I’ve had the RC Bray narration of it on preorder since it was supposed to come out in April, recently got pushed back to October. That likely will be the best we can get for the foreseeable future.
Same here. I had a lefty co-worker tell me once that I loved the book because it was a love letter to the military and since I was a veteran I enjoyed it. I liked the movie too but I heard it really pissed off Heinlein’s widow
Heinlein being adapted by someone that didn’t despise him would be nice. On another note, I would love a well done tv show that dug into the Event Horizon universe and created essentially a WH40k prequel. A galaxy’s edge tv show would be amazing, but instead we get space lesbians.
Galaxy’s Edge is Disney Star Wars right? I’d love to see some Star Wars EU adaptations. Event Horizon would be interesting and I’d love to have something related to the Abyss where you get to know more about those creatures.
Galaxy’s edge is EU I think. It frankly could be done without Star Wars label as it doesn’t directly do Jedi or sith. Hell there isn’t even a “lightsaber” through any of the books I read.
I read the first book 2 years ago. Liked it. I saw Apple TV did a show but saw the cast and didn’t bother. Also the showrunner asked permission to race and gender swap characters so you know his priorities
I loved the book’s story and themes so much I was willing to give the show a shot, but what a letdown. Instead of showing us how smart the main character (race AND gender swapped for the double whammy) was - and there were plenty of things that could have just been ripped from the books so it’s not like they even had to come up with something original - they have her recite prime numbers. Like 5 different scenes dedicated just to her counting prime numbers in her head. Fkn genius I guess.
Dornick coming from a primitive culture and going on to be one of the most qualified mathematicians in the galaxy after discovering a sack of textbooks as an adult really outs the writers as people who cannot distinguish calculus from magic.
Consider Phlebas or Player of Games. Both great sci-fi books by Iain Banks. Consider Phlebas would be an epic action/adventure, bordering on space opera. Player of Games is... I dunno how to describe it. Genius enters contest on far away alien planet sponsered by future version of CIA, on the premise of diplomatic outreach, but you know there's more to it.
I always like the Culture series, but have always felt like the odd man out because I view the Culture as a pretty horrific entity. Rooting for the baddies, as it were.
Definitely! I mean there's a lot of upsides, but reading the books, I'm always thinking this would suck. Humans are almost like afterthoughts or ornaments. You gotta be 1 in a billion genius for the AI to even take you seriously and not just humoring you.
So, yeah there's lots of moments where I like seeing the underdogs thwart the Culture.
I'd love a game set in the Culture universe. Not necessarily based directly on any of the books, but a new story told in the same universe. A Mass Effect style RPG but that fits the style and tone of the books.
However there's not a single existing dev today I'd trust not to completely fuck this up, so I hope it doesn't happen anytime soon.
Thinking in this theme makes me very surprised no one's done anything with all the stuff Peter F Hamilton made - it would be very easy to port his stuff over to a TV series.
But, if it were up to me, I'd have a few favorite picks;
Elric: Song of the Black Sword. I want to have normies freak out and try to claim it's ripping off the Witcher or Warhammer or GRRM. Fuck no - this is the OG, son.
Alistair Reynold's Revelation Space. They'd never get the casting right otherwise, given all the women running around in the books.
And, for added points - I want to have the Black Legion novels in Warhammer done. It gives me comfy, drug-enhanced 1970s sword and sorcery vibes in a good way, and demonstrates what hypocritical assholes Chaos Marines are.
I need to finish the Commonwealth Saga. I was pretty tickled by the idea of an interstellar civilization that utilized trains as the primary means of transport, even if the track ran through wormholes.
Even his earlier stuff is really good. His Greg Mandel books are basically 'psychic detective goes on whacky adventures in a cyberpunk post-apocalyptic Briton'.
You could easily make 'Fallen Dragon' into 'Starship Troopers meets Westworld meets Avatar'.
So much I have to read there. The Elric books are in my immediate stack to read. Nerdrotic and Razorfist were saying that if you like Ice and Fire you would like Elric. That sold me on it
I just finished Pines -- the first book of the Wayward Pines trilogy -- and wow, it gets really, really good in the last 80 pages or so.
