You often see speculation about the next SF/F book series Hollywood should make into a trilogy of big-budget films. That’s understandable, since spec fic is rife with action-packed series played out against visually impressive backdrops. But there are others SF/F novels out there. Some are beautiful, lyrical novels that aren’t suitable for blockbuster trilogies, but would make the sort of film that takes home Academy Awards. Where has Hollywood missed out on SF/F novels with emotionally powerful, memorable stories that might have merited a Best Picture Oscar? I’m going to consider only older books—pre-2000—because it’s always possible newer books are currently in development as films.
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (Bantam, 1992)
How is this book not a movie? Not only is Doomsday Book an emotionally wrenching and unforgettable story, it has something else Hollywood loves: a premise that can be summarized in one line. A time-traveling researcher who is sent back to the Middle Ages is accidentally dropped into the middle of the Black Death pandemic. It’s a bleak novel, and it would make for a bleak film, but with all of the films out there about theoretical pandemics of apocalyptic proportion, isn’t it time for a film exploring the actual pandemic of apocalyptic proportions humanity survived?
Brittle Innings by Michael Bishop (Bantam, 1994)
In Bishop’s gorgeous baseball period piece, young shortstop Danny Boles leaves home to play minor league baseball in the deep south during World War II. His roommate is the well-read and articulate Henry Clerval, who is seven feet tall and hideous. Brittle Innings came very, very close to getting the big-screen treatment. So close, in fact, that the cover of some editions includes a Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture tagline. The film was set to star Arnold Schwarzenegger as the eloquent giant Henry Clerval. And then, as so often happens in Hollywood, things fell apart, and the film was never made. It’s a shame, because it’s a wonderful story with a brilliant twist.
The Moon and the Sun by Vonda McIntyre (Pocket Books, 1997)
A sentient sea monster is captured and placed in the fountain at Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV, and a woman at the court forms a deep emotional bond with the creature. The plot is reminiscent of The Shape of the Water, although The Moon and the Sun was published twenty years before Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning film. For my money, The Moon and the Sun is the richer of the two stories, and the critical success of The Shape of the Water hints at how The Moon and the Sun might be received if it ever reached the big screen. This one is an odd case, because as it turns out, The Moon and the Sun has actually been filmed! It was set for release in 2015, then just three weeks before it was to come out, Paramount cancelled the release. The film was then retitled The King’s Daughter, and here we are, three years later, with no release date set.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons (Doubleday, 1989)
Hyperion follows seven pilgrims, each of whom tells their story as they travel to the time tombs to encounter the mysterious shrike. This would be a challenging novel to adapt, and veers closer to big-budget Hollywood blockbuster territory than the others, but if it were well-executed a Hyperion adaptation might look something like Cloud Atlas. Hyperion has been almost continuously optioned for film since its publication, but evidently no one was able to create a satisfactory screenplay. The entire Hyperion Cantos series is now in production as a TV miniseries, slated to air on SyFy. Perhaps a TV series is a better medium for such an ambitious novel, although it would have made quite a film.
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (Villard, 1996)
Powerful and gut-wrenching, delving into questions of theology and ethics, The Sparrow recounts the story of a Jesuit Priest’s experiences on a planet that is home to two distinct sentient species. Not one, but two attempts have been made to bring The Sparrow to the big screen, the last with Brad Pitt slated to play the lead role of Father Emilio Sandoz. On her blog, Ms. Russell wrote that neither screenplay had much in common with her novel. She has since revoked all film rights, and co-wrote her own screen adaptation. Evidently that version hasn’t gotten much traction. Sigh.
When I compiled this list, all I knew for sure was that none of these novels had been released as a Hollywood film. A little research revealed that film adaptations have been extensively pursued for at least four of the five, and I’d wager a first edition of Doomsday Book that there’s an extensive film option history behind it as well. It just goes to show, Hollywood will break your heart.
