Talking SF until everyone’s eyes glaze over

[ChloeTzang]

There were several stories I read back in my youth... a long time ago, way before cell phones, they had cell phones in them. And fanny packs, before there were fanny packs. And you carried you phone, in your pouch.

I liked the self driving flying cars myself, and were not far away from them now.

 

[Hypoxia]

There were several stories I read back in my youth... a long time ago, way before cell phones, they had cell phones in them. And fanny packs, before there were fanny packs. And you carried you phone, in your pouch.

TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE used larger gear. I've a small 1820s French print extravagantly portraying París skies brimming with powered skycraft and wireless beams. And DaVinci designed whirlybirds. The future is everywhere! (Politics excepted.)

But I referred to major hard-SF authors of our generation loading their futures with outdated tech. I am deeply suspicious of developed planets lacking sputniks or birth control. Such projections of past-to-future seem pretty quaint now, but not quite steampunk-ish; more like TV doctors advertising cigarettes.

 

[Piscator]

The science generally precedes the fiction, when it comes to science-fiction, I reckon. I can't think of many sci-fi tropes where the idea preceded the science. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein because vivisectionists were fun doctors already - and somebody was already messing about with batteries.

Just discovered this thread and feel I may have found my tribe.


The Frankenstein Chronicles a British series on Netflix has an interesting take on the story.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Just discovered this thread and feel I may have found my tribe.


The Frankenstein Chronicles a British series on Netflix has an interesting take on the story.

I find it fascinating that so many of us enjoy SF as well as erotica. Maybe it’s the escapism involved in both genres?

And I had no idea so many of you had such outstanding taste in reading.

 

[Javahead]

I liked the self driving flying cars myself, and were not far away from them now.

You’ve got a flying car, Chloe? Cool!

 

[JamesMiehoff]

Subtopic: When I think about it, there are surprisingly many great science fiction stories that have NOT been made into good movies.

There are a huge number of stories and even series of books that have never made it to the big (or small) screen.

The Berzerker series by Fred Saberhagen would make an awesome movie universe to play in.

The War Against the Chtorr series by David Gerrold series would make for an awesome streaming series (can't say TV series anymore). Maybe even nudge him into finishing the damn thing.

The Chronicles of Amber series by Roger Zelazny. Pure Gold!

The World of Tiers series by Philip Jose Farmer. Ignore the bad adaption of his Riverworld series.

Those are 4 series that would make great movies or series. And I didn't even have to work hard to think of those. I have 4 or 5 others that I am going to have to research the names. Damn memory. I blame the margaritas.

James

 

[MetaBob]

I hated the Lynch movie. The fat kid was appalling casting as Maud’dib and just ruined the movie for me. The Harrison mini-series was sooooo much better. There’s a new film adaptation coming in 2020.

I also preferred the Harrison version of Dune to David Lynch's in almost every way, Linda Hunt being one notable exception.

It would be nice if the 2020 Villaneuve Dune threw a few bones to the Jodorowsky version abandoned in 1976 the way the first Star Wars film included a pan past a sandworm skeleton.

Note that the Harrison version also had a sequel that included adaptations of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.

Villaneuve's version, like Harrison's, seems to include a lot of eastern European cast and crew.

In a fun coincidence, the actress (Julie Cox) who played Princess Irulan in Harrison's Dune version also portrayed Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, which was mentioned earlier in this thread, in The Witch From The Well, an audio spinoff of Doctor Who, which has also been mentioned in this thread.

 

[MetaBob]

There are a huge number of stories and even series of books that have never made it to the big (or small) screen.
...
The Chronicles of Amber series by Roger Zelazny.

This is actually in development right now.

 

[BumbleCat]

This is actually in development right now.

Seriously? I cannot wait to see Corwin in the flesh.

 

[BumbleCat]

I didn't know that history. Very interesting.

Back to square one: best film adaptation of a sci fi novel. I have to think about that.

I read an essay by Harlan Ellison where he claimed that the original Bladerunner was the best adaptation of a sci-fi novel, not because it was the most faithful, but because it did the best job of capturing the essence of the story.

I think that Phillip K. Dick is the most film-able author. Certainly the movies based on his books have been influential to the entire genre.

 

[ChloeTzang]

This is actually in development right now.