I'm writing this because I'm retracting my previous statement about 'weak source material'. I'm diving into "Wayward", the second book of the trilogy, so I'm hoping that the story is well developed.
The idea itself, while not 100% original, is great. And the author puts in an epilogue where he describes what he was trying to do -- no spoilers here... He was trying to re-create the magic of Twin Peaks, and he did a pretty great job.
This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I think WOT is overrated (not bad, just not worthy of the comparisons I see to things like LoTR and Dune.) I'm wondering if I just missed something about it that makes others give it such high praise, or if it's just not my thing.
I said when I started reading it that I thought it could make a fantastic RPG with multiple playable characters and branching narratives, and I still think that would be cool, so maybe it was just the format it was presented in.
I kind imagined it like a low-ish budget mini-series. The fallout thing was cool; I've never bothered to learn where Canticle sits in the cannon of post nuclear apocalypses fiction, but it must be fairly early.
I sought of read it like a koan. It doesn't really have lot of narrative satisfaction - whilst certain elements are pretty cool. like the blue prints. But probably the most interesting plot device, which I felt 3 Body Problem borrowed was the concept of 'lineage hibernation' - which is also touched on in the bibles tales of early longevity.
It is a space opera setting where colonies have been established on planets around the universe that are connected by wormholes. Space travel is conventional thrust except for those. Space weapons are mostly pointless after an arms-race involving ballistics was halted by an energy-shielding system, and then an arms-race involving lasers was halted by a conversion system that turns them into just more energy for the defender's shields. The wormholes are natural chokes into each system with no reasonable travel method existing outside of finding another wormhole outlet. Invasion and defense tactics are oriented almost entirely around taking and holding the wormhole entrance.
The main story centers around an important family on a planet called Barrayar. The planet was lost to the rest of the galaxy several centuries before when their wormhole turned out to be unstable and collapsed. The humans living there were in the earliest stages of terraforming and when they were cut off from the rest of the galaxy they were on an urgent clock to do the best they could to finish their work and make their now only planet permanently habitable. This meant not caring about anything but making it as Earth-like as possible, so they destroyed all existing plant and animal life in their speed (which wasn't the original plan).
The desperate expenditure of resources meant they had to settle for a very meager subsistence after a short while and their civilization downgraded to approximately the European dark ages for many generations.
They were inadvertently re-discovered by a race of humans called the Cetagandans who were mapping out new wormhole paths after this time, and within a few years they were invaded by the same who saw them as a small obstacle to a perfectly (now) habitable planet.
Against expectations, the Barrayarans repelled the invaders and through that war clawed their way back into the space-age with Cetagandan technology and resources. They then set about establishing an empire encompassing the rest of the habitable planets nearby and securing their wormhole against further invasions.
This expansion brought the rest of the galaxy down on them as they were seen as a warmongering race (and low-key terrifying since they beat the Cetagandans in open warfare, something the rest of the human races were terrified of ever attempting).
The expansion war ends when the Barrayaran emperor dies and is replaced by a child relative under the regency of Miles' father. Miles (the protagonist I spoke of) is born at this time, and the story hits its best stride as it follows him.
An assassination attempt on Miles' father (that catches his mother in the crossfire) while he is still unborn results in his body being irreparably damaged. He is born with bones that will always be brittle as the main trouble, and this causes him to grow stunted and short (though it is just a bone issue, he isn't a dwarf). Due to the period of isolation the planet had gone through, one of the most terrifying things to be blamed of is to be a 'mutant' which for reasons of survival meant immediate death to protect the gene pool.
Miles is cool. His adventures are great. The world-building is excellent. And unfortunately, due to timing, everyone will just assume he's "Space Tyrion Lannister," but I quite disagree on that.
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. I'm a one note shill for this book but it's also a prime candidate for adaptation with no wokeness. The main female character is a complete retard who risks the entire galaxy because of muh forgive muh friends, but I think the main male character who opposes her (and is correct) in his cynicism provides a perfect counterbalance.
I've seen reviewers complain about the sequel novel because said female character comes across as retarded. I see no problem with this. Depict her as retarded. Meanwhile adapt the prequel which shows Pham Nuwen as the badass male she should have deferred to all along.
Is that from when Pham activates Countermeasure? There's so many potentially excellent moments.
