Via the Instapundit, news that there might be a direct to dvd sequel to Serenity:
Loni Peristere, visual-effects supervisor for the SF movie Serenity, told SCI FI Wire that there’s hope for future flights of the cast and crew of the movie, which just came out on DVD. Director Joss Whedon—who also created the canceled Fox TV show Firefly, on which the movie is based—expected that the movie might draw the low numbers it did in its theatrical release, Peristere said in an interview. But he added that the movie’s sales on DVD, which came out on Dec. 20, are running neck-and-neck with the hit comedy Wedding Crashers, which bodes well for a possible Serenity sequel.
“We kind of expected this from our audience,” Peristere said. “We did so well on [Amazon.com] with the Firefly box set and the performance of that helped us get the movie made. We wish the audience would get up and go to the theater, but it shows that they like to keep coming back and revisiting the world Joss created.” Serenity made $25 million at the domestic box office after it was released Sept. 30.
That would be great.
BTW- Whoever I lent my Firefly set to, I want it back, damnit.
Marcus Wellby
John, what do you think of the new Battlestar Galactica? I find it much better than Firefly — though I prefer my scifi gritty (Star Wars* cannot hold a candle to BladeRunner in my view).
*The last three were so bad they even tarnished my memories of the first three.
Stormy70
Please, please, please. I gave out Firefly and Serenity as Christmas gifts this year.
Don’t tease, Joss.
Oh and Lost? Thank you for one of the best episodes of the entire series. I am feeling the Lost love like never before.
Blue Neponset
On a semi-related (hopefully non-thread-queering) note:
I have been on a sci-fi reading kick lately and I would appreciate any title/author suggestions you guys may have. I just picked up ‘Forever War’ by Joe Haldeman last night. So far so good with that one.
Paul L.
I just saw the latest episode of Galactica. They changed one of my favorite characters of the old series (Cdr. Cain) to a bitchy hyper-military, control-freak woman.
I enjoyed Firefly and Serenity more than Battlestar Galactica.
An excellent review of the flaws of the show can be found at
“Rumor has it you’re a genius”
Lines
I’m still wondering how they think they can bring Firefox back after how they finished Serenity. I hate shows that get rid of my favorite characters with such ease. If it wasn’t for Jewel Staite I would never watch it again… Ok, maybe I still would, but damnit! why do the best always have to die?
Marcus Wellby
Try Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. SciFi blended with hardboiled private eye — great story.
Angie
Oh! This is the best news I’ve read all day. Okay yes it’s only 7:41am. But YAY!! :)
Krista
Yay…just two more sleeps until Season 2 of B.G. is shown in Canada! I cannot frackin’ wait.
And Stormy, that Lost episode was indeed chock-full-o’-goodness. Sucks to be you, Hobbit Boy.
Blue Neponset
Thanks, I actually had that book in my hand at the bookstore last night. I will definately give it a shot now.
Tim F.
Those are dangerous words to stay on the net. I found Forever War surprisingly catchy at setting a scene. If you liked that, definitely check out the original Starship Troopers by Heinlein. It’s the only fiction in which I’ve ever taken margin notes and for a while it was required reading at the Air Force Academy. Then read the rest of his work, although unless you like soap opera you can skip the Lazarus Long stuff.
For near-future procedurals you can’t do much better than Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars trilogy. Ender’s Game is great if only for his pitch-perfect prediction of the internet.
Those are just a couple that come to mind first. It definitely depends strongly on your own preferences.
Lines
Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson
Although I’m not much for sci-fi, I’m more into fantasy, I really enjoyed Steven King’s Gunslinger series (just finished it). And as required reading, The Hitchhikers Guide can’t be beat.
Blue Neponset
Thanks for the suggestions Tim.
Wow, that is cool. I enjoyed Startship Troopers and enjoy Heinlein in general. I just re-read The Puppet Masters. I almost didn’t read it because the movie sucked so badly, but I was pleasantly surprised it was nothing like Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
So True. Just read Speaker for the Dead and thought it was OK. Ender’s Shadow is a good (not great) read too.
I haven’t read any of Kim Stanley Robinson’s stuff. I will definately check it out. Thanks again.
Don
If you like war-in-the-future stuff that speculates about what it would be like when humans expand into the universe… and find it hostile… you should definately pick up Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War” which just came out in trade paperback. I could barely put it down.
Krista
You did? I enjoyed the first four, but to me, the last three just felt like he was just trying to get the whole thing over with. They just seemed…shallow…compared to the first four.
