4 incredibly difficult to adapt fantasy books

[@hunacean]

Unrelated to the video, but you have been cooking this year with the content, both on your channel and with the guest appearances, and we really appreciate it! Bookborn watchers eating good in 2024.

[@Bookborn]

Thank you 🙏 🥹

[@jacobbrooks7390]

I think a Stormlight Archive adaptation with a Studio Ghibli esque animation style would be beautiful but I feel like it would have to be a TV show and not a movie to be able cover all of the content. Really excited for Wind and Truth!

[@Karl.Zimmerman]

I feel like if Malazan was to be adapted, it should be as an animated series. Honestly, this would be a great way to depict the warrens - have the animation style change depending upon the warren in question. Even if the show was otherwise live action, I'd want the warrens animated. I know that Erikson has his own theories on how to adapt Malazan, though. He wants to have a team of three directors who separately handle the Genebackis, Seven Cities, and Letherii stories, with them all coming together MCU style at the end.

[@Zudovader]

And he also thinks the movies should come out in very quick succession as opposed to years between releases. If I remember right it was like 2 or 3 movies a year.

[@neutral_narr]

Even then a lot will be lost. It's just a tough series to adapt.

[@chadwhitfield6946]

It's tough. Half the marines have access to warrens. The CGI would be stupid. I honestly used to think a high-quality anime would be the best way to do WOT. I still think that. Lol

[@AmeriMutt76]

It could be one hell of an MMORPG too. Just give CD PROJEKT RED an unlimited budget and 10-12 years...

[@prolifik5]

Can't even imagine The Blade Itself without "body found floating by the docks"

[@thejason347]

He can mumble it.

[@sramspoker]

My spicy take is, for all the length of the storm light books, the story itself could actually be shaved down to a solid 3 hour movie per book

[@anotherpawn]

You read my mind with the Stormlight Archive/One Piece comparison. The spren would look ridiculous in live action, but the fact that they were able to adapt the Den Den Mushi (snail phones) into live action and make them feel like an organic part of the world shows that with the right vision, anything can work. As long as it's taken seriously, it doesn't matter if it looks a bit silly because viewers will adapt when they see that it's a normal part of the world. Just DON'T have a character say, "I guess that happened," or write dialogue that pokes fun at it, because then it will feel like the story itself isn't fully committed to its own world.

[@Bookborn]

YES. one thing I noticed immediately about one piece is that they were earnest about their material. Nobody was embarrassed of it or trying to explain it away, which is why the absurdity worked. The person adapting can’t be apologizing for the work!

[@tel.obsidion]

I like that One Piece just embraced its source materials eccentricities rather than feel the need to adapt them away.

[@micaelagonzalez71]

I haven't read First Law yet, but what you said about the internal monologue being different to what they say/how they act reminded me of Dexter and how well the voice-over worked there. It can be done, but it has to be done perfectly.

[@adammoynihan2589]

I also think the Farseer Trilogy would be incredibly difficult to adapt faithfully because it would have to be like five hours of Fitz just going about his business in Buckkeep and this pacing would never fly with a mainstream audience.

[@Bookborn]

I can’t believe I didn’t think of this one 😅 def would have to be a lot of changes and it might not feel like Farseer anymore

[@Anavrin9]

I came to the comments to say this. 100% agree. I think the Liveship Traders would work as an adaptation, though.

[@harvellt]

"The Quantum Thief" by Hannu Rajaniemi. Some amazing imagery that would make amazing CGI, but so many concepts I can't imagine how to visually represent.

[@damonenfurst6662]

One thing I always think about as a hurdle for any Stormlight Adaptation, whether live action or animated, which I don't see discussed a lot, are the rhythms. Sure, that won't be super relevant at the beginning, but I can't imagine how to pull that off and make it sound okay, and removing them takes a massive and important part out of any plotline with singers.

[@Bookborn]

Theyll probably have to make it more musical in the words then like real rhythms. Like Spren, this seems something difficult to not make cheesy. Would def take a deft hand

[@kendershot]

When Sanderson was doing a video review of the WoT finale, he said something like "When they approach me for Stormlight Archives, it's going to have to be ten episodes."

