I’ve had this novel on my shelf for awhile and it was a long time since I read Concrete Jungle, so I figured it would be an easy quick read. It was.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot that was great about it. Given my love of alien cultures, my favourite Predator books/movies are the ones that delve into their culture or at least give us a glimpse into it. The Aliens vs Predator books did this, as did a few of the movies, but this novel barely has the Predators in it! Seriously, this book is 80% filler and maybe 20% about the actual alien hunters.
It takes place half a year after Concrete Jungle, which, looking back at my old review, I gave FOUR stars to? What? Was I drunk? Maybe it really was fun - I do recall it being entertaining. This novel … not so much.
First of all, as I said, there is so much filler. In all honesty, it felt like the author had started crafting a Predator novel set in Siberia starring a cool Russian woman but then was told it had to fit in with Concrete Jungle and Schaefer had to be part of it. Rather than rewrite it, I suppose, the story pivots so fast it might as well be a ballerina in Swan Lake. Most of the middle of the book is far from interesting and, I’ll admit, any chapter with Rasche I pretty much skipped as you can tell from the get-go what his purpose in the story is.
The novel tried way too hard to be politically relevant that it forgot it’s a campy Predator novel. The climax is utterly disappointing. The extra military characters were tedious stereotypes trying to push their big dick energy all over the place with the result being a bolus of boring bullshit.
Now, I will say, while there weren’t nearly enough women in the novel, I liked that there was a female drug boss and loved how Ligacheva didn’t get pushed out of the novel when Schaefer showed up. It’s the opposite in fact, which flat out surprised me. I honestly expected her to need rescuing by Schaefer once if not more times and that she’d give an assist during the final fight and not be really involved, but I was pleasantly surprised at how this novel bucked those stereotypes. Bravo on that at least.
Is this worth a read? Honestly, no, not really, even for Predator fans. Will I read more Predator books? If I could get a hold of VanderMeer’s South China Sea somehow, I definitely will read that (anyone want to lend it to me?), and the others? Well, I’ve been skimming Goodreads reviews of them, and I think I would try Flesh and Blood and Turnabout (the latter because Steve Perry wrote it), but the others I’ll pass on. I’ve already read the most recent AVP series. How does one become a writer of Predator novels? I’ve written enough fanfiction to be honest I’m probably qualified …