Krista
If anybody likes sci-fi based more on societal (as opposed to technological) themes, I can highly recomment The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Teppler. It raises a lot of interesting ethical questions.
Tony Dismukes
I’ll second the recommendation for Old Man’s War, especially if you liked Forever War. If you’re not certain about Scalzi, drop over to his site to get a taste of his writing. I got hooked on reading his stuff there, and moved on to his books.
I’ll recommend just about anything by Vernor Vinge. He handles approaches to the Singularity better than just about anyone. Try A Fire Upon the Deep.
jack
I didn’t really click with Firefly, probably have to give it another chance. Liked Serenity, but….and there are always ‘buts’
Am I the only one sick of gritty futures? Even Trek, at it’s last gasp as TV, tried the ‘gritty’ route. Isn’t the future ever good anymore?
Am I the only one sick of futures without aliens–or worse without discernable aliens(this is a Battlestar Galactica complaint)
How about futures that aren’t futures. BG, Space, Above and Beyond. BG died for me when it became clear that our distant kin on Galactica, eons seperate from us, had made EXACTLY the same choices in clothing design. And I always got the feeling that Space, Above and Beyond was ‘Baa,Baa Black Sheep’.
Futures without futures doesn’t really apply to Firefly, it is noticeably different, but the other two….
I liked the Reavers, they seemed to be what the Afflicted in 28 Days later should have been(if the whole drug story was real). But they were ‘created’ aliens. And, like always, the oppressive govenment was behind it.
And, here’s a question for real Firefly fans, did it not strike you as odd that there were people in the interviews(and even Joss Whedon, at times) who seemed to think that a cancelled s/f show getting a movie was something that’d never occurred before? At Comic-Con, no less. I mean, really, the show is good, but it’s hardly going where no show has gone before…
I’d hope that Whedon avoids the Direct-to-DVD market and focos on getting the show back on. DTDVD is NOT a good thing, and being compared to that stinker ‘Wedding Crashers’ isn’t either.
Oh, for reading, try John Varley’s stuff. It’s got a little bit of everything. Grit, shiny future, aliens…
Tony Dismukes
Oooh yeah. When Tepper is at her best, she has a lot in common with Le Guin – applying “what if” to a society instead of a technology. The Gate to Women’s Country is a good example of that.
Krista
Tepper…right. Sorry. I don’t have the book at home anymore. I’ve read it to the point of memorization, and donated it to my local library so that others can benefit.
Kickass book. Another one that was pretty good was The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner. It’s an oldie, but a goodie. And very prophetic.
Pooh
Damnit, the post title got me all excited and then “Direct to DVD.” Horsepucky, I say. (Though with the way the movie ended, I’m not sure where they can really go. River’s “past” was the whole motivating force behind the series – so what now?”)
Stormy, Lost was FANTASTIC last night. Mr. Eko is a sweet character, but WTF in re Monster? And yes, Krista it does suck to be a hobbit out of the Shire these days. (Though Dominick Monaghan is dating Evy Lilly. How does that work? I suppose not as bad as you two’s Secret Lost Crush being with Barabara Hershey, but still…)
srv
Scalzi, Stephenson, good, but newer. Some older classics:
Asimovs Foundation and Robots series, always fun,
Niven & Pournelle’s Mote in God’s Eye,
James P. Hogan’s Inherit the Stars, Sagans Contact, Greg Bears Forge of God (if Independence Day is your favorite movie, you’ll hate it)
Yikes, 20th Anniversary Edition of Neuromancer published (William Gibson). Am I really that old?
Lines
Krista: I took a different tact with the Gunslinger, in that I realized the pinnacle wasn’t going to be the ending, the shape of the story was different than anything else, so I gave it much more leeway. I was actually happy that King stopped jumping time. If he wanted to tell the story of young Roland, I wish he would have started with a young Roland.
I especially liked the take on vampires, and I think that the Gunslinger is actually going to be a jumping off point for a lot of up and coming writers. The idea of empathetic vampires was somewhat original, at least to me. I could critisize the books all day long, though, as there were so many horrible leaps of logic that I had to ignore in order to get on with the story. I absolutely despise a writer that puts himself into the story and then becomes a multi-deus-ex-machina unto himself. Thats about as lame as the Monty Python bit about the animators.
Krista
Lines, yeah, that pissed me off too. And somehow, in the last book, the characters became less and less sympathetic and believable. It was as though he had spent all of this time creating these masterpieces, and then just let them fade in the sun. The only character that stayed real to me was poor little Oy.
