Ask Steve Perry

Started by Corporal Hicks, May 06, 2007, 09:22:14 PM

Author
Ask Steve Perry (Read 187,720 times)

Kimarhi

Kimarhi

#30
Before this latest batch of Alien/Predator novels released by DH press, Hunters Planet was the only book that didn't have a comic inspiration.

War was based on the comics, Hunters Planet was not.  Its hunters planet that is in error, not AvP war.

Extroheal

Extroheal

#31
Hunter's Planet isn't in error. It just came first.

Kimarhi

Kimarhi

#32
No, actually the comic AvP war came first.  Hunters Planet shat all over it, and then Mrs. Perry novelized War.


SM

SM

#33
ooh - I thought of a question.

Why were the dates in the Earth Hive etc. books a century out?  I seem to recall dates in the 21st century, rather than the 22nd when the films take place.

Noir-Gojira

Noir-Gojira

#34
Quote from: Kimarhi on May 10, 2007, 11:54:04 PM
No, actually the comic AvP war came first.  Hunters Planet shat all over it, and then Mrs. Perry novelized War.



Thanks again for covering that one and sparing the Perrys from wasted time.  Question withdrawn ^_^

DB

DB

#35
After reading the novel AvP: Prey, I noticed a theme throughout the story - that being the dominance of females in just about every species in which gender is brought up. More than evident in the Yautja (thanks to Dachande's comments regarding females and the odds of a fully armed male beating one) and the Aliens, it also appears in both the human characters and the armored fire walkers (though this one is only arguably a question of dominance, as the only observation is that the female is simply larger than her mate - no specification of whether it is due to age difference or that that's the way it is*).

Througout the entire novel, it is only female characters (with one true exception) that truly take positions of leadership - especially once conflict with the Aliens and the Yautja heads into full swing. They display greater competence and even establish their positions aggressively in contrast with male counterparts, whom instead appear foolish and cowardly. Although perhaps overlooked at first, I became curious once Dachande seemed to solidify this when he comments that females are always more intelligent than males*. What also raised my curiosity was what occured with Miriam. She was awaiting her husband to teach her how to use certain vehicles, and this reliance on her husband's skill ultimately worsens the situation she and Machiko are in deeply. As if indicating that any sort of reliance on a male results in disaster.

*It was comments of this nature, and certain specific events in the novel that truly aroused my curiosity regarding this. This is why I refer to the armored fire walker when perhaps the differences could be due to other reasons.

Did you and your daughter write out the characters like this purposely? Or is it just a coincidence? If was done on purpose was it to illustrate what you and your daughter felt the future of the human race would be? Or perhaps even that gender roles of this sort would be far more effecient?

Also, some questions regarding the Alien species - just how dangerous are the Aliens of your novel in comparison to other species in the AvP universe? Are the Aliens extremely lethal monsters or are they just simply any one of other plenty and potentially dangerous species? And just how important are they to the Yautja culture? Are they only vital for the Blooding ritual, or do they still have some use for Blooded Yautja? Are the Aliens in this novel the same breed present in comics and other novels, as in, do they have Praetorians, do they respond to the Alien Mother, etc.?

Thank you for your time, Mr. Perry.

steveperry

steveperry

#36
I expect that in any kind of viable future, women will be equal in most ways to men. Probably men will still be physically stronger mostly -- though not always -- but since women do have better manual dexterity, and tend to be as smart as, or smarter than men, the idea of putting a lot of wimpy women in my books seems silly.

The prince rescuing the princess is fine, but now and again, the princess needs to save the prince's butt.

Since I never considered my daughter inferior to my son, or girls in general inferior to boys, that's what my children were raised with, so it would stand to reason my daughter would feel something along these lines.

As to how dangerous the Aliens are, you can see that they are physically dangerous, but -- save for the Queen -- not very bright. Somewhere along the way I got the idea they were probably not as smart as the average German Shepherd Dog (I know some people who probably aren't that smart), so they are less dangerous by far than the Predators. The guy with the gun and the brain is the nastier enemy, and since the Predators use the Aliens as training tools (and war toys), it's pretty obvious to me who is more dangerous.

Steve


SiL

SiL

#37
They knew how to cut the power. I don't know many German Shepherds which can cut the power to an installation.

Kimarhi

Kimarhi

#38
The lack of intelligence thing is typically based soley on what a person wants to see in the film.

The Alien positioning itself inbetween Parker and Lambert, escaping to the shuttle, cutting the power, waiting for the most oppurtune time to strike, using the elevator (regardless of the elevator returning to top level on its own, the queen still had to grasp the situation of what the elevator would do if she entered it) going for leaders/pilots first...........are all deliberate acts, or coincidence.

To me they were deliberate, and I always liked to think there was something of learning intelligence there, whether or not the base was intelligent or not, it could learn from its mistakes.  Of course you can't fault people for seeing it the other way either.  Also take into account the authors of that time didn't have Alien Res as a reference point.  There was no genetic memory at that time to say that the Aliens would know how to do this or that from past experiences.

SM

SM

#39
Quoteand since the Predators use the Aliens as training tools (and war toys),

Which is a concept that always irritated the hell out of me.  It weakens the Aliens in the extreme.  It reduces one of most iconic movie monsters to the level of game animals.  :P

QuoteThey knew how to cut the power. I don't know many German Shepherds which can cut the power to an installation.

And 12 module too.

SiL

SiL

#40
Twelve module was bummed by the bad landing. It subsequent re-failure I'd put down to it being improperly fixed the first time. Then again, Parker did say 'When we fix something it stays fixed' ...

Yeah, the concept of them just being toys annoys the everloving shit out of me. It's so demeaning.

No offense.

steveperry

steveperry

#41
Ever been to a dog agility or rally and obedience show?

