Have you ever started a book, and then by the time you’re twenty pages into it realized that it’s wonderful? By the time you’re 1/3rd of the way through, realized with pursed lips and bittersweet regret that at some point it will end? By the time you’re half way through, fought the competing temptations of reading on apace to find out where it finally goes, and slowing down to savor it?
Have you ever read a book like that?
I felt that way about “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, when first I went through it. And I’ve read it a dozen times at least since then, always finding something new in the master’s lines, but never quite regaining that bittersweet regret. I felt that way about everything that Patrick O’Brien wrote in his Aubrey/Maturin series – a set I’ve read another dozen times at least, laughing at all the same old dog-eared places
And now I get that feeling again watching the “Firefly” DVD collection.
I don’t know where I was when this came out, flared briefly in the night and settled down into the place where TV shows go that do not get new seasons. I was at sea, I reckon. It came out in 2002, and we were very busy. No TiVo, then either.
Kevin turned me on to the “Serenity” movie when it came out – they’d put out an invite to local bloggers to preview the show. I missed the sign-up for the free show, but paid for it the day after. And then saw it again the week after that. It was… good. Not great, but good. Good enough to see twice, in a week’s time. Good enough to back purchase the DVD collection of the solitary TV season that inspired the movie.
And now I’m half way through it, and wishing it might never end. I force myself to pace myself – no more than two episodes in a night. It’s hard. I want it all. Now.
The series is wonderfully done, perfectly paced, an unfolding mystery, a western masquerading as science fiction, and a love story masquerading as adventure. How did this not last? Oh, the TV audience, those blocks, those stones, those worse than senseless things!
Yeah, I know. I’m geeked.
But I am enjoying it mightily.
Lex, I was fortunate enough to be turned on to Firefly one week before Serenity appeared. My good friends loaned me the entire Fox series, and I was hook after about 7 minutes. As fate would have it, we were able to get tickets to the only advanced screening in Oregon. Needless to say, every geek in the great Beaver State was, for a two hour time, located in one movie theatre. Nice to see that I am not the only one who feels a slight tinge of guilt that I did not notice such a wonderful series the first time around. And Kayle, is she a hottie or what?
I felt that way with any Louis L’Amour book. Especially “The Walking Drum” and “Sackett” novels. Funny you should mention LOTR. The first time I read the Trilogy was when I working with Outward Bound as a wanker. Sitting atop Linville Gorge reading Tolkien! Doesn’t get any better than that!
TVwise it has to be the new Battlestar Galactica! And Stargate SG-1. I do miss McGyver badly on SG-1 though. Been really, really trying to get into Stargate Atlantis but just haven’t been successful. Then there’s always the Goth babe on NCIS! TLB likes that doctor show, House, or something like that.
Lex, you ought to try the whole “Babylon 5″ series… There were times when the only thing that kept KM6 and I going was the next installment of “B5″… Even got my Captain turned onto the show…
Are we talking “Lucky Jack” Aubrey, of H.M.S. Surprise fame (“Master and Commander”)? Ahhh, the old Navee… (Someday I hope to collect the whole series, as well as the exploits of one Horatio Hornblower… Perhaps I will find a patron who would bequeath one or two volumes unto this humble Marine…
Jarhead Dad:
I think our beloved Battlestar grew up, and grew up nicely…
KM6 calls Abby “Goth Barbie”… Not everyone can pull it off, but I couldn’t see her as attractive any other way…
Loved “The Walking Drum”… Especially love the sentiment expressed as “Yol Bolsun” –
“May there be a road…”
Indeed… Yol Bolsun…
I will say though Sgt B, it took me awhile to get used to the new and impruved Starbuck! heh!
That opening show when the planet got nuked was some of the best imagery I’ve seen on the small tube.
Call me old-fashioned but I loved the history, descriptiveness, and morality of L’Amour’s books. One of my fav quotes of his, “Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.” His chronicles of the Sacketts, especially To The Far Blue Mountains, and the Chantrys showed just how astute a student of history he truly was.
I also have a set of first run hardback Luke Short novels. Riders of the Purple Sage? Western Union? Man, now there was some history written by someone who was there!
Still having a bit of trouble with an UCLA QB playing a Marine. Harmon’s gotten way better at it since the first show. We almost stopped watching NCIS after the first three episodes then something happened and they turned it around. They got a little racy with Abby a time or two.
Nixay on the Over There thing. I got into the various characters OK but the Hollywood interpretations of everything military just blows me away. I think they went through every cliche’ known to man in the first fifteen minutes of the first show. Made me feel like I was watching Apocalypse Now or something. heh!
