Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey

AVP Books

by Bryan Thomas Schmidt (Editor), Jonathan Maberry (Editor)

The first anthology of original short stories featuring the confluence of two iconic properties, as the Predators seek the ultimate prey: the Xenomorphs from Alien

The ultimate hunters, the Predators, are pitted against their ultimate prey, the Xenomorphs, with humans caught in the middle! Taking place on Earth and in distant space, these tales have been crafted by a who's who of today's most talented authors of the fantastic:

David Barnett - Roshni Rush Bhatia - Curtis C. Chen - Delilah S. Dawson - Mira Grant - Susanne L. Lambdin - Jess Landry - Yvonne Navarro - E. C. Myers - Scott Sigler - Maurice Broaddus - Chris Ryall -Bryan Thomas Schmidt - Steven L. Sears - Jonathan Maberry and Louis Ozawa

With fifteen new and original stories, this first-of-its-kind anthology is inspired by the events of the original Aliens vs. Predators movies, graphic novels, and novels. Includes a new story written by Jonathan Maberry and Louis Ozawa (Hanzo from the movie Predators) as Hanzo's brother faces the eternal threats of both the Yautja and the Xenomorphs.

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Aliens, Fiction, Audiobook, Short Stories, Anthologies

1 pages, Audio CD

First published March 1, 2022

About the author

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is a national bestselling author and Hugo nominated editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His fourth novel, Simon Says is a page-turning near future thriller. His debut novel, The Worker Prince received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases for 2011. His children’s books, 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Books For Kids and Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter- Land Of Legends appeared from Delabarre Publishing in 2012. His short stories have appeared in Tales of The Talisman, Straight Outta Tombstone, The X-Files: Secret Agendas, Predator: If It Bleeds, Decision Points and many more.

He edited the anthologies Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 for Flying Pen Press, Beyond The Sun for Fairwood Press, Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera For a New Age for Every Day, Shattered Shields with coeditor Jennifer Brozek (Baen, 2014), Mission: Tomorrow (Baen, 2015), Galactic Games (Baen, 2016), Decision Points (WordFire, 2016), Little Green Men--Attack! with Robin Wayne Bailey (Baen, 2017), Monster Hunter Files with Larry Correia (Baen, 2017), Joe Ledger: Unstoppable with Jonathan Maberry (St. Martin's Griffin, 2017), Predator: If It Bleeds and Infinite Stars And Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers both for Titan Books, 2017 and 2019.

As editor, he has edited books for Grail Quest Books, Wordfire Press, Delabarre Publishing and authors including Andy Weir's The Martian which hit number 6 on the New York Times Bestsellers list in 2014, Alan Dean Foster, Mike Resnick, Frank Herbert, Todd McCaffrey, Tracy Hickman, Angie Fox, Leon C. Metz , Ellen C. Maze, David Mark Brown, and more.

He’s also the author of the bestselling nonfiction book How To Write A Novel: The Fundamentals of Fiction.

Bryan can be found online at Facebook, on Twitter as @BryanThomasS and @sffwrtcht and via his website.

Reviews

[Benji's Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection of AVP stories, most of which I enjoyed. There were maybe one or two in the bunch that I wasn't a fan of, but overall, a decent read. It could have been a lot better, though.

I much prefer the two Predator anthologies we've gotten, however and I still have yet to read Aliens: Bug Hunt, another anthology collection.

One of my favorites was quite possibly its darkest tale, "Homestead" by Delilah Dawson, in which a pregnant Lucy in the Old West deals with childbirth while encountering aliens of the facehugger and Yautja variety.

Another would be the entry by Scott Sigler, known mostly for his book, "Alien: Phalanx". It's a continuation of the characters from that book going on another adventure of sorts and was nice to read about them again.

My favorite overall, was the final story, which served as a semi-sequel to Predators. It features Hanzo's brother finding himself on the distant planet his brother found himself on in the 2010 film. The story is actually written by Jonathan Mayberry and Hanzo himself, Louis Ozawa.

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

I've been a lifelong fan of both the Alien and Predator franchises since my uncle lent me VHS's of Aliens and Predator when I way, way too young to be watching them. Five is an appropriate age for those films, right? Ever since watching them I fell in love with those creatures and their universes, so the combined Alien vs Predator media was an absolute must for me. Whether it was graphic novels, books, video games, or movies, I engrossed myself in whatever I could get. When it was announced that Titan Books would be producing stories teaming up these two creatures I was especially excited, not least because their two separate anthology books, Aliens: Bug Hunt and Predator: If It Bleeds, were excellent.

The first story in this novel is 'Below The Secret' by Chris Ryall, and acts as a nice entry point into the book. This story follows April, a young woman who wanting to do something a bit different and wild agreed to take part in a storming of Area 51. Joining up with a group of people she meets online she thinks it will be a bit of silly fun that won't go anywhere, that will enable her to get some cool pictures for social media, and won't really amount to much. However, as the group enters the grounds she and Brockton split off from the others and head to a non-descript building where Brockton claims the real secrets are held. The two of them get inside using information Brockton bought, and discover an elevator that takes them deep underground, and brings them face to face with the deadly secrets hidden inside the facility.

This story takes place in our world as we know it now, a world with people looking for ways to boost their social media following, doing silly Internet challenges, and looking for thrills to distract them from the boredom of regular life. As such, it feels like a shock when the characters come face to face with the titular creatures, even though we obviously know its coming. In some ways this story feels like it could be part of the same universe as the films, where these creatures have been using Earth as a hunting ground and various governments and private companies have taken notice. With some surprising moments and great tension, its a brilliant start to this collection.

The second story, 'Isla Maranzas' by Steven L. Sears, is a historical piece, one told in the form of what seems to be a written account of a man stranded on an island somewhere in the Caribbean in the 1770's. This narrator, whose name we don't learn, was shipwrecked on the island two years ago, and has been surviving the best he can, avoiding the deadly creatures that call it home. He has come to believe that this island is a home to a war between demons and angels as he has seen monstrous Malvados, creatures that burst from the chest and grow into monstrosities, fighting against Nephilim, giant warriors in armour who came down from the heavens. When another ship arrives off the coast the narrator must warn the sailors not to come ashore, for fear that they fall victim to these deadly demons.

I adored this story. The historical setting was wonderful, and something that I always enjoy seeing the Predators dropped into. Seeing it through the eyes of a man who has no context for the reality of things, and has come to the conclusion that he's seeing angels and demons is delightful in its ingenuity. The story also showcases some amazing Black women warriors, who were made slaves but come into their own in this setting and prove themselves to be worthy of the respect of the Yautja; and its absolutely delightful.

'Homestead' by Delilah S. Dawson is another historical piece, though no definitive time is given for when it takes place. Set somewhere during the expansion into Wild West, the story follows Lucy, the heavily pregnant wife of a farmer. Lucy is alone at her homestead as her husband, Robert is in town. Lucy begins to experience strange things around the land, seeing odd shapes moving out in the fields, and feeling like she's being watched. When something starts happening to her cattle, when monsters rip out of their bellies, Lucy is forced to flee to the next farm for help. But with the creatures everywhere, and her labour starting, safe haven might be hard for Lucy to find.

