Firefly Canon To Expand With Series of Original Books (ew.com)

More Firefly stories are on the way. Entertainment Weekly: EW can exclusively report that Titan Books and Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products have teamed up to publish an original range of new fiction tying in to Joss Whedon's beloved but short-lived TV series Firefly. The books will be official titles within the Firefly canon, with Whedon serving as consulting editor. The first book is due in the fall. Starring Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, and Alan Tudyk, the western-tinged space opera ran from 2002 to 2003 on Fox. Exploring weighty moral and ethical questions, Firefly centered on a collection of characters living on the fringes of society, joined together in the pioneer culture of their star system in the wake of a civil war. It lasted just 14 episodes, but in the decade and a half since it went off the air has amassed a significant cult following.

Comments

Bronies too

[goombah99]

I hear that to expand the readership they will have the horse/western aspect fold in bronies.

Really, I love firefly but I love it as it is.

Re:Bronies too

[uCallHimDrJ0NES]

Whatever the new authors want to do. Canonicity is something fans use to make themselves mad and start fights. It's a fun time for some, and an alternately funny or sad thing to watch. Look at what's happened to Star Wars fan dialogue because of notions of canonicity interacting with personality worship. Bronies welcome, anti-bronies welcome too, is what I say. Whatever the author wants to do, as long as characters are true to their natures, it should all work out.

Will it become over saturated like ST/SW/XF?

[mykepredko]

If you're an aspiring Sci-Fi writer, I think the basic first step has become to write a Star Trek/Star Wars as well as (with less numerous) X-Files "canons".

The early books in these were generally pretty readable by pretty good writers but they've proliferated beyond all belief, basically becoming Harlequin Romances for Nerds. Most (used) book stores I go to now have sections devoted to these titles and they're crowding out original Sci-Fi.

I liked the characters and setting of Firefly, but the TV episodes' stories never really grabbed me. There are a few that are memorable but most felt pretty pedestrian to me - maybe a few good books would help move the series forwards.

Re:Will it become over saturated like ST/SW/XF?

[jwhyche]

The early books in these were generally pretty readable by pretty good writers but they've proliferated beyond all belief, basically becoming Harlequin Romances for Nerds. Most (used) book stores I go to now have sections devoted to these titles and they're crowding out original Sci-Fi.

This is the exact reason I stopped reading Star Trek books. The early books where actually very good. Even the weak ones where readable. Some where even fantastic, Yesterday's Son comes to mind. They where not even afraid to take risk.

Then they took a nose dive sometime in the '90 with hack writers like Michael Jan Friedman and plots just didn't make any sense. Even for Star Trek. I was reading the book Dyson Sphere and the plot go so stupid I tossed in the trash halfway through it and didn't read another Star Trek book for 10 years.

I picked up one at the grocery store because the back looked interesting. My mistake. Instead of all the books containing complete individual stories like the episodes. Now they all tie into arcs and if you want to know what is going on in this book, you have to read these book. Fuck that.

Sad memories

[duke_cheetah2003]

It's painful to see this brought up. Firefly was an amazing series that was cut short. So much time and effort was put into probably one of the best Sci-Fi series we've seen in a good while, and it was given an early unwarranted death and a crappy movie to appease fans.

For me? Nothing short of a reboot of the series will satisfy. Like many modern humans, reading books isn't something I'm terribly keen on doing.

So yeah, if they want to bring this back, do a deal with Netflix or some similar entity. Fuck books. Recast everything, start back from the beginning and hopefully give us many pleasing seasons of Sci-Fi drama!

Re:Sad memories

[Baron_Yam]

>Firefly was an amazing series that was cut short.

In its short run, it had a couple of fairly weak episodes that didn't bode well for a long run. As awesome as the good bits were, I think we're suffering from the effects of advice they were forced to follow: "Always leave them wanting more".

>Nothing short of a reboot of the series will satisfy.

Too soon. I know I remember the original well enough that I would be disappointed no matter what they did. I'd rather somebody just come up with a vaguely similar premise and slap a different name on it, with 'inspired by Firefly' in the closing credits or something.

Re:Sad memories

[jwhyche]

Jesus Christ, is that what passes for a "nerd" today? I'm glad I don't know you, dude.

He isn't. I don't know how that got modded up to +4 ether.

Everyone know one of the true signs of nerddom is the love to read, with scifi and fantasy at the top. I don't know one true nerd that doesn't have a well stock library, physical or virtual. One of the reasons I got my android tablet was so I could have all my favorite books with me at all times, and have access to an infinite supply at the touch of a button.

I deny his nerddom.

Re:Sad memories

[jwhyche]

I find your explanation to be acceptable, and I retract my denial of your nerd hood. :)

I don't do the dead tree thing any more ether. I do all my reading on a tablet or screen too. Audio books are good too. I find that more people are turning to them too.

Re:Sad memories

[jareth-0205]

In its short run, it had a couple of fairly weak episodes that didn't bode well for a long run. As awesome as the good bits were, I think we're suffering from the effects of advice they were forced to follow: "Always leave them wanting more".

No and yes. Creative development doesn't work like that - missteps happen in a new series while it's finding its feet, and some of the longer term stuff set up just begged to be developed... the worse things can just be dropped. Remember Star Trek TNG season 1? Amazed that made it out alive...

>Nothing short of a reboot of the series will satisfy.

Too soon. I know I remember the original well enough that I would be disappointed no matter what they did. I'd rather somebody just come up with a vaguely similar premise and slap a different name on it, with 'inspired by Firefly' in the closing credits or something.

Agreed, that and I doubt Whedon would go there again, it's not really his style to recast and restart, more likely to move on to something new.

On one condition

[nitehawk214]

As long as Alan Tudyk narrates the audiobooks.

Be Like Elsa

[CanHasDIY]

... and let it freaking go.

It was a great show for the season that it lasted, but that was almost 15 years ago. Fillion isn't giving up the rights, nor is he going to do anything with them (other than maybe sue anyone who creates Firefily-based media).

Come up with an original idea maybe, rather than riding the coat-tails of decades-old sci-fi.

Forget that..

[Anonymous Coward]

Look at what has happened to Star Wars between the novels in the 70s until TPM came out, then look at how bad it has gotten post-TPM.

Disney's sequels have shat all over the non-canon 'canon' for the vast majority of old Star Wars fans. The ones who are fans now are mostly children and people who might've been casual fans in decades past. But much like religion and various other bits of popular culture, the new fans never go through old material chronologically and instead start at the newest and work back, invalidating old works rather than choosing a point to schism based on where the newer works started to diverge.

Same thing happened with Star Trek when TNG came out and retconned the klingons, who had a whole culture built up between pre-TNG TOS era klingon fiction and RPG source books.