[@themangaculture]

Did he mean ten episodes per book?

[@kendershot]

@@themangaculture Per book/season. They were talking about how WoT season 2 was rushed and needed more time to tell the story and that eight episodes wasn't enough.

[@MisterSketch4]

I think he actually just said “I’m not doing it in six or eight episodes”. I personally think each Stormlight book should be more like twelve to fifteen episodes.

[@ZlothZloth]

I don't suppose we could make each of those episodes about four hours long? We should be able to get almost all of the books that way and still have time for plenty of fly-through landscape shots.

[@JL-nb1yc]

I would say at least 12 episodes per book.

[@MayhapsYes]

The one series I wish they would adapt is Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard series, aka The Lies of Lock Lamora. It would make for a great movie/TV series.

[@andreassundberg9426]

I doubt we need everyone from Bridge 4. I have a hard time remember everyone when I read stormligt archive 😅 Those that I think are important are Moash, Teft, Rock and Lopen. Maybe Sigzil too. Edit:How could I forget Shen 😱

[@TRYCLOPS1]

Lopen has to be a chicano dude!

[@donaldcatanzaro5318]

First Law wouldn't be hard if Ryan Reynolds was in it - he could totally do Gloka's internal monolog. Iain Glen would be awesome as Logen Ninefingers.

[@ravenwilder4099]

Re: adapting spren: The problem I see isn't necessarily that they'd be cheesy, but that it wouldn't be readily apparent what the spren even are. In the books, we have the narration referring to them as windspren or painspren or gloryspren or whatehaveyou, but just by looking at a spren you wouldn't necessarily be able to tell what the spren is supposed to be responding to, so it'd just look like random thing appearing.

[@Bookborn]

Ok SUCH a good point. There would have to be commentary for a while to get people used to it. That’s why I suspect they’d probably get rid of most Spren the way we think of it.

[@christianrapper]

That would be easy to explain. Just have someone explain it. I think that a lot of the emotional spren would have to be left out. That would look dumb in live action. It would be like a Disney cartoon or something. You can’t have spren popping up every 5 minutes.

[@vivamortua]

I've always thought the spren should be explained in the opening credits, kinda of like how the opening credits of X-Men the Animated Series showed the main team members along with their names and powers

[@YouWinILose]

Neat! Just FYI, Erikson and Esselmont wrote at least 2 screenplays. One was the Chain of Dogs 😉 I agree about not needing adaptations, having seen so many fail miserably. But then someone like Villeneuve comes along and makes me dream...

[@Bookborn]

haha I actually thought if you just removed chain of dogs, it would probably be a pretty successful movie. It wouldn't even necessarily need to be fantasy, that just feels like a pretty classic story that would do well

[@jonathanyaloussa]

I think you'd need someone who's as deeply in love with the world of Malazan as Peter Jackson was with the LotR. Villeneuve excels at visual storytelling; it's his writing that I'm worried about. Having seen how much complexity is lost in Villeneuve's DUNE, I'd be extremely cautious.

[@Shapeology]

I was always envisioning the different spren showing just briefly as the main characters move around or interact with the world and then slowly fade away. Kinda like the Kodama spirits from Princess Mononoke. They don't have to be present all the time, they can just be hinted at their existence. Malazan is impossible. Everything in the books is so metaphysical and hard to wrap your head around. Many concepts are super abstract, kinda like a mythology. Then you've got massive battles, destruction of continents, a flying fortress, dragons, interdimensional travelling, gods interfering in various ways. Just a single episode would require astronomical budget and no one would risk it for such a niche series.

[@evansimon1065]

I think that if you make stormlight animated it could work. I could see the human characters be 3D and the Spren being 2D. I’m far from the first to say this but Stormlight done in the Arcane or into the spiderverse style would be perfect.

[@CodyDrake-l5v]

I think they could do Glokta if they casted his internal voice as another character/hallucination. It could be the handsome "Colonel Glokta" that has all the quips/monologues and only Glokta could see him. It might be cheesy, but its the only way I could see an adaption doing it.