Go to one, then come back and tell me you don't think dogs can run with the aliens. They do things I can't do. And Lassie used to come home and report on Timmy falling into the well all the time ...

I'm being facetious, of course, but if you think the Hard Meat are smarter than the Yautja, you didn't see the same movies, nor read the same graphic novels and books as I. The Queen, yeah. The drones do what she tells them. If they cut the power, it's because the Queen sent them to do it.

I didn't come up with the notion that the aliens are war toys, but it makes perfect sense to me that they were artificially-developed as bioweapons by *some*body. Why would a naturally-evolved creature need acid blood, save as a form of protection from something nastier that was apt to eat it?

What else in the universe have we seen that is nasty enough to eat Aliens?

That the Predators used the Aliens as training devices runs through the series. It is what it is, no help for that. I don't see it as demeaning at all.

Kimarhi

Kimarhi

#42
It still boils down to authors intent.  Stradley came up with the notion that the Aliens were far weaker and less equipped to handle the predators than vice versa.  He carried the idea over to AvP War.  Claremont would do practically the same thing in Dots (the aliens being so insignificant that they warranted one issue sans queen).  However, Edington in AvP Eternal (sorry if this is mispelled) and Paul Anderson in the AvP movie seemed to have a different take on the Aliens and made them far more lethal.

I think part of the problem is Aliens being the most well liked movie in the series, takes precedance of what is shown in the other three films.  And even Aliens isn't quite as bad as people make it out to be with the aliens.  Only thirty something deaths are shown (of course we can assume a few more died than is shown) dying on screen, out of the hundred and fifty something still alive.  Judging by the continous high motion tracker readings throughout the movies (including after the ops battle), I don't think the marines put quite as much of a dent in their population as we thought they did.

To me though, AvP and Aliens have always been different kind of beast.  The pred series is super macho with guys packing around miniguns gunning down trees in the rainforest, and handheald thermonuclear devices, while the Aliens series (no doubt it has its out there parts) felt more grounded in reality, with much more serious themes and actions (at least until ARes).

So when you cross the two, your sacrificing something that made each series what it is today.  You'll never have a perfect avp, because without tweaking one or two things, they aren't compatible. Of course, my only complaint is that more was sacrificed from both sides to make it more "even".

Anyways.  The Perry's and most other writers (aside from the new DH press novels and Hunters Planet) are just continuing the stories already told in comic format.  For Aliens fans, the root of the problem would stem from the comics, and later the games (which are just as bad pro pred as the majority of the comics are).


SiL

SiL

#43
I never said the Aliens were smarter than Predators - Obviously they're not. But I don't think they're as run-into-the-wall-repeatedly stupid as everyone would have us believe.

Why would a naturally evolving creature need acid for blood? Easy. Reaally nasty enemy. Probably a giant bug like in Starship Troopers (I can see it now, bugs vs bugs - Whoever Wins, The Exterminators Are Happy). We've never seen an hombre tough enough for the Alien to need it yet, a given; but then, we've never seen their homeworld. They've always been displaced, in the movies, comics, novels, and games.

Personally I go mor along the lines of a naturally occurring creature modified, but the recent Alien designs kind'a nullify that with their fleshier look.

steveperry

steveperry

#44
Go back to the beginning. The first Aliens movie was essentially a haunted-house-in-space. It only worked because of what we in the biz call an idiot-plot -- that is, everybody in the movie has to be an idiot. This is right out of those old Universal monster films from the late thirties and early forties in which people do really stupid stuff and the monster gets 'em. And it serves them right.

If you were on that space-truck and there was a nine-foot-tall-monster eating the crew, would *you* go to the bathroom by yourself? Crawl into an air duct hunting it? You would? Then you deserve to die, 'cause them ain't survival characteristics where I come from. I needed to go pee, we would *all* go pee. Nobody leaves the pack until the thing is for sure dead. We'd all sit with our backs to the wall armed to the teeth and if anything moved, we'd barbecue it. It wanted one of us, it would have to take us all.

Anybody here disagree?

There was no backstory to the Aliens. There were the eggs, the dead alien transporting them, then the face-huggers and finally the drone. No more backstory was needed. The alien was designed soley for its look, not its function, and it showed.

Nowhere in that movie did the critter evidence any IQ higher than a dog.

The second movie, which was essentially a Heinlein bug-hunt, the Queen showed intelligence, but I didn't see any from the drones. Smart animals don't throw themselves at armed men in waves, they come up with a better way than dying en masse.

Only place you are sure the Queen is thinking is when she is looking at the elevator after Ripley. So give it to the Queen, but the drones? Never saw 'em do anything a trained bear couldn't do.

A3 and A4? I'd just wish them into the cornfield, because neither one of them worked for me on any level.

The first Predator movie didn't establish any backstory, either.

So it was up to the writers of the graphic novels and the books to come up with something, because you need more to fill out a novel than you do a movie.

So you have Aliens, who, save for the Queens, are ot-nay ooh-tay ight-bray. Nasty critters, but dangerous in the way that tigers are dangerous, no more.

Then you have the Predators, a species farther along the path than humans, given that when we first see them, they have FTL travel and better sidearms, and who could, if they found it, nuke the Alien planet from space without the Aliens even knowing about it -- if there was an Alien homeworld and they weren't genetically-enhanced lab rats.

So the who-wins argument is moot. Yeah, a man going barehanded against a Kodiak bear is in deep dung; give him a high-powered rifle or even a handgun, the bear is toast.

You gotta go with the toolmaker. Sooner or later, they will rule.

While folks might have liked to see the Aliens with a little more on the intellectual ball, they never had anything, in the movies or the books. They might not be run-into-the-wall stupid, but they can't run with humans or Predators. It just isn't there.

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