Ask John Shirley

Started by JohnShirley, Jan 29, 2007, 04:14:40 AM

Author
Ask John Shirley (Read 50,428 times)

BrokenTusk

BrokenTusk

#30
^(nice banner by the way Rakai)

Rakai took the words right out of my mouth, but pretty much that what was in Prey, War, and Hunter's Planet.

As for females with offspring, they don't lay eggs like the Hish, they produce just like humans, and as a mother is very protective of her babies, the female Pred is no exception. Rather then the Hish which kill the weak spawnlings, a mother Yautja will fight to the death to protect her young.

I don't know if Yautja stay as couples, since in Hunter's Planet a Leader Pred name numerous female conquests, but it could be possible.

As for female size in the books and the comic AVP: Deadliest of Species, the female tend to be bigger. Though as far as movies  we haven't seen a female yet to judge.


And they can change sexes and have sex as we do...Or is there something to prevent that?


In Prey, Hunter's Planet, and War AVP books  prior to yours, the gender stay the same, no indictation of switching gender, females are females and males are males. both had similar attributes of their human counterparts.

It's possible you could go with the idea that Rakai and I talk about, since I heard something similar happen like in Star Trek.

one other thing is the Yautja have no Feral rage glands.

almost forgot the Yautja have an honor system during their hunts( the Hunt is the way of their life), like the movies gave hints to. Pretty much not hunting unarm opponents, children, women with child, but in the books there were clans mention not hunting any high intelligent life-form like humans.

BrokenTusk

BrokenTusk

#31


also if you ever got the chance would you mention what happen to say survivors like Dutch Shcafer (Arnold ) in Pred 1, Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) in Pred 2, and Alexa Woods in AVP in one of the future books ?


Mr. Weyland

Mr. Weyland

#32
Wow, what did i miss here? yeah it would be good to see what happend to Dutch, Mike and Woods.

BrokenTusk

BrokenTusk

#33
^ epesically it would tie up loose ends in P:Concrete Jungle and Cold War, since all we got is he's still alive.



basically Mr.W we been tlking about the concept of the Yautja will be back if Mr. Shirley gets to do another book along with the Hish. I'm looking foreward to his next novels.

JohnShirley

JohnShirley

#34
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Feb 02, 2007, 12:30:17 AM
Quote from: JohnShirley on Feb 02, 2007, 12:24:30 AM
I looked at my manuscript file and as far as I can see the only reference to sex is to spraying secretions on the female--this may possibly not be too literal, or may not contradict what the Perrys have, if we really look closely. They didnt mention the sex changing thing though. But I wonder if they said anything to really contradict it. Predators stay in one gender for quite  a while in my story.

The females had breasts in Perry's version....Don't know if that means anything. I mean, you had the females as only having a different mottled skin around the jaw.

If they had breasts--which seems silly to me, that's not alien enough--then they are some different branch of the PRedator race, perhaps having crossbred with humans at some point, through genetic engineering, for some reason yet to be revealed...

JohnShirley

JohnShirley

#35
Quote from: BrokenTusk on Feb 02, 2007, 07:11:10 AM


also if you ever got the chance would you mention what happen to say survivors like Dutch Shcafer (Arnold ) in Pred 1, Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) in Pred 2, and Alexa Woods in AVP in one of the future books ?



I seem to recall that they instruct us not to use specific movie characters in tie ins.

http://www.darkecho.com/johnshirley

JohnShirley

JohnShirley

#36
Quote from: RakaiThwei on Feb 02, 2007, 05:48:54 AM
A few questions here for Shirley and of course, an explanation on Yautja reproduction and sex differences. I have re-read the Yautja POV in Perry's AvP: Prey and War novels. Hopefully this will clear things up for Mr. Shirley here-- the Yautja bred indeed very much like humans. There were male and female Yautja, no sex changes, no morphology-- just two different genders. HOWEVER-- there was a signifigant difference between male and female Yautja.

