“The Walking Dead” is one of the most popular scripted shows on the air. “Game of Thrones” and “True Blood” are HBO’s next big franchise successes, pulling in viewers, Emmys, and DVD sales. It’s never been a better time to be a nerd and to enjoy TV. But that doesn’t mean there’s not room for improvement. Here are five novel series we’d like to see hit the small screen.
#5) Bill The Galactic Hero
“Starship Troopers” is a beloved SF novel. It was also written by Robert Heinlein, who flew a desk in World War II and never got near a fight. Harry Harrison, on the other hand, was a gunnery instructor and gunsight mechanic, actually saw war up close, and he thought “Starship Troopers” was a bunch of self-righteous garbage.
So he wrote a parody about a clueless farm boy suckered into a space army and faced with bureaucracy, incompetent higher-ups, and general stupidity. And it kind of took on a life of its own, especially since it’s an extremely popular book in the Armed Forces, and Harrison crammed it to the brim with political gags.
In other words, it’s ideal for a half-hour, blackly cynical sitcom like the BBC used to do before they realized there was more money selling Doctor Who toys to Americans. In fact, we think this would work pretty well for the BBC; they can comment on world events through a more subtle lens, and not have to hear Fox News whine about it as much.
#4) Bio of A Space Tyrant
Piers Anthony, as a writer, has all the subtlety of a brick through a window; witness the name of the character in this series, Hope Hubris.
Yes, really.
Anyway, it’s ridiculous space opera as only the ’80s could produce: all the countries have grabbed one planet or another as a direct analogy, and despite the fact that we’ve gotten off this rock, all the political situations and tensions remain; Israel and Palestine are still fighting each other, for example.
Here’s the thing: yes, it’s broad, unsubtle, and silly. But that’s what SF does best. Nothing Anthony wrote would be remotely out of place on, say, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. Networks love sprawling, soapy drama, and this really is as good as it gets in the form.
Although they’d probably have to edit out most of the sex, considering so little of it is plot-relevant and a lot of it is actually fairly skeevy. But, hey, it’s Piers Anthony: skeevy sex is part of the package.
#3) The Codex Alera
Jim Butcher is, of course, famous for the Harry Dresden novels, and if he happens to be speaking anywhere, do what you need to see him, because it’s literally like meeting Harry Dresden. Anyway, “The Dresden Files” already got a shot at the air, the result of a thankfully aborted attempt to make a big-budget Hollywood movie starring…Nicolas Cage.
No, really.
But the Codex Alera, which came about because Butcher wanted to prove a good story trumps a terrible idea, not only mixes Pokemon and the Roman Lost Legion, it actually works.
It’s also pretty much every SF and fantasy trope put in a blender and with the frappe button held down; there are zombie saber-toothed tigers, Zergs, freaky ninja elves, and one kid at the center of it all who happens to have absolutely no magic abilities but does happen to have, unlike almost everybody else, a working brain.
It also has a lot of what makes high fantasy compelling: political intrigue, civil wars, and backstabbing out the wazoo. Butcher spends a lot of time on the world but unlike most fantasy authors, he’s smart enough to realize that we don’t really care about the intricate details of his D&D campaign and gets right to the story.
Also, any novel series that features zombie saber-toothed tigers should automatically be made into a TV show. That should be a law.
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Bio of a Space Tyrant is a good one, but with Piers Anthony I think a better choice would be “Incarnations Of Immortality.” It was a fun series, plus you get to piss of the overly-religious with the take on the conceit of God and the casual menace of Satan.
Though it might have some of the same challenges in holding down the general skeezyness factor as Bio of a Space Tyrant, I’d like to see some form of Stephen Donaldson’s Gap Cycle produced as either an ongoing series with a wider timeline than the books or as some type of tightly contained miniseries format that actually follows the events of the books directly as much as possible. The problem is that what the series is _really_ about kind of HINGES on the horrible mistreatment of the “main” character, both sexually and physically, and trying to construct that as a TV show that doesn’t come across as evil and exploitative would be a gigantic struggle. I would argue donaldson himself fails in that struggle at times.