[@Ylyrra]

Internal monologue can be transferred to the screen by externalising it to an inner circle of trusted companions, and contrasting it to the external presentation outside the group. Like the idea of having Malazan: Miami, and Malazan: Hawaii style approaches,

[@morbidgirl6808]

In my opinion, The First Law can be easily made as a tv show live action adaption but needs some mental visualizations too like flashbacks but instead of flashbacks, there could be image flashes representing inner monologues. Yes, acting matters too. As for the Stormlight Archives, I think the animated show is the best option like Arcane, Castlevania, Blood of Zeus or Twilight of the Gods. I believe there has to be 8-10 eps each season but for anime, it can be made into 25 eps if they choose the Japanese production team instead. Berserk, Vinland Saga, Claymore, Dororo, Ergo Proxy, etc. proved that Stormlight Archives can be adapted into "Japanese" anime. Mistborn era1 can be made as live action movies but it has to be at least 2-3 hours long each film or maybe divide the Hero of Ages into 2 parts just like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Mistborn era 2 is the easiest material for movie adaptation in my eyes. Malazan is literally impossible to adapt. No doubts. I don't think movies will work considering how dense it is. Tv shows adaption would take too long to film even if there's enough eps. I don't think casts will be comfortable with it or might become too old to play as their characters. Again, animated adaptations would also take too long.

[@ChemSynth]

After watching Arcane I just feel like Sanderson's Cosmere, especially Stormlight, would work best with animation. I know having Fortiche level animation is calling for an insane budget and usually unheard of (at least until Riot did it), but it would be so cool for Stormlight or Mistborn to have high quality animation similar to that. Yeah live action probably has a wider audience and some people feel that animation is for younger audiences (which is NOT true at all), but just can't help imagining how good the Cosmere might be with high quality animated TV shows. Just my thoughts on the matter. edit: words

[@Andre-xl2oe]

Malazan has been relationships for me. Erikson has said that he does not necessarily want a adaptation, but would want a series where the family Paran would be the main characters.

[@alynam82]

I was reading Malazan a few years ago, thinking that even if they couldn't adapt the novels, they could treat like a StarWars universe and make original story shows specifically for screen (with Erikson heavily involved, of course)

[@plainbrad]

This is the first time I have heard that This is How You Lose the Time War had split reviews. It's one of my favorite books/novellas. I went to goodreads to see and sure enough - mixed reviews. i'm absolutely shocked.

[@Bookborn]

I was too 🤣 it was one of my top 5 books of the year the year I read it, but I wasn’t super in the community at the time. Since so many people have told me they hated the book or thought it was boring. I was devastated and surprised! I loved it haha

[@tysonmoore7319]

My first time hearing not everyone in the world loved it, because to me it's a perfect book 😂

[@gordontheobald]

Inner monologue characters sometimes work on screen if they’re given someone to voice that monologue to: a ghost, imaginary friend, Dr Who’s apprentice, and so on. (edit: typos)

[@clownpendotfart]

I was recently watching a different KZbin video (that I can no longer find) on the most difficult to adapt books (House of Leaves being the #1 or #2 example), and as I was reading Milorad Pavic's "Dictionary of the Khazars" I suggested the format of that would make it particularly unsuitable. Then I read on the wikipedia article for the book that it had actually been adapted as a ballet in Serbia (where the book was written). It also happens to be the case that the most recent movie I watched is Guy Maddin's "Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary", which is a ballet he's transformed into a silent film, but I really can't imagine how one renders a text about texts into such a different medium.

[@ciaranirvine]

Malazan could possibly work as a sort of MCU or Star Wars style of short TV series exploring different parts of the world. I'd love to just see a 6/8-episode TV adaptation of the Chain of Dogs, for example. You would have to change things around a LOT to eventually built to some sort of Endgame-style finale though. I don't think it'll ever happen tbh, but a few short series and a movie or two set in the Malazan world is possibly do-able. First Law should be pretty straightforward, though I'm not sure a live adaptation would really work as so much of the charm of the books is really in Logen, Jezel and Glokta's internal dialogues. You have to be realistic about these things :) Stormlight would be the hardest IMO simply because Roshar is just so alien. Never mind the spren problem, the whole world is very weird compared to Earth, you would just lose the general audience with constantly having to have exposition dumps.