It just seemed odd (spoiler alert!) that Ralph’s confrontation with the Red King in Insomnia was more riveting and climactic than Roland’s confrontation with him, after 7 books!
Pooh – Eko is freakin’ awesome. Love him to bits. And my crush on Naveen Andrews (Sayid) is no crush. I’m proud of my excellent taste in male pulchritude.
Krista
No secret, I meant to say.
I’ll just blame the Robaxacet again.
Stormy70
Naveen will be forgiven anything, as long as he stays pretty. ;)
I prefer Fantasy. David Eddings – the Belgariad and the Mallorean. Love them and have read them several times.
I liked the original Dragonlance novels, and the Rose of the Prophet trilogy by Hickman and Weis is one of my favorites.
Raymond Fiest and Janny Wurtz tied in series was good, too.
One last thing – I am very excited about the Underworld: Evolution movie coming out. I just really love vampire movies.
Stormy70
Doesn’t anyone here watch Project Runway, or will I have to go to Television without Pity to be among fans?
Pooh
Stormy, you and I should just agree to never discuss politics. To quote Charlie, “what are you going to do, beat me with your Jesus stick?”…
I am so fired up for UW:E…
Stormy70
I am going to try to stay off politics, I want to start my weekend early. I have good TV to watch.
Vampires vs. Werewolves. What’s not to like?!
Jess
They’re finally reprinting my favorite sci-fi writer, Jack Vance. Classic stuff–cynical, funny, romantic, ironic, beautifully written and very intelligent. If y’all didn’t catch him the first time around, be sure to check him out. The libertarians among you will especially appreciate him. My favorites are the Lyonesse and the Araminta/Throy trilogies (the latter has not yet been reprinted, alas), but the Demon Princes series is also excellent. He’s especially good at academic parody–John, you should enjoy that!
Lines
Hmmm, I’m checking the windows to see if brimstone is raining out of the sky because it appears that Stormy and I have something in common. Forgive me if I thought Ayn Rand was the only thing in your bookcase, Stormy.
Eddings is brilliant. His character development and ability to keep personalities and traits separate intrigues me to no end. The Belgariad copies I have are almost worn through. The Mallorian could have spent a bit more time in editing and storyline, though.
Feist? No one can beat him on current day magic inclusion stories (Demon Fire). His original Magician series was dark, murky and just confusing enough to bring the ending a big bang.
The original Dragonlance was good, the follow-ons when they allowed Salvatore and Company to start writing them became a cacauphony of trash.
Lines
Krista: (danger, there are spoilers ahead)
Oy always felt like an undeveloped character. So much lurking behind those golden rings that was unexplored. His death would have been much more devastating to me if it had been written better. As I clumsily tried to explain above, the ending of the Gunslinger was not the apex of the series. I think once the ka-tet was broken, the momentum for the story was all downhill, which might have actually been King’s intention. As the series came to its end, the colors/smells/descriptions of the world King had created simply dried up at the end. It might also have had something to do with the internal death within Roland when Jake was killed.
The Artist himself was drawn, but not developed, somewhat giving my theories some weight, I think.
Now it would be interesting to try to come up with the true apex of the story, and the only one I can think of would be the re-joining of the tet within the Pig after the death of Father Callahan, or it could be before that, maybe the end of the Apex was signaled by the breaking of the Tet in the lands of the Manni after the big fight with the Wolves. That seemed to signal Jake’s entry into manhood and the end of all character development.
Krista
Lines – (yes, spoilers)
Even prior to the breaking up of the ka-tet, though, it just kind of felt like he gave up. I really just don’t see the need at all of the deus ex machina gambit. It yanked me out of the story’s world. Your theory is interesting, though, and worth considering.
Part of me wonders if King’s placing of himself as a sort of god mirrors what he was feeling in real life. He created this intricate, detailed universe with cross-stories, linked characters, and a common threat, and then just didn’t know how to wrap it all up. Was he doing it almost as a way of illustrating his own fallibility, and therefore the fallibility of all idols? Or did he just choke under the enormous pressure? Jake’s entry into manhood didn’t feel real, either. He actually seemed a lot more mature in the previous books. His starting to call Roland “Father” seemed more like a regression to me.
What about Walter? I know a lot of people were royally pissed off about how he died, but I think it proved a point: that Roland’s worst enemy has always been himself. Thoughts?
Stormy70
Brimstone in 5..4..3..
Most of us here come together on the geek issues. Why do you think I still hang here? It’s the pop culture, baby.
You should read Rose of the Prophet Trilogy. I have read it several times. Best ever.
