Category: SF
Last article published: 22 April 2021
This is the 31st post under this label
With advances in CGI and Hollywood's continual search for The Next Big Franchise(TM), opportunities for great SF classics to make it to the big and small screen are multiplying. Dune actually makes it as a blockbuster, and previously unfilmable properties like Foundation get turned into TV series (the latter diverging quite a lot from Asimov's version, but still). Novels are especially well suited to serialized forms (whether TV shows or multi-part movie epics), and sometimes the premise is strong enough to simply act as a starting point for new stories (Handmaid's Tale, The Man in the High Castle, Westworld). So what are some sci-fi books that might make good series?
Riverworld by Philip José Farmer. I am obviously discounting the two attempts made to date - SyFy's pilot in 2003 and the mini-series in 2010 - neither of which worked, in part because they tried to tease the planet's "masters" in the opening salvo. Riverworld needs to play out as mystery the characters want to solve, so we can't be in on it from the get-go (and a TV series would be within its rights to change the solution). While Farmer's multi-book arc really starts with the second novel, The Fabulous Riverboat, the characters in To Your Scattered Bodies Go are just as memorable and deserve to be folded in (perhaps as two different shore lines competing for your attention). The premise is that all of humanity has been resurrected on the shores of a river that winds around an alien planet, and every time you die, you wake up on another beach. We mostly follow figures from history as they chart a new life, thrown in with people from different times. Adaptation problems abound, of course. Everyone's reborn naked. There's a lot of violence as per Earth's savage history. And then there's the language barriers. But TV is much more comfortable with nudity, violence and subtitles than it used to be, so... Why not? Except by this time, previous attempts gave probably tainted this difficult property too much for it to ever be properly done.
by Harry Harrison. AKA James Bolivar diGriz AKA Slippery Jim, the Stainless Steel Rat is a futuristic con man, thief, and all-around rascal, a witty master of disguise, martial arts, and self-rationalization. Hey, people want thrills, and he's just giving the people what they want. And he never kills. Find the right actor who exudes the right amount of cool and you've got a fun space opera spin on The Saint. Astounding published the first of about a dozen stories, most novel-length, so there's depth to this world and a lot of opportunity for entertainment. I find that a lot of Sci-Fi shows use the Star Trek model and have a large cast of characters to cater to. Few focus on a single protagonist (who nevertheless has a supporting cast like love interest Angelina, as well as recurring clients and antagonists). That would be the hook and maybe keep the salaries down so more money can be dumped into world-building.
West of Eden by Harry Harrison. Yes, I'm using Harrison twice, but West of Eden couldn't be farther from his Rat stories. This novel and its two sequels imagines a parallel world where the dinosaurs did not die out (DINOSAURS! How can you say no?!) and in fact spawned a sentient race of saurians whose technology is rooted in genetics. They create the beasts of burden they need rather than anything mechanical. But they're in Eurasia, and meanwhile, in the Americas, mammals have evolved, including humanity, to the configuration we know from the Ice Age (mammoths, sabertooth tigers, etc.). The story is what happens when the matriarchal reptilian Yilanè land discover America, humanity in its late stone age. This might give it a proto-historical feel - such shows are also pretty popular - but the Yilanè keep it grounded in science-fiction. Oh and did I mention DINOSAURS?!
Wild Cards, edited by George R.R. Martin. With the success of both Game of Thrones AND superhero material, I would have thought for sure Wild Cards would have made it to TV screens already. In fact, it's been in development hell since 2011, but seems to still be alive at Peacock, having moved from Hulu who wanted it to be at least TWO series in a connected Wild Cards universe. Learn to walk before you run, guys. Part of the problem has been that Martin had (has?) an exclusive contract with HBO which interfered with this other project. As time goes on, the idea of a new superhero universe becomes less and less fresh. Still, there's a lot to be still be done with a world where an alien virus has given people powers or mutations (Aces are superheroes, Deuces have silly powers, Jokers are mutants, and if you drew the Black Queen, yer dead), many of them rather "adult" (one main character gets powered up by tantric sex). After some 30 books, the franchise is still going, so like Marvel and DC, there's a lot to pull from.
by Poul Anderson. I've made my love of time travel stories clear in the past, and it just wouldn't be right not to have perhaps the best example of time travel in science-fiction (sorry H.G. Wells!) on the list. The Time Patrol creates a "time cop" framework for the subgenre that's worked out better than anything we saw in The Time Tunnel, Timeless or even Doctor Who. The original short story came out in 1955, followed by more than a dozen others (and collected) as well we a couple novels, but history is a big place, so writers need not stick to the places and times that interested Anderson, not does Manse Everard have to be the protagonist (we should follow several Patrol members). What most time travel shows are lacking is real grounding in historical fact, and I'd like to see an attempt at something more procedural (toldja, time cops) and ultimately, instructive.
Obviously, I went with things I've read and enjoyed (and still left out a lot of books on my short list). What are your favorites primed for a live action adaptation?
Comments
Personally, I'd be interested to see KSR's Rainbow Mars series to tweak Elon Musk's nose. Also Peter F Hamilton's big boat anchors (starting with The Night's Dawn Trilogy) just to see if the pacing and the horribly abrupt endings could be repaired with someone else's help.
My number one choice, though, is Paul Cornell's Shadow Police series, five books of which he's written three so far and has stalled due to lack of a publisher. It'd be a British production, because American producers don't know how to do grim & gritty SF and there aren't enough grumpy Canadian actors, and besides it's all about London.
* Yeah, it's a comic, but whatever.
I can't actually remember much about the novels themselves at this distance, and the author's brand has waned substantially in the interim, but they were pioneering works and worthy of at least an anthology series along the lines of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams from a couple of years ago, one would think.
So far, every Asimov adaptation has taken huge liberties with the story, but Caves of Steel (and the sequels: The Naked Sun, and Robots of Dawn) could be told with next to no changes and would make an excellent movie.
Seriously that series is basically MEDICAL DRAMA! In Space!