[@booktubeadvocate]

For Stormlight, I don’t think there’s a way to do a 100% faithful adaptation. The One Piece adaptation is definitely not faithful to the source material, but I think you could make Stormlight 80% faithful if it were animated. It would be easier to animate the spren, high storms and magic than it would be to use CGI, in my opinion. Anyway, appreciate your video!

[@libraryofaviking]

Fun video. Malazan is always the one that comes first to mind. It is impossible to faithfully adapt it but it would be possible if you simplified the plot. I would LOVE to see Dandelion Dynasty adapted as well but also think that would be a challenge.

[@Bookborn]

I almost put dandelion on my list but then I cut it because on reflection I don’t think Grace is kings would be difficult! I think it could all be done, Just cut down, like any series that gets an adaptation haha

[@myself2noone]

Really? The first Malazan book already feels like someone describing a movie to me already. It's partly why I don't like it much.

[@MultiWar22]

About Malazan, it's funny that the first draft of Gardens of the Moon was actually a movie script. It was significantly smaller and simpler IIRC, but I still find it funny that they went from movie script to unadaptable. And I think Steven Erikson has said how he'd like an adaptation of Book of the Fallen to be done, and it was basically completely different. Scrap most POVs (not the characters, necessarily), focus on one specific character from the beginning and follow from there (he did say which character, I'm omitting it just in case someone considers it a spoiler, but I think it's not surprising for the people that have read the entire series)

[@Jacob-gm4hq]

Maybe it goes without saying but the First Law would have to be a TV series. On one hand, I'd love if they did some testing of techniques and brainstormed how to incorporate internal dialogue in a way that doesn't feel cheesy... on the other hand, Game of Thrones comes from a book that similarly adapts a story where internal dialogue is important and managed to do a good job (for at least the first 4 seasons) so maybe there are lessons to take from that which can be applied to a First Law series.

[@Zsolty0495]

Definitely agreed regarding Malazan, it'd be almost impossible to adapt it in a satisfying way, it's just so huge and complicated. Some things seem to happen randomly without explanation, so even while reading it you often don't get half of it lol. Hard disagree regarding SA, however. Although they're huge books, I feel like the cast of relevant characters is much smaller (relative to the books' length/size) - that's already really helpful imo (just compare it to ASOIAF or WoT for example). Of course, we'd need a sufficient number of episodes per season and a huge budget, but that's a different matter. The spren issue may be valid, but I'm sure an agreeable solution could be found, I don't think that's the biggest blocker honestly.

[@tkinsey3]

While I totally agree on the others, I was about to really push back on First Law, because IMHO it has everything you WANT for an adaption - not a ton of epic action, amazing characters, INCREDIBLE dialogue, and tons of surprising plot twists. That said - you are totally right about the internal dialogue of that specific character. That would be a big hurdle.

[@Kepha04]

Haven't read Malazan, but from what I've heard of the books one of the biggest issues would be the scheduling of all the different actors.

[@shredder11977]

Totally agree that long form premium television is the ideal format for adapting epic fantasy. I mostly am nervous about any of the series you mentioned getting adapted because we've seen how wrong it can go and how little showrunners can care about source material (thinking of the Witcher). To your point about multiple locations being a hurdle, sense8 got famously cancelled for that exact reason, was just too expensive apparently.

[@jaishans]

I'm totally on team anime for stormlight. But after Mistborn movie. We need the hype and the money.