My cousin is in that show Prison Break. He’s the one playing with the kitty cat all the time. Yeah, you should hear the grief he gets for that! But he was the hook guy in the I Know What You Did movies so he gets somewhat of a pass. But not a whole lot. They killed his kitty this week! BWWWWAAAA!
Yol Bosun
Hopefully, there is a special place in hell for the nitwits at Fox that never gave “Firefly” a fair shot.
Now that you are geeked, be sure to check out the “reimaging” of Battlestar Galatica if you haven’t already. The mini-series that kicked off the series was terrific, and it was clear that at least one of the writers had spent time aboard a CV. The 1MC calls, “deck chief”, “fighters” going down on the “cat”, damage control – lots of good stuff.
I just recently found your blog, so apologies if you’ve already discovered BSG.
-CJ
I stopped counting how many times I read LOTR after the seventh. My wife ordered Firefly after we saw Serenity, and we’ve got a date this saturday night to start the series. Let your inner geek thrive, and enjoy it while it lasts.
We’re gonna let “Over There” pass… As well as the rest of the “frontline” Military oriented shows. (NCIS with a grain of salt and is very enjoyable.) I would love to see a production company grab some of the stories of our fellow bloggers (Armor Geddon jumps to mind), Neil has some great characters in real life, we don’t need the hacknied interpetation of Hollyweird…
Have a great weekend, all!
Finally back after Wilma wiped out the electric grid (still down) and telephone network (there’s a reason why Ma Bell should be praised!)
First of all, what about the original, best conceived series ever written? C.S. Forrester’s Horatio Hornblower? I read Lieutenant Hornblower in 7th Grade and became hooked. I read, re-read, re-re-re-read every installation more times than I care to think about.
I’ve read some of O’Brien’s series. I have difficulty with the language but it is enjoyable.
Now, I’ve tried to get into the new Battlestar. Can’t do it. For some reason the series just doesn’t take with me. As for Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, good series and excellent scripting. Can you imagine saying the first show of the Atlantis series documented the SECOND attempt by the same team to visit Atlantis?
While we are on the subject, I encourage each of you to consider David Weber’s Honor Harrington series. Navy and Marine afficinados will immediately feel at home.
“By the time you?ɬ
“By the time you’re 1/3rd of the way through, realized with pursed lips and bittersweet regret that at some point it will end?”
I had just this reaction to Herman Wouk’s “The Winds of War,” a novel of the U.S. Navy, America, and the lead-up to WWII. Commander Victor Henry might be my favorite fictional protagonist. Fortunately, being 1/3rd through meant I had eight hundred pages to go. I stayed up all night to finish it, slept a couple of hours, then went back to the bookstore for “War and Remembrance” and another marathon reading session.
(The TV miniseries, I thought, were not good–miscast; plus the romances cross the line into soap opera, a mistake the books narrowly avoid.)
SGT B, that’s a great idea about Armor Geddon!
I agree, Firefly is fantastic. I missed it too when it was on TV, but a coworker loaned me the DVD’s and I was hooked after the first episode. Here’s hoping that Joss gets to make the next two movies he has planned!
JarheadDad-
You’re willing to admit to being a wanker… brave man you are
Just for the record, I do kind of think that Kayle is hott. And how about that episode where we see how she gets her job (and the old engineer gets the boot)? Anybody see that coming? Mmmrph.
I hope that Whedon gets to see his vision through…
I’m really digging the BSG series too. Can’t wait to see what happens next season (although I’ve got this creeping suspicion that somehow the political class is going to step in and separate the military ogres from their fight. Which fits, I guess, in Hollywood. But anyway.)
And I found C.S. Forester after Patrick O’Brien, so forgive me.
I felt the same way about H. Wouk. I also read his “Summer of ’42″ when I was Hermie’s age and it made me more human than I otherwise might have been.
Welcome back Senior! Can’t keep a good man down!
Thanks, Cap’n.
Got power last night, so the cable box is up and high speed Internet is back!
I must admit, Forrester concentrated upon the action while O’Brien seems to round his world and gives it life.
My only question is: When are we going to see a story about the denizens of the ‘lower deck’? Don’t bring up Captain Daniel Gallery, I read (and re-read) his sea stories about Fatso and ‘Curly’ Cue before I read Hornblower.
FWIW, the character of “Pug” Henry was based on Admiral Robert O. “Mick” Carney, who served two terms as Chaiman of the JCS.