Female Yautja were physically stronger, taller, and much more aggressive than the males. The males were smaller, strong but not as strong as the females and they often had to be careful during mating because a male would often get hurt or in some changes, maybe even die during mating with a female.

This was also mentioned in David Bischoff's AvP: Hunter's Planet Novel, a book not written by Perry but he had kept the Yautja aspect of what Perry had laid down.

Broken Tusk and I had a small conversation on one of the news updates somewhere and I noticed that you had mentioned that Yautja COULD be a different evolutionary branch from the Hish. Broken Tusk has also made an interesting point too-- that the Yautja and Hish, despite vastly different biology functions, could've had the same ancestor but evolved differently.

Now for my question:

If you were to do another Predator book, would you do Yautja vs Hish? You know.. like something similar to the Romulan/Vulcan war or something?

-Rakai'Thwei

Yeah I like that idea of Yautja vs Hish, I might suggest that given a chance. Dunno if they want me to do another. I would like to point out though that the sex-change thing could happen relatively rarely and "offscreen" and could apply to Yautja under some conditions. My object in that was to make them less human...

http://www.darkecho.com/johnshirley

JohnShirley

JohnShirley

#37
Quote from: BrokenTusk on Feb 02, 2007, 06:57:15 AM
^(nice banner by the way Rakai)

Rakai took the words right out of my mouth, but pretty much that what was in Prey, War, and Hunter's Planet.

As for females with offspring, they don't lay eggs like the Hish, they produce just like humans, and as a mother is very protective of her babies, the female Pred is no exception. Rather then the Hish which kill the weak spawnlings, a mother Yautja will fight to the death to protect her young.

I don't know if Yautja stay as couples, since in Hunter's Planet a Leader Pred name numerous female conquests, but it could be possible.

As for female size in the books and the comic AVP: Deadliest of Species, the female tend to be bigger. Though as far as movies  we haven't seen a female yet to judge.


And they can change sexes and have sex as we do...Or is there something to prevent that?


In Prey, Hunter's Planet, and War AVP books  prior to yours, the gender stay the same, no indictation of switching gender, females are females and males are males. both had similar attributes of their human counterparts.

It's possible you could go with the idea that Rakai and I talk about, since I heard something similar happen like in Star Trek.

one other thing is the Yautja have no Feral rage glands.

almost forgot the Yautja have an honor system during their hunts( the Hunt is the way of their life), like the movies gave hints to. Pretty much not hunting unarm opponents, children, women with child, but in the books there were clans mention not hunting any high intelligent life-form like humans.

BUT you could be just making assumptions. Just because Feral rage glands aren't mentioned doesn't mean they don't exist. They only initiate at times and they were mentioned in my book because they were relevant to story. And as for how they have their children, did you honestly read a decription of a Yautja birth? Or are you just assuming? Did you read about carrying the child in the womb? Even if they do (which seems too human to me) they could carry it in a womb for awhile, then transfer it to an egg and 'lay it' for the last phase.

It seems to me that the Yautja and Hish are going to be utterly ruthless relating to other races. Or their own even. They seem like pretty bad ass guys. I find it hard to believe they wouldn't kill non-warriors...they would just PREFER to fight real warriors. The tougher the enemy the more they like it. That's something you can infer from the movies. But if a human child is convenient to them--give it to their own children to practice on, say--they'd use it. They are not chivalrous or kindly, they simply have pride in fighting real opponents. 

Also the genders stay the same...during the stories you read. It would be a once a year thing or even less often that they'd change.  I'm not actually trying to argue with you I'm just saying that people draw inferences and make assumptions but if you look close at what is actually said I suspect they may have jumped to conclusions.