The one that always sticks with me is Tomas Nau finally realising who Pham is, after almost being killed by him. Imagine venerating space-Jesus or space-Hitler for your entire life, on top of the countless lifetimes that person would need to have led, to still be alive - only to realise that the guy you thought was a weird old man is actually him, and he's here to fuck you up. Could be an incredible flashback-montage-reveal, although that scene's from Deepness in the Sky (I prefer Fire overall as a book)
Hey, Deepness in the Sky has plenty of good moments too (the capitalists and the spiders teaming up against the communists at the end), and Nau realizing who Pham is, is way up there. You could definitely get a paranoia thriller with the need to avoid omnipresent intelligent surveillance of every word you say and every step you take.
Plenty of people saying Starship Troopers, so I'll go with a different answer: I wouldn't mind a Gateway film. I don't know if it could adequately work as a film, but I wouldn't hate it. That said, even trying to avoid modern day garbage would be difficult considering Pohl was an unashamed capitalism bashing leftist back then too. Still, I think it could be an interesting adaptation.
The Lensmen Books by E. E. Smith. I'd just love to see a faithful adaptation of a universe where eugenics is good, the heroes are squares, and drug crimes are the same as high treason. Also hyperluminal anti-matter planets as weapons.
Of course this is only within the framework of the OP. I'd never watch a real adaptation of it, because it would be completely inverted.
It's saddening, really. Everyone liked stoic Hayate and her elite ex-villain strike force. No one really liked whiny baby Vivio. Then they get disheartened and defunded because ViVid sold poorly when the two series run concurrently to one-another.
Piggybacking this thread to recommend Travelers. Honestly I feel like it's about as good a sci fi show as you can get in this pozzscape.
There's a woke insert (probably self insert): sensitive soybeard social worker character, who develops a relationship with a previously retarded woman who becomes sassy and sexy after getting quantum leaped into by one of the main cast. But that arc is beyond parody, I mean just reread what I typed. There's also some interracialism. Otherwise pretty damn good show.
I'm gonna throw a curveball here, just to be a bit contrarian: The Expanse. The show got fucked over by being cancelled twice, and they killed off one of the main characters because his actor got accused of... I don't even think it was sexual assault, I think it was 'grooming' and inviting a fan back to his hotel room.
The series was already pretty woke from the start (Lesbian 'pastor' in an interracial marriage? Pretty damn woke.) But they still managed to write interesting characters and have a decent storyline. TV show cuts off the last third of the series where everything gets tied up, and takes an absolute woke nosedive in the final season. Just give me a version where the main cast from the TV series gets to finish out the story, and if I'm being given magic powers, redo a few of the changes they made to the earlier seasons (changing the black villain in the duo from book one to white, for example), and completely ignore the finale of season five and all of season six.
u/Smith1980, I've not read UBIK, but I think at least the first 'book' of Stranger in a Strange Land would be really cool to see adapted. That part was probably the book I've most enjoyed reading as an adult (the latter two 'books' I did not enjoy nearly as much, but Heinlein and I have very different views on religion, so that is to be expected, I suppose.)
Adapting JOB would be... interesting. Definitely something for HBO or the like.
And since we're on the subject of Heinlein, why not adapt The Moon is a Harsh Mistress?
Love the Moon is a Hardh Mistress but feel they would mess that up. I also have the Expanse books on my list to buy. You should check out UBIK. Very trippy.
For a long haul series I'd say his Ian Cormac novels skipping shadow of the scorpion. Prador moon would be a epic space battle fest that ends with firing a moon through their version of a Stargate at near light speed.
And for more action packed I'd take his Dark Intelligence, War Factory and Infinity Engine trio. Penny Royal and Servel where two great characters.
Also Sea of Rust might be fun for a post apocalypse robot themed show.
But if you had a long LONG show or LOTR directors cut length movie. Either Hamiltons Pandora Star / Reality Dysfunction or The Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio.
Strongly agree with Ubik. PKD's own screenplay has been languishing for decades.
For other PKD novels, I'd like to see Three Stigmata, A Maze of Death, and Counter-Clock World, maybe someone could take a crack at VALIS. Honestly, there's so many of his novels that could be expanded upon since he would leave room for speculation. Just with his first novel/fix up alone, Solar Lottery, there's potential to be explored.