Will McIntosh is a Hugo award winner and finalist for the Nebula and twelve other SF/F awards. His novels include Faller (Tor Books), Love Minus Eighty (Orbit) and Soft Apocalypse (Night Shade), and three of his novels are currently optioned for film or Television. His newest book, young adult novel The Future Will Be BS Free, releases July 24 from Penguin Random House. Will was a psychology professor before turning to writing full-time. He lives in Williamsburg with his wife and their twins. You can follow him on Twitter @willmcintoshSF, or on his website.
Doomsday Book would indeed make an awesome movie – assuming they could rework it so that the plot didn’t hinge so very much on a culture that had advanced time travel technology but had lost even the concept of the answering machine.
I want War For The Oaks!
Stilll waiting for Dragonriders of Pern along with the three about the harpers.
I’m not sure about the film adaptation part, but at the very least, thank you for a couple of excellent book recommendations.
Would have loved to have seen The Wheel of Time series on film but understand that the complex characters and extensive political, social and environmental realms would not have done the books justice. The other that I would have loved to have seen a modern day rendition of is the Dragonlance Seasons Series. I enjoyed the cartoon rendition but those characters were made to be seen (in more than just my head) in my humble opinion.
Gravity Dreams by L.E. Modesitt Jr. Even includes a visit to Mt. Washington in NH, hundreds of years in the future. Easy to film except for the zero-g space stations. The overspace wild piloting would be really great to see and relatively simple to shoot these days.
I would totally watch an adaption of “The Sparrow.”
Also, I need HBO or Amazon or Netflix or someone to pick up Gene Wolfe’s “The Book of the New Sun” and make a television drama out of it for me.
I’ve been waiting a LONG LONG long time for HYPERION to be dramatized — film(s) or TV series; I couldn’t care less.
If they are talking about the entire 4-volume Hyperion Cantos, then wow, really?!
That would be the best thing ever of all time without a doubt. It would improve upon the relative 2-dimensionality (yet brilliant) of Battlestar Galactica which exceeded all expectations.
Honestly, I’m relieved that Hyperion will get a series instead of a movie. Even if they only adapted the first book, there are too many story strands they’d have had to cut or short-change.
I wholeheartedly agree with Hyperion making a great movie, but it would take more than one movie to do the story justice. Sol Weintraub‘s story alone could be a full length movie.
Seems Hyperion would make a great limited series, since that seems to be the hot thing lately. And if it were to be successful, then a second season limited series would inevitably happen. I would love to see The Sparrow made into a movie but the beginning of the novel is slow and if the author wrote a screenplay that didn’t somehow tighten that part of the narrative up a bit then I doubt it will ever find its way to film.
C.L. Polk’s Witchmark would make an awesome movie.
As i’m currently reading Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion – again – i can strongly agree to this becoming a screenplay. So curious, how one would visualize the different settings and feels of each told story. Same goes for Dan Simmons Ilium/Olymos and i would like to add Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space Series and The Prefect to these proposals. Thank you for the reading recommendations.
Neuromancer, directed by Kathryn Bigelow.
Apuleius’ The Golden Ass and Voltaire’s Candide, both directed and adapted screenplay by Terry Gilliam. Also, a short film adaptation of Aristophanes’ The Clouds directed by Gilliam and starring John Cleese as Socrates. All three Oscar-worthy films.
Either animated or live-action Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Seconds would also make a great film.
I always thought The Mote in God’s Eye would make a terrific movie. It has everything – interesting aliens with a dark secret, action, romance, tragedy…
I sort of want a film adaptation of The Sparrow but kind of don’t because I already have figured out how I would structure an adaption that I think would work really well but am also pretty certain it’s not the choices a Hollywood screenplay would make.
I’ve always thought Hyperion would make a great mini series. Each pilgrim’s story is so rich and engaging, they could easily be one or two episodes long.
The assumption here is that there is a positive correlation between ‘good book’ and ‘book that makes a good film’.
I suspect that the actual correlation may be negative, if anything.