Oh wow now this I can’t miss

 

[MetaBob]

Oh wow now this I can’t miss

It'll be a couple years if it happens at all -- H'Wood is a notorious pit of failed projects, even really good ones, and if any project is big, this is.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I find it fascinating that so many of us enjoy SF as well as erotica. Maybe it’s the escapism involved in both genres?

And I had no idea so many of you had such outstanding taste in reading.

One of the first stories I posted here was SF with erotica(sex) included. I was told by many readers that they would have still liked the story even without the sex. I just recently put it back up here.

It's called Walker Brigade - Book of Incidents

This version has no six in it. It's also posted as all one book, so, its long, think novel length. 100K words or so.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

It'll be a couple years if it happens at all -- H'Wood is a notorious pit of failed projects, even really good ones, and if any project is big, this is.

After the Avenger movies, all other will seem to fail. And even if they are made, they may go straight video.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

A lot of SF and Fantasy books could not really be made into movies either because special effects were not up to the task or were so expensive Hollywood did not want to risk it. That is changing, costs are going down and the producers know that SF can make bank if done well.

That said, I really hope that rather than shooting for the blockbuster, that companies go for the miniseries like GoT, the Expanse, etc. I don't think you can do stories like MIAHM , or series like Black Tide Rising as a 2 or 3 hour movie and really do it well.

 

[MetaBob]

The executive producers who currently own the rights to adapt The Chronicles Of Amber apparently became interested for at least two reasons:

1. Because Game of Thrones would be ending
2. George R.R. Martin has explicitly acknowledged The Chronicles Of Amber as a direct inspiration

H'Wood is always looking for the next big thing, which sometimes turns out to be a previous thing. Here's hoping ...

 

[JamesMiehoff]

Dune is one of those universes that would be very difficult to bring to the screen in a way that would both honor the author and reach people that never read his works. To explain it all to non-readers would take a series of movies or a drastically watered down vision.

It was the same with Ender's Game. I liked the movie, but only because I had read the book. The movie caught the feel of the book if not all of the specifics. My wife never read the book and was lost and didn't understand why the characters acted the way that they did.

I have not read any of Martin's Game of Thrones novels, but I connected with the GoT show. It was the perfect antidote to the Lord of the Rings hangover from Jackson's movies. A dose of cold mountain water splashed liberally in the face like Reality. Medieval times were dirty, stinky and life was hard and short. Not at all as glorious and sparkly as Tolkien wrote it. A land of elves and fairies where nobody ever goes to the bathroom. Or takes a shit in their pantaloons when they are run through with by a sword.

Disclaimer: Whenever I read the LotR books or the Hobbit, I immediately cleansed my mental palate with a reading of Bored of the Rings by the Harvard Lampoon. It is an excellent way to come back to earth and stop looking for lurking ring wraiths and goblins under every bush.
​

Reading a book before seeing a movie or a series can be the death of it or it can be it's salvation. Jackson did an excellent job of making the Hobbit Tales approachable to viewers that didn't have to read the books, but still included enough details and depth so that readers were happy as well.

Star Wars did the same with a farm boy, a crazy old knight and a cowboy off to save a princess. Lucas made it approachable. You didn't need to read a dozen books to grasp the right and wrong of that morality tale. You knew who to cheer for and who to boo.

James

 

[Hypoxia]

Reading a book before seeing a movie or a series can be the death of it or it can be it's salvation...

Paul Verhoeven couldn't read past the first two chapters of STARSHIP TROOPERS (a bad, boring book, he said) so he eviscerated it to fairly good effect as propaganda satire. Main problem: not enough merchandise.

Star Wars did the same with a farm boy, a crazy old knight and a cowboy off to save a princess. Lucas made it approachable.

That plot on horseback is horse opera. At sea, likely with pirates, it's boat opera. Give it rockets and robots and it's space opera. (Where's innerspace opera?) And so much merchandise! Replace metal toy six-guns with plastic blasters, and furry coonskin caps with plastic stormtrooper masks. George Lucas was a genius... of marketing plastic. Blame him for environmental collapse.

The above films display little in the way of science. Tintin reached Luna more realistically on drawn pages. (Hergé worked hard at research.) What alleged SF film shows science best? I've missed most so I have no opinion. Too bad CONTACT went woo-woo.

