Be Kind to Books!

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels That Deserve Movies

My friend Evan pointed me to a post from Topless Robot on Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels that deserve film adaptations.  I consider this a pretty good post and was quite glad to see several personal favorites on the list, especially Dick’s The Man In the High Castle and Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land (very proud of the second, which is one of my all time favorite books, and landed number one on the list).

I have long been a fan of fantasy and science fiction novels.  As I think I have mentioned before, The Hobbit gets some big credit as being the book that really got me into reading altogether.  I’ve since enjoyed a wide variety of novels from authors of science fiction and fantasy.  It is always neat to view film adaptations of novels that you have enjoyed, though, unfortunately, it seems that all to often they fail to capture the real greatness of the book version of the story (of course their are plenty of exceptions; personally I think the “The Lord of the Rings” movies did a wonderful job). 

Part of the problem that I see with the list from Topless Robot is that while I enjoy a lot of the books included I am not so sure that the stories would ultimately appeal to the wider audiences.  The Man In the High Castle probably would be doable, and I like to think that Stranger in a Strange Land and Snow Crash would be generally appealing to the crowds, but others might just not garner the attention or appreciation that could make for successful movie versions.

Who knows though.  Both Sci-fi and fantasy films have seen relatively more attention in recent years (due largely in part, I believe, because of the quality of computer special effects).  Maybe we’ll hear of some of these being made in the future.

R.I.P. Michael Crichton

Best-selling author Michael Crichton, who authored such well known and popular novels as Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, and Timeline passed away this past Tuesday.  Crichton was 66 years old.

I’ve read a number of Crichton’s books myself including The Lost World, Sphere, and Prey.  Back in 1996, when I was only twelve years old I picked up The Lost World (I had not read Jurassic Park amazingly considering how mush I liked the movie) and absolutely loved it.  I wrote Crichton a letter telling him how much I appreciated his novel.  All I got back was a basic form letter, you know a “Thank you for your comments” kind of thing (a fact that has always irked my father even though I didn’t really mind that much).

Personally I would not list Crichton as an author of great literature but I will give him credit for creating very popular and commercially successful books that have the wonderful ability to truly captivate readers.  Personally I link Crichton as being in a clade with authors like John Grisham, Dean Koontz, and even to a degree Stephen King (though I like King by far the best) in that they have all been very successful at marketing the “pop novel”.  Crichton will be greatly missed but we should all be appreciative of the work he provided to the world.

The New York Times offers its own take on the man who Crichton was.