[@themangaculture]

If Stormlight gets an anime I'll be curious to how the Japanese recieve it

[@Fuzzyfoot88]

For Stormlight, I personally think that your point is something that I personally have always felt working in the industry for many years. When it is in the right hands and done with a certain respect for the source, live action IS the best way to experience something because it's real, its there, you can see it and deep down you know that you 'could' be there one day. Lord of the Rings, Willow, James Cameron's Avatar, Game of Thrones, all prove that it can be done on a grand scale in terms of world building, characters, and epic stories. TV show absolutely, but for me Live Action would be the peak of filmmaking for anything in Sanderson's work, and if it is done that way and it works, it'll be considered one of the greatest if not THE greatest.

[@Florfilm]

I love This Is How You Lose The Time War. One of my favorites I read last year.

[@pixireads]

I think adaptations in general are hard, because people want them to match the book while also being new or somehow different. I remember years ago when the Eragon movie came out, and I was super excited because I had loved the book. I worked at the movie theatres and would ask people exiting the theatres how the movie was and pretty much everyone said it wasn't worth seeing because it matched the book. Conversely, I watched Ready Player One after checking it out from my library. It barely matched the book and I was so upset with it and I realized why I hadn't heard a lot about the movie. There seems to be a happy medium that is hard to achieve.

[@silverharloe]

off topic observation: No points will be awarded for guessing what Bookborn will be reading the next three days and what next week's video will be. (I am so hyped today)

[@Bookborn]

hehehehe

[@daniel56149]

For Stormlight i think you could just have the spren appear very subtle and not all the time (except for the major ones ofc) If someone is scared, you can just have them emitt smoke for a moment that turns into whatever the fear spren look like, just a little effect and then have people talk about that

[@Bookborn]

Yeah, it *could* be done, I think it would just take the right hand

[@sanjalok4743]

After watching how well Arcane was adapted from the League of Legends game lore, I'd want more adaptations to be animated especially in the Fortiche style. They did the character body language and facial expressions so believable and storytelling was so on point that sometimes I thought I was watching live action. Also would like know your thoughts about Arcane. Even if you don't know anything about the game, just treating it as a novel, what do you think about the character development, plot, visual storytelling etc.? Came to your channel because of Sword of Kaigen & subscribed because of all the interesting topics like this one that you discuss. Thanks 🙏

[@jamesrochester2459]

Prince of Nothing would be pretty hard to adapt. A character like Anasûrimbor Kellhus, who's meant to be such a charismatic manipulative genius he's capable of making almost anyone instantly enthralled by him just with his tone of voice and mannerisms, only works if you need to imagine what that level of charisma is like. On screen, you'd never buy it.

[@caradine898]

I just cannot imagine Roshar without spren-especially since they play an increasingly more central role the longer the books go on. The other problem is kaladin thinking Syl is just a weird windspren. She would stand out a lot more without that broader spren normalization. I dearly hope for an animation. I think it would be a lot more interesting and beautiful if they go that route.

[@eylonaharon6560]

The only way to adapt stormlight is with a high badget animated series

[@destro6971]

Animated is definitely the way to go. It’s all so big and so weird trying to thread the needle of budget and quality to go live action would probably just fizzle.

[@dlasis]

I agree on all the points you said about Malazan being unadaptable. It’s more metaphysical and lots of withheld information that needs to be re-written for screen media. Plus the props and costumes would be a nightmare to create. And no. You’re not getting cancelled for forgetting the name of Coltiane. 😅 One book that I could think of being unadaptable is Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

[@Maria-fm5no]

the only reason i want addaptations of my favourite books is so that i can experience the stories I love and mean so much to me with the non-readers in my life. I explained part of the cosmere to my dad one afternoon and he was so invested (pun intended) but he's not much of a reader but he loves sci-fi and fantasy movies so I hope we can experience the cosmere together through a future adaptation.

[@N.A.Summur]

Stormlight needing to be an anime is definitely something I’ve seen a lot. I do think it lends itself to anime really well. But, I think we could be surprised! I haven’t read the rest on the list yet… First Law was recently purchased and on the shelf. And Malazan is high on the TBR. Can’t wait to check them out! But the TBR is massive! lol

[@TheDJ42]

I think a Stormlight Archive adaptation as an animated TV show would be good, but if they could pull off a well done live action TV adaptation of the Stormlight Archive I think it would become a generation defining TV Property.