But generally I'd say the Yautja and the Hish branched off from one another at some point...

http://www.darkecho.com/johnshirley

JohnShirley

JohnShirley

#38
Quote from: BrokenTusk on Feb 02, 2007, 01:21:13 AM
First off thanks for answering my questions John, also yes the female soldier, seem to forgot her name, I  was just completely surprise when reading about her character that she does that in the end. It has been a while since I read FM though, I think I ran along some hints about her asking Ness about his wife and such. Anywho I don't fully understand the question about the sexuality of the Yautja, what is it you would like to know ?

also I do like Steve Perry's work in Shadows of the Empire, a Star Wars novel, so I'm sorta fan of his.

a question I always wonder though is it possible that the Predators with their mask and armor could survive in vacume ? I think some battles in space might be intresting...

second off thanks Hicks for letting me know that Shirley has been posting.

I probably shouldve made it even clearer, but the female soldier was crazy-obsessed with Ness, was almost a stalker, and at the end she would rather kill him than let his wife get him back.

I'd like to know do the Yautja actually copulate, in terms of direct penetration--that is, is that described or are people just assuming that? Same with childbirth, is it described? Or do readers just assume it because the characters seem rather (regrettably) human in the Yautja version.

http://www.darkecho.com/johnshirley

BrokenTusk

BrokenTusk

#39
did you honestly read a decription of a Yautja birth? Or are you just assuming? Did you read about carrying the child in the womb? Even if they do (which seems too human to me) they could carry it in a womb for awhile, then transfer it to an egg and 'lay it' for the last phase.

now I'm not too sure, perhaps in the other 2 books but I haven't found the actual carrying child in womb in Prey.



It seems to me that the Yautja and Hish are going to be utterly ruthless relating to other races. Or their own even. They seem like pretty bad ass guys. I find it hard to believe they wouldn't kill non-warriors...they would just PREFER to fight real warriors. The tougher the enemy the more they like it. That's something you can infer from the movies. But if a human child is convenient to them--give it to their own children to practice on, say--they'd use it. They are not chivalrous or kindly, they simply have pride in fighting real opponents.


look at Predator 2 again, the hunter could have killed both child and Leona who was pregnant both were  convient and the Predator was younger the first( director's words not mine), but didn't. Also Stephani Perry's book mention about the difference in clans and the rules of some that hunt oomans and some that don't.

I don't expect them to help humans or a team-up with Ripley, but in the movies and books besides the hunts they generally left us  alone. there was no invasion of assualt of them, so that makes me think we have yet to see the Hish in the movies.

also they know what would happen if the Bugs infested Earth or other planets, the universe would be doomed.


Also the genders stay the same...during the stories you read. It would be a once a year thing or even less often that they'd change.  I'm not actually trying to argue with you I'm just saying that people draw inferences and make assumptions but if you look close at what is actually said I suspect they may have jumped to conclusions.


Dachance a Predator leader in Steve Perry's book Prey had 73 female conquests, and he was male for all of them, not to mention he was an aged Predator. also when he was young he mention of how he and his brother would have female conquests and be leaders of their own clan. also when he was a young buck runt he got runovered by a female. So yes there was no gender changing with the Yautja.



But generally I'd say the Yautja and the Hish branched off from one another at some point...


could they evolve differently from their ancestor ?

BrokenTusk

BrokenTusk

#40
sigh I was hoping some mention of the survivors of the Predator movies, its not like Fox is going to used Arnold or Glover again.... did they mention why ?



I probably shouldve made it even clearer, but the female soldier was crazy-obsessed with Ness, was almost a stalker, and at the end she would rather kill him than let his wife get him back.

I'd like to know do the Yautja actually copulate, in terms of direct penetration--that is, is that described or are people just assuming that? Same with childbirth, is it described? Or do readers just assume it because the characters seem rather (regrettably) human in the Yautja version.


I understood she had a liking, and there were some hints perhaps I just it. (No offense Mr. Shirley) but perhaps a little foreshadowing like her saying "I would kill anyone who stands in our way" or "I always get what I want.", even a little medical bio on her mentality would have ease in the betrayal IMO anyway. you're the big author anyway so it's your call.  8)

I believe it is similar to how humans procreate, since one Predator in David Bishoff's book Hunter's Planet, one Predator leader "felt the thought stirred his seed within his loins" when thinking about more female conquests. so including that female have breasts, it seems both had each sexual organs of their human counterpoints. They're humannoid to a point.

for the actual birth they can have a few "sucklings at a time". at least in the 2 books of AVP I haven't heard about how the female gives birth, so it could be similar to yours.