I would like to finally see a version of 2061: Odyssey Three as well. I've just started reading Heinlein's works so I don't have much of an opinion yet. There's quite a few good sci-fi authors that have been untouched (for better or worse)
The actual Starship Troopers.
Don't get me wrong, I like the movie, but it's not Starship Troopers: The Book.
Have you watched the cg cartoon series?
I remember them being on. Were they any good?
Pretty good, cg is outdated but they followed the plot of the book, it's mostly action show though
I’ve had the RC Bray narration of it on preorder since it was supposed to come out in April, recently got pushed back to October. That likely will be the best we can get for the foreseeable future.
Same here. I had a lefty co-worker tell me once that I loved the book because it was a love letter to the military and since I was a veteran I enjoyed it. I liked the movie too but I heard it really pissed off Heinlein’s widow
Heinlein being adapted by someone that didn’t despise him would be nice. On another note, I would love a well done tv show that dug into the Event Horizon universe and created essentially a WH40k prequel. A galaxy’s edge tv show would be amazing, but instead we get space lesbians.
Galaxy’s Edge is Disney Star Wars right? I’d love to see some Star Wars EU adaptations. Event Horizon would be interesting and I’d love to have something related to the Abyss where you get to know more about those creatures.
Galaxy's Edge is also a space marine sci-fi series by Nick Cole and Jason Anspach. It's basically grittier Clone Wars.
Cool!
Galaxy’s edge is EU I think. It frankly could be done without Star Wars label as it doesn’t directly do Jedi or sith. Hell there isn’t even a “lightsaber” through any of the books I read.
Foundation
Edit: changing my answer to starship troopers
I read the first book 2 years ago. Liked it. I saw Apple TV did a show but saw the cast and didn’t bother. Also the showrunner asked permission to race and gender swap characters so you know his priorities
I loved the book’s story and themes so much I was willing to give the show a shot, but what a letdown. Instead of showing us how smart the main character (race AND gender swapped for the double whammy) was - and there were plenty of things that could have just been ripped from the books so it’s not like they even had to come up with something original - they have her recite prime numbers. Like 5 different scenes dedicated just to her counting prime numbers in her head. Fkn genius I guess.
Dornick coming from a primitive culture and going on to be one of the most qualified mathematicians in the galaxy after discovering a sack of textbooks as an adult really outs the writers as people who cannot distinguish calculus from magic.
Consider Phlebas or Player of Games. Both great sci-fi books by Iain Banks. Consider Phlebas would be an epic action/adventure, bordering on space opera. Player of Games is... I dunno how to describe it. Genius enters contest on far away alien planet sponsered by future version of CIA, on the premise of diplomatic outreach, but you know there's more to it.
I always like the Culture series, but have always felt like the odd man out because I view the Culture as a pretty horrific entity. Rooting for the baddies, as it were.
Definitely! I mean there's a lot of upsides, but reading the books, I'm always thinking this would suck. Humans are almost like afterthoughts or ornaments. You gotta be 1 in a billion genius for the AI to even take you seriously and not just humoring you.
So, yeah there's lots of moments where I like seeing the underdogs thwart the Culture.
The Culture always reminds me of Lt Eddington from DS9 back when writers could write.
The Culture cries out in pain as it subverts and strips your markets and worlds.
I'd love a game set in the Culture universe. Not necessarily based directly on any of the books, but a new story told in the same universe. A Mass Effect style RPG but that fits the style and tone of the books.
However there's not a single existing dev today I'd trust not to completely fuck this up, so I hope it doesn't happen anytime soon.
I think I have Consider Phlebas. If not I’ll look for those two next time I’m at the used book store
And Use of Weapons
Player of Games has always been one of my favourite books. Would be great with big caveat - If done by someone who understand and appreciates the Lore
I see enough answers for Starship Troopers that I'm betting the next superwoke Netflix adaptation is gonna be Starship Troopers.
After they crap all over Narnia
You know, that's a very good question.
Thinking in this theme makes me very surprised no one's done anything with all the stuff Peter F Hamilton made - it would be very easy to port his stuff over to a TV series.
But, if it were up to me, I'd have a few favorite picks;
Elric: Song of the Black Sword. I want to have normies freak out and try to claim it's ripping off the Witcher or Warhammer or GRRM. Fuck no - this is the OG, son.
