Customer Reviews

Predator: Flesh And Blood

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book continues on the trends set from Forever Midnight. That is these are the " Hish " version of the Predators. Call me old fashion, but I much preferred the Yautja versions myself. However that is a different debate all together. I found this book to be a decent read altogether. I agree with the above reviews that the human characters weren't terribly interestingly enough. I really found myself not caring who would live or die when the inevitable chaos came.

Overall If you like these kinds of books you will enjoy it, it just won't be a favorite .

Luckily I picked this out of a 50cent bin, which is about all this book is worth. Predators kill, kill and kill some more, but keep forgetting to ask somebody why they have been lured to that world. They even kill people who aren't armed or attacking them (somebody just smoking a cigarrette?). I was waiting for them to hit an elderly home or a nursery school at some point. In my eyes they appeared very cowardly hunting as a pack, a very lightly armed not-so-violent group of people. And so much for being rewarded for actually killing a Predator, because this clan makes sure you are beaten down for that. I was rooting for the bland characters and enjoying the action (which was written well and the reason for the 3rd star).

it was in good condition at least the pages were but not the cover so much but it was intact so i can look past that.
the story was relistic i enjoyed it. it was a quick read and i read reviews with people saying the predators in this book were
mercenary's but i can tell you they're NOT.

One of the biggest errors that could be made when writing a Predator novel was made. They killed an unarmed human! The Predators have never done anything like this (to my knowledge, and I have almost all of the novels)before. Why it was allowed is beyond me. The story other than that was fairly decent. But an error like that can not be overlooked.

I'm not going into the storyline as that been hashed out enough in both the editorial reviews and by some of the other reviewers. However, I thought this was one of the better Predator novels I've read. I have not seen any of the comics but have watched every Predator movie at least twice including the latest "Predators". Some of these other reviewers need to lose their tunnel vision in regards to Predator lore. If humans can have such diverse features, customs, and ideas of right and wrong than why can't an ancient race such as the Hish/Yautja have just as diverse a culture. Being as this race of humanoids was created for science fiction/movie buffs than I guess we fans can (should) accept a bit of artistic license in how each author interprets the species. I know that as fans we all feel that certain traits of our favorite bad guys need to be adhered to, but thinking that there can be only one certain model of Predator goes against all common sense and would restrain the out of the box thinking that science fiction fans usually love. If you've seen the new movie "Predators" than you already know that the powers that be in movie making have given us two somewhat different Predator characters. The Laurence Fishburne line "the big ones hunt the smaller ones" is the answer to the question "Are there different types of Predators". To my way of thinking the larger Predators relate to the Hish version and the slightly smaller Predators are more like the Yautja, of course that's strictly "MY" opinion. I think we all just need to enjoy the story and action for what it is, an escape from reality, even if just for a few hours.
My only fault with this book and the reason it got four not five stars was the unanswered question of what happened to the clans and the ship. Unless the authors are intending a sequel than that was an unacceptable oversight in this story. On the positive side was the inclusion for the first time (at least in any I've read) of female Predators in the story.

This book was interesting and intense all the way through. One of the best if not the first Predator book I have ever read. I will be reading more of course, but this is number one so far.

"Flesh and Blood" reads very nicely, you could finish it in one afternoon, and it is an action filled story with some cold blooded family rivalry. A human family is torn because of the death of the family patriarch, and the inheritance makes for bitter family rivalry in order to control the family business. I also like how there is some parallel storytelling, the bitter rivalry in the human families, is similar to some of the dissension that occurs in the Predator clan regarding proper hunting techniques. I also was very interested in reading about the "thoughts" of predators, their system of thought is based on a warrior tradition, and it's very interesting. I would recommend this book for science fiction and Predator/Alien fans.

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family.

These words have always rung true.

Sometimes you love your family. They're the greatest thing that ever happened to you. You'd be lost without them.

Other times you wish you'd have never been born. The family you are part of just happens to be a major embarrassment to you, or they just plain don't like you.

So, unlike friends who you can pick and choose as life goes forward, family is part of you no matter what. Sort of like what marriage is supposed to be - til death do you part.

