Future of Crusade

[KoshN]

Originally posted by Capt.Montoya
20 books?
Sorry, too much.
Let's face it: the B5 fan base is not that huge.
And I am under the impression that B5 fans are more discriminating and won't buy every tie-in book just because it has the B5 logo on the cover, as Trekkies and SW fans are supposed to do.

Not if they'd continued the lack of quality demonstrated by DELL books 1 thru 6 and 8, that's true. However, the last three trilogies (DEL REY) have been VERY good. If the 20 novels were of the same quality of the last three trilogies, the B5 fans (including myself) will buy 'em.

Originally posted by Capt.Montoya

I'd love to see a series of books resolving the Crusade storyline, but I'd feel exploited if it took more than six-ten books to do it.
Maybe 3 trilogies, each again with one author, for a measure of continuity, that I'd find acceptable.

I wouldn't feel exploited. I'd be overjoyed at being able to get the story in a level of detail that would be tough to put on the screen. Also, it's be better if it was all written by one author, in this case Jeanne Cavelos (with everything double-checked by JMS and Fiona Avery).

KoshN

[Capt.Montoya]

As much as I love B5, as a matter of principle I prefer original Science Fiction, unrelated to any media franchise.
As much as I'd like to see Crusade resolved in novels (if TV is definitely impossible) as much as 20 books would be too much for me.
I mantain that it can be done in fewer books.
I suspect some of you are conceptualizing such Crusade development as a transfer from screen to novel, I don't think it works that way.
Consider if you will, a novelization of B5, what is the real story? How many B-stories could be dropped without damage to the story. I don't mean those b-stories that contributed to charcater development, I mean things like the muta-do.
Things like "Visitors from down the street," as fun as they were, would break the continuity within a novel.
The way I see it, without having to create episodes and b-stories for TV, the Crusade saga could be told in one book per year.

[Ben-Thayer Dunnthaedt]

Tim-

However I'm still hoping for this wild dream, that TMoS (and its story, which may center on Crusade) serves as a relaunch for Crusade. It is a crazy thought. Isn't it?

I don't think it's crazy at all, I have the EXACT same hope! Although having ME as your chief support may be a little self-defeating. haha!

[KoshN]

Originally posted by CRONAN
Hey, if we get really lucky, the B5 movie might spawn a trilogy. And theres always the infantile chance it might spawn into an entire franchise of movies, ala james bond.

infinitesimal?

[KoshN]

Originally posted by Capt.Montoya
As much as I love B5, as a matter of principle I prefer original Science Fiction, unrelated to any media franchise.

I prefer Science Fiction that's related to a media franchise because if I've seen actors playing the roles, I can better visualize the story in the books and "hear" the characters say their lines, and better enjoy the novel.

Originally posted by Capt.Montoya
I maintain that it can be done in fewer books.

That may be true. It depends on how much story JMS has to tell.

Originally posted by Capt.Montoya
I suspect some of you are conceptualizing such Crusade development as a transfer from screen to novel, I don't think it works that way.

We can always hope.

Originally posted by Capt.Montoya
The way I see it, without having to create episodes and b-stories for TV, the Crusade saga could be told in one book per year.

Then hopefully they're Technomage trilogy sized books (~350 pgs., small print), not Dell #5 or #8 sized books (212~250 pages, large print).

[Ben-Thayer Dunnthaedt]

At this point I'll take what I can get!

[SpooRancher]

Jordan?

Originally posted by thebaron
Of course we could get Robert Jordan to write it, but then the series would never end.

And each book would be so incredibly detailed that we would have a lot of trouble determining what is a plot element and what is throwaway knowledge, like the page and a half he did in Crossroads of Twilight remarking on the intricacy of a hemline!

[SpooRancher]

Arrggh!

Originally posted by Towelmaster
B5 vs. Alien ???

GAK!

[Capt.Montoya]

Originally posted by CRONAN
Hey, if we get really lucky, the B5 movie might spawn a trilogy. And theres always the infantile chance it might spawn into an entire franchise of movies, ala james bond.


Originally posted by KoshN
infinitesimal?

Infantile because only a child would be so naive?

Originally posted by KoshN
I prefer Science Fiction that's related to a media franchise because if I've seen actors playing the roles, I can better visualize the story in the books and "hear" the characters say their lines, and better enjoy the novel.

[ ... ]

Then hopefully they're Technomage trilogy sized books (~350 pgs., small print), not Dell #5 or #8 sized books (212~250 pages, large print).

Actors shmactors... I leave my imagination unbound by the decisions of studios, directors, casting departments and producers.
I need no actor to imagine voices when reading, sometimes I'd give a character a certain actor's voice in my head, but I rarely need to. Same goes for the face of characters, sometimes I'll visualize them in a "looking like actor/actress X" but usually I'd rather think of acquaintances that could have a similar look (if I bother myself to ascribe them a very specific appearance). And then there are of course the book covers that sometimes portray characters from the book...
Book characters for me are best defined by their actions, beliefs, and convictions than by any imagined physical appearance.