The other really obvious one to me is Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars series, would love to see that.
Glen Cook’s Black Company series before any of these.
Fritz Lieber’s Newhon books … Elric of Melinbone by Michael Moocock … Any of the wonderful Jack McDevitt books … Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books (maybe start with Equal Rites?) …
Carl, your thoughts on the adaptations already coming out?
Agree that incarnations of immortality might work as a TV show, disagree with the Elric stuff, what/who exactly is there to root for in that series? It (kinda) works in book form, just generally don’t see it being adapted well to TV without Elric being totally rejiggered to be a more conventional “hero” character.
I wouldn’t watch any of those. But I would watch:
1. Ender’s Game series
2. Wheel of Time: (maybe a tv show can distill the morass down to a manageable sotry)
3. Kingkiller Chronicles – Great name for a TV show, and really the whole show could revolve around campus life at Magic University…like an YA Harry Potter.
4. Conan the Barbarian – Put it on Starz, where blood and boobs seem to be a specialty
5. The Hyperion Cantos
Hotsauce, after the last Conan TV show, either adapt the Dark Horse comics or nothing. As for Wheel of Time…it’d need a huge budget and a massive rewrite. Also, every year they’d have to put out forty episodes, most of which are filler, and then the showrunner would die seven seasons in, and another one would have to come in for a final season that really turns out to be three more seasons.
So basically it’d be “Seventh Heaven”.
Ugh, ‘Bio of a Space Tyrant’… I’d much rather see Peter F. Hamilton’s Commonwealth showcased in an intense and epic sci-fi series. ‘Pandora’s Star’ and ‘Judas Unchained’ would be great space opera with hardly any incest at all!
Egh, not a huge fan of this list.
1) Spin by Robert Charles Wilson — I think the premise is excellent for a series.
2) Mistborn – would make an excellent series if each book was a season ala Dexter
3) Old Man’s War – might be better as a mini series.
4) Ilium/Olympos – might be better as a mini series.
5) Chronicles of Amber
+1 Hyperion
+1 Mars Trilogy
Bradys, I thought about including “Chronicles of Amber”, but I think it’s just too easy to completely screw up. Absolutely right about Mistborn and Spin, though.
@ Dan — I know that an Elric movie and a Newhon movie have been in development hell forever, or have their been developments on that front that I’m not aware of? As far as I know McDevitt’s books aren’t in development (although I can’t imagine why not). I googled Pratchett and didn’t realize that there have been a number of Discworld projects. I will be watching them as soon as I get my hands on them!
@ DaiMacculate – I disagree. Elric is an anti-hero, but his story is compelling, albeit tragic. I like the idea of a big fantasy movie where not everything ends well. Maybe it’s just me, but the final words of Stormbringer would make a fantastic ending to a film.
The Illuminati Books might make for a really wonderfully bizarre series. Kind of like the X-Files meets Community.
@Dan — very true about screwing up Amber pretty easily. That’s also why I’d hesitate to add Hyperion to the list.
Besides classics and technically “good” science/speculative fiction, I recently revisited the crappier stuff I read in middle school in between Asimov and Feist — just to see how they’d read 14 years later. I’m actually pretty surprised by how much I’m enjoying the Everworld series by the author of the Animorphs. (Pause for derision) The sex, cursing, rapey elements, violence, etc. is somewhat toned down for a young adult audience, but it would actually be a pretty cool concept for an adult series. Basically a good excuse to feature all sorts of ancient mythology and fantasy along with theoretical physics and real world issues like drug abuse and racism and such. I seem to remember the ending of the series being kind of sudden and crappy though, so I’ll see. Regardless, it’s pretty amusing how this is easier to stomach as an adult than almost anything David Eddings wrote.
“There’s also a larger universe to mine, as Moore has all of his books interconnected in various ways, and a lot of them take place in San Francisco. You’ve got Native American tricksters, Celtic death spirits, and angels accidentally unleashing zombies on small towns.
