James Review -- Alien versus Predator: The Rage War: Armageddon

This week I decided to review Alien versus Predator: The Rage War: Armageddon by Tim Lebbon. For our reviews of the previous two books in this series, see http://thegamecalledrevolution.blogspot.com/2016/06/james-review-alien-invasion.html. 

The story begins with Space Station Hell under attack by Rage forces led by the android General Alexander which are seeking to capture the Rage defector/android Liliya. Predator forces reinforce the defenses and Liliya's group manages to lure Alexander's ship into a Predator ambush before continuing on their quest to intercept the Rage flagship Macbeth. But as they approach a Rage-controlled drophole they find the Rage forces they had hoped to surprise and Alexander, who had survived the destruction of his ship and replaced his damaged limbs with Xenomorph parts is in hot pursuit using a captured Predator craft. 

Meanwhile, the renegade Colonial Marines of the Devil Dogs and their Predator allies make their way to a predator outpost where they can study the captured Rage general Oscar. The leader of the predator science team soon recognizes some of the technology used in Oscar as belonging to the Drukathi, what the Rage call the Faze, an alien power far older an more powerful then the Predators who left the Milky Way galaxy long ago but left forces and traps as safeguards against the species they left behind advancing too far technologically. The Rage launches a massive offensive against the heavily populated human colony on Weaver's World, inflicting tremendous causalities on the civilian population. But this horrifying attack is just a diversion while the Macbeth uses a Faze-enhanced drophole to jump directly to the Sol system, launching an attack on the core of the human sphere. As the battle to defend Humanity's home rages, the Devil Dogs, the independent unit escorting Liliya, and their Predator allies unite to launch one final desperate strike against the heart of the Rage.

I give this book 8.5 out of 10. The combat sequences are brilliant. However, I do wish that we had gotten to see some more of the ongoing fighting over Weaver's World rather than just hearing about it during the portions covering the fighting on the ground. The ending was a huge surprise and does a great job setting things up for possible sequels and new directions for the plot of the setting. And I feel that once the story shifted its focus to the Sol system it narrowed down and should have shown more of what was happening elsewhere, especially reactions to a major event that occurred in the late middle section of the book.