It has been a while since I’ve read a gripping fantasy series. I have read Katherine Kerr, Terry Goodkind, Piers Anthony, Terry Brooks, and am currently reading David Drake.
Do you have any recommendations?
Lines
My basic recommendation is to stay away from anything Donaldson unless you like whiny bitchy men that hate themselves just because life didn’t give them everything they want.
Tad Williams can write a good story, Roberts got carried away and should have finished his series 5 books ago.
L. Ron Hubbard is a nutcase and never should have had his 9 book series published.
I tend to read more bad Fantasy than good and I’m sick of it.
I really enjoyed the thought provoking theories in Tad Williams latest series about Virtual Reality, though. The plot itself was doomed from the beginning, but the premises were there and can be taken up later by a writer that is more talented in that area.
Thats about it. I’ve tried reading some of the classics, but they seem so cliche after all the cliche’s were made of them that I just havn’t been able to get into them. I thought the Ender series was incredibly repetitious and juvenile. I’ll go through my collection tonight and see what I can dig up.
Lines
Krista, I’ll think about it and answer you here in a bit
Pooh
Stormy, Song of Ice and Fire by Martin. First 3 are SPECTACULAR. (And for you especially because he’s not shy about making people dead. Blood and thunder, etc…) the newest one has gotten mixed reviews, but it’s next on my book pile.
AaronWA
Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress. Near Future deal with issues in Society Sci-fi. A good book. And just read Donaldson and I agree with Lines. Donaldson’s stuff does not appeal to me at all.
Paladin of Souls by Lois Bujold was also a decent book.
I also endorse A Song of Ice and Fire, and the Red Mars series.
MyTruthHurts
Hi, a new member who emrged from lurking because of this topic and I had to chime in.
Gene Wolfe’s “Sun” books are some of the most intricately plotted, surpising and original sci fi I’ve ever read. Start with the first series “The Book of the New Sun”, the second series “The Book of the Long Sun” and the final series “The Book of the Short Sun”. All of these “books” actually contain 3 or 4 600+page novels each, with a 5th book in between New Sun and Long Sun, “The Urth of the New Sun”. Just do an amazon search for Gene Wolf. And his writing is superb. You have to really take your time with it because he reveals things so slowly, and makes conenctions you missed. You don’t even see how these 3 distinct series are related until the end. Good writing is just as important to me. For example, I like Asimov’s Foundations and Robots for their stories and themes, but his writing was atrocious. No subtly, no complexity. Just “This happened. And then this happened.”
Moving on to another great writer was Phillip K. Dick. Again, original, surprising, thought provoking and superb writing. I read a lot of his books one after the other for a time in college, and I don’t recommend it because his view was bleak and I started having dark, dark dreams. He is surreal, melancholy and darkly sarcastic. Start with “A Scanner Darkly”, “Martian Time-Slip”, “Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said” or “Now Wait For Last Year”. If you want something more familiar, the source of the movie Blade Runner “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep” is good, but it’s not much like the film. Both are great, and both deal with the same themes.
Finally, Alfred Bester. Great and very unkown writer who only produced a few books and stories before he died. “The Stars My Destination” is where to start.
Ok, back to vicious and divisive politics.
rachel
I think just about anything Lois Bujold has written is a decent book–and there are Hugo and Nebula award committees that thought some of her books were better than just decent.
oopla
As for Sci-fi Novels, I endorse Hoyle’s The Dark Cloud. Still very good today. Asimov’s Caves of Steel and Heinlein’s Starship troopers are great reading, just never see the Starship Troopers movie.
I would also reccomend the New and Old Galactica series. I have to say that the “Rumor has it your a genies” article linked above got so much wrong, from bitching about the military realism of the modern series (fairly realistic) vs the old (Realism? nah, gotta make the universe quarkier), to the whole point of having Cylons in human form (to question the nature of the enemy), to how Laura Roslin became president (Hello? We have an order of succession here in the Good old USA.) to straight up new Galactica hater Misogyny (What? A woman as president and a woman as the best pilot in the series? A woman Pilot? Gotta be a dyke. Women should know their place!!! Only men can save the human race. Blah Blah Blah. ) Of course in the end, he says that all sci-fi on TV sucks, except for of course, the original. It’s sorta like reading someone do a maze backwards, inventing all these reason for a show they just dont like for personal reasons. Of course, what really should I expect from a guy who uses the Internet explorer icon as his site’s address bar icon, then bitches about how people plaster firefox icons on their pages.