3 of the 5 are among my favourite books, and I’m very glad that none of them have been made, especially into a movie. All that I can see are the places where a movie would go wrong- the Shrike would just be the big bad, Kivrin would end up falling in love with the priest, and who knows what they’d do with the Sparrow. I think that it’s really okay to just leave some things as books.
I believe Hyperion is in development. Graham King Films (GK Films now) bought all the rights of all four Hyperion books (and a novella) some years ago and share them with Warner Bros. Bradley Cooper talked about loving the book in college and wanted to do a SyFy series but it was just talk.
I always though Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay would make an amazing movie.
I wasn’t aware that ‘The Sparrow’ had been optioned but after finding out that they were going to cast Brad Pitt as Father Emilio I’m sorta glad that fell thru… another example of white-washing to the detriment of the story. Gabriel Luna or Edward James Olmos as Father Emilio I could get behind. The Sparrow and it’s sequel are two books that struck a deep chord in me. I’d hate to see them re-written (ruined)!
For many years, I have wanted to see “They walked Like Men” by Clifford Simak made into a movie. Only in the past decade or two has technology progressed to the point that the effects could be believably carried off. A few parts might need to be updated to fit modern society, but the premise is so cool, and so odd, that it would make for a beautifully entertaining film.
I really want to see the Hyperion Cantos adaptation become reality, but at the same time, I’m concerned it’s with SyFy. It needs to be a series, not a set of movies, but it needs to be somewhere else. Maybe SyFy will drop it and Amazon can pick it up. Along with The Expanse, they’d have me paying for Prime for the rest of my days.
I would love to see the Wheel of Time made into a multi movie franchise!
Brittle Innings reminds me of a baseball time travel novel I read in the early 90’s called If I Never Get Back that I always thought would make an excellent movie.
Reading The Sparrow broke my heart; I’m not sure I could event watch a movie version.
So many books that would make great movie/tv series…. For example:
– Julian May’s “Saga of Pliocene Exile” and “Galactic Milieu”
-Robert Silverberg’s “Majipoor Cycle” (both trilogies)
– Joan D. Vinge “Snow Queen / 0Summer Queen”
Cheers
Fabian
Why . . . limit it to 5 . . . . there are PLENTY of worthy candidates . . . . . . . .
= Tears of Artemon (Sarah Ash, fantasy set in a ‘napoleontic’ setting instead of ‘medieval’)
= Kushiel series – 3 trilogies (Jacquiline Carey, has it’s problems in the US markets due to some of the subject matter BUT it might also make it that much more compelling in the current climate if done right)
= Memory, Sorrow & Thorn (Tad Williams, pretty much guaranteed to be a hit as it follows the same story arc as lord of the rings with equal possiblilities for sweeping cinematography)
= Otherland (Tad WIlliams, one of the more daring excursions possibly, but needs multiple movies)
= Majipoor Chronicles (Robert SIlverberg, heavy us of CGI needed . . . )
= Pliocene Cycle (Julian May)
= Uplift trilogy (David Brin, I would absolutely LOVE to see Startide rising . . . if Avatar could be done this can be, and the advantage would be that they are stand alone episodes)
= Elantris &| Mistborn trilogy (Brian Sanderson, a unique magic system)
= Grass (Sheri Tepper, or possibly Gate to Womans Country . . . . both more social driven that action though)
= Songs of earth and power (Greg Bear)
For more all out action . . . and each of these NEEDS more than a single movie, but that could be the start:
= Frontiers series (Marco Kloos, treats war – and it’s presonal effects – reasonably realistic, fan of Starship troopers – and omost other military SF should cheer)
= Poor man’s fight series (Eliott Kay – war on an even more personal level . . . )
= Herris Serano series (Elizabeth Moon)
= Honor Harrington series (David Weber)
And a final . . . . a bit more out on a limb as these are less mainstream authors . . .
= Golden age of the Solar Clipper universe (Nathan Lowell, more character driven . . . )
= David Birkenhead series (Phil Geusz, who could resist a space battles winning rabbit as the main chracter)
= Harvest series (Michael R Hicks)
Each of the stories of Hyperion might make a whole film. The book is that rich. Then the whole of the Hyperion Cantos might be just awesome. Each of the four original books would make a season easily.
