Xenagia News V1, #3

Welcome back from the Holidays! Here's all the latest news from Xenagia.

This Week: Book Club; New Author Blogs; Reviews; Writers' Strike; Wizards Expands Book Publishing; Threads of Note.

-Shannon

Site News

BOOK CLUB: We are moving up on our first Book Club discussion group. The book is _Singularity Sky_ by Charles Stross, and we'll begin talking about it on Saturday the 1st, though it'll probably be next Monday before things really get going. Though a dense, hard-science book, _Singularity Sky_ is also pretty short, so if you haven't started reading it yet, you could probably pick up a copy and get through it before Saturday.

We'll also begin nominations for January's book on Friday, so if you have anything that you'd particularly like to read next month, watch for that and post.

NEW AUTHOR BLOGS: We hope to eventually make the Xenagia forums a mirror of every notable blog by a science-fiction, fantasy, or horror author. A technological limitation has prevented us from adding in the many authors who have Blogger accounts, but we've now started adding in feeds from authors on LiveJournal. In the last few weeks we added Elizabeth Bear, Steven Brust, John Crowley, and Ellen Kushner. These join old favorites like Neil Gaiman and George R.R. Martin.

Author Blogs: http://forum.xenagia.net/forumdisplay.php?f=9

REVIEWS: We ran some more reviews last Tuesday, and we have reviews scheduled again for both Tuesday and Thursday this week. You can read these from our website, or via RSS:

Reviews Web: http://www.xenagia.net/reviews/

Reviews RSS: http://www.xenagia.net/reviews/index.xml

For those of you writing reviews, we're continuing to post links to our forums and also to announce them over at RPGnet, to get the maximum viewers possible. If you'd like to review books, TV shows, comics, movies, or anything else of note for fantasy, science-fiction, and horror genres, we invite you to join in. Cross-posting a review you've written for a blog or elsewhere is fine.

Reviews Submission: http://www.xenagia.net/reviews/submit-review.phtml

Media News

WRITERS' STRIKE: For the third week running, the big media news continues to be the writers' strike. Word is that the public reaction and the writers' solidarity have driven the media conglomerates back to the bargaining table, starting today. However info on how this all will affect current shows continues to be grim. In the last few weeks we've heard that _Lost_ will broadcast half a season, _Heroes_ will probably end its season with next Monday's episode, _Journeyman's_ 12th episode will probably be its series finale, and that the producer of _Battlestar Galactica_ has 13 episodes in the can and is gloomy about whether the last 7 will ever get produced.

Strike Thread: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=802

WIZARDS EXPANDS BOOK PUBLISHING: The other interesting news of the last few weeks is that roleplaying-giant Wizards of the Coast is trying to expand their book publication beyond the realms of gaming fiction. They're not the first RPG company to move in that direction (or even the first this year, as Paizo Publishing has already begun "Planet Stories", their line of pulp era reprints).

Wizards Thread: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=845

THREADS OF NOTE: Finally, I'm going to offer pointers to a few threads I've been working on.

First, I'm done watching season one of Heroes. I invite you to take a look if you'd like to see some episode-by-episode thoughts on the first season, before season two finishes up:

Heroes Thread: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=704

Second, I've started a new thread about reading many of Michael Moorcock's books. I don't have the same patience or sense of order that Bob Cram has, but I hope to work through a lot of Moorcock's writing in an order that interests me. If you're a fan I encourage you to join in.

Moorcock Thread: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=840

Xenagia News V1, #2

Welcome back to Xenagia News. This will probably be the last posting before Thanksgiving, so enjoy your holidays. In the meantime, we've got Xenagia News and Media News just like last time. If there's anything you'd like to see added to this newsletter, please let me know.

This Week: Book Club; Reviews; News Blog; Writer's Strike; Season Scorecard; and Threads of Note.

-Shannon

Site News

BOOK CLUB: We've selected our first book for the Xenagia Book Club. It's _Singularity Sky_ by Charles Stross. This is modern hard science-fiction at its best. The synopsis: "Four hundred years after the computer systems of Earth transcended and became the Eschaton, scattering the population across thousands of light-years of space and a thousand years of time, a backwater colony of a minor interstellar empire is contacted by a much-advanced culture. The empire responds by sending an FTL war-fleet, planning to violate causality by attacking before contact. But the Eschaton's First Commandment is, 'Thou Shalt Not violate causality in my light-cone.'"

We'll be starting discussion on December 1, though I expect the discussion will start really rolling on Monday December 3. Go pick yourself up a copy at your local library or bookstore, so that you can join us.

REVIEWS: Our reviews have continued to roll since last week. As usual, we've got them lined up for Tuesday and Thursday. Today we've got reviews of the books _Man Made Monsters_ and _Templar Chronicles: The Heretic_ as well as the comic book _Secret Identity_. There's three more scheduled for Thursday, and we've already started to put together our reviews for next week as well:

Read Reviews: http://www.xenagia.net/reviews/

Submit Reviews: http://www.xenagia.net/reviews/submit-review.phtml

NEWS BLOG: At the suggestion of a reader, we've created a blog for these newsletters. If you prefer, you can thus now subscribe to this newsletter online.