In all of the stories collected in this book the reader knows more than the characters involved. We know how bad the Xenomorphs are, we understand the rules for not getting killed by a Yautja, but I don't think the tension of knowing all this ever felt as high as in this story. As soon as Lucy is finding odd things around the farm I was begging for her to get away, to run, and the fact that she didn't was such a source of tension. The fact that Lucy goes into labour during the story, has to contend with her child coming into the world whilst surviving against these monsters, just made it so much more frightening too. Delilah S. Dawson does such an amazing job here, and I want to see her do more in this universe.

Have you ever thought 'what if we combine Aliens and Predator with a haunted house story?' Chances are you haven't, but this is exactly what David Barnett does with 'The Hotel Mariposa', and its so wonderfully weird and unique because of it. This story tells the tale of a trio of reality TV stars, hosts of American Spook-Chasers, who've come to an abandoned and haunted hotel to try and get some proof of the paranormal, boost their ratings, and keep their show in production. The hotel has stories of ghostly figures, shifting hallways, and every few decades people found dead inside with holes in their chests. They've come to capture ghosts on camera, but little do they know that an alien hunter is watching them from the shadows, waiting for its prey to make an appearance.

'The Hotel Mariposa' is basically what would happen if a TV ghost hunting show ever got caught in the middle of an Alien vs Predator story. The three people who get caught up in the middle are pretty open minded, but never considered aliens to be a thing. Unfortunately for them, not only are they real, but the hotel really does seem to shift and warp reality whilst they're inside it. This isn't the paranormal, and there's a very clever sci-fi explanation for this, but the changing interior and ghostly visions add some extra spooky wrinkles to this story.

'Planting and Harvest' by Mira Grant is set on a deep space research station named Philomelus, a place where scientists have come together to work on new food strains, new proteins, and fast growing foods that could help change the landscape of space travel, colonisation, and the military. Whilst most of this research is fairly benign, it's done in the remoteness of space so that if anything does go wrong it can be easily contained, and so that the secrets they develop can remain in the hands of their company. Unfortunately, this remoteness becomes a serious problem when a shuttle filled with Xenomorphs docks on the Philomelus. In less than a day the creatures have spread throughout the station, killing all but a single scientist who was able to lock herself away in her lab. Desperate, and knowing that she won't survive without help, she sends out a distress signal into the deep reaches of space; a signal that is picked up by a passing Yautja hunting party.

The initial set-up for 'Planting and Harvest' seemed like a fairly standard Alien vs Predator story, a place becomes overrun with Xenos, the Yautja come in to hunt them. Whilst Mira Grant doesn't do anything with the set up that sets it apart from others the rest of the story really do feel quite different for a few reasons. The first is that Grant expands a part of the universe that most folks would never really think about, the huge demand for food stuffs and crops in this future. The details that Grant give are interesting and adds new layers to things. Some of the odd stories of the difficulties that come from this and the results when things go wrong were strangely delightful, and something that I very much enjoyed. The other thing that I really liked about this was that the lone human helped the Yautja to hunt down and kill the aliens, but not in the normal way we see. She didn't pick up a weapon and fight beside them to earn their honour, but instead used her brains to help save the day.

Susanne L. Lambdin's 'Blood and Honor' sees a human and a Yautja teaming up in slightly different ways when Kai Kentarus finds herself stranded and alone on a remote world where Yautja are hunting not just Xenomorphs, but a pair of queens too. Having been betrayed by her lover, poisoned and left to die, Kai is forced to struggle through this hellish landscape, avoiding deadly creatures as she goes. Someone who has gone up against the deadly hunters and barely survived in the past, Kai is astonished to find herself helping a captured female Yautja to escape from one of her own kind. It appears that a male hunter has gone rogue, turning on the female Yautja whilst also hunting the two queens that are at war. With threats from every side, Kai and her new ally, Blood Venom, must work together to survive.

In comparison to the previous story, this is much more of what I expect when a human and a Yautja end up working together; though there are some new twists on this formula. The most obvious thing is that there's a kind of civil war going on in both alien groups. For the Xenomorphs this is an ancient, infertile queen battling for dominance with a new, younger queen, and for the Yautja it's a rogue male that has begin hunting and torturing the females. There's no real reason given for this male hunter's turn, it's possible that he's a bad blood, or from a rival clan, but it kind of doesn't matter in this story, and instead it's a nice reflection of what Kai is going through as her former lover has tried to kill her. Males enacting violence against women isn't just limited to humans it seems. I also loved the fact that Kai is a trans woman. It's not a major part of the story, and it's not something that needed to be included, but as a lifelong fan of these franchises who's herself trans, it's amazing to see someone like myself included in this way.

'Carbon Rites' by Jess Landry is a story with something of a mystery. It begins by introducing us to Blake, a young woman who lives in the quiet town of Morden. Blake has never left the town, has lived there since she was born, yet dreams of one day getting to go off and explore the world. Little does she know that there's a huge secret hidden beneath Morden, one that she's going to have to face if she's going to make it through the night. When a trio of armed strangers enter her diner as she's getting ready to close one night Blake discovers that a strange creatures is hunting her from the shadows.

There's a huge mystery element to 'Carbon Rites', one that makes me reluctant to talk too much about the story through fear of giving some of the answers away. The story has a very strange feel to it the moment it begins, and things don't feel quite right the more that we get t learn. As Blake fights to make it through the night these mysteries deepen, and you find yourself getting really dragged in to this story in ways you're not expecting.






'First Hunt' by Bryan Thomas Schmidt makes the human characters a secondary focus, as we begin this tale by being introduced to a group of Yautja out on the hunt. Bo'kui is an older hunter, one who has trained many young warriors and presided over their first hunts, their passage to adulthood. He now watches on as a trio of young warriors stalk their ultimate prey across a world that has recently become home to a new human colony. As the hunt descends upon the humans homes Bo'kui must make sure that his three charges don't do anything to bring dishonour to themselves as they battle the deadly Xenomorphs.

I really liked the fact that 'First Hunt' took a different approach to some of the other stories in the book and gave the Yautja a good deal of the focus. Other stories in this collection have at times followed the alien hunters, getting in their heads and showing us how they tick, but none to the degree that this story does; where half of it is told from their point of view. This gives us a lot of insight into how the Yautja think, how they feel during a hunt, and a look at the cultural significance their hunts and the way they comport themselves has. When the story shifts back to the humans we get a good sense of the horror that they're facing, coming into contact with both species for the first time, and trying desperately to survive in increasingly desperate odds. There are some genuinely frightening moments here, and it makes you glad you're not stuck on that world with them.

Yvonne Navarro delivers a surprisingly thought provoking and moving story in 'Abuse, Interrupted' as we see what happens when Jazz, a woman being abused by her partner, decides that she's finally going to try and escape her situation; only to find herself getting caught in the middle of an alien battle. This is the only story in this collection where the Xenomorphs and the Yautja aren't the real horrors, where they're not the thing that makes your skin crawl or leads you to feel afraid.

Navarro spends a good portion of the story letting readers get to know Jazz, and to understand her situation before anything happens that fits with the themes of this collection. It's done so well that I actually forgot that I was reading an Alien vs Predator story for a while, as I'd become invested in Jazz and her story. Navarro is able to get you to feel for Jazz incredibly quickly, and whilst seeing her facing off against alien monsters leads to some moments where you feel in awe of her strength and bravery, its when she comes face to face with the man who's been abusing her that you really begin to see the strength of her character. This might be an uncomfortable read for some, especially if you've been the victim of domestic abuse yourself, but it's well worth the read.

