Ask John Shirley

[JohnShirley]

Hello John,

I finish Forever Midnight a while ago and had been meaning to ask some questions.


1# why did you make the Hish a hermaprhodite race, rather then single gender ?

2# I know you didn't research the books and comics because you were only suppose to research the movies, but would you include the former race the Yautja in another novel ? or since there are other clans would you do things differently with a new clan ?

3# Out of all the chaos near the end, how come Ness's second in command just turn against him when he is trying to protect his family ?

4# will you do another Predator novel ? and if yes would you include a different clan or would this clan be similiar to the ones in FM ?

5# are you guys allow to touch the AVP property yet for books ?

thanks for your time.

In answer to your list of questions 1) Why not? But part of the reason is, they seem to me to be sort of like certain creatures of Earth who can change genders and part of the reason is it just seemed more alien and also it gave me some additional material to entertain with...And it seemed inherently ironic which is interesting to me.

2) yes I may do that. As a related race of PRedator. But how was it arrive at, exactly, that they are called Yautja? Where precisely did the name come from? I mean precisely...I can answer better after I know that. If it came from dialogue or voice over, where did the character get that info?

3) YOu mean the female soldier? She was insane. Fixated. Quite mad. I thought that was apparent. If that's who you mean...To tell the truth that was a couple of books ago and I don't remember the chain of command. But that woman soldier is who I remember turning against him.

4) We only do work we're asked to do--if they offer me a good deal to do anohter, I may well do it, as FOREVER MIDNIGHT has gone into a second printing and that's encouraging. I would probably include another clan...even the Yautja.

5) No we were told not to use that material, as there are rights complexities.

[JohnShirley]

I meant to ask you this in our interview, but if you did another Predator novel would you consider doing it entirely in the past? From your prologue to FM it would seem you have no problem with writing stuff for the 18th century and stories have been going back and forth about a movie set in that timeframe.

Would you want to do a novel set then?

Yes I would - I like historicals. I would use the research in other books...and I'd enjoy that!

[Corporal Hicks]

Yes I would - I like historicals. I would use the research in other books...and I'd enjoy that!

I hope you'll pitch one to them then! 

As for the Yautja. Basically, Steve and Stephani Perry wrote a novel called Prey, it's the novelization of the first every Alien vs Predator comic. In it, they did what you pretty much did in Forever Midnight with the Hish, they created their own view on the Predator culture and called them the Yautja.

[JohnShirley]

Yes I would - I like historicals. I would use the research in other books...and I'd enjoy that!

I hope you'll pitch one to them then! 

As for the Yautja. Basically, Steve and Stephani Perry wrote a novel called Prey, it's the novelization of the first every Alien vs Predator comic. In it, they did what you pretty much did in Forever Midnight with the Hish, they created their own view on the Predator culture and called them the Yautja.

Oh ho! So THEY made that up! Welllllll - no one ever told me about it. I'll bet it was a good book, I have met Steve Perry, recall him to be a good fellow, and know him to be a good writer. ANyway my plan remains to show Respect for the Yautja and that culture by explaining the two versions of the PRedators, the Hish and the Yautja, in some future book...if I get the chance. Did they get into Yautja reproduction in that book?

I seem to recall someone said it was like Samurai culture. Mine wasn't so far from that, I could draw parallels to Samurai culture in my novel, but on the other hand I was trying to look for ways to make my aliens more alien, not more like a human culture. So there's a tension between these two versions. But I'll look for a way to resolve that if I get the chance.

[Corporal Hicks]

What I find somewhat amusing is that the Yautja recieved a similar welcome to your Hish too. Erm, the Yautja pretty much bred like humans except it was more...BDSM sort of thing I suppose. Normal sex but very violent.

BrokenTusk and I have been talking about combining the Hish and Yautja in this thread and I think you might find that useful - http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=237.0

[JohnShirley]

In the interview, you mentioned you didn't know what the Space Jockey was when I asked you if the Egg was Jockey technology. If I tell you that the Space Jockeys are the creatures from Alien, and the Derelict Ship their creation, would you be able to answer that question again?

AvPGalaxy - It's quite an intriguing story and I'll admit, the idea behind this "Egg Ship" has got my attention. Is the Egg meant to be a Space Jockey ship?

The Egg is NOT a Space Jockey ship. They are a wholly different race. Many races have been "infected" by the xenomorphic craft, in my view, over the millenia...

[JohnShirley]

What I find somewhat amusing is that the Yautja recieved a similar welcome to your Hish too. Erm, the Yautja pretty much bred like humans except it was more...BDSM sort of thing I suppose. Normal sex but very violent.

BrokenTusk and I have been talking about combining the Hish and Yautja in this thread and I think you might find that useful - http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=237.0

Hmmm that varying reproduction thing poses a problem. I may have to introduce genetic engineering into the story to explain it if I do another novel...but wait...I don't think I described the sexual process per se. I think I said that eggs were involved but with an alien morphology the Yautja or Hish could *couple* as people do and still produce eggs. They're not necessarily either mammal or non-mammal as we are. And they can change sexes and have sex as we do...Or is there something to prevent that?

[Corporal Hicks]

I honestly can't remember the finer details. I'd have to go re-read Prey again but I'm currently reading Aliens DNA War for a review for here and DH Press.

I think BrokenTusk would be better off explaining. I'll go bug him and make him aware of your reponses.

Personally, I'm not fussed about the culture change. Then again, it could be to the fact I'm a bigger Aliens fan or that I love the what-could-have-beens. In all fairness the Yautja are a non-cannon culture creatured years ago, maybe it's time to accept a new face for our bad guys?

[JohnShirley]

What I find somewhat amusing is that the Yautja recieved a similar welcome to your Hish too. Erm, the Yautja pretty much bred like humans except it was more...BDSM sort of thing I suppose. Normal sex but very violent.

BrokenTusk and I have been talking about combining the Hish and Yautja in this thread and I think you might find that useful - http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=237.0

Hmmm that varying reproduction thing poses a problem. I may have to introduce genetic engineering into the story to explain it if I do another novel...but wait...I don't think I described the sexual process per se. I think I said that eggs were involved but with an alien morphology the Yautja or Hish could *couple* as people do and still produce eggs. They're not necessarily either mammal or non-mammal as we are. And they can change sexes and have sex as we do...Or is there something to prevent that?

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.

[JohnShirley]

I honestly can't remember the finer details. I'd have to go re-read Prey again but I'm currently reading Aliens DNA War for a review for here and DH Press.

I think BrokenTusk would be better off explaining. I'll go bug him and make him aware of your reponses.

Personally, I'm not fussed about the culture change. Then again, it could be to the fact I'm a bigger Aliens fan or that I love the what-could-have-beens. In all fairness the Yautja are a non-cannon culture creatured years ago, maybe it's time to accept a new face for our bad guys?

Yes I could argue that they are non-canon. But I'd rather find a reconciliation between the two given the chance...

[Corporal Hicks]

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.

[Corporal Hicks]

I can't believe I forgot this, but I don't think it matters. According to Bob, who seems to know a tad more than you did regarding this whole situation, he was told:

Again, our instructions were to ignore what was established in the non-DH Books novels and start fresh.

http://www.avpgalaxy.net/website/interviews/robert-greenberger/

[BrokenTusk]

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.

[BrokenTusk]

also though IMO the thing about Preds is they're not monsters, they just do what they do, like people hunting other creatures ( both writers of the Predator 1 and 2 )

then again I think I'm the bigger Predator fan then an alien fan and I consider the Preds as bad/anti heroes, though John you could have each race evolve differently from the predecessor....

[RakaiThwei]

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