories as well.

As a book that seems to be just thrown together to promote the new game I really enjoyed it and honestly would have loved to see this as a film than Predator 2.

[Alexa Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just what you expect from a GOOD Predator story.

The character development is good, and it's always a pleasure to hear from familiar characters.
The action scenes are well-written, and the always human POV makes the story feel a little more like the original, with more mystery surrounding the Yautja.

I wish Dutch would have expanded more about his encounter with *that* particular Yautja, since it's different from the usual. Still, greatly recommended for any fan of the series, and for anyone interested in learning more about it.
This could be made into a pretty good movie, especially considering *someone*'s current age.

[MrG LikesBooks&Booze · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story follows Scott Devlin throughout his career in special operations with tangential interaction with clandestine units and organizations associated with the Predator threat.
I was not a fan of the "military structure" that was depicted in the novel, nor the "career path" but such complaints really don't have any bearing on the story itself.
The story flows in a quick and linear manner. The reader sees the world through Scott Devlin's eyes and begins to see more and more revealed throughout the novel,
While I didn't particularly enjoy some of the plot decisions, they made sense, and the author does a good job of using those to develop characters and progress the story.

[Ione · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was not bad, but also not my favorite. Mostly because there wasn't a lot of yautja activity, for me at least. They showed up a couple of times, but mostly after an encounter had already happened. I wasn't really invested in the characters with this one unfortunately. I did feel a little heart strings pull when one of the characters died at towards the end. Even though they didn't have a large part. Maybe because it was a moment when the main character actually expressed a bit a vulnerability as well with this individuals death.

Not bad, not great. It was a Predator book though so, still happy I had a chance to listen to this one too.

[Kyle Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sneaky good read. I've read several Predator novels, but they typically have been futuristic and based on human expansion to colony worlds, etc. This picks up where Predator 2 leaves off and follows Scott Devlin and associates through missions that deal with encounters, or near encounters, over several years. And the return of "Dutch" was a huge bonus. Love that they were able to bring him back into the fold! Allusions to the films were a definite green flag for this novel and I'm thinking I may need to buy the PS4 game "Hunting Grounds" to see if that ties into this as well. I'm glad I randomly saw this novel on sale and took the chance.

[Pathos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meandering and yawn-inducing in the belabored buildup, so much so I came awfully close to dropping this (all the time jumps don't help)... but once Dutch shows up (sporadically) it remains pretty solid if only for the way it expands on the lore on Dutch himself and the overall mythology following on from Predator 2 (movie). Indeed, would have liked way more in that department.

Still, satisfied enough to have "read" it, cringey epilogue aside. The audio book itself was well narrated, though the narrator doesn't ever really try to do an Arnie impersonation, which is both good and bad.

[Coca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun addition to the franchise of the Predator movies.

It follows a military service member Scott Devlin, through his career. As he's progressing through the service he keeps a book of notes of strange things that add up over time, pointing to something unbelievable. There's something out there hunting people.

These are a guilty pleasure for me. The entire franchise is fun, the stories are usually quick, and they provide a nice throwback to the sci-fi horror movies I loved as a kid.

[Griffith Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

The story has a big decade spanning scope that works really well for character development but each significant event feels episodic & isolated. A heavy military focus on all the skills & weapons humans can pull together to kill Yautjas. Each action scene is exciting & has visceral writing to show all the carnage interactions with killer aliens will bring. Building off the first two films adds interesting details that are worth exploring. Plot points are a bit convenient & typical but overall this is a lot of bloody fun.

[Allan Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent

If you like the Predator movies you will likely enjoy this book. Doesn't really add much to the lore of the series but otherwise is easy to read. Some of the military details are way off and the descriptions of the engagements with the Predators could be better, seems to have more in common with Predator 2 than the original on that score in that the Predators never really have the menace of the original movie.

[Sierra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sorry, maybe it's my high expectations, but this was boring. Slice of life with the team bonding, but it is so boring for a predator book. The time jumps just make the previous chapters feel pointless to read. You can literally jump to 2013 chapter and not feel like you missed anything. It's just your typical predator vs. human story. And the whole Dutch thing was a letdown, honestly. Yeah, he's there, but he's not who you follow throughout the story and just pops in and out. Meh.

[Maya Malice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was a decently fun read to get to know how a Predator hunting task force was born and see what Dutch got up to after the events of Predator and Predator 2. That said the pacing of the whole book felt off. Long stretches without much happening, and only a couple of pages of action at a time. Worth a read if you're a big Predator fan, but you're not missing much if you decide not to.