'Better Luck To Borrow' by Curtis C. Chen follows Lily Shóu, an incredibly gifted young teen who's trying to make a shady deal with a Weyland Yutani employee to sell them secret specimens whilst on a school trip. Lily found several strange alien creatures in stasis in her late parent's lab and has made a deal to sell them, but when the stasis fails the creatures, facehuggers, are released onto the boat they're on, infecting several large rat creatures. With Xenomorphs now loose on the boat and killing students things get even worse when a strange ship approaches and unleashes a deadly hunter.

This story felt like an odd one tonally, because it was very clearly a story that didn't hold anything back in terms of horror and gore, with folks getting ripped apart or teens having limbs burnt off by acid blood, but at the same time it felt like a YA story thanks to the young cast of characters and the competent female teen lead. It was a strange combo, but it really worked, and I definitely want to see more stories in this universe play in this kind of territory. I also really liked Lily, and found her to be an engaging and well developed lead for such a short story. It was also great to have a lead character with a disability getting to be a hero.

'Film School' by Roshni 'Rush' Bhatia tells its story mostly through flashback as woman is detained by security forces, being questioned about how she and her colleagues broke quarantine to land on the planet Tenebris. The woman was part of a documentary film crew, who decided to sneak onto the planet in order to find out what happened to the colony there, and why it's since been quarantined. After being dropped off by their ship they discover that the colony is deserted. Searching the surrounding area they find an infestation of Xenomorphs, and a group of Yautja hunting them for sport. Stuck with no way off world, the group have to try to survive until their ship comes back for them.

This was a really good story because even though I knew what was coming it still felt incredibly tense as the documentary crew made their way around Tenebris looking for answers. It's one of those situations where you know something awful is coming, and you're just waiting to see how it happens. The interpersonal relationships within the group, and the breakdown of the team as things go wrong were particularly interesting, and even though you knew the narrator was going to get out alive it never felt like she was particularly safe; which was an impressive feat.

'Night Doctors' by Maurice Broaddus centres on Nyota and Miles, a pair of siblings who live on the Weyland-Yutani colony of New Allensworth. Miles is sick with a cough and Nyota takes him to the medical facilities in order to receive treatment, something that she's a nervous about doing thanks to her knowledge of how Black people have been treated my the medical establishment throughout history. Nyota has heard of the stories of white doctors experimenting on Black people, of testing vaccines, and intentionally infecting them without permission or knowledge, and has a distrust around doctors. Unfortunately for Nyota and Miles, this is a part of history that doesn't seem to have died out, and the siblings find themselves learning about awful experiments.

I loved the fact that Maurice Broaddus drew inspiration from real world atrocities for this story, that he took a look at the things that the Black community have had to deal with for generations and thought about what might still happen in the future. The Alien universe has always been grim, and it's taken a dark approach to capitalist greed and how little faceless companies value human life; so it felt like no surprise that a company like Weyland-Yutani would experiment on people in order to get what they want. This is one of the few stories in the book where the alien creatures are far from the real monsters, and it's humanity that's the real force to fear.

E.C. Myers contributes 'Scylla and Charybdis', a story that has a slightly different take on the Yautja. When the colony ship Ketumani end up dead in space the crew are awoken to try and fix things. However, not long into the emergency a strange ship docks with them, and a large alien hunter boards them. Equipped with stealth technology and a strange projectile weapon, the creature stalks the crew through the ship, taking them out one by one. When the last of the crew is shot by the creature the story doesn't end, as this Yautja has been taking prisoners for a strange purpose.

I really liked this story. I enjoyed how the first half of the tale was a chilling story of a Yautja hunting this crew through their ship. There are some really tense and scary moments, and the captain becoming the last su

[jeremy dierst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a rarity for me reviewing a novel to give it more than 4 stars, but this is a winner. Being a fan of both franchises growing up, this anthology is a winner. Each and every story is just a short movie waiting to be made. The suspense and action are top-notch for every independent story. The right mix of authors and different plot lines gives the novel the right amount of variety, to keep the readers' interest.

[Shelley Barr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was another great collection of short stories, and with mostly all female leads. I found some better than others. The last 2 stories I’d have to say were my favorite. Another Mother….is a continuation of the novel Phalanx set 20 years later, with the introduction of a female Yautja, brought to this primitive planet to evaluate it as a potential hunting ground. She wasn’t supposed to hunt. Her clan elders protected her because she was the last of her line. When all she ever wanted was the honor of a real hunt just like her brothers before her. She longed to be blooded. So when she realizes that there’s “ hard meat “ xenomorphs on this planet, she’s joins forces with our main characters to take out the new Queen for her first hunt, so she can be blooded. I really loved how this was a short continuation from the novel.
The second story KYODAI, is definitely pulled from the movie Predators. Right from the beginning with Eiji falling from the sky, with the last thing he remembers is being in a gun fight. The cool twist with this is that the predators are using xenomorphs as hunting dogs, and Eiji brother who went missing was here before him. His brother was Hanzo, who is in the movie. Eiji comes across a shrine dedicated to his brother and the predator he killed. Not only does he find his brothers skinned back tattoo incased in glass, he also finds the sword that he killed the predator with. If you’ve seen the movie, you know where I’m going with this lol..I thought it was pretty cool to do a continuation based on that character from the movie through the eyes of his younger brother. It was a good story. As with all good stories, I wish it was longer.
I’d recommend this book, all the stories were enjoyable, some more than others.

[Neon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically, fan fiction.

I was pretty disappointed by this collection of stories. Research was not done for most.

Often, there were conflicting facts and subplots, and i was often disappointed by the endings.

Could have been done better.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another anthology, another mixture of quality. For me, I found it was strongest towards the final few stories, and whilst none of them were awful, it took a little while for them to shine.

I've summarised my thoughts on each story, again, including a verdict on inclusion in my own personal opinion of Alien and Predator canon.

Below Top Secret
Set in 2019.
A weak start to the anthology, in my opinion. The story felt a bit rushed, inconsequential, with no real development to the characters. The action was bare bones and rather unsatisfactory; not memorable. Also not canon.

Isla Matanzas
Set in 1770.
Decent story. I struggled a little with the writing style, but it was an interesting concept. Wrapped up a little clunkily, maybe, but decent. And I can see it being canon.

Homestead
This one was okay, in that it captured the tension, fear, and confusion of being hunted by the Xenomorph, but I didn't like the "weak, stupid farmer's wife" angle in it (although maybe that was a clue to the ending). Yes, there was the mother side to it, which was good, but it felt like the author hated the character they'd made. Not a canon story, though. On Earth, far too many Xenos, and (spoilers) the AvP: Requiem "bellybursters".

The Hotel Mariposa
Post-2012
This one was good. It read like a proper horror story and even presented paranormal elements - even if they were given a sci-fi explanation. Well-written, too, even if I did initially doubt the present tense format. Better than Barnett's work on Colony War, certainly. Also fun to see Predator/Yautja language and culture. It can't be canon, though - Xenos on Earth in a crashed (Engineer?) ship. It would be discovered somehow by the time of Alien and Aliens.

