I didn’t read this series when I was a kid, but I finally got around to reading Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber.
Given it’s an older series, I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it (some of those older series age horribly), but it was actually REALLY good still, and the few minor things that’d aged too much wouldn’t be hard to update for a modern audience.
But the concept of Amber is fantastic, Corwin’s behavior and arc perfect, and I think a TV series could do it justice nowadays. Man, some CGI artists could do some beautiful work depicting a hellride through shadow.
I also would really, really love to see Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern adapted…but there’s a few parts that have aged pretty badly, so it’d need careful handling of things like Lessa and F’lar’s relationship and such. And maybe, you know, keep Jaxom the hell away from Corana.
But I think the whole idea of threadfall, and Impressing dragons, could be done beautifully on the screen. I think a run from Dragonflight to All The Weyrs of Pern (including the Harper Hall Trilogy) could be done. (Then leave the later books out, they don’t really add much, lol.)
The series would need a top-notch composer scoring it, though. I’d vote for Natalie Holt. She did wonderfully with Loki, and it’d be a nice touch having a woman score the series that’d have the Harper Hall Trilogy included in it.
Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series of books. The first book alone, where a guy who was about to unalive himself accidentally kills death instead as he walks in the door to take his soul, would make an awesome series. Each book takes on a different aspect of Immortality (Death, War, Time, Nature, etc.) and how they overcome Satan by not being used for ultimate evil.
That last sentence may seem religion-forward but the author, Piers Anthony, is not a religious writer by any means. Another series of his, Bio of a Space Tyrant, could be an ultra gritty R rated Sci-fi epic with the right director.
It’s unlikely Hollywood will ever touch Piers Anthony with a ten foot pole after some of the stuff he’s self-published in his later years. Like Marion Zimmer Bradley, the SFF world has decided it’s wisest to quietly forget him.
I need to look into this, I was heavily invested in the Adept and Xanth series, and finding book 2 of Bio of a Space Tyrant, physically, is near impossible. I had no idea he was wrapped in any kind of controversy, but to be fair I haven’t kept up with him in over a decade.
Firefly is a stand-alone novel of his with a character who was enthusiastic about her sexual abuse as a five year old. It is more fucked up than it sounds.
“Chasm City” by Alastair Reynolds. It’s a standalone novel in a much bigger Revelation Space series. But the plot of this book is quite independent of the series, you don’t need to know the lore to understand it. I think it is very well suited for a movie or a short series.
The setting is hard SciFi, very detailed, but not too crazy.
Reynolds is an excellent writer. Great worldbuilding.
Still waiting for a Mistborn adaptation.
All of Cosmere. Do a Marvel with it.
Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe would be fantastic. The last thing I remember hearing was that he was working on a script for a Mistborn movie. I would’ve preferred a TV-show, but he feels it would work better as a movie, and I trust his judgement.
I both want and don’t want the stormlight archives books adapted to movies. On one hand, the books are amazing. On the other hand movie/tv adaptations usually go badly and it would require a lot of special effects that I think would come out badly
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Abhorsen / Old Kingdom series.
I don’t like reading but I breezed through the first three books. I think all the dark, necromancy type stuff would be generally well received. The gates of the afterlife also sound really cool to be put in a visual form.
Yeah, it’s a really distinct take on necromancers. The visual look of everything, the rules of the world–all really well designed.
It’d be a great YA movie or series.
Yeah, I was looking for this one. It also always struck me as a good option for VR games once that is a bit more entrenched with the general public.
The Kingkiller Chronicle
I’m in but only if Rothfuss finishes it first.
Agreed. And only if the movie or show is not produced by Netflix.
Good call.
Hyperion Cantos (Dan Simmons)
Any of the Xeelee series (Stephen Baxter)
Quantum Magician series (Derek Künsken)
Second the hyperion cantos. I’m surprised it’s not mentioned more
Dan Simmons is an incredible author, I really should check more of his books out. The only other ones I read (before Hyperion actually) were the Ilium / Olympos ones which were very enjoyable.
Hyperion would be cool but for gods sake they better stop after the second book.
Aww. I loved all three, though perhaps that opinion is formed in some way because I was heavily into learning about Buddhism at the time.
There’s 4 aren’t there? Fair enough, I liked his writing but a third of the way through the 4th book I realized I didn’t give a shit about the characters anymore.
The age dynamic between them is really fucking gross and pointless too.
