
Prediction for this comment thread . . .
. . . endless whingeing about GoT, little positivity or actual discussion of Nightflyers.
HBO's epic Game of Thrones cycle may be coming to a close, but fans of the books the show is based on can take heart that author George R R Martin (GRRM) is sending another of his works to the tellybox. Variety reports that Nightflyers, GRRM's 1985 short story, has been picked up by the cable channel Syfy, which, in the UK at …
Wasn't Nightflyers already a movie?
I could swear I saw it once ...
To be honest I'd rather someone made a movie from the GRRM short about the human crew who go chasing about creation using an alien star drive called a "Jump Gun". Can't remember the title but it has a great plot with terrifying implications. I believe the story is in the Sandkings collection.
About the only Vampire story I'd get out of bed for today would be GRRM's Fevre Dream. That would be a nice costume spectacle too.
At first I thought this was about that _other_ "Night Flyer" horror, by Stephen King...
Yes. In my town it came out the same week as Princess Bride. Princess Bride ran for a while, Nightflyers was one week and gone.
I wonder if the channel is adapting that story only. GRRM has a lot of stories in that setting (called Thousand Worlds -- hmm, "Sandkings" is part of it, that would make an interesting episode), and I'd like to see a wider adaption.
The only reason GOT got so much notoriety is that HBO is in a position to repeat episodes ad nauseam, just as they used to repeat Z-list movies back when that was their major output, and indeed as other "premium" channels continue to do. Looked at without context, episodes (like the books themselves) are major snoozes. On any other kind of TV outlet the series would have been one and done. The novels seem to appeal to those who confuse weight with worth. Roger Zelazny could get more in one page of narrative than GRRM puts into a chapter.
> "Looked at without context" - what does that even mean?
Well, there's this bunch of people going here, talking there, and occasionally seeing/doing something exciting. I suppose if you've followed the story lines you actually care what's going on, although the need to see the minutiae of riding north escapes me. It's a bit like soap opera: occasionally you come across one that is just so well done that you want to invest in it no matter where you come into the plot, but the average one relies on you knowing and caring about some of the characters, or (more typically) on presenting you with one so outrageous you can't look away.
Kudos to HBO and Liam Cunningham for putting a Geordie character in (assuming anyone at HBO even knows what a Geordie is). Even if Mr. C is Irish.
Well, there's this bunch of people going here, talking there, and occasionally seeing/doing something exciting. I suppose if you've followed the story lines you actually care what's going on, although the need to see the minutiae of riding north escapes me.
I'm sorry but that's just silly - you can't start reading a book at the 6th chapter and then stop at the 7th chapter and then not like the book because you didn't know who any of the characters were and didn't understand what they were talking about. The same goes for a TV serial drama.
You can say it's boring or not a genre you typically like or that the characters are uninspired or you can just not like it for non-specific reasons but this "without context" critique is just the weirdest thing I've ever heard.
The novels seem to appeal to those who confuse weight with worth.
Have to partially disagree. The original three books were excellent. I saw the first episode of GoT on TV, enjoyed it, bought the book and found it far more satisfying the TV adaptation which, IMO, made unforgivable changes to some of the characters. Over the coming weeks I caught up with the series and felt the quality had dropped significantly by the fourth book followed by the release of the fifth book. GRRM had split the story into two parallel time lines in the fourth and fifth books based on geographical location and although I didn't personally have to wait six years to find out what was happening to my favourite characters other readers had to wait almost eleven years. It's now been another seven since the last instalment which ended on a cliff hanger.
So yes, the later books are appalling snooze fests but to give GRRM his due the first three were excellent and I think GoT was commissioned based upon these three. Because Nightfliers was written when GRRM was at his peak it stands every chance of being a good story and most definitely worth giving the first episode (at least) a viewing.
@Not also known as SC
I read the books before the show and agree the first books were better.
I think part of the problem was that GRRM painted himself into a corner. He had so many characters and plotlines going that after the first few books he figured the only way out was to kill off a character every other chapter. Otherwise, it would have ballooned out to an even bigger mess that it is.
"Lord of Light" has been optioned for films and TV several times, but I don't see anything happening in these PC times. Look what happened to "Gods of Egypt". "Nine Princes in Amber" is supposed to be on the brink of production, mainly due to the success of GoT and the "need" for a new major fantasy series. I'll believe it when I see it.
Technically the mix of upvotes and downvotes here is confusing but accurate. GRR himself would likely acknowledge more briliance and talent in 1965/66 Dilvish through 1978 Amber (Corwin series) works of Zelazny than the rest of the top 5, hell, top 10 in the genres he covered put together, not excluding GRR himself in his prime. Sadly, post-Amber/Corwin, his output paled in comparison, not just to himself but to any number of others.