Hoping they treat de Soya and the Swiss Guard commandos well: they deserve much love.
Plus, Kassad.
But all the characters are great. Including Frank Lloyd Wright as himself. What a wonderful long novel.
18. Gerry__Quinn
The assumption here is that there is a positive correlation between ‘good book’ and ‘book that makes a good film’. I suspect that the actual correlation may be negative, if anything.
– – – – – –
If Lord of the Rings can be done ‘right’ anything can be done ‘right’ it just takes the amount of care and attention to detail needed . . . of course one might argue that that may be is short supply in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. Which of course IS a problem (most recently seen on my part in The Golden Compass . . . visually stunning in parts, otherwise a mess)
I have a fuzzy memory of Dan Simmons, long ago at a reading in Seattle, claiming that the great Martin Scorsese had expressed interest in filming Hyperion. Mr. Scorsese, apparently, desired to make at least one film in every genre over the course of his career, and still had yet to make a science fiction film. To my knowledge, he still hasn’t.
Tantalizing as that prospect might be, however, I agree with all the above commenters who argue that only a series could hope to do the epic justice.
@21 mirth513
I could totally see Edward James Olmos as an awesome Father Emilio.
Great choices all. I had the honor/pleasure of having dinner with Vonda McIntyre just after “The Moon and the Sun” had been filmed (long story but she invited a group of women who met her during a scifi conference here in Seattle). She was so excited and regaled us with stories of meeting Pierce Brosnan and getting to watch the filming in Versailles. We had all read the book and were all so happy for her. It’s such a shame that it is sitting on a shelf somewhere; the studio should at least release it straight to video—especially after the success of The Shape of Water.
Both Hyperion and The Sparrow might be better suited to television as they warrant a longer telling. Let’s hope some smart executive reads this and contacts Simmons and Russell soon.
Scalzi’s Old Man’s War has been optioned and optioned and optioned. Still waiting!
Yes to Hyperion. Hope they do it justice on TV. Also yes to a Revelation Space series. Hell, just do Chasm City as a limited series.
About The Sparrow… Are people forgetting how traumatic that story is? I’ve seen the book recommended as summer reading. Holy hell! This is not a light book. In the current cultural environment, do we really want to see repeated rapes and torture? Or is it because it is a male getting raped (like the male on male (and boy) rape in Outlander for which there was nary a peep from the internet)? Is it because aliens are raping humans?
The continued love for that book sometimes strikes me as willful misremembering. Any faithful adaptation is likely to be highly controversial.
I’ve never understood the love for the Hyperion Cantos; I found them horribly padded. Tastes differ….
My personal choice for combination of good story and could-be-a-good-movie is Merchanter’s Luck by C. J. Cherryh. I’d be afraid some lowest-common-denominator producer would demand to have more of the personal tensions turned into action scenes, but It wouldn’t have to be massively cut and it has a great ending that I sometimes call Hollywood-style, although in fact it goes back at least as far as R. L. Stevenson’s Kidnapped.
I would love to see Robin Hobb’s Ship of Magic series done. That could be done as big budget Hollywood
Mary Gentle’s Golden Witchbreed (and the sequel Ancient Light) – somehow these books have been overlooked1
Now that someone mentioned Cherryh’s Merchanter’s Luck, what about C. J. Cherry’s Rimrunners?. A story about maturity with a female protagonist that lives through so many things. The novel depicts the atmosphere of the spaceship as very few other works have. One of the finest works by Cherryh IMHO.
Consider Phlebas. The novel that Iain M. Banks dreamt about having made into a feature film.
To see the orbital Vavatch in all its glory.
Or, Diplomatic Inmunity by Lois MacMaster Bujold featuring Peter Dinklage, of Tyrion fame, fleshing out a grown-up Miles Vorkosigan with plenty of backstory. One can dream.
