Not so long ago i started thinking about what stories I enjoyed as books and would like to see made into film.

Well here’s one I would not have dared suggest, due to the dark and hugely complex stories (that, and it’s not finished yet) but of course if you go from film to TV then it might just work:

HBO has acquired the rights to turn George R.R. Martin’s bestselling fantasy series “A Song of Fire & Ice” into a dramatic series to be written and exec produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

“Fire” is the first TV project for Benioff (“Troy”) and Weiss (“Halo”) and will shoot in Europe or New Zealand. Benioff and Weiss will write every episode of each season together save one, which the author (a former TV writer) will script.

The series will begin with the 1996 first book, “A Game of Thrones,“ and the intention is for each novel (they average 1,000 pages each) to fuel a season’s worth of episodes. Martin has nearly finished the fifth installment, but won’t complete the seven-book cycle until 2011.

And as these things go, there’s just been announcement that Stephenson’s “The Diamond Age” is also heading for a TV adaptation. That seems a bigger challenge yet, due to the mix of styles and realities in this book. Although it will be easier to adapt than “Snow Crash”, which I remember enjoying but something also not quite understanding - The Diamon Age is an “easier” book.

This reminds me that I haven’t read his books since “Cryptonomicon” (thoroughly recommended, by the way), I should check out what he’s done.

My wishlists have a strong bias to speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, myth. There is also a smattering of mysteries/detective/spy stories (but rarely the traditional ‘thriller’ I have grown numb to those), contemporary fiction, and world fiction, especially african.

Most of the books that were on the previous wishlist are still wished - I didnt buy them yet. As a result I have left the old wishlist and will only put new books on this one. So if you are looking for more ideas also check the older list here, as any overlap would be accidental.

Note: If this list makes you want to look up any of the books, I have a cute little amazon store with all of the books mentioned, and you can finance my book addiction while snatching a new or used copy of the book. Check it out: UK List | US List

New additions to my wishlist:

Peter Hoeg: The Quiet Girl. From Endicott. Hoeg’s latest is a thoroughly interstitial novel: part literary thriller, part urban fantasy, part post- catastrophe sf, set in near-future Copenhagen and told in rich, labyrinthine prose. This fascinating, atmospheric story may be my favorite of Hoeg’s books since his haunting, best-selling Smilla’s Sense of Snow . (T. Windling)

Stephen Baxter. From Locus: “Weaver (Ace Jul 2008). Fourth and final volume in the history-spanning Time’s Tapestry series following Emperor, Conqueror, and Navigator, this time set during an alternate WWII where Churchill falls from power and Nazis invade England. Previously published in the UK by Gollancz (1/08). “The Time’s Tapestry series evokes the same wondrous questions as the best alternate history tales, and does so on as broad an historical canvas as we’ve ever seen.‘’ [Gary K. Wolfe]“

Ekaterina Sedia, The Alchemy of Stone (Prime Books Jul 2008). From Locus: Literary fantasist Sedia enters steampunk territory with this tale of a sentient clockwork woman caught in a power struggle with alchemists, mechanics, and the gargoyles who once ruled the ducal city of Ayona.

Walter Jon Williams, Implied Spaces (Night Shade Books Jul 2008). From Locus: What seemingly begins as classic high fantasy — complete with a roguish sword-wielding hero, a talking cat, and an army of trolls — soon morphs into a wildly inventive, genre-bashing, post-Singularity tale of pocket universes and high adventure. Williams’s “angle of approach harks back to classic ludenic SF writers like Zelazny and Farmer, whose pocket universes borrowed as much from fantasy as SF.‘’ [Gary K. Wolfe]

And there are more:

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I enjoy a lot what Elizabeth Bear writes, and here is a story available online, a nice twist on a classic theme: The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder. I dont quite click for the rock music setting, whether here or in other books, but it is a nice idea.

One I liked better is shared online: Stella Nova, around Tycho Brahe and Keppler. Of course as a trained physicist with a huge soft spot for science, this is a great topic (incidentally a book has been written this year by a famous french writer which fictionalizes those same characters, I wonder if he read this one)

More about Elizabeth Bear:

The official site, her fiction journal (contains stories and ideas) and her personal journal
She’s also on librarything and frequents several fiction forums,
And of course Shadow Unit, the online episodic fiction which I mentioned before and which deserves support, I think.

I have several books by her on my TBR list, and she has a new book out in a few weeks (in the US, the UK says December) - the first few chapters are available for free online. It looks absolutely fascinating to me, exploring the end of the world from Norse mythology. Will have to get that. Amazon UK | Amazon US