SILENT ORDER: Giant Space Bugs!
A reader emailed to ask if the Wasp aliens in SILENT ORDER: WASP HAND were based on the Tyranids from Warhammer 40k or the Zerg from Starcraft.
As it happens, the Wasps were based on experiences I recently had in real life. Back in September, I had to deal with a massive wasp infestation. As insects go, wasps are both vicious and highly territorial, and dealing with them proved massively time-consuming and highly expensive. By the time the process was finished, I was really, really annoyed with wasps as a species, and the idea of SILENT ORDER’S Wasp aliens popped into my head. It was very satisfying to use the Wasps as the villains after all that!
(I have to admit I haven’t actually played Warhammer 40k or Starcraft. The only science fiction books/games with Giant Space Bugs that I’ve finished are STARSHIP TROOPERS and the first two MASTER OF ORION games.)
Another question asked if the Great Elder Ones were the same as the Dark Ones in the CLOAK GAMES series, or if they were fallen angels like Incariel in FROSTBORN.
They are not – SILENT ORDER has no supernatural elements. The Great Elder Ones are simply powerful aliens. Grated, they’re not nice, and they exist beyond human perception, and any human that sees one will go irrevocably insane, but they’re not supernatural.
That said, the inspiration for the Great Elder Ones was Lovecraftian. In fact, in SILENT ORDER: WRAITH HAND, when the Custodian tells March that some writers on primeval Earth dimly grasped the truth of the Great Elder Ones, the Custodian is in fact referring to HP Lovecraft.
-JM