For years Naomi Novik’s ‘Temeraire’ series have had covers claiming that the books have been optioned by Peter Jackson – but as yet no sign of any film, or indeed any plans for it. Perhaps someone else has more information than I have?
On a completely different tack, Ursula Le Guin’s ‘Earthsea’ series deserves a proper film treatment that respects the books and her ideas. Or if that’s too ambitious, I think ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ would make a great movie.
My first thought was PERDIDO STREET STATION by China Mieville, but I think you’d need a television series to do it justice—kind of like GAME OF THRONES.
One day; one day Snow Crash will make a great comedy/action/thriller.
I think a really excellent film could be made inspired by, not copying, The Mote in God’s Eye. It has a well defined beginning, middle, and end that makes it suitable for a 2 hour treatment. It has both a puzzle to solve and a potential conflict to address. It has space travel. It has delightful aliens which are now within range of CGI to create. It has a satisfying ending. And a movie could easily repair many of the novel’s flaws by a simple act of omission (such as all that painful dialogue between Rod Blaine and Sally Fowler).
The Long Run by Daniel Keys Moran
Murderbot by Martha Wells
Lord of Light, sans all the cigarette smoking.
But why? Just because we like a book why do we always want it made into a movie? Why do we need our taste validated? Quite often I’d rather a book I like wasn’t made into a movie. The awful mess made of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE by the GAME OF THRONES show being only the most egregious example. GoT is like somebody drunkenly recounting the plot of ASoIaF, and then confabulating stuff to cover for the fact the book series still isn’t finished.
“The Sheep Look Up” by John Brunner. It would make a great ensemble film.
More in god’s eye would be my choice, great novel!! But also what about Footfall by the same authors. Double trunked elephant aliens … What’s not to like? Plus the ending .. the lift off of a navy battleship powered by atom bombs .. special effects heaven I would have thought. Come on Hollywood, stop doing sequels and get some decent films with good SF plots from decent authors.
SyFy’s announcement about Hyperion was over 3 years ago and it’s still listed on imdb as “in development”. I suspect now that it’s a euphemism for “in development hell”. Surely (don’t call me…) there would be more recent news unless notoriously fickle SyFy quietly dropped it. Alas, I strongly suspect that to be the case.
I agree that both Doomsday Book and The Moon and the Sun would make excellent movies…and it’s possible that The Moon and the Sun already *has* made one. I join my plea with Andie @32 to the studio: RELEASE THIS MOVIE TO DVD! I will buy it in an instant.
Also, I agree with carradice @40 that Peter Dinklage would be an awesome Miles.
I’ve been waiting for someone to do West of Eden. I keep trying to implant dream signals to Peter Jackson, but so far no luck.
@47. Thomas Flynn: “The awful mess made of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE by the GAME OF THRONES show being only the most egregious example.”
This, of course, is a highly subjective statement. Plenty of people love the show. Although it’s open to criticism, it’s also highly successful. And at this point, of necessity, it’s become its own thing.
As a parallel, consider the very small base of comic fans that actually buy comics, whether physical or digital. Most of the audience for the current wave of superhero movies has likely never read an actual comic, much less care about the convoluted decades-long history of the characters they love onscreen.
Much the same way, any adaptation of a book or series has to be its own thing. The Expanse‘s season 4 will adapt book 4, but they can’t restrict themselves to just the small cast on an alien world. The rest of the cast, Earthers, Martians, Belters and Outers, would then be idle for a year. They will create scenes that don’t exist in the book to keep essential characters (and actors) around.
@@@@@#14 I loved The Golden Ass, but the hero spends most of the book as a donkey! And would you include the Cupid and Psyche story? I suppose it might make a mini-series. As for Candide, did you know it was already turned into a musical? I think Rogers and Hart, not sure.
I’d love to see Harry Harrison’s “Stainless Steel Rat” books adapted. The character is serious enough to pose philosophical questions, and light hearted enough to have plenty of humour.
+1 “Startide Rising”/ “The Uplift War” I prefer the latter as it has an accidental hero, and plenty of background on the aliens involved.