That's the underlying theme to the novel Predator: Flesh and Blood by Michael Jan Friedman & Robert Greenberger, the latest in a long running series of novels based on the original movie.

Andar Ciejek gave up on his family years before. He couldn't handle what they stood for, or how they had gained their fortune.

Worst of all for him was having to deal with his cousin Derek.

So, as soon as the opportunity presented itself, he left everything he knew to start his own life.

Years have passed since making his exodus from the family compound and he's content with his life. That is until he receives word of his estranged father's death.

This tragic event forces him to leave the life that he has grown accustomed to, and the woman he loves too boot, to head out to a far off world owned by his family for the reading of the will.

To make matters worse, once he arrives on world for the family gathering, something else has come to the very same planet. One group is there to split up a family fortune; the other is there to make trophies of the humans.

The predators have come to crash the party.

I have to admit that I really enjoyed the novel. Far more so than the previous predator novel Forever Midnight. They were as different as night and day.

To be fair, the writing styles are completely different, and that plays a huge factor.

Like Forever Midnight, the authors attempt to delve into the culture of the alien Predators. Like humans, especially in this particular novel, the Predators are divided up into clans. Are they simply extended families or are they all members of the same bloodline?

I'd suspect the former is more likely the case.

However, unlike Forever Midnight, the authors don't go out of their way to play with the predators, to use artistic licence to try and make the race more interesting. In fact, all speech is eluded to, not actually written out.

I found the predators to be a more honourable race this time out, and despite the fact that they're cold blooded killers, they value skill and honour above all else.

The characters, even the predators, were more fleshed out, and thus I found far more interesting to read about, even if they only managed to survive a few pages.

For the first time ever, I even felt empathy for a - gasp - lawyer in this novel. The few times I've read about lawyers in other novels, they've typically been money grubbing sleaze balls.

The action was fast paced and well done, and the descriptions, well, they were able to call up some pretty gruesome mental images.

For a novel that was as short as this one, there was amazingly enough, character development.

Particularly in that of the main protagonist, Andar. I'd almost go as far as saying that this novel was a coming of age story for this particular character.

Overall, it was well done. It wasn't a great novel by any means, but it certainly was worth my time reading.

But, as with all the novels that have been published under the Predator and Alien franchises, it was too damn short.

Story and development was sacrificed for action. I could have easily read another hundred pages or so. But that's just me.

So as not to give away any of the major plot devices, I won't mention names here, but I certainly hope to see the return in future novels of a couple of the characters that were created for this book.

4 out of 5

Out of all the Alien and Predator novels written, this is by far the weakest.

It feels that the fault lays completely on the author and not the story or characters. The writing is uninteresting, the characters names are all way over the top (the humans have names that sound like they belong to the Predators, making it hard to remember who is who, never a good thing in a book where a main character's arch is most important), the story really takes a lot of liberties with the universe, the action sometimes makes no sense in terms of how people get places or where things are taking place (how did they get here, what happened to this person etc etc.0, and there seems to be no editor checking to make sure names were spelled correctly or even referenced correctly (spelling errors and names pronounced wrong as well as the wrong character mentioned multiple times).

I don't know what happened here, but this book was a waste of time. The naming of the humans alone was enough to make everything feel really forced when trying to create an authentic setting.

I've read every Alien and Predator book written, avoid this one. Almost all of them are great or at least worth a read, not here though.

Sorry, it's true.

What we get in this latest Predator novel are two converging storylines about power struggles. One story is who will inherit the vast fortune of Karl Ciejek, his grandson Derek or Andar? Derek is determined to make sure it's him by getting rid of Andar. To do this, he plants a homing beacon distress call of sorts for the Hish (formerly yautja aka Predators). This of course draws the Hish to the planet. The second story is about the Hish and how two small declining clans attempt to form one stronger clan but their differences in traditions just aren't melding thus hostilities within arise.

Overall, I'm still waiting for a really good Predator novel. This one was decent enough if not a bit rushed in the end. It lacked some details later on but the action really picks up in the last 75 pages. It was certainly better than Predator: Forever Midnight. I wish the authors would come up with some new weapons for the Hish/Yautja/Predators without having to rely on what has been seen in the movies.