TOP FIVE WEDNESDAY #10

This GoodReads group proposes a weekly meme whose aim is to give a list of Top Five… anything, as long as they are book related.

This weeks’ topic is: BOOKS YOU WANT TO SEE AS TV SHOWS

This is a great topic indeed, particularly for me: my usual consumption of speculative fiction does not stop at books, but also includes a good portion of tv shows, so that the idea of a series taken from a book looks like having the best of both worlds.

The recent success of The Expanse – taken from the book series with the same name by James S. A. Corey, a saga I love beyond words – is indeed a case in point, so let’s see what else I would like to see translated on the small screen…

Every time I read – or revisit – a book from Lois McMaster Bujold’s VORKOSIGAN SAGA I think that it would be excellent material for a tv show: space opera, humor, politics and an interesting setting with wormholes connecting various colonized worlds. And of course Miles Vorkosigan himself, his family and friends (not to mention the foes): with the right casting this could turn out into a huge success, and also attract viewers who are not “into” science fiction, because the stories are not so much about spaceships and technology, but people. And people are always fascinating…

One of the most riveting book series I read lately is Pierce Brown’s RED RISING: set on Mars, where a strict class division forces most people to serve the ruling Golds, it follows the journey of a lowly Red – a miner who, like all of his people believes he’s working to terraform the planet for future generations, not knowing he’s being exploited by the Golds – who infiltrates the upper echelons of society, bent first on revenge and then on changing the rules.  I often think that with good scripting and an enlightened choice of actors this could be for science fiction what Game of Thrones was for fantasy.

Urban Fantasy as a genre has been rising steadily, these past few years, both in reader appreciation and in number and quality of books. Two of my favorite series would lend themselves very well to a tv show: one of them is M.L. Brennan GENERATION V, that starts with the vampire trope in a new, fresh approach and through a main character that is both a reluctant blood-sucker and something of a wimp, at least in the beginning.  His growth and the changes he undergoes make for a fascinating read and would be equally intriguing on a tv screen, and I would love nothing more than to see his interactions with Suzume the shapeshifter, friend, companion and thorn in the side.

The other book series that would be a great UF show is Seanan McGuire’s OCTOBER DAYE: half-human, half fae, October belongs to neither world and at the beginning of the story has lost everything that mattered to her. Slowly, as she plies her trade as a private investigator in a very peculiar San Francisco, where the mundane blends with the magical only for those who are able to see, she gathers a group of friends that become family and face with her the dangers of this world.  It would be a great show, full of darkness and dangers, but also of wonder and love – and they had better do a careful casting for Tybalt. Just saying…

Last but not least, as I walk my way though Iain Banks’ CULTURE series, I ofter think they would translate into wonderful productions: they would be expensive, granted, because the “strange, new worlds” depicted there, the immense orbitals, the sentient ships or the talking drones of every shape and size would require an enormous amount of CGI, but it would be worth it, because these are stories that capture one’s imagination like no other. And the potential for social commentary offered by the Culture, a post-scarcity society where everyone can be whatever they want, is immense, especially considering that this virtual Paradise is not immune from some snakes.

What about you? What would you like to see next?