One that has been in option hell forever is “Ringworld” but I think it would be too confused with “Halo” to actually make it to the big screen.
“Mote in Gods Eye” would be cool for the Steampunk nature of the universe.
+1 for Phillip Jose Farmer’s “Riverworld” would make a brilliant series.
I heard the other day that Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” has been greenlit? tell me it’s true?
Mote In God’s Eye/The Gripping Hand as a one season series on Netflix would be awesome.
A Canticle of Leibowitz would be very good. Probably better as a TV movie though.
Zima Blue.
Alistair Reynolds short story.would be an amazing film.
This is probably not gonna happen because it would require a massive budget, but it would be great if Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series could be adapted into a TV series. Also, I’d love to see a film adaptation of Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown.
I’d love to see John Wyndham’s Re-birth. Or the later children’s novel by H.M. Hoover on a similar theme, Children of Morrow.
@27. Yeah, exactly. Why stop at 5? Plenty of material out there for film and tv.
Roger Zelazny – Amber
Julian May – Saga of the Exiles
China Mieville – Perdido Street Station or Kracken
Robert Holdstock – Mythago Wood
R.A. MacAvoy – Damiano trilogy
Michael Moorcock – Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, Erekose, Von Bek
Victoria Schwab – Shades of Magic
Nnedi Okorafor – Who Fears Death
Iain M. Banks – Culture series, Against a Dark Background, the Algebrist
Fritz Leiber – Lankhmar
Anne Macaffrey – Pern
Richard Morgan – Land Fit for Heroes
I could go on. And on. And on.
I definitely agree about The Sparrow. It’d be a really good film -or perhaps a Netflix miniseries would be even better (other commissioning companies are available, of course).
I’d like to commend Jennifer Government by Max Barry. Though I note that iMDb lists it as ‘in development’ … so maybe it’s on the way. It reads very cinematically and as I read it, I felt it was easy to envisage it on a screen.
my picks would be
Nalo Hopkinson’s “Brown Girl in the Ring”
Bruce Sterling’s “Heavy Weather”
and anything with Charles DeLint’s Crow Girls
SyFy is working on Hyperion Cantos? Oh well.. yet another good (possibly great) show that will be dropped suddenly and for no good reason. I’ve stopped watching series on SyFy – They seem to Want to fail, cancelling the good series while putting good money behind things like Sharknado.. ugh.
@54: As for Candide, did you know it was already turned into a musical? I think Rogers and Hart, not sure. Bernstein and Hellman, actually — neither Rodgers nor Hart could have done anything that bitter. But I don’t think a straight movie would have much appeal — the satire is very dated. (There’s none of the bland optimism around that Voltaire was ragging on — plenty of bloated we’re-the-greatest, but that’s very different.) Also, from what I’ve read of the original, really isn’t genre; think Gulliver’s Travels with just the travel parts — no intelligent horses, no giants or midgets, no flying city, etc.
@61. Andii: “I definitely agree about The Sparrow.”
Aaaarrrgh! No one ever answers my objections to this.
This list, and the comments, have now filled up my Books to Read list. Thanks, one and all. I’ve read a number of the suggestions, but nowhere close to the full list.
The book I would love as a movie ot mini-series:
Alfred Bester’s The Stars my Destination. Delete the rape scene. Bring the science up to today’s/future standards, and go full tilt bonkers with it.
Another one that I would give anything to see turned into a movie but I know it’s nearly impossible is Robert L. Forward’s Dragon’s Egg. The live-action parts would be easy, but I can’t imagine how the parts with the cheela would be made. Animated, certainly, but how? CGI? Stopmotion? Traditional 2D animation? In this case though I would imagine Dragon’s Egg as more of a Sundance-worthy film – it should be an independent film, because I can’t imagine a big studio greenlighting an story like Dragon’s Egg. Anyway, all I want to see is Swift-Killer on film, she is one of my most favorite female characters in science fiction.