[@imattyyy]

I have a better question: who woud they cast as Rock and why is it gonna be The Rock?

[@bookreader934]

I'm super curious about the impact the success or failure of the new War of the Rohirrim will have on a potentially similar Stormlight Archives adaptation

[@happycroissant2]

I feel like Time War would be best adapted as an animated short film in the style of Love, Death, Robots. Could be beautifully done in the right hands. Though I’m with Bookborn in that I definitely don’t need my favorite books to be adapted!

[@Bookborn]

Ok love the idea of it being a short. Then you could go for all vibes like the book!

[@liamblake1614]

Woukd kill for a Stormlight adaptation done in the hyper realistic animation style seen in certain episodes of Love Death & Robots.

[@vickilou1998]

My partner and I have always said that if they ever make a Stormlight adaptation it would have to be animated and definitely a tv show.

[@gizzardgizzard3583]

I feel like budget constraints are the biggest hurdle any fantasy adaptation has to face everything else is secondary.

[@Jay-yr9oi]

One series I'd love seeing adapted would be Marlon James' Dark Star Trilogy (ideally after book 3 comes out). I don't think it would be too hard to adapt from a making it standpoint, but the nature of it could be tough to sell. For starters, it's a very pan-African world, which makes it a bit harder to market and would risk opening things to a lot of backlash (and, that's not getting into the LGBTQ aspects). However, one big issue is that each book largely tells the same story, but from a different character's POV, playing with the concept of unreliable narrators and having to piece together the truth. it would also probably work better as a show than a movie, just do to the episodic nature of the books, and I'm worried that whoever adapted it would try to just tell it as one single narrative, rather than re-telling the story each season from a different POV. However, it's a super fun story, that plays with different genres, with the first one being your standard odyssey adventure fantasy novel with some grimdark elements, book 2 leaning more into worldbuilding and magical realism, and supposedly book 3 planned to lean heavily into the horror aspects. You have cool but not totally explained magic systems, creatures and characters taken from traditions not often seen in more common fantasy traditions, interesting characters, and a fun narrative that I think could be made into a very fun show of 3 seasons with 6-10 episodes. The one thing that does give me hope is that Michael B. Jordan and his production company supposedly purchased the rights in 2019, after book 1 came out. However, I still feel the unconventional narration style and marketing aspects make it a hard sell for this to become an adaptation (also, if you like GoT, there's definitely some inspirations from that series James pulled from, though saying more than that would be some heavy spoilers).

[@HeavyTopspin]

The seeming need for 'live action" is where this fails. As other people have commented, an adult animation in the vein of Arcane, Studio Ghbili, or the top Japanese animation studios would e ale to do this far better than a bunch of actors trying to physically fill the roles. Animation could ensure that characters look like they should (they gave us a handsome Tyrion Lannister, you know they'd also give us a handsome Glokta, and I can't imagine any living human properly portraying Logen Ninefingers). As for the internal monologue, that is far more accepted in animation, and is actually done really well in the anime of Mushoku Tensei (and to a lesser degree Overlord), where a character's inner dialog is literally a different voice actor - this would utterly fit Glokta.

[@malysrobert1014]

For Time War I've always imagined it animated with lots of landscapes and world details in each setting. Very stylized.

[@titans1fan93]

With first law, Stormlight, and Malazan one thing that would help for any live action adaptation is that the author is still alive. I feel like when the author has passed away (like Robert Jordan) it’s much tougher chance of being adapted good. It’s all on the show runners. Brandon I know for example even said he wants to be able to override any choice. I know Abercrombie wrote the script for the best served cold adaptation. So that’s always given me hope.

[@Bookborn]

Never forget Eragon 🕊it honestly just depends how much the studio is willing to listen to the author. Sanderson, as he's said himself, has the ability to do so because he "doesn't care about Hollywoods money" (That was on a live of his). Many authors probably aren't in that same position and may take deals with the hopes it would turn out well but then they aren't listened to. I think a lot of it is luck. I'm sooo glad Abercrombie wrote the script for BSC tho - he's such a good dialogue writer.