Alistair Reynold's Revelation Space. They'd never get the casting right otherwise, given all the women running around in the books.
And, for added points - I want to have the Black Legion novels in Warhammer done. It gives me comfy, drug-enhanced 1970s sword and sorcery vibes in a good way, and demonstrates what hypocritical assholes Chaos Marines are.
I need to finish the Commonwealth Saga. I was pretty tickled by the idea of an interstellar civilization that utilized trains as the primary means of transport, even if the track ran through wormholes.
Even his earlier stuff is really good. His Greg Mandel books are basically 'psychic detective goes on whacky adventures in a cyberpunk post-apocalyptic Briton'.
You could easily make 'Fallen Dragon' into 'Starship Troopers meets Westworld meets Avatar'.
So much I have to read there. The Elric books are in my immediate stack to read. Nerdrotic and Razorfist were saying that if you like Ice and Fire you would like Elric. That sold me on it
I know two I'd like to have better adaptations, WOT and Wayward Pines.
You just had to bring up WOT. Curse that showrunner! A pox on his house. Wayward Pines is a book? I need to check it out. How did the show mess it up?
Yeah Wayward Pines was a book. The show wasn't terrible but it just didn't capture the feeling to me. And yes Rafe is terrible and ruined the show.
I just finished Pines -- the first book of the Wayward Pines trilogy -- and wow, it gets really, really good in the last 80 pages or so.
I'm writing this because I'm retracting my previous statement about 'weak source material'. I'm diving into "Wayward", the second book of the trilogy, so I'm hoping that the story is well developed.
The idea itself, while not 100% original, is great. And the author puts in an epilogue where he describes what he was trying to do -- no spoilers here... He was trying to re-create the magic of Twin Peaks, and he did a pretty great job.
I love Twin Peaks. Can’t wait to read the books
Ooh... I'm reading Pines right now -- it's a fantastic, breezy read.
The first half of the show was fantastic. The second half fell apart. I actually think it's a bit of a weakness in the source material.
This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I think WOT is overrated (not bad, just not worthy of the comparisons I see to things like LoTR and Dune.) I'm wondering if I just missed something about it that makes others give it such high praise, or if it's just not my thing.
I said when I started reading it that I thought it could make a fantastic RPG with multiple playable characters and branching narratives, and I still think that would be cool, so maybe it was just the format it was presented in.
I've never liked Dune. People have different tastes.
Lens Men or the Weapons Shop
The special effects budget doesn't yet exist to do Lensmen justice.
Still, good to see a fan. Hot jets and clear ether!
snow crash
What is Eden chronicles about?
I loved Sliders. Definitely has my interest
I thought they made a TV series of the Dresden Files.
No idea if it's good or not, but I remember the title from when I was searching for some old probably lost Bob Crane TV movie.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr..
Edit also the Vorkosigan Saga.
I don't think Canticle would make a great movie - it's really 3 stories. But did you know it was considered the main source for Fallout?
I kind imagined it like a low-ish budget mini-series. The fallout thing was cool; I've never bothered to learn where Canticle sits in the cannon of post nuclear apocalypses fiction, but it must be fairly early.
I sought of read it like a koan. It doesn't really have lot of narrative satisfaction - whilst certain elements are pretty cool. like the blue prints. But probably the most interesting plot device, which I felt 3 Body Problem borrowed was the concept of 'lineage hibernation' - which is also touched on in the bibles tales of early longevity.
Need to read that one. Always on recommended lists
I came to suggest the Vorkosigan series. Especially the books focused on the protagonist Miles, are amazing.
What are they about?
It is a space opera setting where colonies have been established on planets around the universe that are connected by wormholes. Space travel is conventional thrust except for those. Space weapons are mostly pointless after an arms-race involving ballistics was halted by an energy-shielding system, and then an arms-race involving lasers was halted by a conversion system that turns them into just more energy for the defender's shields. The wormholes are natural chokes into each system with no reasonable travel method existing outside of finding another wormhole outlet. Invasion and defense tactics are oriented almost entirely around taking and holding the wormhole entrance.