Planting and Harvest
Set post-Aliens
Very good, if a little rushed at the end. Your typical "Xenomorph unleashed on Humans" story, with more focus on the Predators' reason for hunting them, with some quick bits of humans being killed. Good stuff, nothing groundbreaking but entertaining enough. Suited to canon, tech and such implies post-Aliens, possibly, but hard to pin down an exact date. I've put it somewhere between 2202 and 2219.

Blood and Honor
Set post-Aliens.
Plot-wise, this one was decent, but it was let down by the writing. The pacing was rough, description quite basic, and it bounced around a bit at first in a way that didn't really work. Felt like too many ideas crammed into a short story, so none of them really got to breathe. Too many inconsistencies with lore, too, for me to consider it canon.

Carbon Rites
Set after the establishment of the United Systems.
Another decent one from a storytelling perspective. I liked the setup, the plot, the delivery of the twists. It was entertaining. Not canon, though - some little inconsistencies with established lore, I think.

First Hunt
Set sometimes after Aliens.
This one seems to be a loose sequel to the story featuring Harrigan in the "If It Bleeds" anthology, albeit set in the far future. It's good stuff, though, I really enjoyed the insight into Predator hunting decorum. The human element wasn't particularly interesting, there was no time to really care about the characters, but it was delivered well. Aside from one minor inconsistency re: the Facehugger, I'd consider this canonical.

Abuse, Interrupted
Good. Short and sweet. Less focused on AvP, more on liberation from abuse, but it was well done overall. A rather loose ending, though, but that's okay, it leaves it on a high, I suppose. Not canon, though - stop putting Xenos on Earth.

Better Luck to Borrow
Set after Aliens.
This was pretty well-written and a pretty good story. Some pacing issues in that hours apparently passed, but good stuff. Some slightly clunky dialogue, some silly descriptors for the Xenos - I don't care if they came from rodents, they wouldn't have whiskers - but I'll put it as canon (minus Inconsistencies).

Film School
Post-Aliens, and possibly a later one, though before Weyland-Yutani's fall from grace.
A good story, well-written, well presented. It didn't give the Xenos and Predators as much of a starring role as I may have liked, but it still told a good story of innocent colonies falling victim to W-Y's greed.
Canonical.

Night Doctors
Set post-Aliens, probably alongside the other, farther future AvP stories.
This one was pretty good. A little heavy-handed on the racial themes at times, perhaps, but the theme of the sins of the past being repeated in the future was good. Aliens and Predators were well-handled in this one. A few inconsistencies, but they read more as Weyland-Yutani's misunderstandings than misinterpreted lore. Some good ideas presented and overall written well.
Canonical, in my eyes.

Scylla and Charybdis
After Aliens, before Colony War.
This was, oddly, a better story before the Xenomorph came into it - and even then the Xeno isn't very present. I liked the tension and mystery of the first part; the final act was a little rushed and, although it answered the mysteries, it wasn't particularly interesting. Still, it's suited to canon in my eyes.

Another Mother
Set a few decades after Aliens: Phalanx.
As a sequel to one of the best Alien novels out there, this did a very good job - although I wonder whether readers unfamiliar with Phalanx would struggle more. It presented a good plot and dynamic - characters from Phalanx dealing with resurgent Xenomorphs; female Predator seeking to prove herself. It was quick, but the pacing was well done (mostly), and I really enjoyed it.
Also, definitely canon.

Kyōdai
Set a few weeks after Predators.
Definitely one of the strongest stories in the anthology. I liked how much it focused on the character of Eiji, with the familiarity of the setting from Predators doing a lot of the work. We didn't need much of the Predators or the Xenomorph (which I think was underutilised and I'm not convinced by the control of them) to make the story good. The duel, though, was very well done, and the open ending was good. I could happily read more of this one. Canon.

Overall, an enjoyable exploration of this universe, and even in the weaker entries you could feel the passion of the authors about these properties.

I think all that was missing from these was a story with a PredAlien in it. That's something I'd love to read.

I'd certainly recommend this one.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

You know the saying it's just stupid fun? Well, the Aliens vs. Pedators franchise, a spin-off of their original IPs, certainly lends itself well for that sort of thing and would be the perfect vehicle to explore all kinds of silly but engaging ideas.

Unfortunately though AvP: Ultimate Prey decidedly leans into the plain stupid side of things, rather than anything else. An anthology that's glorified fan-fiction at best and pandering nonsense at worst (lazily executed to boot). Regarding that last point: I don't even want to go into the outrageous settings that some of the authors have dreamt up but to say that it doesn't feel genuine at all would be an understatement.

When it's not being completely ridiculous you're left with a collection of short stories that seemingly plays it safe and constantly regurgitates the same plot over and over again. And with fifteen of these, that gets old fast.

When all is said and done there's maybe one or two stories in here which are worth your time. So unless you've read everything and are somehow still craving more Aliens vs Predators content I don't see why you would want to bother with this. It really does feel like that other saying of something with mud, a wall, and seeing what sticks...

[Roeland Struik · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories in this anthology are as diverse as their authors, broaching subjects from domestic abuse to African-American history. These topics provide deeper meaning to what sometimes can be a shlocky monster battle gorefest. These stories, however, are not for everyone and I can imagine they can be triggering. Pregnant women being stalked, for example, are not my cup of tea.

One of my favorite stories was Sigler's 'Another Mother' - one of the reasons I picked up this book. The attack of the xenomorph capybaras from hell was amazingly hilarious. Other stories were genuinely scary, heartfelt, funny or exceedingly strange.

I thought it was great that the stories did nog feel repetitive. For lovers of Aliens and Predators and the people caught in the middle, this book has something for everyone.

[Chris The Lizard from Planet X · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultimate Prey is an anthology that collects fifteen Alien and Predator-centric short stories, and while all of the stories feature the Yautja And Xenomorphs in one way or another, they showcase different scenarios that take place at different points throughout the ages, where man has come face-to-face with both alien creatures. And while this collection is clearly intended for Alien and Predator fans, most of the stories found in this anthology are easily accessible to those who aren’t entirely familiar with the franchise.

The first story in this novel is 'Below The Secret' by Chris Ryall, and acts as a nice entry point into the book. This story follows April, a young woman who wanting to do something a bit different and wild agreed to take part in a storming of Area 51. Joining up with a group of people she meets online she thinks it will be a bit of silly fun that won't go anywhere. However, as the group enters the grounds she and Brockton split off from the others and head to a non-descript building where Brockton claims the real secrets are held. The two of them get inside using information Brockton bought, and discover an elevator that takes them deep underground, and brings them face to face with the deadly secrets hidden inside the facility. 

This story takes place in our world as we know it now, a world with people looking for ways to boost their social media following, doing silly Internet challenges, and looking for thrills to distract them from the boredom of regular life. As such, it feels like a shock when the characters come face to face with the titular creatures, even though we obviously know its coming. In some ways this story feels like it could be part of the same universe as the films, where these creatures have been using Earth as a hunting ground and various governments and private companies have taken notice. With some surprising moments and great tension, its a brilliant start to this collection.

