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Just after finishing my last blog entry, I  found out about the passing of SF author Fred Pohl. Right up front let me say I was never a HUGE Pohl fan… but that's more my fault than his. I just haven't read lots of Pohl's work… though those I did read I quite enjoyed – in particular the Heechee novels that started with "Gateway".

Born in 1919, Pohl was part of the same generation that brought us Clarke, Heinlein, Clement, DeCamp, and Asimov. His departure all but closes the door on that great era of  seminal SF voice. I met Pohl once, back in '80. He would have been in his early sixties. He was a wise and balanced voice at that presentation and was very open to conversing with his fans.

I guess the era of his generation's active influence in the genre ended some time ago, but Pohl's departure just seems like something close to putting a period to the end of their sentence. So with said, my hat's off to all those great SF authors of the 20th century who forged the foundation of what we enjoy today.May their legacy shine brighter and brighter.

When one door closes, another opens. Maybe some of you have already heard the news but a company has optioned the James S.A. Corey "Expanse" novels for TV. Alcon Television group has acquired the rights and plans to move ahead on producing a pilot that they will then shop around to networks. They are aiming for an hour-long episode format, ala "Game of Thrones" (among countless others…). Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby ("Iron Man", "Children Of Men") developed the pitch and will write the pilot for the hour-long drama. They also will executive produce.

CALIBAN'S WAR by dana-redde

So let's hope this is good news... and that it gets picked up by someone like Showtime or HBO instead of SyFy or Fox! I am cautiously optimistic. I at least hold more hope for this than I do for SyFy's "Ringworld" and "Childhood's End". And as you all may recall, I'm a big fan of the "Expanse" novels. It's probably my current favorite active literary series. This news begs the question for us "Expanse" fans, though – who would you cast in the main roles of the Rocinante's crew? I'm still chewing over my own response to that.

© 2013 - 2024 RobCaswell
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dana-redde's avatar
Exciting news about the Expanse pilot! I've always seen Fred Anderson as Shepherd Book/Ron Glass, but I don't Firefly-tize any of the other characters. I like Naomie Harris or your choice of Noémie Lenoir for Naomi (what convenient names :) ) There are plenty of white dudes who have the kind of youthful-handsome-but-not-too-rugged-or-too-pretty look that I picture for Holden, and so long as they get one who can act, I'll be happy. Lee Pace is a little too pretty for my headcanon, but I never object to seeing him on screen :D I'm more concerned with them getting the PoC right and not whitewashing the crap out of them, since that's usually where TV and movies make missteps. On Goodreads, a thread was arguing that Julie Mao was white, and I just wanted to bang my head against the wall.