 

Dachande

Dachande

#41
Quote from: BrokenTusk on Feb 02, 2007, 09:36:29 PM
Dachance a Predator leader in Steve Perry's book Prey had 73 female conquests, and he was male for all of them, not to mention he was an aged Predator. also when he was young he mention of how he and his brother would have female conquests and be leaders of their own clan. also when he was a young buck runt he got runovered by a female. So yes there was no gender changing with the Yautja.



But generally I'd say the Yautja and the Hish branched off from one another at some point...


could they evolve differently from their ancestor ?

Well i do get around ^__^

Now even though i've only read Prey and War (Im a hardcore collector :P). I wouldnt say it would be too odd, that the Preds bodies would function similarly to a humans. Because if you take a look at most of the creatures here on earth, most of them....well mammals anyways, all reproduce the same, and considering the Preds are humanoid at least in appearance, i have no real problem with them having babies and such the same way as us.

As for this Yautja/Hish debate, i dont really have a clue about either of them....guess i should start soon. But from what im gathered. The Hish, are just like, ok lets go to this planet, kill a load of things, doesnt matter if they have weapons or not, and then bugger off home. Whereas the Yautja are depicted as like Samurai. But from this, i was thinking could it be more like how we're related to Gorillas? How the Yautja could be a more civilised version of the Hish? Of course i know next to nothing in this debate, so if i make no sense dont worry

RakaiThwei

RakaiThwei

#42
Again, as Broken Tusk mentioned-- the sexes of the Yautja race didn't change at all. Male was male, female was female. If there was a sex change, Perry's books would've mentioned it and to be frank, they didn't. Also, reading Bischoff's version in AvP: Hunter's Planet-- he kept the aspect of what Perry had laid down. Again, no sex changes were mentioned. Yes, there were hints of them copulating and mating much like humans but there was a certain rule(s) according to Perry's Yautja aspects.

1) A male cannot mate until having completed a Kainde Amedha Chiva, or Alien hunt.

2) Males often had to fight in Jehdin matches in order to mate with a female. (I remember it being mentioned in one of the novels, someone clear this for me?)

Thats for the sex and mating issues here.

As for the samurai life style-- well I believe that in many ways Broken Tusk has cleared that up. In Predator 2, the city Hunter hadn't killed a child who was carrying the Toy gun and Leona, who was pregnant. This shows that there were rules to the hunt. Predators would fight armed civilians, policeman, gangsters, military-- if it would fight back, it would be deemed as worthy to hunt. If a prey was pregnant, or a child-- there would be dishonor in killing such. Death or lost face in caste would be the often punishment.

Yes.. Predators have a caste system. I could go into that if you want, a majority of it was created by Perry and the concept was used in the AvP movie.

-Rakai'Thwei

BrokenTusk

BrokenTusk

#43
lol, Dachande2311

John as Rakai said those were the facts of Steve Perry's Yautja. will you be reading the AVP trilogy if you get a shot at the license then ? they said FM did very well in stores on the DH website.

JohnShirley

JohnShirley

#44
Quote from: BrokenTusk on Feb 06, 2007, 01:10:00 AM
lol, Dachande2311

John as Rakai said those were the facts of Steve Perry's Yautja. will you be reading the AVP trilogy if you get a shot at the license then ? they said FM did very well in stores on the DH website.

Thanks to everyone for the info on Yautja.

I haven't be asked to do AVP--I may indeed read the trilogy if I'm asked to. I will probably write around these issues of procreation, and focus on other aspects, but will probably put something in about variants between Yautja and Hish. If...

Forever Midnight was selling well last I heard and they went back to press on it.

http://www.darkecho.com/johnshirley

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