"It would be more heartwarming if he'd just finish the GoT books, which are now lagging well behind the TV shows."
At this point I'm hoping he has some kind of contingency plan in place, a la Robert Jordan with The Wheel of Time, should the common fate of his GoT characters befall him before he finishes the books.
Quite a statement – it has to be better than Seth MacFarlane's The Orville and Black Mirror's dorky Star-Trek-in-a-computer homage, right?
Never seen Black Mirror but The Orville is just dreadful. I've given up on it after just three episodes (in the UK). Can someone in the USA who has seen more episodes tell me if I should make the effort to watch more or have I made the right decision?
@AC
I'll give it another few episodes then. I can see the sci-fi side (which works well) but the 'comedy' aspect - divorced couple arguing loudly while the crew listens, or some reality TV programme to represent 'human' culture in an alien zoo - just falls flat for me. Maybe I'm expecting more traditional Seth?
"She's wasted as Seth's sidekick"
Having watched all the episodes so far I'm not seeing her as a sidekick anymore, just because he's the captain doesn't mean he's the key to the show. It's even been clearly introduced that he wouldn't be captain if it wasn't for her.
I'm genuinely surprised by how good the plot and character development is, it's not a patch on Discovery of course but it's not trying to be the same kind of show.
The problem with The Orville is they can't decide what direction they want to go. Sci-Fi takes a little immersion in the story, and just as they get a good story going they drop into campy sitcom. Like a practical joke of cutting off someone's leg. I suspect that is how it was pitched, to grab the sci-fi audience along with Seth's following. But it seems to fail both genres. Pick a direction and dial the other one back a little. If it wasn't available through streaming I'd have already given up on it.
It depends on who's directing, if it's Jonathan Frakes or Brannon Braga you get something which might not be too dissimilar to a TNG episode, otherwise you could end up with something more like a sitcom.
But the jokes seem to have been toned down as the series progressed. Stick with it.
although if only available through Netflix I might not be able to see it. Will definitely give it a view if I can.
As for SyFy, not everything on there is "assorted trash." 'The Expanse' is incredible, as was their first big space epic 'Farscape.' It's the other 99% of content that give SyFy a bad name...
Writer here (badge doesn't work). The Expanse is amazing, granted, but I watched it on Netflix. Farscape was good too, but I watched it on BBC 2 as a young'un. I associate Syfy with Xena: Warrior Princess-tier stuff, but know that I write these things with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Yes - on a usenet group I inhabit*, we made that observation a long time ago - and whenever something good appeared, we'd therefore anticipate early cancellation.
There are, of course, exceptions that somehow last the distance, but science fiction TV history is littered with good stuff (or stuff that showed a lot of potential) that didn't last.
I hereby raise a glass to some of that stuff.
* I nearly said "used to inhabit" - but I am still subscribed. It's just there are almost never any posts these days.
Yes - on a usenet group I inhabit*, we made that observation a long time ago - and whenever something good appeared, we'd therefore anticipate early cancellation.
They say only the good die young but perhaps what they really mean is if you don't die young you risk growing up into, say, Bono or somesuch horror
What I grew up into-->
science fiction TV history is littered with good stuff (or stuff that showed a lot of potential) that didn't last
Amen to that. 'The 4400' and 'Being Human' are the two that spring immediately to mind whose cancellation saddened me. It's almost not worth mentioning Firefly which is practically a byword for the whole phenomenon.
Exactly four episodes were shown (on an irregular schedule, of course), then the series was cancelled. I used to show the four episodes to my friends via that modern device called the VCR player.
When the boxed set of Wonderfalls came out I was amazed, and bought it immediately.
The weekly Syfy produced movie like Sharknado are what do. And as far as Sharknado, at least it and none of the actors in it take it seriously, making it far better than most of their movies with plots like "a comet knocked the earth's core out of alignment which will cause all life to end in a week, but this group of four intrepid people who include the one person on earth who foresaw it have a plan to re-align it and save everyone".
Sharknado is camp, or at least an attempt at camp, while most of those movies are attempts at actual movies which is frightening. MST3K wouldn't have to look at the back catalog of 50s B movies to return, they could just do an episode every Sunday making fun of whatever Syfy showed the previous night.
The series Syfy develops usually aren't that bad. I only watch a handful of them of course, some fit my taste and some don't, and some are produced on a shoestring budget, but none of them are remotely as terrible as the average made-for-Syfy movie.
Cancelling something is how they advertise the good stuff to non-mainstream audiences.
Can I drop in a mention of Better off Ted and Dead Like Me at this point?
