Voyager Books – owned by Rupert Murdoch News Corp
FoX – owned by Rupert Murdoch News Corp

Simon & schuster – owned by Viacom
UPN – owned by Viacom

Warner Books – owned by Time Warner
WB – owned by Time Warner

SCIFI channel – owned by Vivendi Universale

9 major media outlets mentioned – 5 corporate owners
FYI

Unfortunately, the decision to air this later (which
I do not understand)

I now have a theory that the people of fox are EVIL! PURE
AND SIMPLE!

Never ascribe to mallace and evil that which can as easily be ascribed to the owners and executives at Fox just being plain stupid.

You may not be wrong, but it is harder to prove.

-Rusty

* Doesn’t count in neilson’s because aired before season started

I’m totally convinced that the FOX execs along with 3/4’s of Hollywood are on crack. Network television SUCKS…and cable (scifi channel) is hardly better.

What can we do? Read more books…although now that then 3 companies own 90% of all publishing houses scifi there is taking a nose dive as well…..maybe it’s time we opened up our *own* magazines and publishing outlets via the internet??

First off: Foster is an extremely inconsistant writer. In all the pieces of literary analysis I’ve seen from him, he seems to go after the flaws that are most similar to his own, in the worst of his stuff. No surprise, that, but it does shed some light on the emphasis of his review.
Now… for printed sf, we have:

Baen (Simon & Schuster): While pointedly oriented toward material without complex psychological undertones, Baen continues to put out solid, rich mainstream sf, rather strongly stimulated by Jim Baen’s desire to play experimental chef with his authors’ styles, mixing and blending writers at will…

Tor (Tom Doherty Associates): With less of a “feel”, Tor collects a number of the more literary writers of sf (as well as some mainstream hacks with inexplicable popularity… *cough*) under a loose confederation. On the major plus side: Tor (and, counting Sheffield and Forward books, occasionally Baen) also introduces the sf community to nonfiction of relevance to their tastes. On the major minus, Tor is a primary perpetrator of the franchise bastardization of once-great literary series. This is, after all, the publisher that keeps Kevin J. Anderson employed. ((shudder))

Ace (Penguin Putnam): I think this is the oldest one still around, isn’t it? Certainly, they’ve been slowing to a trickle lately. Some reprints, some continued series, but I’ll confess, no new blood, no real talent except what’s been there for years…

Del Rey (Random House): Very similar state to Tor. A mix of great writers and formulaic schlock. Again, hands off approach… this is Foster’s main publisher. It shows. While it isn’t what it was when Lester Del Rey was managing it in detail, it is a good source of high quality sf.

Voyager Books (Harper Collins): Formerly Harper Prism. Almost all good. A range from mainstream to really creative. Heavier on fantasy than sf, but these are the people who publish Baxter.

Aspect (Warner Books): These guys are the other publisher that Foster deals with. They’ve printed a lot of his least well written stuff, which might cause me to suspect that the editor is to blame, but… they also publish a lot of other stuff, and some authors (Kevin J. Anderson) only come out readable under their influence.

There are several others. What’s the point of this? Well, on TV, sf is represented (such as it is) by Fox, WB, and UPN, and (in theory) by SciFi. By contrast, print sf looks pretty good.

Count your blessings.

It isn’t like the review per se really matters at this point, but the point of view disturbs me.

I can relate to Foster’s POV because I felt exactly the same way after seeing the train robbery episode myself. It was only after seeing several other episodes that I began to get a real feel for the series and become a fan of it. FOX made a horrid mistake by airing the train robbery episode first and the pilot last. What was up with that?? !

I’m totally convinced that the FOX execs along with 3/4’s of Hollywood are on crack. Network television SUCKS…and cable (scifi channel) is hardly better.

What can we do? Read more books…although now that then 3 companies own 90% of all publishing houses scifi there is taking a nose dive as well…..maybe it’s time we opened up our *own* magazines and publishing outlets via the internet??

maybE …buT theY stilL can’T capitalizE wortH a damN .

Obviously, publication lead times and other factors have made the
review badly out of date, but the perception that Firefly should be
buried, coming from a semi-respected SF writer, is hard to
ignore. Admittedly, the Train Robbery was lots of flash and not
much deep characterization, but he savages everything about it,
the plot, the physics (Serenity over the train and no one notices),
and the settings (Old West style sets).

I liked the episode, though I agree it could have been better. But
what are we to do with the two contending SF crowds, one that
wants Space Opera and damn the Plot Holes, and one that wants
hard science with no mistakes (and no sound in Space dammit!)

SF Chronicle is a trade magazine, in that is spends a lot of time
on who cut a deal with who for how much. Agents, publishers,
options, lawsuits, etc. The other half is reviews and new
releases, mostly books.

It isn’t like the review per se really matters at this point, but the
point of view disturbs me.

Bill

anybody care to check if they have inversed
pentagrams in their lobby or something?

Nit Pick, On Two Counts.

1.) A Pentagram Is A Five Pointed Star In A Circle, Tip Pointing
Down. It Has Little To Do With Paganism In General. The Star In A
Circle, With Point Up Is A Pentacle. (I’m Pagan, And A Generally
Good Person. I Work With A Charity Organization That Does
Numerous Charity Activies In An Attempt To Dispell The Bad
Names That Pagan Have Gotten From Television. [...])

Don’t mean no disrespect to you, all the disrespect was aimed at
fox (wich being a TV studio is therefore a source of the “bad name”
you get).

When I say I’m sure if they decided to sell out to satan in
order to
increase shareholder value, they would go for the inversed
pentagram in the lobby. I’m clearly not aiming for realism. : )

anybody care to check if they have inversed
pentagrams in their lobby or something?

Nit Pick, On Two Counts.

1.) A Pentagram Is A Five Pointed Star In A Circle, Tip Pointing Down. It Has Little To Do With Paganism In General. The Star In A Circle, With Point Up Is A Pentacle. (I’m Pagan, And A Generally Good Person. I Work With A Charity Organization That Does Numerous Charity Activies In An Attempt To Dispell The Bad Names That Pagan Have Gotten From Television. Paganism Are No Better Or Worse Than Any Other Religion.)

*Steps Off Soap Box, Mutting “How’d I Get Up There?”*

2.) We Actually Did A Ritual (Read: Said A Prayer) To Keep Firefly On The Air (At The Request Of My High Priestesses Husband.) Per My Suggestion, We Used A Whedon Ritual. Draw A Circle On The Ground. Leap Into The Circle. Leap Out Of The Circle, Then Shake Your Gourd. (We Substitued A Rainstick For Gourd. — Bonus Points If Anyone Recognizes The Spell.)