Far better a TV series than a movie, and the wry nature of 3/4s of the principal cast(s) would make for some glorious black comedy sequences amidst all the spell slinging and civilization decimating.
:Shrugs: It’d take some retooling, but the showrunners would have the benefit of retrospective views on timelines and events, shifting things out of publication order to make it flow better without necessarily changing timeline order.
It’d be a task, but I think it could be made to work well.
Then again, Erikson and Esselmont passed around a script based on the first book for like a decade without any luck, so what do I know?
I think the Black Company recommendation, above, is much more suitable than Malazan, with any major differences between the two being in favor of the Black Company for a series treatment.
I’m also taking a chance of being mocked, but I remember really liking the second book. At the time, and I was 11-12, the battle scenes to me were better than Tolkien’s. They were more specific. There was actual magic in it.
That’s sort of my experience too - I read TLotR when I was 9 or 10 I think, and I enjoyed it even though I think I was too young to get a lot out of it. At 11 or so, I found the Shannara books to be far more accessible and action-oriented. I don’t think I liked them more than Tolkien, but I may have enjoyed them more.
I never did read the Shannara series, but I will say that I enjoyed the heck out of Brooks’ Magic Kingdom for Sale: SOLD series, and I read them as a 30-40 something.
Another series that was a blast to read (but sadly long out of print), as long as we’re talking anachronistic fantasy/sci-fi, is the TimeWars series by Simon Hawke ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TimeWars )–I don’t agree with his reactionary politics, but the guy could definitely spin a hell of a yarn.
I loved those as well. My family has been watching the musketeers, and at least part of my enjoyment is because I have so many positive associations with the three musketeers from those books.
Agreed. Not having seen more than 5 seconds of GoT, I have no idea what the actual standard for TV-based fantasy is, but this looks astonishingly good. Some bad CGI here and there, and of course it’s possible every single actor in the whole thing magically sucks, but I remain hopeful that this particular hackish fantasy translates well!
(Certainly looks leagues better than that fly-by-night Wheel of Time flick that got dumped out at 3AM to wiggle out of a contract expiration)
You guys thought that looked good? Ugh. I thought it looked chintzy on multiple levels.
However, based on that trailer, I’m guessing the acting in this is going to be amazing! Just check out the way Jon Favreau keeps a straight face when he says, “The talent that’s been assembled, the variety of locations, the beautiful backdrop of New Zealand, it really establishes the world of Shanarra Chronicles in a way that separates it from other genre tales.” Because, yeah, none of that makes me think of other “genre tales” like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.
So they take a fantasy book series that’s considered a LotR ripoff and make a TV series filmed in New Zealand. Man doesn’t Jon Favareau have anything better to work on?
Is it a cheap knock off? It’s been a while since I read all the books (I believe I read all of them, I can’t remember). It’s a weird little piece of Science Fiction, but I thought it had plenty of originality to it. Besides, everything is made in New Zealand these days. I don’t think that is much of a knock against it.
I can’t speak to any improvements in the later books, but The Sword of Shannara holds a special place in my memory for being the first time that I, as an undiscerning 12-year-old who happily devoured objectively terrible D&D and Battletech books, finished a book and was offended at how bad it had been. Obviously lots of fantasy borrows ideas from Tolkien, but I remember realizing that in Sword of Shannara, every single character and plot point had a one-to-one correlation with one from Lord of the Rings.
This, exactly. Names are changed, and that’s about it. The Tolkien estate should have sued. The only books that are worse in this regard are the Iron Tower trilogy, which no one should ever read. Don’t get curious as a result of me mentioning it and buy a copy. Please, don’t. The author doesn’t deserve a cent.