The main story centers around an important family on a planet called Barrayar. The planet was lost to the rest of the galaxy several centuries before when their wormhole turned out to be unstable and collapsed. The humans living there were in the earliest stages of terraforming and when they were cut off from the rest of the galaxy they were on an urgent clock to do the best they could to finish their work and make their now only planet permanently habitable. This meant not caring about anything but making it as Earth-like as possible, so they destroyed all existing plant and animal life in their speed (which wasn't the original plan).
The desperate expenditure of resources meant they had to settle for a very meager subsistence after a short while and their civilization downgraded to approximately the European dark ages for many generations.
They were inadvertently re-discovered by a race of humans called the Cetagandans who were mapping out new wormhole paths after this time, and within a few years they were invaded by the same who saw them as a small obstacle to a perfectly (now) habitable planet.
Against expectations, the Barrayarans repelled the invaders and through that war clawed their way back into the space-age with Cetagandan technology and resources. They then set about establishing an empire encompassing the rest of the habitable planets nearby and securing their wormhole against further invasions.
This expansion brought the rest of the galaxy down on them as they were seen as a warmongering race (and low-key terrifying since they beat the Cetagandans in open warfare, something the rest of the human races were terrified of ever attempting).
The expansion war ends when the Barrayaran emperor dies and is replaced by a child relative under the regency of Miles' father. Miles (the protagonist I spoke of) is born at this time, and the story hits its best stride as it follows him.
An assassination attempt on Miles' father (that catches his mother in the crossfire) while he is still unborn results in his body being irreparably damaged. He is born with bones that will always be brittle as the main trouble, and this causes him to grow stunted and short (though it is just a bone issue, he isn't a dwarf). Due to the period of isolation the planet had gone through, one of the most terrifying things to be blamed of is to be a 'mutant' which for reasons of survival meant immediate death to protect the gene pool.
Miles is cool. His adventures are great. The world-building is excellent. And unfortunately, due to timing, everyone will just assume he's "Space Tyrion Lannister," but I quite disagree on that.
Thanks for the detailed rundown. Looks very good
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. I'm a one note shill for this book but it's also a prime candidate for adaptation with no wokeness. The main female character is a complete retard who risks the entire galaxy because of muh forgive muh friends, but I think the main male character who opposes her (and is correct) in his cynicism provides a perfect counterbalance.
I've seen reviewers complain about the sequel novel because said female character comes across as retarded. I see no problem with this. Depict her as retarded. Meanwhile adapt the prequel which shows Pham Nuwen as the badass male she should have deferred to all along.
would be an amazing moment to see on screen.
Is that from when Pham activates Countermeasure? There's so many potentially excellent moments.
The one that always sticks with me is Tomas Nau finally realising who Pham is, after almost being killed by him. Imagine venerating space-Jesus or space-Hitler for your entire life, on top of the countless lifetimes that person would need to have led, to still be alive - only to realise that the guy you thought was a weird old man is actually him, and he's here to fuck you up. Could be an incredible flashback-montage-reveal, although that scene's from Deepness in the Sky (I prefer Fire overall as a book)
Hey, Deepness in the Sky has plenty of good moments too (the capitalists and the spiders teaming up against the communists at the end), and Nau realizing who Pham is, is way up there. You could definitely get a paranoia thriller with the need to avoid omnipresent intelligent surveillance of every word you say and every step you take.
Ohh you know what, Codex Alera and Mistborn could be cool.
I need to read Mistborn and someone recommended something called Malzan to me
I've been told to read Malzen as well. But I'm such a bad reader anymore.
Plenty of people saying Starship Troopers, so I'll go with a different answer: I wouldn't mind a Gateway film. I don't know if it could adequately work as a film, but I wouldn't hate it. That said, even trying to avoid modern day garbage would be difficult considering Pohl was an unashamed capitalism bashing leftist back then too. Still, I think it could be an interesting adaptation.
Go back farther: A. E. van Vogt.
Tons of creative worlds and ideas that could be made into movies or whole shows.
His stories have a Lovecraftian mastery of the written word, but you experience his science-hero dreams instead of existential horrors.
Not a lot of character development, but good screenwriters can add that in.
The Lensmen Books by E. E. Smith. I'd just love to see a faithful adaptation of a universe where eugenics is good, the heroes are squares, and drug crimes are the same as high treason. Also hyperluminal anti-matter planets as weapons.
