Nowadays, a lot of the best TV shows are based on books,
especially book series. But the amazing thing about science fiction and fantasy
books is, there’s always more riches to explore. We’ve barely scratched the
surface, in fact. Here are 10 more book series that would make terrific TV
shows.
Top image: Da Vinci – Mars Design
To compile this post, we tried to think of book series that
had enough material to sustain a TV series without having to start inventing
characters and plot twists out of whole cloth in the first year or two. We also
thought about series that have complex worldbuilding, intense political and
social conflicts, and vivid characters who stick in your mind — without
requiring massive space battles or dragon wars on a TV budget.
The Mars Trilogy by
Kim Stanley Robinson
This ambitious, huge seriesis nothing but political
conflicts and complex worldbuilding, with a huge dose of philosphy thrown in.
The first colonists land on Mars and debate the ethics of terraforming the planet,
and incidentally humanity’s place in the universe. Over time, the series also
gets into questions about how to organize scarce resources and the best form of
government. HBO or Showtime could turn this series into an addictive, bleak,
hypnotic drama — like BSG, only even
more adult and grounded.
The Tiffany Aching
books by Terry Pratchett
Pratchett’s sprawling Discworld series, in general, is
fantastic stuff and full of potential — we’re still waiting for the City Watch
TV series, being developed in the U.K. But we’d especially love to see a TV
show based on the story of Tiffany Aching, a young witch who befriends a tribe
of small blue dudes called the Wee Free Men. There’s a lot of brilliant
silliness in these books, as you’d expect — but there’s also a solid
character-based story about Tiffany learning to wield power with humility and
devote herself to helping people rather than seeking glory. There’s a rich
supporting cast, and you could draw on the whole rich pageantry of Discworld,
but the core of the story is the character of Tiffany and her relationship with
her teacher Miss Level.
The Patternist Series
by Octavia Butler
The full scope of this
five-book series might be hard to capture on television — but there’s
plenty to explore in the story of telepathic super-humans shaping the evolution
of the human race. We have plenty of TV shows about mutants with mental and
other superpowers, but Butler takes it further, and in more beguiling
directions, than Heroes or Tomorrow People ever dreamed. Just the
relationship between Doro and Anyanwu, the two immortals who clash across
generations, could become a fascinating and intense drama.
Swordspoint by Ellen
Kushner
Here’s another series that would probably have to be on
cable TV, if not premium cable — there’s a gay romance at the center of it,
and at its heart it’s a series about Renaissance era manners and
institutionalized dueling. Basically, a more fantasy-oriented version of The Tudors. What makes this series a
potential win on television is that it’s a secondary-world fantasy with virtually
no magic, so it could feel like a worthy successor to Game of Thrones, which famously starts with very little magic. Sexy
and swashbuckling, this series could rule the small screen.
The Chronicles of
Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
Everybody’s rushing to adapt young-adult book series for
movies and television. But where’s our live-action of this classic kids’ series? This is the story of Taran, who starts out as a young assistant
pig-keeper but slowly grows to adulthood and rises to become a hero. These
books may be for kids, but they have a similar coming-of-age theme to the
Tiffany Aching series — or the Harry Potter series, for that matter. And in
the right hands, they could be as emotional and as intense as anything on The
CW nowadays. Image by SyrusbLiz on Deviant Art
Chronicles of the
Deryni by Katherine Kurtz
Another great fantasy series — these take place in a
fictional medieval realm where everybody knows about the existence of the
Deryni, who are superhumans with magical powers. What’s great about these
novels, especially in the wake of Game of Thrones, is that they’re as much
about politics, and about who will rule the Eleven Kingdoms, as about magic, or
good versus evil. They’re sprawling political sagas, based on real medieval
history and succession challenges, in which magic is another weapon in the
political feuds. Image by Pyracantha
The War Against the
Chtorr by David Gerrold
Like the Mars trilogy, this book seriesis especially
relevant nowadays because it deals with ecological collapse — the Earth is
already in bad shape when an alien ecology arrives and “colonizes”
our planet by introducing superior species. And it’s up to a group of humans to
figure out how to eliminate these invasive plants and highly predatory fauna,
before it’s too damn late for the human race. There could be some VFX
challenges in creating the massive worms that give the series the
“Chtorr” name with their terrible noise — but after Falling Skies and the Skitters, I fully
believe it’s possible. This could be a smarter, more focused Falling Skies.
Plus a TV deal would provide Gerrold with an additional incentive to finish the
series at long last.
Fitz & Fool
series by Robin Hobb
This seriesis another one that could provide a natural
companion to Game of Thrones — the story of an assassin named Fitz who gets
enlisted to save the Six Duchies by the Fool — a court jester who claims to be
the White Prophet, able to shape the future using Fitz as his Catalyst. We presented
the first glimpse of the next Fitz and Fool novel the other day, but
there’s already tons of dark, gritty material in the existing novels, in which Fitz
battles the evil Red-Ship Raiders and searches for a missing prince. Image by John Howe.
The Bordertown Series
by Terri Windling, Mark Alan Arnold et al.
This is mostly a series of shared-world anthologies, in which
a number of authors including Neil Gaiman and Patricia A. McKillip tell stories
of Bordertown, the liminal space between the human city and the realm of elves.
You can read a few sample stories here. The urban
fantasy vibe is very strong with this series, and the notion of elves roaming
New York and humans wandering into elf territory is full of endless potential.
Leviathan Wakes by
James S.A. Corey
And finally, here’s a seriesthat actually is being
developed for television. This gritty space opera about working-class stiffs in
space, inspired by things like Alien,
could bring spaceships back to television, and also win over the people who
were blown away by Battlestar Galactica
but haven’t found another grown-up, challenging space series to replace it
since it went away.
Want more amazing book
series? Check
here and here!
https://gizmodo.com/10-great-fantasy-series-to-read-while-youre-waiting-for-5876715