Seriously, if you can’t make a TV show out of that, Hollywood, it’s time to pack it in.”
Umm, Dan, They did this. In San Francisco. It was called Charmed, and it lasted eight seasons.
@Carl:
Oh a FILM, sure, I just didn’t think it would work as an ongoing TV series.
If anything of Piers Anthony was made into a TV series, I’d prefer Incarnations of Immortality. You have concepts people are already familiar with, with a twist! And a varied cast of stereotypes, perfect for ensemble shows.
Would like to see The Diamond Age and/or Snow Crash actually be realized.
Chronicles of Amber – big budget, HBO kind of production
The Stainless Steel Rat – I’d be thrilled with this even done as an anime
Discworld
Also wouldn’t mind seeing John Varley’s “Red Thunder” series made into a series of films. Or something set in the “Blue Champagne” universe.
/blocks out “Millennium” movie from memory
What about the Dark elf trilogy?
Second on the Black Company books by Glen Cook, and howzabout some Larry Niven stuff like “The Integral Trees,” “Lucifer’s Hammer,” or the “Dream Park” series?
@J Hotsauce I would love to see a good Ender’s Game show with the pace of
Battle Star Galactica over a few seasons. A 1.5 hour movie would be terrible!
@Slothrop, Diamond Age would be great too.
Dragonlance Novels. How could I forget. I’ve wanted to see Dragonlance brought to life since I first discovered them in the early 90′s. HBO or Showtime or Starz; The Chronicles Trilogy, followed by the Legends books – focusing on the twins Caramon and Raistlin (who is, in my mind, the greatest fantasy character ever dreamt up).
My list is not so much a wishlist to see just on tv but also on the big screen.I am also including all books that have been adapted already albeit very poorly.
1) Codex Alera
2) the Dresden Files*
3) Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman*
4) Sword of truth series*
5) The Belgariad
6) Percy Jackson books*
7) Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle*
These are the adaptations I would really like to see done with the inclusion of Game of Thrones. Those marked with an asterisk (*), I would like to see more faithful adaptations done because at the end of the day you only have to look at the success of Harry Potter, the Narnia series and the Lord of the Rings films to see that a little faith in the authors vision leads to a big payoff.
for most of the things on my list I also think the only way to fit everything in is to go for the miniseries option similar to what SyFy did for the miniseries Alice, Tin Man and Fallen (from ABC).
I wouldn’t watch anything but Butchers “Alera” series from the list in the article, mainly because I loved the Dresden Files TV series ever so much ( I interviewed Terence Mann, who played Bob the skull, for a long magazine article in 1888), ande I would recommend the following for TV or mini-series:
1) Liaden Universe series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller–great Science Fiction
2) Shana Abe’s Drakkon series, starting with The Smoke Thief, very sexy stuff
3) Jacqueline Carey’s “Kushiel’s Dart” series, which are full of juicy adventure and hot, sweaty sex scenes of every type and kind…seriously
4) Linnea Sinclair’s “Dock Five” series of space opera/adventure/romance hybrids that are just plain fun
5) Devon Monks “Magic in the..” series with Allie Beckstrom, set in Portland, Oregon, these read like the female version of the Dresden Files
Oh, and one more, Gail Carriger’s “Parasol Protectorate” series, “Changeless, Blameless, etc” which is steampunk with a British accent
Wild Cards is perfect for HBO or Showtime. It has superheroes, sex, aliens, lots of drama, and George R.R. Martin is the editor of the series. Also much of it takes place in the 80′s and early 90′s
I would love to see The Codex Alera series, and Ender’s Game would be absolutely awesome to watch, although getting actors young enough might be a problem, especially since Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow are literally set at the exact same time. Same characters and everything just a different viewpoint for the story, maybe they get get the actors to sign a “Do not grow” clause. Hey I am just spitballing here.
Ringworld on HBO please
Anything with zombies is stupidity served up to entertain morons. If you get excited over zombie anything, from zombie sabertoth tigers to zombie accountants, you are so stupid your opinions on anythign are to be used as toilet paper and flushed.