The second story, 'Isla Maranzas' by Steven L. Sears, is a historical piece, one told in the form of what seems to be a written account of a man stranded on an island somewhere in the Caribbean in the 1770's. This narrator, whose name we don't learn, was shipwrecked on the island, and has been surviving the best he can, avoiding the deadly creatures that call it home. He has come to believe that this island is a home to a war between demons and angels. When another ship arrives off the coast the narrator must warn the sailors not to come ashore, for fear that they fall victim to these deadly demons.

I adored this story. The historical setting was wonderful, and something that I always enjoy seeing the Predators dropped into. Seeing it through the eyes of a man who has no context for the reality of things, and has come to the conclusion that he's seeing angels and demons is delightful in its ingenuity. The story also showcases some amazing Black women warriors, who were made slaves but come into their own in this setting and prove themselves to be worthy of the respect of the Yautja; and its absolutely delightful.

‘Homestead' by Delilah S. Dawson is another historical piece, Set somewhere during the expansion into Wild West, the story follows Lucy, the heavily pregnant wife of a farmer. Lucy is alone at her homestead as her husband, Robert is in town. Lucy begins to experience strange things around the land, seeing odd shapes moving out in the fields, and feeling like she's being watched. When something starts happening to her cattle, when monsters rip out of their bellies, Lucy is forced to flee to the next farm for help. But with the creatures everywhere, and her labour starting, safe haven might be hard to find.

In all of the stories collected in this book the reader knows more than the characters involved. We know how bad the Xenomorphs are, we understand the rules for not getting killed by a Yautja, but I don't think the tension of knowing all this ever felt as high as in this story. As soon as Lucy is finding odd things around the farm I was begging for her to get away, to run, and the fact that she didn't was such a source of tension. The fact that Lucy goes into labour during the story, has to contend with her child coming into the world whilst surviving against these monsters, just made it so much more frightening too. Delilah S. Dawson does such an amazing job here, and I want to see her do more in this universe.

Have you ever thought 'what if we combine Aliens and Predator with a haunted house story?' Chances are you haven't, but this is exactly what David Barnett does with 'The Hotel Mariposa', and its so wonderfully weird and unique because of it. This story tells the tale of a trio of reality TV stars, hosts of American Spook Chasers, who've come to an abandoned and haunted hotel to try and get some proof of the paranormal, but little do they know that an alien hunter is watching them from the shadows, waiting for its prey to make an appearance.

The Hotel Mariposa' is basically what would happen if a TV ghost hunting show ever got caught in the middle of a AvP story. The three people who get caught up in the middle are pretty open minded, but never considered aliens to be a thing. Unfortunately for them, not only are they real, but the hotel really does seem to shift and warp reality whilst they're inside it. This isn't the paranormal, and there's a very clever sci-fi explanation for this, but the changing interior and ghostly visions add some extra spooky wrinkles to this story.

'Planting and Harvest' by Mira Grant is set on a deep space research station, a place where scientists have come together to work on new fast growing foods that could help change the landscape of space travel. Whilst most of this research is fairly benign, it's done in the remoteness of space so that if anything does go wrong it can be easily contained, and so that the secrets they develop can remain in the hands of their company. Unfortunately, this remoteness becomes a serious problem when a shuttle filled with Xenomorphs docks on the station. In less than a day the creatures have spread throughout the station, killing all but a single scientist Desperate, and knowing that she won't survive without help, she sends out a distress signal into the deep reaches of space; a signal that is picked up by a passing Yautja hunting party.

The set up for 'Planting and Harvest' seemed like a fairly standard AvP story, a place becomes overrun with Xenos, the Yautja come in to hunt them. Whilst Grant doesn't do anything with the set up that sets it apart from others the rest of the story really do feel quite different for a few reasons. The first is that Grant expands a part of the universe that most folks would never really think about, the huge demand for food stuffs and crops. The details that Grant give are interesting and adds new layers to things. Some of the odd stories of the difficulties that come from this and the results when things go wrong were strangely delightful, and something that I very much enjoyed. The other thing that I really liked about this was that the lone human helped the Yautja to hunt down and kill the aliens, but not in the normal way we see. She didn't pick up a weapon and fight beside them to earn their honour, but instead used her brains to help save the day.

Susanne Lambdin's 'Blood and Honor' sees a human and a Yautja teaming up in slightly different ways when Kai Kentarus finds herself stranded and alone on a remote world where Yautja are hunting not just Xenomorphs, but a pair of queens too. Having been betrayed by her lover, poisoned and left to die, Kai is forced to struggle through this hellish landscape, avoiding deadly creatures as she goes. Someone who has gone up against the deadly hunters and barely survived in the past, Kai is astonished to find herself helping a captured female Yautja to escape from one of her own kind. It appears that a male hunter has gone rogue, turning on the female Yautja whilst also hunting the two queens that are at war. With threats from every side, Kai and her new ally, Blood Venom, must work together to survive.

This is much more of what I expect when a human and a Yautja end up working together; though there are some new twists on this formula. The most obvious thing is that there's a kind of civil war going on in both alien groups. For the Xenomorphs this is an ancient, infertile queen battling for dominance with a new, younger queen, and for the Yautja it's a rogue male that has begin hunting and torturing the females. There's no real reason given for this male hunter's turn, it's possible that he's a bad blood, or from a rival clan, but it kind of doesn't matter in this story, and instead it's a nice reflection of what Kai is going through as her former lover has tried to kill her. Males enacting violence against women isn't just limited to humans it seems. I also loved the fact that Kai is a trans woman. It's not a major part of the story, and it's not something that needed to be included, but as a lifelong fan of these franchises who's herself trans, it's amazing to see someone like myself included in this way. 

‘Carbon Rites' by Jess Landry is a story with something of a mystery. It begins by introducing us to Blake, a young woman who lives in the quiet town of Morden. Blake has never left the town, has lived there since she was born, yet dreams of one day getting to go off and explore the world. Little does she know that there's a huge secret hidden beneath Morden, one that she's going to have to face if she's going to make it through the night

There's a huge mystery element to 'Carbon Rites', one that makes me reluctant to talk too much about the story through fear of giving some of the answers away. The story has a very strange feel to it the moment it begins, and things don't feel quite right the more that we get t learn. As Blake fights to make it through the night these mysteries deepen, and you find yourself getting really dragged in to this story in ways you're not expecting.


‘First Hunt' by Bryan Thomas Schmidt makes the human characters a secondary focus, as we begin this tale by being introduced to a group of Yautja out on the hunt. Bo'kui is an older hunter, one who has trained many young warriors and presided over their first hunts, their passage to adulthood. He now watches on as a trio of young warriors stalk their prey across a world that has recently become home to a new human colony. As the hunt descends upon the humans homes Bo'kui must make sure that his three charges don't do anything to bring dishonour to themselves.

I really liked the fact that 'First Hunt' took a different approach to some of the other stories in the book and gave the Yautja a good deal of the focus. Other stories in this collection have at times followed the alien hunters, getting in their heads and showing us how they tick, but none to the degree that this story does; where half of it is told from their point of view. This gives us a lot of insight into how the Yautja think, how they feel during a hunt, and a look at the cultural significance their hunts and the way they comport themselves has. When the story shifts back to the humans we get a good sense of the horror that they're facing, coming into contact with both species for the first time, and trying desperately to survive in increasingly desperate odds. There are some genuinely frightening moments here, and it makes you glad you're not stuck on that world with them.