 

[SimonDoom]

2. George R.R. Martin has explicitly acknowledged The Chronicles Of Amber as a direct inspiration ...

This never occurred to me but it makes perfect sense. What set Amber apart wasn't the hocus pocus but the ruthlessness and ambition of the characters. Same with GOT. It could be a good series because of the strong characters, same as GOT.

 

[Handley_Page]

You’ve got a flying car, Chloe? Cool!

I wonder if her order for one of these is in yet?

 

[Javahead]

I wonder if her order for one of these is in yet?

I always wanted the Jetson’s version. Though I wasn’t as sure about their architecture or fashions.

 

[RandyD1369]

The Mote in Gods Eye - that’d be amazing if it was done well
A remake of Starship Troopers, the way Heinlein wrote it.
The John Ringo zombie series - that’d be just outstandingly orgasmically cool

Any of the Niven & Pournelle collaborations would be good (well, maybe not Oath of Fealty), but I'd rather see "The Legacy of Heorot" or "Footfall". "Glory Road" would be worth seeing, if it can be made. I never hope to see another ruining of "Starship Troopers" by people who can't be bothered to read the damned book. "The Last Centurion" by John Ringo would make heads explode everywhere. Any of Kratman's novels would find a market, but even more heads would explode. Some of Sarah Hoyt's stuff is pretty good, but might be difficult to make as a movie.

 

[Hypoxia]

Any of the Niven & Pournelle collaborations would be good (well, maybe not Oath of Fealty), but I'd rather see "The Legacy of Heorot" or "Footfall".

OATH might be their most filmable. FOOTFALL needs CGI tuskers or folks in funny rubber suits. (Sure, ya can't beat the line, "Lead me, oh herdmaster.") But OATH could be done cheap, fast, nasty, and provocative. No exploding planetoids, alas.

 

[Blind_Justice]

I find it fascinating that so many of us enjoy SF as well as erotica. Maybe it’s the escapism involved in both genres?

And I had no idea so many of you had such outstanding taste in reading.

This thread - at least for me - is also a cool book recommendations list.

Regarding the cross-section between SF/Fantasy/Erotica: My reading habits were formed by raiding my dad's bookshelf. I was around 12, 13 when I graduated from my superhero and fantasy comics to his books and the first handful I picked simply by looking at the cover artwork. If it looked like something Marvel, DC or the Belgian-French comics giants had made, I'd give it a whirl. I found Von Lustbader's "Sunset Warrior" series, a smattering of Moorcock's stuff, early GRRM, Zimmer-Bradley in her awful sci-fi phase and a lot of other 70's stuff I should dig out of storage for shits and giggles again. And there was a lot of racy stuff.

Lustbader sticks out, more in his contemporary Asian-influenced thrillers than "Sunset Warrior", but stuff like "Raven, Swordmistress of Chaos" was basically porn with sword'n'sorcery window dressing. Also, before he noticed I was raiding his bookshelves, there were the occasional Playboy-published smut books, but these quickly disappeared as Dad tried to sanitize his collection. That mix has definitely left a mark.

I didn't get into the big names in Sci-Fi too much because I was much too busy reading companion books to the tabletop or role-playing games I played or still play. I already mentioned Battletech, then there was Shadowrun (Cyberpunk, but with elves, orcs, dragons and magic for extra fun), the length and breadth of D&D fluff books and waaaay too many Warhammer 40,000 books to be even remotely healthy. I needed a damn good reason to pick up Richard Morgan's Kovacs books or the Expanse series (which I totally read before the Netflix show came out). Heh, I even pulled Daniel Suarez' "Daemon" from a clearance bin. Thanks to a cool cover, btw.

 

[Javahead]

I find it fascinating that so many of us enjoy SF as well as erotica. Maybe it’s the escapism involved in both genres?

And I had no idea so many of you had such outstanding taste in reading.

Over 90% of the books lining the shelves in my study (and my bedroom, and the guest bedrooms) are science fiction.

As was the first story I wrote for publication when I was in college (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth). Rejected, and rightly so - I cringe recalling it, and don't mourn losing the last copy - but until I started writing online erotica that's where I put any creative impulses I might have.

I figure I owe SF - in particular, RAH, Isaac Asimov, and Poul Anderson - for the shape of my life today. Including my profession, my hobbies, and my family - I met M'lady at a work friend's party.