Both sorely missed - and US comedy that I like is rare as hens teeth :-/
I only found out about Wonderfalls (Pushing Daisies with fewer zombies and more weird) because I searched for things that got cancelled early.
Wonderfalls is one of my all-time favorites!
I happened to stumble across one of the episodes when it was being broadcast, and made a point to be home the next week. I think was cancelled a weeks later -- so I bought the DVD set.
"This should be kept in mind for those who believe Americans actually think Sharknado deserved a sequel, or that making one wasn't taking the piss."
Making one sequel for shits'n'giggles... in the immortal words of Jake Blues: okay, I can see that.
But right now we're at Sharknado 5: Global Warming, and counting.
I can't understand how Sharknado gets the money while Dark Matter gets cancelled. Dark Matter was hardly high-concept SciFi but it managed to strike the right balance between cheesy space and ideas like the clone transporter and it was fun to watch.
Sharknado is just bollocks.
I actually liked Ascension. It was a cool idea to start off with. The idea that there could be hundreds of people in a spaceship right now who are the descendants of people who left Earth in the 1960s. Then they ruined it by revealing the truth about the 'space ship'.
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Alastair Reynolds adaptations when?
This x9000, plus Iain M Banks and Peter F Hamilton.
Was at a reading with Banks and Hamilton around the time The Hydrogen Sonata and Great North Road had just been released. During the Q&A, Banks in particular was very hopeful about adaptation doors having been opened by GoT.
I would absolutely *love* to see a talented production team take on the challenge of portraying Hamilton's Prime aliens from Pandora's Star.
The Evidence for the Prosecution ..... https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2018/01/05/dell_data_protection_suite_patched/#c_3387226 ‽ .:-)
GRRM's Victor to amfM's Valiant ? :-) ....... https://www.pinterest.co.uk/agpswcp/victor-valiant-comic-covers/
Capiche, El Regers?
And, although similar in a parallel program, completely different because one is a fantastic fiction for entertainment whereas the other is absolutely fabulous fact with future virtual reality presentations available for global broad band casting and world wide web viewing.
And both coming to theatres near you but with only the one of them one free of charge for your seats to the Spectaculars/Greater IntelAIgent Games Plays.
I Trust in Global Operating Devices that makes thing a great deal clearer whilst also introducing you to NEUKlearer HyperRadioProACTive IT Systems of Future Operation.
And Remarkably Effective Stealth with Rapid Deep Passage and Far Secured Travel into Universal Command and Immaculate Control Structures are Perfectly Guaranteed by Simple Disbelief servering Dogged Doubt.
Things I'd like to see picked up as Mini-Series:
Dragonflight Anne McCaffery
Nova Samuel R Delany
Time for the Stars Robert A Heinlein
Jack of Shadows Roger Zelazny
Forever War Joe Haldeman
Mars Ben Bova
Ringworld Larry Niven
Babel-17 Samuel R Delany
Lord of Light Roger Zelazny (Greatest movie-style ending ever)
Rendezvous with Rama Arthur C Clarke. (There be sequels.)
Nine Princes in Amber Roger Zelazny (and the four "Corwin" sequels)
Heliconia Spring, Summer, Winter Brian Aldiss
Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers Harry Harrison (too clever to ever be done, really)
West of Eden Harry Harrison (two sequels)
The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury (A decent faithful remake please)
"Rendezvous with Rama Arthur C Clarke. (There be sequels.)"
A thousand times yes!
Also: Lucifer's Hammer (Niven & Pournelle) - it's a big old book IIRC, so would probably work as a mini series.
Another I'd like to throw into the list of possibilities is a trilogy, of which I've only read books 1 and 3: The Trigon Disunity (Michael P Kube McDowell).
Mostly agree with that list. Would like to append:
The Lankhmar novels of Fritz Leiber
The Dumarest Saga by E.C.Tubb
Battle Circle trilogy by Piers Anthony
Cities in Flight quadrilogy by James Blish
Plenty of scope in the first three of the above for the fighting and bonking that attracts many to GoT, backed up by some good SF.
The Lankhmar novels of Fritz Leiber
Oh please, no. They were tedious enough to try and read (and as a 12-year old in the '70s I read pretty much anything I could get my hands on, thanks to a very understanding librarian in our local library..) so I don't imagine that they would translate well to film.
Cities in Flight quadrilogy by James Blish
That, however, could be really, really good - especially as we now have the CGI capabilities needed to do it justice.
In '84 I came to the USA and rented a furnished apartment. One of the books in the bookcase was an omnibus collection of Cities in Flight etc. I'd read them before, but welcomed the chance for a re-read.
