Predator: Forever Midnight

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Customer Reviews:

A waste of a perfectly good tree - [Posted on 2007-11-27]
Since I first got online way back in the mid 90's I've taken advantage of the internet to be able to look up information on my favourite authors and more often than not, I've been able to get in contact with quite a few of them.


Because of this, I've been able to form a long lasting friendship with one particular author, and I've been able to build up quite a nice little collection of autographed novels.


But, as we all know, there is a downside to the internet.


I've also made a few enemies in the author community. The main reason is that quite simply, I refused to knuckle under and suck up. Quite frankly, if I don't like something, I will come out and say it, and I will also give reasons as to why I don't like something. The same goes if I enjoy something, I explain why.


It's my nature.


But it's also the nature of people to expect you to suck up to them no matter what, and when you don't, they get damned angry. Ah, the stories I could relate about one particular author, but that person shall remain nameless. Frankly, it's ego. Pure and simple ego. Some people have to have their ego's stroked, while others just don't give a damn.


It's also a very common tactic among authors to `honour' favourite writers, founders of the various genre's, by introducing thinly veiled characterizations of them, or naming characters after them.


And, there is the flip side of the coin. Many an author and I personally know of two who've done this, have named characters after people who've angered them, or in their view, wronged them in some way shape or form, and made the characters total scumbags in their literary works.


Simply so they could kill them off.


Strangely enough, one of my favourite authors, F. Paul Wilson held a contest a while back that allowed the winner to be written into an upcoming Repairman Jack novel and be killed off by Jack. So, sometimes being handled in a novel in this manner isn't a bad thing, it's considered an honour.


You may be scratching your head right now and wondering what this has to do with a review of a novel. Patience, my dear reader, I'll get to the point right now.


This novel SUCKED!


And now, if Mr. Shirley ever reads this review, I'll be added to his crap list of reviewers, people who have no taste what so ever. And to top it off, many fans of his will read this review and comment on what a loser, or what an idiot this guy is. He has no idea what he's talking about, or he's full of crap, and his review means squat.



Why? Oh, because I'm like that with my favourite authors. If I read a bad review, those are pretty much word for word what I have to say about the reviewer, even if said reviewer has made valid points and taken time to explain themselves.


Anyhow, to me the novel was a terrible piece of literary crap.


In fact, the novel actually made me angry enough to, and I mean it literally, throw it across the room and then after I was done, pick it up and carelessly throw it into my `finished box' and walk away.


That was about nine months ago. I swore that I wouldn't pick it up and finish it, as I had far better and more important novels to read.


Ok, at this point in the review, you're probably wondering why I changed my mind and picked it up to finish it.


Economics, that's why. I hate to spend my hard earned money on something just to throw it away. And that's what I did with the novel. I spent my cash and then didn't finish reading it.


Besides, I also couldn't, with a clear conscience, review this novel unless I read it cover to cover.


That's why.


Now, dear reader, you're staring at the screen and thinking to yourself, why did he dislike the novel so much? Why did he state that it sucked?


Only a few chapters into the novel, the author began to kill of marines that were attacked by Predators. I started to get a REALLY bad feeling when all these marines that were dying had names like R. Heinlein, L. Niven, etc. etc. etc. You see a pattern here?


Maybe that was Mr. Shirley's way of honouring the authors who are considered the founding fathers of modern Science fiction, maybe it was his way of thumbing his nose at them. To me, I found it in extremely poor taste and an insult to these pioneers.


I will admit now though, that if that wasn't the case, I over-reacted. And that's something I have a habit of doing. But that immediately left a foul taste in my mouth (figuratively speaking)


Now, whenever you have a novel that's based on a movie, the author is given plenty of leeway to practice his or her artistic licence.


But there is a time when it's way overdone.


To me, the only real source for any movie's canon is the movie or franchise itself. Not books, comics, or any other medium out there. Unless of course it's something that originally started as a novel or comic, then that's the main source for the canon or the mythology.


Mr. Shirley really went overboard. He gave the Predators a name, which was already done years ago in the comics published by Dark Horse. He should have stuck with that name, or just left it alone because in my opinion, it wasn't mentioned in the movie, it wasn't canon.


He went as far as describing how they change gender, take slaves, wipe out entire civilizations and the like, and the whole so called `honorific' that were being spewed by the alien slaves was more than annoying, it was flat out stupid.


Some people might have appreciated this, but I'm not one.


The further I got into the novel, I actually found myself wondering if he took writing it seriously. I had to wonder if this novel wasn't just a big fat joke to him. There were several reasons for this, starting with the names he came up with for some of the `displaced human natives' that lived on this world, and the way some of the Predator characters acted towards one another. It was comical, and not in a good way.


Many times I found myself rolling my eyes after I finished reading a paragraph, I found it so ridiculous.