Yvonne Navarro delivers a surprisingly thought provoking story in 'Abuse, Interrupted' as we see what happens when Jazz, a woman being abused by her partner, decides that she's finally going to try and escape her situation; only to find herself getting caught in the middle of an alien battle.

Navarro spends a good portion of the story letting readers get to know Jazz, and to understand her situation before anything happens that fits with the themes of this collection. It's done so well that I actually forgot that I was reading an AvP story for a while, as I'd become invested in Jazz and her story. Navarro is able to get you to feel for Jazz incredibly quickly, and whilst seeing her facing off against alien monsters leads to some moments where you feel in awe of her strength and bravery, its when she comes face to face with the man who's been abusing her that you really begin to see the strength of her character. This might be an uncomfortable read for some, especially if you've been the victim of domestic abuse yourself, but it's well worth the read.

‘Better Luck To Borrow' by Curtis Chen follows Lily Shóu, an incredibly gifted teen who's trying to make a shady deal with a Company employee to sell them secret specimens whilst on a school trip, but when the stasis fails the creatures, facehuggers, are released onto the boat they're on, infecting several large rats. With Xenomorphs now loose on the boat and killing students things get even worse when a strange ship approaches and unleashes a deadly hunter.

This story felt like an odd one tonally, because it was very clearly a story that didn't hold anything back in terms of horror and gore, with folks getting ripped apart or teens having limbs burnt off by acid blood, but at the same time it felt like a YA story thanks to the young cast of characters and the competent female teen lead. It was a strange combo, but it really worked, and I definitely want to see more stories in this universe play in this kind of territory. I also really liked Lily, and found her to be an engaging and well developed lead for such a short story. It was also great to have a lead character with a disability getting to be a hero.

Film School' by Roshni Bhatia tells its story mostly through flashback as woman is detained by security forces, being questioned about how she and her colleagues broke quarantine to land on the planet Tenebris. The woman was part of a film crew, who decided to sneak onto the planet in order to find out what happened to the colony there, and why it's since been quarantined.

This was a good story because even though I knew what was coming it still felt incredibly tense as the film crew made their way around Tenebris looking for answers. It's one of those situations where you know something awful is coming, and you're just waiting to see how it happens. The interpersonal relationships within the group, and the breakdown of the team as things go wrong were particularly interesting, and even though you knew the narrator was going to get out alive it never felt like she was particularly safe; which was an impressive feat.

Night Doctors' by Maurice Broaddus centres on Nyota and Miles, a pair of siblings who live on the colony of New Allensworth. Miles is sick and Nyota takes him to the medical facilities in order to receive treatment, Nyota has heard of the stories of doctors experimenting and has a distrust around doctors. Unfortunately for Nyota and Miles, the siblings find themselves learning about awful experiments.

The Alien universe has always been grim, and it's taken a dark approach to capitalist greed and how little faceless companies value human life; so it felt like no surprise that a company like Weyland-Yutani would experiment on people in order to get what they want. This is one of the few stories in the book where the alien creatures are far from the real monsters, and it's humanity that's the real force to fear.

'Scylla and Charybdis', a story that has a slightly different take on the Yautja. When the colony ship Ketumani end up dead in space the crew are awoken to try and fix things. However, not long into the emergency a strange ship docks with them, and a large alien hunter boards them. The creature stalks the crew through the ship.

I really liked this story. I enjoyed how the first half of the tale was a chilling story of a Yautja hunting this crew through their ship. There are some really tense and scary moments, and the captain becoming the last survivor and using trickery and clever tactics to try and take the hunter down is a real highlight here. However, this is only half the story. I won't spoil what comes after, because it's very intriguing, but there's some interesting human drama mixed in here too, as some neat developments and insights into Yautja society too.

‘Another Mother' by Scott Sigler, Acting as a sequel to the Alien: Phalanx, this story picks up a number of years later with two of the leads of that novel. Now, decades later it appears that some of these demons may have survived, and a new queen is around. There's also a lone Yautja on the planet, scouting the world as a potential hunting ground for her people. When she learns that some of these primitive humans have killed a queen she wants to do the same, proving herself worthy to her people. And to do that, she'll have to work with some of the humans.

I was so happy to return to this planet and these characters, especially with there having been a decent time jump so that readers could get a sense of the kind of lives the heroes got to live after the events of Aliens: Phalanx. This also proved to be a bit of a problem for me though, as it meant I was absolutely terrified for the returning characters. These were survivors from my favourite Alien novel, and I was so scared that something awful would happen to them here. I'm not going to say what happens, but I will say that the introduction of the Predators to this world felt so seamless and perfect that it felt like the natural continuation of this story. If you enjoyed Aliens: Phalanx I'm absolutely certain that you're going to get a lot out of this story.

‘Kyódai' by Jonathan Maberry and Louis Ozawa, and is another sequel story. This time, it's a sequel to the film Predators. Louis Ozawa is a name that might be familiar to Predator fans, as he played Hanzo in the movie. With his character having dies to the hands of the Falconer predator in a swordfight, this story doesn't follow him, but his younger brother, Eiji. Captured in a similar way to his brother, Eiji finds himself falling through the air to a large jungle. When he lands he begins to search for answers and finds soldiers being hunted by Yautja, who are now using Xenomorphs as hunting dogs thanks to implants in their skulls that shock them. When Eiji discovers a shrine in the jungle he learns that this was the fate of his older brother, and makes a vow to survive the hunt no matter the cost.

Kyódai' is a really great story for fans of Predators, not just because it continues that story and shows what comes next, but because it gives us a lot of insight into Hano, one of the best characters in the film. Through flashbacks and Eiji's inner thoughts we learn a lot about the brothers pasts, and the kind of people they are. We also see that despite falling in battle to the Falconer the other Yuatja looked at Hanzo with great honour, respecting his abilities to defeat his opponent in one on one combat. This adds some interesting detail to the Super Predators, and shows a more honourable side to them that the film didn't really explore. A great companion piece to one of the best Predator movies, this story is sure to make a lot of fans happy.

I loved all of the stories on offer in Alien vs Predator: Ultimate Prey. It really felt like a love letter to this joint franchise, with both sets of creatures given great moments to shine and show off what makes them such great creations. There wasn't a single dull moment to be had here, there was great action, tense moments, lots of horror, and plenty of representation as we got amazing female characters, Black characters, disabled characters, and trans character to name but a few. This book expanded the franchise in some great ways, and I hope that we get more like this in the future.

[clumsyplankton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was genuinely so good I recommend it

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a blast with this! Lots of awesome writers in here playing with the Aliens and Predators. A number of the stories in here (Maurice Broaddus' one comes to mind) should 100% be the next AvP movies. What's really cool is seeing the depth of ideas that can come from this somewhat simple concept. I mean the basic idea of Predators fighting Aliens isn't that complicated, but all of the authors find killer ways to spice this up and make it their own. Definitely worth checking out.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

My full review of this didn't actually fit the character limit! For the whole thing: https://24000milestothemoon.com/2022/...

Overall this one was probably my favorite of the three of these I read, as Aliens: Bug Hunt got rather bogged down with distracting continuity issues whilst Predator: If It Bleeds was mired in repetitive episodes of bootlicking historical narratives. There is another one of these anthologies, Predator: Eyes of the Demon, but I felt my curiosity about Predator-focused stories was whetted by If It Bleeds.