I prefer SF not tied to media franchises because it's much more original, and is not limited by the artificial rules set by the franchise creator, nor does it need to mesh with existing stories, nor use as a base the existing technological devices of that particular franchise. Most importantly, in original fiction characters can change and die, if you read a SW or ST novel you know that any known character will remain the same in the end (I've heard they killed Chewbacca in a Star Wars book, but that would be the exception to the rule).

Even in B5, as much as I enjoy the books, knowing that Vir has to survive diminished the dramatic tension on many situations on the Centauri trilogy.

As a matter of fact, the reason I like B5 is because it created a self contained, consistent, rich and detailed universe, and for the same reason I prefer original fiction, because it creates its own universes. They would also have their own artificial rules and be constrained by a background and prior events, but those constraints come from the authors themselves.
David Brin's Uplift Universe can not work in any media tie-in. Asimov's Foundation universe can't be contained by any media franchise. C.J. Cherryh's Merchanter Universe is vaster and more realistic than Trek. Orson Scott Card's Ender Universe, Heinlein's Future History, Harry Turtledove's Worldwar and Colonization series, Niven's Known Space, Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind stories, John Varley's 8 planets universe, the many worlds of Jack Vance, etc., etc., all their own, all different, all rich and detailed, all untied to any media franchise.
Those are the universes I like to explore the most, and which make me thirst sometimes for more of the same universes, but always for other universes as original and rich in detail.

That is the SF I grew up with, all original, all from before media franchise books invaded shelf space and created a horde of so-called Science Fiction readers that never expand their reading to the original SF that started the field and inspired the creators of those franchises. I say so-called SF readers because someone that is not familiar at the very least with the names of those that have won Hugo and Nebula awards and never looks into the non-series SF shelves at the bookstore is not a true SF fan to me.
Original ideas and creations, not media franchises, are the true heart and spirit of Science Fiction.

With that said: I might even buy a long series of books if that's the only way to know how Crusade would have developed, but I'd do it grudgingly.
I agree that the Del Rey trilogies are enjoyable and a good read, but if I were to re-read an SF book I'd go for any of the hundreds of original SF novels, series and anthologies I have.

[Capt.Montoya]

Originally posted by Towelmaster
B5 vs. Alien ???

Indeed, GAK!!
We already had that in Grey 17 anyway.

[AaronB]

Re: Jordan?

Originally posted by SpooRancher
And each book would be so incredibly detailed that we would have a lot of trouble determining what is a plot element and what is throwaway knowledge, like the page and a half he did in Crossroads of Twilight remarking on the intricacy of a hemline!

Personally I like hemlines. the higher the better.

[KoshN]

Originally posted by Capt.Montoya
Infantile because only a child would be so naive?
Actors shmactors... I leave my imagination unbound by the decisions of studios, directors, casting departments and producers.
I need no actor to imagine voices when reading, sometimes I'd give a character a certain actor's voice in my head, but I rarely need to. Same goes for the face of characters, sometimes I'll visualize them in a "looking like actor/actress X" but usually I'd rather think of acquaintances that could have a similar look (if I bother myself to ascribe them a very specific appearance). And then there are of course the book covers that sometimes portray characters from the book...
Book characters for me are best defined by their actions, beliefs, and convictions than by any imagined physical appearance.

I have to visualize people in the roles as I'm reading a novel. If there's been an actor already cast and he/she's good in the role (e.g. Peter Woodward as Galen), I see and hear him as Galen when I'm reading the book. If there's been no actor cast (e.g. Elizar, in the Technomage trilogy), *I* cast a likely actor in the role (e.g. Eric Etebari from "Witchblade," as Elizar). I've got to have somebody there to visualize and hear as I'm reading.

By doing the above, a book is like a synergy of the visual (TV/Movies) and the written word, and it really comes to life for me. Without that, it's like a random colection of words out of context, as dry as sawdust.

[CRONAN]

Ok, best case scenario that can reasonably be expected to take place:

B5: TMOS hits the theatres, and amazes the living @ú$Ç out of theatre goers world-wide. This was hands down the best, most fully realized SF movie they have ever seen.

With so many tickets sold, WB staff tries to refuse to make a sequal, but fails utterly in the face of an overwhelming quantity of fan mail and street protesters directly outside their offices. Thus a B5 trilogy is spawned.

The trilogy likewise blows the lving crap out of the SW tril, if only cause it didn't loose credibility by having annoying kids win space battles and computer generated aliens straight out of sesame street. And because jms is a much better writer than George Lucas.

Following the overwhelming success of the trilogy, jms convinces a major network studio to run with a new B5 show, giving birth to B5 TV MOS, the next generation of SF entertainment.

Yeah I know, there's probably a greater chance of jms being abducted by a Drakh cruiser than there is of the above scenario happening.....

[chaostaenzer]

One should never give up hope.

[Capt.Montoya]

Originally posted by CRONAN
Ok, best case scenario that can reasonably be expected to take place:

B5: TMOS hits the theatres, and amazes the living @ú$Ç out of theatre goers world-wide. This was hands down the best, most fully realized SF movie they have ever seen.

Amazes the living ú pounds, $ dollars and Ç euros?

You forgot the Yen (Ñ)... and what country uses the @ as currency?