As for the Cain change over, I think that is the interesting part. The dualing natures of Cain and Adama, now Cain fights for revenge, and Adama fights to build a new future.
Stormy70
Ditto. Donaldson gives me hives. I will check out the Martin books. I have read Tad williams and it was pretty good.
Thanks!
Blue Neponset
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Glad to see there are a good number of Sci-fi fans here at B-J.
Lines
Blue: Its the internet, you can’t throw a snark without hitting 5 trekkies and a hobbit.
Lines
Krista: I see what you mean about King-as-God. His defined his creation, he set it in motion and may have been surprised when that motion didn’t take the story to a fabulous conclusion through all of the subplots and fantasies that he had dreampt up for it. It seems like King is a much better short-story writer and has made due with his longer novels. Each sub-plot could be taken as a short-story with a loose connection of filler to join them up, perhaps.
I actually felt Jake slipped out of his rememberances of his life on his world, his neglectful parents and even his grudge against Roland for dropping him to his first death shortly after the Wolves. I felt that his connection to Roland was his only way to remain the child that he actually was, and calling him Father was his way of forgiveness as well as revenge.
I dislike writers that kill of characters with “and then he died”, which is what I felt King did to Oy. Jake’s death, on the other hand, was given a much more regal treatment, but even that could have been expanded. I think King started to regret his adding human features to Roland about that time, though. The hard Clint Eastwood figure had started to morph into a caring, empathetic father figure and I think that irritated King for some reason.
Of course, I will never forgive King for putting himself in the story at all. I really wanted to just start skipping whole sections when he pulled that little stunt. Also, Susannah’s deus-ex-machina moment in the Empathica bathroom just felt wrong and disjointed from the story, almost as if someone else had writen the short Empathica story and it just got thrown into the mix.
When does the director’s cut come out? How much was left out? I was left with far too many questions.
here is a question for you fantasy readers: Does finishing a massive series, such as the Belgariad or Robert’s series leave you feeling depressed for a few days? Almost as if you’ve just had a break up?
oopla
Lines, The Belgariad gave me the opposite reaction. I was walking around buzzed from the series for day. Same way finishing Robots of Dawn by Issac Asimov, and realizing that it was of the same storyline continuium as his foundation series, just with thousands of years between the events.
Having to drop a series that has gone so far down hill is a tad emotionally draining, just becuase it feels like such a waste. One series that did this to me was Terry Goodkind’s series. It just kept going down hill and getting stupider. Gee, triple fork prophocies, CPR in fantasy novels, Richard Rahl defeating the Soviet union by showing them his work ethic alone? Let alone the disturbing torture fetish that manifests in every book.
I can only think of one book that I loved that truely depressed me. Watchmen. It was so good, but it really killed the kid inside of me that loved superheros, to really take a hard look at what real costumed vigilatees would be like. It didn’t kill my love of the Hero genre, but matured it.
Well, thankfully, that Funk didn’t last long, as I got into the Fantasy Graphic novel series Bone. It holds its own just fine against any text fantasy.
Krista
I think finishing any series that you’ve loved leaves you a little depressed, because you know that it’s over. I got the new Diana Gabaldon book for Christmas (autographed – sweet!) and it just felt kind of sad when it ended, because reportedly, there will only be one more after that one. And then it’s done. I think that in a series, if it’s well-written, the characters become so real to you, that when the series is over, you feel like you had access to a world of people that you love and enjoy, and now you can no longer access that world, and you’ll never hear from them again, never know how they’re doing, what they’re up to. You can go and revisit what you already know, by re-reading, and remember and enjoy their adventures, but it’s still very bittersweet.
Krista
Lines – yes…way too many questions. And tears for Oy and Jake – I bawled like a baby.
I get way too emotionally involved with characters, I think — Roland of Gilead and his ka-tet, Claire and Jamie Fraser, Anne Shirley, Harry Potter — I’ve snorted laughter in public places remembering something one of them said or did (Eddie’s manic Robin Leach moment in Lud), and I’ve gone to bed crying when one of them suffered a loss or a betrayal.
I really feel sorry for people who can’t read, or who don’t enjoy reading — they’re missing so much, aren’t they?
Jeff
John Steakley’s ARMOR is a very good, fairly obscure Science Fiction title. It’s story is similar in ways to Starship Trooper. And like Starship Trooper, it’s great for the re-read. Good brainfood.
HYPERION and THE FALL OF HYPERION by Dan Simmons were great as well.
John Gardner’s GRENDEL is one I’ve read several times, finding new food for though each time. It’s not Science Fiction though.