Alien Harvest
Robert Sheckley (1994)

Royal jelly, the most illicit of Alien by-products, is keeping Dr Stan Myakovsky alive. A once-famous scientist fallen on hard times, Stan is fighting off the repo-men and trying hard to patent the cybernetic ant that will reinstate his reputation. Julie Lish is beautiful, mysterious, and totally amoral. She has a plan so outrageous that there might be one chance in a million to pull it off.

Together they make an attempt to grab the ultimate treasure—royal jelly from an Alien hive.

It’s a well worn trope, a gang on alien ground trying to get the gold/elixir of life/Jelly. One by one they are killed off. The original protagonists must survive until the end to tell the tale. But a lot of action takes place as we try and work out who will be killed next.

Not a bad read, just a bit too predictable.