Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point, ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here.
In one of my more recent posts I complained about Hollywood’s apparent inability to come up with enough original stories and the studios’ tendency of focusing on sequels, prequels and reboots when there is a TON of amazing books from which to draw inspiration. Maybe those studios executives don’t read enough…?
Anyway, the appearance – and success – of streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon and their brethren gives us much hope about the possibility of seeing our favorite stories translated for the small screen (which, given the average size of new television sets, is not so small anymore…).
In the aforementioned post, I expressed my hope that Megan O’Keefe’s Protectorate novels would be picked up for a TV series, but there is a long list of other books I would love to see developed with the same level of care and skill as is happening, for example, with James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse, stories that are not solely confined to the Science Fiction realm, but also come from Fantasy or Horror. And there is a great deal more than just ten, listed in no particular order, so apologies for ignoring the rules this time! 🙂
EMBERS OF WAR by Gareth Powell
DONOVAN by W. Michael Gear
THE MURDERBOT DIARIES by Martha Wells
OF BLOOD AND BONE by John Gwynne
THE FIRST LAW by Joe Abercrombie
THE POWDER MAGE by Brian McClellan
THE NEWSFLESH by Mira Grant
THE ILLUMINAE FILES by Amie Kaufmann and Jay Kristoff
OLD MAN’S WAR by John Scalzi
BLACKTHORN AND GRIM by Juliet Marillier
THE WOUNDED KINGDOM by R.J. Barker
RED RISING by Pierce Brown
REVELATION SPACE by Alastair Reynolds
GENERATION V by M.L. Brennan
THE PLAYER OF GAMES or USE OF WEAPONS by Iain Banks
I hope that some streaming platform executives are listening right now… 
Space and Sorcery 
My issue with most books to movies/tv series is that the execs end up changing so much that the story sucks and everybody hates it. Then the brain dead execs claim “see, books to movies never work. We need more reboots!”. Ughhhh.
I think the Powdermage trilogy would be great! it’s grittier than WoT and it is finished, so even fans of Game of Thrones wouldn’t feel gunshy about trying it…
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GoT paved the way to the portrayal of *serious* fantasy on the screen (and incidentally it was NOT a Hollywood production, which reinforces my convictions…): let’s hope that it will not remain as a lone experiment!
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The Illuminae Files would be brilliant! This is an awesome list, I watch any of these😁
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You and me both! You and me both… 🙂
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Would love to see Red Rising as a series. Old Man’s War would make a great movie. I haven’t read the sequels. I haven’t read the Of Blood and Bone series, but if it’s as good as the Faithful and the Fallen, I’d be down for that. By the way, that would make a decent series as would the Dagger and the Coin series by Daniel Abraham (half of the James S.A. Corey pseudonym).
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I’m only halfway through with Faithful and Fallen (I went back to it once I “discovered” Gwynne) but I can tell you that Blood and Bone is even better – and the first series is already an amazing read…
Some of Scalzi’s works have been optioned for the screen in the past, but so far nothing has come of it: hopefully someone will see the light soon! 🙂
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Ohhh man, McClellan’s trilogies being adapted would be amazing. They have enough action and epicness to make excellent movies, if not a well-developed character-centric TV series. I also want to see The Lightbringer series become an epic saga (movie or TV series). It would be soooooo mind-blowing. I know it. It just needs to get into the right hands hahahah
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That’s the core of the problem – the right hands: although the authors who translated ASOIAF into GoT did a good job at first, they slowly lost sight of some characterization, so there is always the danger of seeing good material squandered. But I’m an incurable optimist and I keep hoping to see some of our favorite masterpieces turned into worthy series 🙂
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I’ve seen Illuminae Files on a few TTT lists today, and it was one of the first I thought of too when I read the topic. I think it’s because so much already is written to be “cinematic”, transferring to the screen would only be natural and perfect!
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Cinematic, indeed! These book seems to have been written with a filmed treatment in mind – and we do need more space opera in our lives!!!! 😉
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Some of these would be interesting (or could be if done right), but what I’d most like to see are movies based on original content written specifically for the movies instead of based on works of other mediums, like books and comics. I really enjoy loving a movie for what it is without feeling compelled to compare it to its source, which is unfortunately something I always seem to do when they’re based on something else (a personal failing of mine). 🙂
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Comparisons are inevitable, of course, and they always tend to favor the richness and depth of a book rather than their screen translations. But unfortunately original scripts seem to have become very rare creatures these days, which makes me a little pessimistic about the movie industry’s depth of imagination… (((SIGH))) 🙂
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Murderbot would be especially fun because I feel like there is the potential to do a lot of meta things with it on TV.
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Yes, indeed! I would not mind seeing a few sequences from the famous Sanctuary Moon saga… 😉
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SAME hahaha
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Red Rising, that could be spectacular and I’d totally forgotten about Newsflesh, definitely would watch that!
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Newsflesh would be a wonderful blend of horror and breath-stopping thriller, indeed… 🙂
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I’d love to see McClellan adapted right! 😀 I’d be wary of Abercrombie, unfortunately, I think his dark humor might not translate well to screen. Red Rising would probably be a good material for a summer blockbuster!
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Yes, Abercrombie might require a very expert hand in the translation between the two mediums, but McClellan is already perfect as it is… 🙂
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I always worry about adaptations – are my favourite books going to be spoiled or made glorious for the screen – but I also always hanker after them at the same time.
Lynn 😀
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Some are more successful than others, true, but seeing an imagined world with our eyes, instead of through our mind’s eye, is always a thrill 🙂
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I always say the same thing about new movies and similar… We have ton of prequels/sequels/reboot but there are so many new stories out there!! Why we get always the same old same old??
And some of the titles you mentioned would be great as shows or movies!
Like Murderbot or The First Law!! 😍
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Murderbot would be amazing, particularly if they managed to render its inner musings as effective as they are on the page. And many First Law characters would really *shine* on screen… 🙂
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The Illuminae Files would be amazing!!!
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Let’s hope that some Powers That Be are listening!!! 😉
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The Murderbot Diaries SOUNDS AWESOMEEEE, Mads!!!! And I AM DYING TO READ The Illuminae Files!! But I probably have to finish reading Nevernight series first! Have you read it?!
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Yes, and I enjoyed the Nevernight Chronicles quite a bit – funnily enough I picked them up because I loved the Illuminae Files and was curious to sample Jay Kristoff’s writing: you will not be disappointed either way! 🙂
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