Blog URL: http://xenagia.blogspot.com/

Blog RSS: http://xenagia.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

(We'll be updating the look and feel of that blog soon, since it's currently in a rudimentary form.)

Media News

WRITER'S STRIKE: The strike, now entering its 8th day, continues to be the big news. Last time there was a TV writer's strike, back in 1988, it lasted for 22 weeks, so this probably won't be over soon. However, we're now starting to feel the repercussions, with shows going dark and announcing that they've just got a few more episodes in the can. We talked last week about how shows like _Lost_ and _Heroes_ will end up with truncated seasons. Meanwhile, the big winners will probably be the SF shows that got pushed back to spring: _The Sarah Connor Chronicles_, _New Amsterdam_, and _Jericho_ season two, since they should be getting released at a time when the airwaves are barren of pretty much everything but reality shows.

Writer's Strike: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=802

SEASON SCORECARD: So what were the best shows of this probably-to-be-abbreviated TV season? Here's your chance to discuss that:

The Best Shows: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=832

THREADS OF NOTE: A few other threads of note from Xenagia in the last week.

The Books We Read Novemember has kicked off, to talk about the newest tomes you're working on:

Books: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=829

Dr. S. is putting together an "advanced" reading list of swords & sorcery:

List: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=804

Xenagia News V1, #1

Welcome to the first Xenagia News. This will be a weekly or biweekly newsletter (depending on how often we have news of note) in which we'll talk about some of the most interesting happenings in the SF/F/H industries and at Xenagia itself.

If there's something that you'd particularly like to see in this newsletter, either a specific item, or a general topic that you think isn't getting enough coverage, drop me a line, and hopefully we'll be able to mold a newsletter that improves from issue to issue.

In the meantime, welcome aboard, and thanks for the interest in Xenagia!

This week: Book Club; Reviews; Index; Writer's Strike; and Dollhouse.

-Shannon

Site News

Thanks to everyone who joined or rejoined the site last week. As a result we've now got a nicely growing community that I hope will allow us to really create the best independent genre site on the net. Here's some of the notable Xenagia site news from the last week.

BOOK CLUB: We're starting up a book club! Each month we'll select a book to read, and then starting on the 1st of the next month we'll discuss it. The goal is to read some of the classics of all three genres, to introduce people to books that they might not otherwise read, and to have intelligent discussions about them. We're currently voting on the book for December, which you can do here:

Book Voting: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=803

We'll make a choice in the next couple of days, then you'll have a few weeks to read it before we start discussing it on December 1.

REVIEWS: We're kicking off reviews again at the site, and we've already got items queued up for this Tuesday and Thursday. You can always find the newest reviews by clicking on the Reviews link or by following the threads in the appropriate forums. If you'd like to submit your own reviews, you can do so here:

Review Sumission: http://www.xenagia.net/reviews/submit-review.phtml

INDEX: We've now got several active contributors helping to grow the Index, and as a result we've got over 2000 unique entries (or to be precise, 1818 books with 290 additional editions and 1 magazine). Thanks to all who are contributing, and remember that you can rate books, mark what you're reading, and list your collections, all in the Index.

Media News

WRITER'S STRIKE: This is the big news for the F/SF/H industry. As of today, the Writer's Guild of Hollywood is on strike. Short-term this means that nightly shows like The Daily Show are going to start being short material, then in another week the shows that tape a week at a time like The View are going to start running into troubles. It'll probably be January before our favorite shows start coming up short on scripts. The worst hit are clearly going to be the serialized dramas like Lost and Heroes, particularly if they were already struggling in the ratings.

There's already been a flurry of weird activity in Hollywood related to the strike, some of which we've been discussing in the forums. Most notably, it's helped various new shows get additional orders of episodes, with Journeyman, Bionic Woman, and Moonlight all being beneficiaries here. In another season some of those shows might already be dead, but this year the networks wanted to get every script they could.

Renewal Discussion: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=696

However some older shows got the raw end of that same deal because there probably won't be enough scripts to finish their complete season commitments. As a result, Battlestar Galactica got bumped three months, to April, and there's talk anew about splitting the last season in two. The Heroes: Origins spinoff got cancelled, and there's talk of the mid-season Heroes finale running in a month becoming instead the season finale. With Heroes greatly struggling in the ratings this year, it could be the show's death knell (either because the network gives up, or more likely sends their suits in and ruins the show).

BSG Discussion: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=754

Heroes Discussion: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=785

Heroes Discussion: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=802


DOLLHOUSE: On the lighter side, word is that Joss Whedon is returning to TV and will be making a show with Eliza Dushku called _Dollhouse_:

Dollhouse Discussion: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=790

Sadly, it'll be on Fox and their mixed attitude toward new shows continues this season. Of their two new SF shows this season, The Sarah Connor Chronicles got pushed back to Spring before it was ever shown and it looks like New Amsterdam got cancelled before they ever broadcast an episode:

Fox Discussion: http://forum.xenagia.net/showthread.php?t=163