That first book was amazing though, no doubt about it.
I liked his writing but a third of the way through the 4th book I realized I didn’t give a shit about the characters anymore.
xD fair point. I guess we all have different tolerances for different stuff. I was dating women in their 40s when I was in my 20s so maybe the age gap stuff flew over my head when I read them. I just finished a really enjoyable book by Stephen Baxter called ‘World Engines’, the main character also appears in other books by him and I really, really struggled with it purely based on the character.
He’s called Malenfant, and would you believe it, he’s bad-tempered! ‘Malenfant grunted:’, ‘Malenfant snorted’, Malenfant scowled, oh very subtle Stephen. He is capable of imagining such diverse creatures, thought patterns and genuine ‘hard sci’ concepts, then went with ‘grumpy old man’ for the protag. There’s enough grumpy old men running the place already, I’d prefer my fiction to be a respite from that!
Looking forward to his next book about a protaganist paralysed by indecision called Soppy McSimpleton.
Quantum Magician is really cool. If it was made into a movie it would look like The Mechanic or the Equalizer
It would also heavily utilise the graphic from that meme where the woman is thinking deeply and all these equations appear around her head
The Lies of Locke Lamora would make a fantastic show/movie if done well, and I feel like the vast majority of it is pretty screen-friendly. Basically just some minor cgi for the scorpion-hawk and Falselight and you’re good.
I read some Halo books that seemed like they’d make for great TV.
It’s a shame that instead of any of that we got the garbage Paramount+ version.
Warhammer 40k - Horus Heresy, live action, to the books. Then Eisenhorn eventually.
eventually
I’d absolutely love to see the whole heresy play out on the screen, but it would be hundreds or thousands of hours to show it all lol. I’ve been reading through it at a pretty good pace and after a year in only about halfway through lol.
Looking forward to seeing what Cavill does with 40k. I heard they only got the rights to 40k though, not 30k or fantasy, so it’s possible someone else gets those rights.
I have often thought about dragonriders of pern as a movie. I am not sure thread really would show well. The books really emphasize people’s fear of thread. But I don’t see anything visual about it that would really inspire that fear on the screen. Even while reading, I often felt the fear level was unrealistic. And a lot of peoples motivations were based on that fear. Now a great writer might be able to adjust things to work aroundvthat, but it seems tough.
Drangonlance could be as epic as The Lord of the Rings. Yes, really.
do game of thrones-fidelity live action for the main line, and some bitchrod love-death-and-robots-type cg for Legend of Huma and I’m in.
And a Lord Soth spinoff movie.
I always wonder why sci-fi gets mixed in with fantasy so much? It’s always a pain to find decent movie/show or a book because these categories are treated as the same thing.
In my mind they are trivial to separate and I struggle to think of a single book or a film/show that even comes close to crossing over.
I enjoy quality writing in either genre, but as I get older I gravitate towards sci-fi because most fantasy seems to be written for younger audience with some great exceptions like Chronicles of Amber or Witcher.
And just to stay on topic, I nominate Asprin’s Myth Adventures.
They’re only trivial to separate if you think the only “real” sci-fi is hard sci-fi. Star Wars, Star Trek, and plenty of other beloved sci-fi series that blur the lines would get lost in the infighting.
I mean, the “war” between sci-fi and fantasy has been going on for decades, and it’s always been ridiculous.
Not really. Like I said in a comment above, if they treat magic as advanced tech to be explored - sci fi. If it’s treated as a given - fantasy.
Hard agree. There’s sci-fi/fantasy settings and then there’s sci-fi/fantasy writing. Star wars is a fantasy story that takes place in a sci-fi setting, if you’re so inclined. But it’s hard fantasy in my books.
If your book is focused on adventure and characters it’s probably fantasy, if your book is focused on humanity or other grander themes it’s probably sci-fi. Focusing on whether there is magic or elves or whatever is completely missing the point in my opinion.
The whole debate is childish. If you refuse to read a book because there is X race or X technology or whatever then you really need to change your priorities.
It’s like when people say “I don’t watch cartoons”. Fuck off!!
My problem with scifi and movies is that most of them are scary/horror. Not so much the case recently, but I remember walking the scifi section being mashed in with the horror section.
Lots of great horror sci fi, but definitely different genres.
I came here to say Chronicles of Amber. Damn, I thought I was the last fan left.
Not the last. Chronicles of Amber is awesome.
Hyperion cantos