I’d say the only real big picture issue with this one is that the Xenomorphs consistently get their asses handed to them, and while it oftentimes feels like the right choice for many of the individual stories, when it’s a trend that’s happening basically without fail throughout the entire anthology it starts to wear rather thin for those of us who are bigger fans of the Alien side of this crossover franchise.

Oh, I was excited to learn that apparently a lot of very online white dudes consider the fact that one (one!) of this anthology’s fifteen stories stars a trans woman (and mentions that’s she’s trans… once), one (one!) features a disabled character, and a few feature one or two characters who aren’t white grounds to dismiss the whole anthology as “woke garbage.” The only blatantly political messaging was in "Night Doctors," and y'all would agree with that messaging if you weren't too effectively brainwashed with racism to see your own damn class interests.

Also, leaving aside for a moment how utterly vile this attitude would be even if all 15 stories starred black disabled trans women, despite having known for years that there are people like this taking up valuable oxygen to form these thoughts and express them publicly, I still cannot, I still just really cannot wrap my head around the one-two punch of entitlement and fragility at play here. Other people existing is "SJW shit." I just. What the fuck, guys?

Anyway it was already my favorite of the three anthologies I read before I saw those reviews, but now it’s even more my favorite of the three just to spite you, so there.

[user48573452 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really close to giving this 4 stars, as it probably is the best AVP novel I've read so far, some innovative ideas and i enjoyed the wide variety of settings and time periods

But sadly it was still plagued with overpowered predators and underpowered xenos, just like all the other AVP books.

Often it felt like - "so then the predators turned up and killed all the aliens... THE END."

This book could easily have been a 5-star for me if the xenos weren't made out to be so weak and pathetic.

That said, some stories bucked this trend and were my favorites:

Below Top Secret: (7/10)
No masterpiece, but the xeno/predator action was well-balanced and it had an interesting setting.
——

Blood and Honour: (9/10)
Oh my god, this was SO GOOD!! There was still an element of xenos getting butchered way too easily towards the start, but the story really made up for it just with how things panned out.

Lots of action and some really interesting twists and turns... a number of 'holy shit!' moments from me with this one lol.

Ive read some negative reviews about this one but it was my favourite of the lot without a doubt!
——

Carbon Rites: (8/10)
Interesting concept with well-balanced action, though it focused too much on Weyland Yutani towards the end.
——

First Hunt: (8/10)
Predators were overpowered, but the story had redeeming qualities. Xenos at least did some damage, and there were some unexpected predator moments.
——

Scylla and Charybdis: (8/10)
Cool concept with well-balanced alien/predator action and an interesting twist later on.
——

Another Mother: (7/10)
Let down by an overpowered predator, but still a pretty amazing story with some chuckle-worthy moments.
——

Kyodai: (8/10)
Fascinating and mysterious with a trippy, dream-like quality to it for the first half IMO. It kept me thinking 'who are all these people? where did they come from!'

The alien/predator element was unique.

My only issue was that I feel like it ended before it should have. I really wanted to know what happened next, not to be left hanging like that!
————

TITAN BOOKS — if you're reading this... PLEASE STOP KILLING THE ALIENS OFF SO EASILY... they are supposed to be terrifying killing machines, not simply cannon fodder FFS!

[Terry Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first collection of short stories set in the AvP universe that I’ve read. As a whole, I enjoyed it even though the quality of the stories was sometimes uneven: a handful were victims of either uninteresting ideas or poor execution, but most were well done and. I’d like to focus on the three I enjoyed the most. First, Barnett’s “The Hotel Mariposa”: What started as a trope-filled haunted house (or in this case, haunted hotel) story turned into a thoughtful tale that made sense in the AvP Universe but also carried an emotional punch. In setting and tone, it was different from most of the Alien or Predator novels I’ve encountered, but it was well written and worked as a stand alone piece. Sigler’s “Another Mother” was the highlight of the collection. Essentially, a continuation of his novel Alien: Phalanx, it felt like a homecoming of sorts with a familiar setting and characters. I truly hope Sigler continues writing in the AvP universe. Lastly, editor Maberry’s and actor Ozawa’s “Kyodai” was an absolute pleasure to read. It was a sequel of sorts to the movie Predators with a new character being abducted to the Predator’s Hunting Planet. The writing was gorgeous with the protagonist’s internal dialogue really “making” the piece.
Reading this collection makes me question the limitations of the short story medium for this concept. The weaker stories consistently suffered from pacing issues while--for the most part--the stronger ones directly connected to the larger AvP universe. Specifically, Mira Grant’s “Planting and Harvesting” most felt like an Aliens story set in the future with Weyland-Yutani’s corporate disinterest (and even malevolence) permeating the narrative. AvP stories have a lot of moving parts and short stories don’t seem to provide enough space to develop them successfully.

[Mr Chuck · Rating 2 out of 5]

3 excellent stories with the rest being subpar and a couple terrible.

Scott Sigler, Louis Ozawa, and Delilah S. Dawson are the 3 best authors in this book with each of their stories being huge standouts.

Scott Sigler's story is a tie-in squeal to his set about 20 years later which I found fantastic as it works as a story on its own but also ties into his other book. 5/5

Louis Ozawa's story is about the brother of the character he played in the Predators film. Really nice tie in and loved the focus of the Japanese style. 4/5

Delilah S. Dawson had the story of the book, honestly found it scary and a true horror. The Aliens were put as real creatures of the night with Predators being an unknown monsters in the shadows. LOVED this story, the one true horror story of the book 5/5

The rest of the tales had very much the same format, humans are somewhere, and there are some Aliens and Predators who turn up and kill everyone. Not in one story did the Aliens become the main focus or real threat, they seemed to be so much cannon fodder. We need to bring to back to the horror that they are, the perfect organism, unstoppable not just play things to hunt.

[Sierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was pretty awesome having multiple short stories in one book. The only thing is when there was a really great story, I wanted more of that story. But it was nice and easy to get through the ones I didn't care for.
This is a long review as there is 15 stories in this one book. So, I'm just giving a star rating.

Below the Secrets : 4/5 🌟wanted more!

Isla Mananzas : 5/5 🌟This was awesome!

Homestead : 2/5🌟

The Hotel Mariposa : 5/5 🌟This is story I wanted more of; extend out into a full novel.

Planting and Harvesting : 3.5/5 🌟

Blood and Honor : 4/5 🌟could have been it's own novel.

Carbon Rites : 5/5 🌟Loved this, need more.

First Hunt : 3.5/5 🌟

Abuse, Interrupted : 5/5 🌟 Perfect

Better Luck to Borrow : 3/5 🌟 Did not like the main character, Lily.

Film School : 4/5🌟 cool setup and great vibe.

Night Doctor : I won't review this one as I skipped it for my own reasons. I read about 8 pages of it but don't feel I have a right to review it since I did not finish reading it.

Scylla and Charybdis : 4/5 🌟Setup is awesome and I liked everything with the Keeper.

Another Mother : 5/5 🌟This is bit confusing in beginning, but it's really good.

Kyodai : 5/5🌟 Perfect!