Also, when you consider just how tough the predators are from the two movies, and the AVP movie that came out, it seems unlikely that a ship of over 40 of them would be wiped out in a matter of days. Especially when they have been portrayed as being ruthless, but at the same time quite intelligent.


And that was made even worse when these creatures were able to board a human ship and wipe out marines by the dozens without taking any casualties. Then, as the novel progressed, they were killed a few at a time, some rather stupidly.


Frankly, maybe I'm being overly unfair about this novel because of how it began, maybe I'm not.


I really disliked the book, and I've made it pretty clear as to why.


But despite this, I did like his imagination when it came to the flora and fauna of this strange world, this predator safari world. So I guess there was a little good that came out of this novel.


What bothers me is that I currently have another one of his books sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read, called Aliens: Steel Egg.


I'm not holding my breath that it'll be any good.

Absolutely the WORST EVER [Posted on 2007-12-17]
John Shirley should be sent to this planet and left there. I have read every Predator book out there and seen all the movies. I have enjoyed them all --- till now. I just wish I could forget I ever picked up this mess. I found the story painful in every aspect. How this author ever earned awards for his writing is unbelievable. I'm going back to read Edgar Rice Burroughs to get the nasty taste out of my mouth and mind.

Treat it like a UFO - and pretend you never saw it...... [Posted on 2008-01-16]
Despite 15+ comments already posted on this book, I felt compelled to add my voice about what I consider an insulting rip off of the Predator series and its fans.

Mr. Shirley admits to not having done any background research on the Predator series (besides viewing the first film)and it shows. Like other fans I expect new installments to the series to respect and maintain the continuity of the basic Predator mythos already established (see authors Steve & Stehanie Perry, Nathan Archer, etc). Fundamental premises such as personal "honor" in the kill, military-like self-discipline, high tech skills and intelligence of Predators (highlighting the fallacy of prejudices based on appearances)were left unexamined on the shelf along with all the preceding Predator books. I have no qualms about authors building on an established series, adding to the storyline with their own creativity, but not CHANGING an entire genre in the process! Can you imagine sequels for say, "Gone with the Wind" that make Scarlet an ex-prostitute before she met Rhett, completely destroying her southern belle naivete and spoiled childlike ways inherent to her original character? This is in essence what Mr. Shirley's has done with his "contribution" to the Predator series.

Instead, Mr. Shirley imposes his own mythos that Predators are unisex creatures(interchangeably male and female according to their "cycle"), a clear rip off of the film "Enemy Mine" with Louis Gossett Jr.'s portrayal of a gender/sex shifting alien. His Predators are bloodthirsty to the point of mindlessness, will even kill each other in a frenzy without medication to control their "kill gland", and have no regard for sportsmanship, character building from "hunting" or seemingly any particular rules of engagement - just indiscriminate slaughter of whatever they can get their hands on. To add insult to injury, Shirley inflicts us with juvenile attempts at humor, stilted dialogue, and writing that tells rather than shows - a death knell to reader interest. I had to force myself to finish this book amidst all of its violations.

I agree with other commentors that generally speaking, the Predator series needs to expand beyond the one-by-one-kill-off-victims scenario, as that storyline is becoming stagnant. Therein lies a vast array of possibilities and scenarios left unmined for future authors wishing to contribute to this series!!

John Shirley has apparently won a Bram Stoker award for his horror short story collection in "Black Butterflies," and has done work on screenplays - maybe this explains the "telling" rather than showing writing style; writing a treatment is a world away from sustaining a novel. In any event, I suggest Mr. Shirley stick to horror - and we treat this Predator installment like a UFO - and pretend we never saw it.

WHY???? [Posted on 2008-01-16]
THIS BOOK IS TERRIBLE! I'd never heard of John Shirley before eading this "book". I've been a fan of Predator for as long as I can remember, and this book is worse than having to deal with army of cockroaches on Steroids. The Creatures in this waste of paper are definetly not Predators, Yajuta, or whatever you please to call them. Reasons why they aren't
1.Predators do not change sexes! They are either Male or Female not both.
2.Their cloacking devices are not shields
3.They do not enslave other cultures
4.Predators have an honor code, they don't kill everything they see.
5.Whatever the hell I forgot to list

What happened [Posted on 2008-10-24]
I was very excited when I recieved this book in the mail but that's as far as my excitement went. I too, did not finish the entire book and after reading some of the other reviews I do not feel bad for not having completed it from front to back. I was very dissappointed in the author for changing the basic nature of the predators. For instance, the dual sex idea. The predators were never both sexes. They were either male or female, not both. I think the author lost site of what the original predator series was about. It would have been more enjoyable if the book was not a predator book at all but perhaps a new series with a different type of alien all together.

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