Club Jade

Can’t say I’m particularly broken up about the departure of Karen Traviss from Star Wars, as I wasn’t planning to read any of her forthcoming novels anyway. However, I’ve been following the threads on the fan boards and in-between the mourning/celebration some interesting points have been raised: How far is The Clone Wars going in railroading over existing canon, if it’s driven away an author who infamously loved to retcon? (more…)

No, cheesy franchise books are not generally up for awards. You know why? Because they’re cheesy franchise books, and let’s not even pretend that their burger-flipping reputation is entirely undeserved. Face it, guys: For every Traitor, there are a half-dozen Darksabers. (I’ve paid for most of them. In hardcover.) And half the time, particularly in this franchise, the subtleties of Great Book Z might not work for a reader who lacks extensive knowledge of Crappy Trilogies X and Y.

I’m not even saying that genre award winners are necessarily great literature (I’ve been bored to tears by at least as many as I’ve enjoyed; Pretty much the same as Star Wars, come to think of it) but it’s an entirely different kind of playing field.

And lest we forget, hardcore fans of the sort that inhabit TFN’s Lit forum are not exactly the most unbiased of creatures.

By the by, the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers have their own awards, and Karen Miller is currently up for one for Wild Space.

So the entertainment industry’s further ventures into online programming continues with a new show: Gemini Division.

Produced by NBC, expect a slight bit of first-person Blair Witch camera-jiggling, green screen and interesting montage kinda segments. Still, it seems to be an intriguing mix of cop drama and sci-fi. Worth checking out, if only to see Rosario Dawson in a non-film role and to enjoy a sci-fi tale.

So I was in the audience at Dragon*Con when they showed the first episode of the upcoming Clone Wars cartoon. Do yourself a favor: give it another shot.

I was in the same group as others who found the movie to be, um…tedious. I wasn’t terribly impressed. But the first episode I saw was great! A nice balance of character, story and battle. And I think Yoda has more lines in this first episode than in all the movies combined. It descends into a couple of spots of “only funny to kids” humor, but only for a few seconds here and there. And I suspect that will fade as the series finds its legs.

So don’t give up on it just yet. Stick with it for a few episodes and see if it doesn’t win you back. You might just be surprised!

Mighty God King asks the question that has been floating in the head of many Expanded Universe fans. (Or is it just me?)

If we’re going to get an animated Star Wars film, why on earth are we getting the Clone Wars, which has already had live-action movies and an animated series and potentially a live-action series in the future about it – instead of, and this is just off the top of my head, an adaptation of the Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zahn, AKA “the only good Star Wars novels ever?”

We know the answer: Because George Lucas loves his shiny new Clone Wars, and it’s not like folks aren’t going to watch it. But really, why can’t we take the post-ROTJ books and feed them into the animation mill? By end of LOTF, we’re going on 40 years worth of raw material. True, they aren’t all the Thrawn trilogy, but even the worst could hold a glimmer of possibility in the hands of a competent scriptwriter. And it’s not like other endless franchises haven’t been doing it for decades.

I’ve nothing against The Clone Wars in theory – but didn’t we just leave that party? Maybe I’m just a sad old-school fan who simply isn’t all that interested in further exploration of the prequel era (okay, drop the ‘maybe’) but… Seriously. Forty years of imperfect but infinitely useful raw material with established movie characters that people actually mostly like and have fond memories of. And starting off with the Thrawn trilogy will bring in a lot of people who just weren’t feeling the prequels and other casual fans who might not make the time for The Clone Wars. (Plus, it would probably boost book sales. Books that are already written, edited, and sitting around in stores.)

I’ll keep holding out hope it happens eventually. You?

I’ve made a shocking decision: I decided to go spoiler-free for Invincible.

Okay, maybe not that shocking, as it seems that there are many people out and about in fandom who actually don’t read spoilers. Who never do. But I’ve never really been one of them. (more…)

I’ve given up on watching Bionic Woman. And it actually surprises me that I don’t feel guilty about giving up on a show with a strong woman character.

How far we have come!

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With both of last season’s Tuesday night staples (Veronica Mars and the twilight of Gilmore Girls) off the air, prime time seemed mighty uninviting last night. The Food Network came to my rescue at 8 with back to back reruns of Good Eats, but at 9 they turned the channel over to Rachael Ray and that I can not abide. So habit lead me to the CW, and the first episode of Reaper.

Which… did not suck. I’d heard the show compared to Buffy, and while that might not be the most fair comparison, it was entertaining enough. So I agree with EW’s Michael Slezak – try to catch the encore Thursday night. It might not be the next Heroes, but it may at least entertain you.

Oh TFN, your ability to bring the laughs to fandom is yet unmatched. Check out this winner: Is the EU really starting to suck?

First of all: Starting? Like any product of this magnitude, the Expanded Universe has its ups and downs, and always has. There is no EU golden age: even back in the days of Bantam, fans were bitching up a storm. There are great books, good books, bad books, horrific books and the work of Kevin J. Anderson. (A man who dared to write that Mara’s hair was ‘auburn.’ Oh noes!)

And, let’s not forget, these classifications are completely subjective. One fan’s Crystal Star is another fan’s Heir to the Empire. I can’t even begin to comprehend why anyone would see YJK as the pinnacle of the Expanded Universe, but if nothing else it shows the sheer variety of fandom opinion.

In any case, the potential for ‘suck’ has existed in the EU since the day the first bit of it rolled off the printing press. The main variable here is the reader, and their taste. Yes, it’s more or less inevitable that every fan will be disappointed at some point. The only real difference is how one deals with it.

It’s okay to be unhappy with the direction of a series. It’s okay to not like a book, or an author. But try to see beyond your own prejudice, or at least do something with your angst other than throwing around words like ‘suck’ and ‘trash’ on a message board all day. It doesn’t make you look any good, and it certainly doesn’t do the fandom as a whole any favors.

Embrace the pain. Mock it, snark it, twist it to your own purposes. But don’t let it rule you.

And, for the record, at least some at TFN are trying to detract from the negativity.

It is strongly advised that you don’t click the link below unless you’ve finished the book. Seriously.

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