Something from Iain M. Banks The Culture. The best books, like Excession would probably be hard to adapt due to the protagonists being mostly ships, but others like Consider Phlebas or The Player of Games could probably make great films or miniseries (and Use of Weapons would probably be great as the later).
Probably excessively expensive in the CGI department if done well, but one can dream.
Children of time, but as a scifi miniseries.
Mountain Man: 10 Books by Keith C. Blackmore. Basically, the Zombie Apocalypse happens and a Dude tries to survive alone, physically, mentally and emotionally while also trying to go on supply runs, running into Zombies and generally trying to stay alive while coping with everything. I think it would be good to have some other zombie-related Series that isn’t The Walking Dead.
Expeditionary Force: 18 Books by Craig Alanson. Earth and Humanity are attacked by Hamster Aliens, another alien Race, Lizards, who attack the hamsters saving Earth in the process and then recruiting Humanity into a war on a galactic scale but the Hamsters aren’t the real enemy of Humanity. I’m only at the end of the 5th Audiobook but they are great and I would really wish Skippy is voiced by the Audiobook Narrator R.C. Bray in a TV adaption.
Kyralia series: Been a while since I read it but a fantastic series related to magic By Trudi Canavan, I think there are just not enough good Magic-related Shows.
Tales of the Otori: A 5-Book Series by Lian Hearn is set in a fictional feudal Japan. The Main story follows a Boy, Takeo, through his life to avenge his adoptive father and escape the legacy of his biological father. Probably the only series in which I had to put down the book at one point and just had to process what was happening.
Not a book exactly, but East of West would make for some great narrative and world building.
Infinite Jest. Just for the sheer impossibility of any attempt to do so :-)
House of leaves.
Any advice on how to actually get through this book? I love it but it’s very challenging.
Take as long as you feel like, and try not to focus on “getting through” the book. On my first read, I was lucky enough to feel like I couldn’t put it down. I tried a second time years later and didn’t get very far, I think because I was focused on finishing it.
Hard to imagine it being done well, given not only the plot(s) but the…unique narrative structure.
MZD wrote some spec screenplays for a television series and sells them for $11.
https://www.markzdanielewski.com/digital-downloads/p/markzdanielewskihouseofleavesscripts
Haven’t read them yet but intend to.
Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy deserves a good adaptation, rather than that trash movie and that too short BBC series.
And it should be of the first three books, not just the first book.
The BBC series does up to them being on >!prehistoric hairdresser and middle management earth!< Iirc
Which I’m pretty sure is the third book. But I haven’t read it in a loooooong time.
Wha… really? I’ve seen the BBC HHGTTG, but I’ve never even heard they did the sequels!
Book 2 was Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and book 3 was Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Two books followed… So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish and Mostly Harmless constituted Books 4 & 5, but were detached from the main characters and plot.
Ah, ok. The [Show](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_(TV_series) does the first two books. Not the third.
Because I remember them going to the restaurant and then meeting the hairdressers and telephone sanitizers and the mess they get the main characters into, but forgot about the Krikket/wikket people.
I would love that, I dont think the movie is terrible, its just that everything after Ford and Arthur get thrown out the airlock isnt as funny or absurd as the books. The main issue is the first 2ish books are unadaptable because there is no central conflict (or arleast the main cast dosent care or know there was supposed to be one).
Zaphod is the only person with motivation to do anything other than to continue existing, and he is unaware (or dosen’t care) he is being hunted until they meet those suprisingly progessive law enforcment officers on Magrathea and when he visits the guides publishing offices.
Zaphod’s 2 heads were the biggest let down of the movie.
The BBC series was brilliant.
Agreed, just too short.
One of my favorite books is called Inherit the Stars.
Mankind is starting to reach out into the solar system, but finds a man on the moon entombed in a space suit, and he’s been dead for 50,000 years.
It’d make a pretty good movie, 2 hours tops.
It does one of my favorite things, by strongly blending two genres: mystery, and sci-fi. A sci-fi show, movie, or book that’s purely sci-fi is rarely good. Same goes for fantasy. Season 1 of Game of Thrones is good because it’s primarily a mystery/drama story in a fantasy setting. A New Hope is great because it’s a western, coming-of-age story in a sci-fi setting. Rebel Moon is garbage (for many reasons) because it’s pure sci-fi schlock with no nuance.
Dan Simmons, Hyperion… Or Carrion Comfort.
I’d love to see some modern tries at Dashiel Hammet’s work too.
Any of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
There are a couple animated adaptations of some of the books, and the live-action adaptation of Hogfather is pretty good!
There’s also a Sky One live action of Color of Magic and Going Postal that are pretty solid.
Edit: Thanks Madjo!
Sky One, not BBC.
The Iliad. Not a “take” or an “adaptation” or a “re-imagining”. Just play it straight as it is, cut out some of the monologues and replace the “throwing spears at each other” parts with swordfights.
I want to see the gods descend from Olympus to fight on the battlefield.
Honor Harrington might be good on a big screen in the present political climate. (Female lead plus a cat)
The myth adventures might be right for a different flavor of comedy.
Otherland.
The original TSR Dragonlance D&D series from the '80s by Weis and Hickman.
Hell yes!
This is what I was looking for. Sure, we have a crappy animated movie, but all I have ever wanted was to see the Heroes of the Lance in real life.
At least we finally seem to be beyond people wondering why Drizzt isn’t around.