On returning to the UK for Xmas, the first commercial I saw on the telly was the one for British Airways (I think) in which Manhattan and its bedrock fly across the screen with roaring "engine noises".
No-one said "Cities in Flight", "Spindizzy" or "James Blish", but it was of obvious provenance to those who read the stories.
Made my year.
"Forever War Joe Haldeman"
I think that has been in some sort of preproduction hell for years with Ridley Scott attached at some point.
Need not bother with the Forever sequels though...
I've read many books with thinking how great a movie would be but some have just so complex concepts for the common movie going people to swallow that the films would need too much explained and that would just ruin the film. Vernor Vinge's Realtime or Zone book series were brilliant stuff but I can't see how they could be filmed - the former has timespan of millions of years and the latter has alien point of views which was fun to read but probably just too...alien for the masses.
Dragonflight Anne McCaffery
They would just turn it into some low-budget carp for the "ooohhh.. dragons" teen crowd and miss the whole point. (Yes - that series was one of my favourites (along with the Darkover books) when I was much, much younger than I am now..)
Forever War Joe Haldeman They would just do the same thing as they did with Starship Troopers - turn a book that portrays the waste and futility of war into a gorefest with lots of gratuitous explosions.
Heliconia Spring, Summer, Winter Brian Aldiss One of the more unreadable of Brians series :-(
As you can see, I'm full of the positive joys of the New Year today. Either that or I'm fully aware of how badly the 'Entertainment' industry will screw up some really, really good books.
(And if I thought they would do a good job (hah!), I'd nominate the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. Not bad considering he steals plotlines wholesale from the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.. Likewise, the Miles Vorkosigan books by M Bujold - really, really good sci-fi and extremely well-written. Which doubtless would be screwed up by being made as "GoT in Spaaaace")
I'm actually really enjoying The Orville, its very much like a modern version of the original Star Trek, turning many of todays views on its head and viewed through a futuristic eye.
The captain & first officer plot is an interesting distraction that will develop as the show matures, as do the other characters. I think we know more about more characters in Orville than we ever did in Star Trek of any generation.
Orville will be getting more scifi less family guy jokes
https://www.avclub.com/seth-macfarlane-says-the-orvilles-second-season-will-be-1821792442
Riker directed an episode too
https://trekmovie.com/2018/01/04/jonathan-frakes-contrasts-directing-the-orville-and-star-trek-discovery/
One of the best written and scariest things he's written was a novelette called Sandkings, originally published in Omni magazine. It won Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards at the time.
It was adapted into a one hour, single episode "for TV" show but that was done on the cheap and severely cut down.
It would be an excellent candidate for expansion into a movie, albeit with some small script adjustment for the unending bleakness, lack of any likeable characters and "everybody dies" ending.
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I, greatly, enjoyed
The Myth Adventures series by Robert Asprin
http://mythadventures.net/myth-adventures-chronology/
Thieves' World anthology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thieves%27_World
I would have read whichever of those was in print before about 1990 and greatly enjoyed them. I think either series could make an interesting TV series, but like any other set of books that one's enjoyed it'd be important that it wasn't done on the cheap and ruined just by that. Although, with proper script writing a series can start out with minimal expenditure as I think Red Dwarf did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dwarf
This sounds interesting - I love aliens / scifi, especially when it's laced with spooky mysterious happenings. I hope they can stand to reveal things slowly (Alien / Babylon 5 / Signs) rather than sparf everything out up front in the trailer.
What I'd love to know is, when will some of Iain M Banks' wonderful books make it onto our screens. I bet Netflix could do a great 8 / 10 part serial of Player of Games, for example.
I was going to say the same. I've been reading GRRM for a while (I read the original short story of "Sandkings" when it was published in Omni, a few centuries ago), but Tuf Voyaging remains my favorite of his. It's a solid fix-up and the first story in particular is very cinematic.
And because it's a fix-up, it would be easy for new viewers to start watching at any point.
I think everyone has their fav series they'd like to see done.
Clark's Rama series has been in development hell for about 40yr. I think I read last that Morgan Freeman of all people holds the rights at the moment.
I'd always wanted Richard Margan's Takashi Kovacks trilogy to get made and I found out in this very forum that Netflix is doing it. Now I'm scared about what an arse they could make of it.
I'd also like to see some of Neal Asher's Polity stuff done. It's quite visual anyway.
I'd always wanted Richard Margan's Takashi Kovacks trilogy to get made and I found
Likewise with Bernard Cornwell. I much enjoyed his "Last Kingdom" series and was quite nervous about the BBC production. Fortunately, while it does lack a little on the dialogue front, it does a very, very good job of showing both the series of books and the time period that it's set in.
Even if they do insist on all the Viking characters wearing too much eye makeup..