Catching Breath

I wanted to take a moment to recap and unpack some of yesterday’s news. As I read it, there are three big and important updates. Let’s explore.

1. The rights to Chung Kuo have finally reverted to David Wingrove.

This is what we’ve been hoping and waiting for ever since Corvus hung us out to dry with the completion of the re-cast series. Now that David and Co. have the rights, that opens the door for the series to find a new home that will finally see the series out to completion. Which leads us to…

2. Chung Kuo will be re-published by Fragile Books, a new publishing outfit owned and operated by David Wingrove.

I think we can all agree that Chung Kuo has had not the greatest luck with its publishing history. In the series’ original run, a contract dispute led to a truncation of what was to originally be a 9-book series, resulting in a final book, Days of Bitter Strength, that neither its author nor its readers were particularly fond of (although, personally, I didn’t mind it as much as most). In its Corvus/Atlantic re-birth, all began well with what seemed like an enthusiastic publisher, but for whatever reason, Chung Kuo ended up getting the short end of the stick once again, leading to the latter half of the re-cast series evaporating without notice.

I feel like there’s no one that will treat the series better than Wingrove, himself. In that regard, I think Fragile Books is a good home for the series. I’m hopeful that the new

3. A possible TV deal for Chung Kuo is in the works, involving Headline Pictures.

To me, this is the most exciting bit of news. I think the first two were inevitable, but this could really be something cool. If you’ve seen Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle, then you know that this is a production company that can do right by a sci-fi franchise, I think the Chung Kuo TV series is in good hands, particularly with DW involved a creative advisor capacity. If you haven’t seen High Castle, then I highly recommend you go check it out. If you don’t have Amazon Prime, I don’t know how you live your life.

In other news, to coincide with these happy times, I’ve started working a re-design for this site. Nothing too major, but definitely a fresh coat of paint. I’m also hoping to get some more robust discussion forums in place – something that won’t be ruined by spambots like the last one. If anyone can recommend or has experience with any (free) platforms, do let me know. Expect to see a redesign here fairly soon.

That’s it for now. More news as it comes.

9 thoughts on “Catching Breath”

  1. Matt,

    Thanks for all your work keeping thing thing going. Let me know if you need any help with the updates to the site. For the current site, the only suggestion I would make is increasing the opacity of the boxes around the articles. The red neon sign shines through a bit too brightly and can be distracting while reading. I don’t have any suggestions for forum software other than phpBB (which I know was what you previously used). However, I do have some experience managing and moderating phpBB forums, so if you do decide to go that direction again let me know and I will help out where I can.

    My little side project of comparing the original Chung Kuo release to the Corvus release has been on the back burner for a while, but it is still on my list of things to do. Reading two not-quite-identical books side by side ended up being tougher than I thought it would be. I did just reorganize my bookcases last night, so the motivation may return here soon.

    I may also have my own little piece of news to share with the community in about 2 months.

    1. Thanks for the kind words and the feedback. The opacity problem won’t be an issue with the new design, I think. For the forum, phpBB really left a sour taste in my mouth so I’ll probably pursue another avenue. Looking forward to whatever your big news is!

      1. Indeed.

        Any positive news is more than welcome, afaiac.

        Great to be a part of this little community of fans bound by a common interest and love.

  2. Happy to hear this place stays alive!
    Though you missed the Jim Burns cover in the news…the Corvus cover art is well done, but looks to trashy for he material at hand. In my humble opinion of course 😉

      1. I can’t say I knew him by name, but after I looked him up I definitely recognize his work on Peter F. Hamilton’s books.

        He won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist three times (1987, 1995, 2005) and was nominated an additional ten times.

        I will be interesting to see what Mr. Burns comes up with. I originally read the US hardcover version of the 1989 book 1, with the very minimalist cover art. It was just a red field with the title and half circle logo that was carried through most of the original US versions. So I was able to develop a pretty strong mental image of what the world of Chung Kuo looks like. Since then, only a few of the pieces of art have matched with my mental image of the world. I would love to see more people’s interpretations.

  3. In general, I like the new site design. It especially looks good on mobile. Only two comments:

    1. The text on the desktop version is a bit large for my taste, but that might just be me.
    2. I kinda miss the sub-title under the logo (“The Chung Kuo Fansite”, “The David Wingrove Fansite”, or similar) but understand why it is gone.

    1. Thanks for the feedback! Working on the text size; I agree that’s it’s too big. You’re right: the removal of the subtitle was purposeful, since we’ve got Chung Kuo, Roads to Moscow, Myst, and hopefully more in the future. “The David Wingrove Fansite” feels a little on the weird side, like it’s too personal. I’ll give it some thought and maybe revisit.

      Off to sharpen my CSS skills!

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