Of course this is only within the framework of the OP. I'd never watch a real adaptation of it, because it would be completely inverted.
I’ll have to look that book up. Yea, I don’t trust any adaptation nowadays
I never watched it, but since the only adaptation I know of was from Japan in the 80s, you might actually get those parts.
Most of the sci-fi I read is "hard" sci-fi, which doesn't really adapt well into movie/show form even without the wokeness element.
But there's a great Gundam-like manga that hasn't been adapted into an anime, yet, so that could count: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Force.
They're too busy making ViVid spinoffs no one asked for.
It's saddening, really. Everyone liked stoic Hayate and her elite ex-villain strike force. No one really liked whiny baby Vivio. Then they get disheartened and defunded because ViVid sold poorly when the two series run concurrently to one-another.
Dream Park or Clockwork Elf
Piggybacking this thread to recommend Travelers. Honestly I feel like it's about as good a sci fi show as you can get in this pozzscape.
There's a woke insert (probably self insert): sensitive soybeard social worker character, who develops a relationship with a previously retarded woman who becomes sassy and sexy after getting quantum leaped into by one of the main cast. But that arc is beyond parody, I mean just reread what I typed. There's also some interracialism. Otherwise pretty damn good show.
I'm gonna throw a curveball here, just to be a bit contrarian: The Expanse. The show got fucked over by being cancelled twice, and they killed off one of the main characters because his actor got accused of... I don't even think it was sexual assault, I think it was 'grooming' and inviting a fan back to his hotel room.
The series was already pretty woke from the start (Lesbian 'pastor' in an interracial marriage? Pretty damn woke.) But they still managed to write interesting characters and have a decent storyline. TV show cuts off the last third of the series where everything gets tied up, and takes an absolute woke nosedive in the final season. Just give me a version where the main cast from the TV series gets to finish out the story, and if I'm being given magic powers, redo a few of the changes they made to the earlier seasons (changing the black villain in the duo from book one to white, for example), and completely ignore the finale of season five and all of season six.
u/Smith1980, I've not read UBIK, but I think at least the first 'book' of Stranger in a Strange Land would be really cool to see adapted. That part was probably the book I've most enjoyed reading as an adult (the latter two 'books' I did not enjoy nearly as much, but Heinlein and I have very different views on religion, so that is to be expected, I suppose.)
Adapting JOB would be... interesting. Definitely something for HBO or the like.
And since we're on the subject of Heinlein, why not adapt The Moon is a Harsh Mistress?
Love the Moon is a Hardh Mistress but feel they would mess that up. I also have the Expanse books on my list to buy. You should check out UBIK. Very trippy.
just give me a proper and good dub of Legend of the Galactic Heroes and I'm good.
I'm really into Neal Asher at the moment.
For a long haul series I'd say his Ian Cormac novels skipping shadow of the scorpion. Prador moon would be a epic space battle fest that ends with firing a moon through their version of a Stargate at near light speed.
And for more action packed I'd take his Dark Intelligence, War Factory and Infinity Engine trio. Penny Royal and Servel where two great characters.
Also Sea of Rust might be fun for a post apocalypse robot themed show.
But if you had a long LONG show or LOTR directors cut length movie. Either Hamiltons Pandora Star / Reality Dysfunction or The Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio.
I found Pandora’s Star recently at a yard sale
Startide Rising by David Brin
Mutant Chronicles.
Sector General. I want to see it with a hundred million dollars of special effects for the alien surgeries and medical dramas.
Strongly agree with Ubik. PKD's own screenplay has been languishing for decades.
For other PKD novels, I'd like to see Three Stigmata, A Maze of Death, and Counter-Clock World, maybe someone could take a crack at VALIS. Honestly, there's so many of his novels that could be expanded upon since he would leave room for speculation. Just with his first novel/fix up alone, Solar Lottery, there's potential to be explored.
I would like to finally see a version of 2061: Odyssey Three as well. I've just started reading Heinlein's works so I don't have much of an opinion yet. There's quite a few good sci-fi authors that have been untouched (for better or worse)
Stainless Steel Rat.
Sounds like the story in Half Life.
Cool!