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome anthology!
Apart from two introductory pieces that informed as well as entertained, it contains fifteen tales. Only one work was seriously bad, with a hapless protagonist getting destroyed in a piecemeal manner. But all the other tales combined surprise, suspense, horror and action in near-perfect proportions.
There are too many good tales from which picking a few favourites would be unfair. Still, I particularly liked the following stories~
1. 'Isla Matanzas' by Steven L. Sears;
2. 'The Hotel Mariposa' by David Barnett;
3. 'Planting and Harvest' by Mira Grant;
4. 'First Hunt' by Bryan Thomas Schmidt;
5. 'Film School' by Roshni 'Rush' Bhatia;
6. 'Another Mother' by Scott Sigler;
7. 'Kyōdai' by Jonathan Maberry and Louis Ozawa
For lovers of these two apex predators would love this book. In a sense, this 'Ultimate Prey' concludes the trilogy that had given us 'Bug Hunt' and 'If It Bleeds'. But like a really good one, it has made us hungry for more.
Let's wait. Until then and even afterwards, this one is highly recommended.

[Zain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I thought this was a pretty good anthology. There were some good stories and others that weren't as good, but I suppose that's to be expected. My personal favorite story was "Isla Matanzas," mainly because I love the premise and the way it's written (i.e., the prose and the way the main character Lorenzo describes the Xenomorphs and the Yautja). My least favorite is probably "Blood and Honor", mainly because it felt like kind of a generic Colonial Marines action-romp (although I do appreciate the transgender inclusivity the story's author was going for, as I have a close relative who identifies as trans).

Although not all the stories are "5 out of 5's", I definitely would recommend it to AVP fans wanting some fresh, new takes on the Alien/Predator mythos. But that's just me.

[Andreas Acevedo Dunlop Strom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of mostly great stories. As a fan of a lot of the movies from both franchises, it was a lot of fun to have them together in short stories from different worlds and different times. I listened to the audiobook, which was a shame as two of the stories were completely ruined by a horrible reader. I will definitely pick up a proper book when I find one. Two standouts for me were Abuse, Interrupted by Yvonne Navarro and, off course, the reason I wanted this in the first place - Kyodai by Jonathan Maberry and Louis Ozawa. Ozawa is the actor who was Hanzo in the movie Predators, and the story connects to that movie too. Very cool indeed. If you're a fan of any of the authors or Aliens or Predators, you NEED to pick this up.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly only bought this for the story Another Mother. A follow up to Alien: Phalanx from Scott Sigler. And it didn't disappoint although short for obvious reasons, I really enjoyed going back and seeing what the characters were up to now.

The rest of the book is a mixture of Meh and Great but one really sticks out above the others even Another Mother. And that's Homestead by Delilah S. Dawson who absolutely knocked it out of the park! Scary and brutal, it generally had me at the edge of my seat! Brilliant stuff!

The rest of the stories for the most part follow mostly the same formula as each other, and bye the end of the book it became quite tiresome.

Out of the 15 I'd say I enjoyed a good 11 with the 2 above being my personal favourites

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having thoroughly enjoyed both the Aliens and Predator short story anthologies, I was a little let down with this one. The writing is good throughout, but most of the stories are just derivative of material that has come before of just straight recycling. There are one or two creative surprises, but this collection is mostly about enjoying, again, scenarios and stories you have seen/heard before in these franchises. Now, I am a fan that consumes everything they can when it comes to Aliens and many things-Predator. So, I may not be the audience for this book. I think, if you are a casual fan, this will satisfy.

[BookzBookzBookz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book for many of his stories. The two that stuck out the most for me was one that actually took the time to explain the Synth Wars. Someone actually gave a background on why the androids, or artificial humans rebelled. No one has ever done that and I had always wondered why, after seeing.Alien Resurrection. So that was a big plus for me. The second was the return to Scott Sigler‘s planet where Ahalia was General. It was nice for them to finally come across the predators and be included. That was mint!

Out of the majority of the alien franchise that I’ve read, I think this was one of the best.

[Ryan Matheson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had just finished reading (adapted from William Gibson’s) Alien 3 and I was fully immersed in the universe of the Xenomorphs. So I thought, an anthology of short stories with said chest-bursters going up against their great foes the Predators would be a damn good read. And this did not disappoint. Obviously not every story is going to be a home run but I found the majority overly positive with some interning approaches of how these creatures patches cross.

If you love these two franchises as much as I do, this is a great one to seek out. Read through Libby.

[Grey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Below Top Secret ⭐ 😴
Isla Matanzas ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ❤️ historical avp stories
Homestead ⭐ single digit iq protag. Would be 0 stars but she dies so +⭐
The Hotel Mariposa ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 👻
Planting and Harvest ⭐⭐⭐ 🍓
Blood and Honor ⭐⭐⭐ uncharted campaign run
Carbon Rites ⭐ 😴
First Hunt ⭐ 😴
Abuse, Interrupted ⭐ 🚬🙄
Better Luck to Borrow ⭐ 🦫🦫🦫
Film School ⭐⭐ 😴
Night Doctors 🫥 negative stars - like a roughest draft of a plot
Scylla and Charybdis ⭐😴
Another Mother 🤷 a sequel to something I haven't read
Kyōdai ⭐⭐⭐⭐ yeah I loved that Predators movie and I'd watch another 10 of them

[Miles Trout · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun popcorn read. It has no real substance, but it has a lot of potential for source material. The different settings are really what made this fun, but they all became pretty "one note" by the end. The ghost hunter story was my favorite - it felt unique. Otherwise, "Oh god, it looks like a bug! What's this? Giant people with scary faces and guns? Now they are fighting!" And that's the plot, over and over

[Jason Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the stories were a tad repetitive, but overall, these were pretty solid stories, and as a fan of both franchises, this was a solid collection. And, I rather enjoyed that many of the stories had female protagonists, with at least one having a trans protagonist (with that fact not being the overt focus at all, but rather, just treating it as a normalized fact in the future). And, there were a couple of standouts, with “Homestead” being quite effective.

[Malcolm Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a mostly fantastic collection of the two big monsters of the movies battling it out with poor squish humans caught in the middle.
Each story is set in a different time in a different place and has a distinctive feel to them. Only a couple felt derivative of other stories (if you've already read Aliens Vs. Predator: Prey you will know what I mean), but otherwise this is a fresh and entertaining collection. There are a good number of excellent stories in here.

[Claudia A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Usual Suspects

If you are familiar with the Alien vs Predators universe you can relate to the stories. I found most predictable which was a little disappointing. A good read and I found "Film School" my favorite. This one in my opinion has the potential for a great novel. I want to know what happened.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been reading this off and on since it came out.

Finally decided to finish the last few stories in this collection for Cosmic Horror week of Horror Mayhem.

Rounded up from a 3.5.

There aren't any truly BAD stories in this collection but they run the gamut from 'okay' to 'amazing'.

The last two stories in the collection along with Hotel Mariposa are by far my favourites of the bunch.

[Donavon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the stories were great, others were ok, but none were bad.

Only complete really is that the Predator's species is inconsistent regarding female Predators. Most stories have the females as great as male hunters, then others act like women are only needed for breeding.

Aside from that, very enjoyable. Actual think I enjoyed the Predator-centric stories/POV better than the Alien ones.