56:
Who needs movies? A Canticle For Leibowitz was made into a brilliant radio series back in the 80s by Wisconsin Public Radio. You can listen to the whole thing <a href=”https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/sci-fi/a-canticle-for-liebowitz”>here</a>.
@42: I think Perdido Street Station could work as an animated film. I find it hard to imagine as live action. Even with the best of CGI, it would be hard to make it visually realistic.
Jack Vance’s Demon Princes series.
Or, come to think of it, almost any of his other books: Lyonesse, Planet of Adventure, Trullion, Marune, etc.
The Doomsday Book could be a blockbuster, but only if they completely rewrote the part of the story involving the people in the “present.” The entire present-day plotline is basically a series of missed connections that would be impossible today if even a couple of the characters had cell phones. It might have been plausible in 1992 when the book came out (though cell phones were around back then), but reading it a few years ago in 2014 it was almost painful trying to get through those scenes.
The Speed of Darkness–A Tale of Space, Time, and Aliens Who LOVE to Party, would make a terrific anime. Darkness updates and explores the classic “Golden Age” themes of First Contact, heroes, villains, time dilation, and an attempt to break the light barrier. It’s powerful visual style and witty dialogue would translate well on screen.
Great list. Thank you!
I agree with those who say a good book doesn’t guarantee a good movie. They are different media for storytelling, and there is no Oscar for ‘best book a movie is based upon’… ;-)
While I love all of Connie Willis’ books, I think Doomsday Book is pretty grim, and not very likely to be made into a decent movie without massive Hollywood-ization. To Say Nothing of the Dog would make a great Victorian Wilde-esque comedy of manners, and Blackout/All Clear could make a decent miniseries or 2-part movie.
Since I don’t want to sound too negative, here is my entry:
Borders of Infinity by Bujold has everything a good story needs. With the right director, some good unknown actors and a top class musical score I see potential.
There is a flaw in your “once sentence” summary of Doomsday Book: You reveal a twist that isn’t confirmed until page 400! You need to amend this article with a SPOILER and hide the text. I read the book based on this article’s reccomendation, and kept waiting, and waiting, for this fundamental part of the “premise” to manifest.
And it didn’t.
Reading the book without tor’s spoiler would have been a totally different experience. The OMFG moment at page 396, the dread that Willis builds over the next few paragraphs, would have been so much bigger if I hadn’t been waiting for it. Instead I was irritated, waiting for all the characters to catch up with what I already knew, what I had known from the start, but which the author, while dropping very subtle hints, had no intention of revealing in full until 3/4 of the way through the book. I was supposed to get sucked into the first problem, Kirvin stuck in 1120, sick,disoriented, with no way to find her drop and the parallel chaos of Oxford being under quarantine and unable to pull her out, only to get sucker punched with her horrifying realization, after bonding with her family, of where she really is and the sickening knowledge of what is going to happen. The book is still well written and powerful but tor.com’s summary fundamentally changes the experience of reading it and I resent not getting to have that moment. I still loved it, but I’m recommending the book to others with the quickie premise: “Set in near future, where historians time travel to study the past, and a woman makes the first trip back to study the Middle Ages.” And tell them not to read any other summaries because it will ruin it.
Since it still has yet to be made into a movie, we should avoid spoiling the book for others.
In general, your summary should not reveal anything that doesn’t happen in the first 5 chapters or 3 episodes of a series.
@76. Mariam: I’ve said before that some Tor.com reviews should be called recaps instead. Don’t think that will change, though. The traditional review doesn’t discuss endings or major reveals that could spoil your experience.
The worst (recent-ish) example off the top of my head isn’t from Tor. It was on Vox.com where the reviewer revealed who the big bad of the recent Altered Carbon series was. Even used the words “big bad” in the article. Good thing that site doesn’t have commenting. You have to twit at them to communicate, which is a step too far.
LUNATICS by Bradley Denton would make a great film: comedy and romance, and Austin, TX setting, and a moon goddess.
Any or all of Catherine Asaro’s Skolian books would make great blockbuster films