[@titans1fan93]

@Fair point. Most authors don’t have that power. And I have tried to complete wipe the Eragon adaptation from my mind. Thanks a lot for the reminder bookborn 😂

[@mattkean1128]

This is one of those things I really enjoy daydreaming about. The broad appeal really of the limitation.

[@darrickdean1849]

I don't need adaptations (been burned by many, like Shannara), but when done by people who care about the author's creation (like the Middle Earth films), they can be great. The three "Great Tales" ( Beren and Lúthien, The Fall of Gondolin, and The Children of Húrin) that Tolkien's son completed would be spectacular on film.

[@destro6971]

Regarding combining or changing characters to streamline the number of POVs/etc, hire everyone involved with The Expanse (writers and actors included).The script treatment for Camino Drummer and Klaes Ashford were hugely divergent from the books but just shined on screen. Beltalowda!!!

[@orkosubmarine]

I remember Brandon saying in one of his videos? interviews? that he didn't think animation would be a good choice for Stormlight, but I really think an anime would be gorgeous! Live action Stormlight could never 👀

[@jameselsender]

I feel like some of Abercrombie's battle sequences where he pings around the battlefield from one character to another were almost written specifically, crying out to be lifted directly and played out on screen. For me, I got some of the strongest mental images in those books and from those sequences. I did listen to the audiobooks rather than literally read them so that may have affected my experience of it.

[@xhyakki]

Definitely. I think a tv series could tell the First Law story very well, maybe with movies or spinoffs for the Heroes, Best Served Cold, and Red Country. Or even adapt them into the same story, since a lot of characters cross over. I agree that a lot of his writing can be really easily visualized. The hardest part would be casting and dealing with the sheer amount of inner dialogue

[@stevenburton7725]

The First Law could be adapted as a long form show. It would likely take about 30 episodes per book, and lose a lot of internal dialogue, but it could be done. Sadly, a lot of Abercrombie’s wordplay would be lost in the adaptation, but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen.

[@sousou5926]

This is how you lose the time war is such a romantic piece of art. I think this book can be easily adapted into a movie. Make it with lots of epic scenery, action-packed fighting, super cool sci-fi art setting, epic emotional soundtrack and some down-to-earth heartbreaking romance. (OK this sounds very very expensive, maybe it is hard to adapt😂)

[@Jay-yr9oi]

I know you are saying you aren't factoring in CGI since, in theory, it can most do anything and money is just a cost. However, I remember seeing an interview with Brandon Sanderson a few years back where he was talking about adapting Stormlight Archives and why it hasn't happened, and the big thing for him was just that. Specifically as it applied to spren, it would be nearly impossible to do, even with high quality CGI, within a remotely reasonable budget and have them the way he would find acceptable.

[@RedFuryBooks]

Your hot take at the end is related to mine: I actually would prefer to NOT see an adaptation of my favorite books. Mostly because there have been so many horrendous ones in recent years, I'd rather my favorite books not be destroyed like that. (Even if if admittedly it's likely that more people would read the books).

[@thebishna]

Another crazy thing about Stormlight is that you just can't film outdoors basically. Ya spren will be hard to get right, but you also have to edit out every chicken(bird) and shoot around trees and plants or edit them into ones that exist in Roshar. Everything in that world is alien on purpose. I think it will happen eventually and hope that it will retain all that alienness as thats part of what makes that world amazing.

[@tysonmoore7319]

I think the only way to properly do spren in Sanderson's novel would be to make it into an anime and send it to studio ghibli. They do small magic voiceless creatures perfectly

[@braydonwirth5487]

What I want to know is how they would do the rhythms in storm light without it being super weird

[@Luke-jo4to]

Well apparently, a song of ice and fire

[@Bookborn]

Hmmm not true though. It was adapted very well until they ran out of books, at least according to most people. So it could be adapted well… someone other than George wasn’t good at *writing* it though

[@justink5000]

​@@Bookborn technicallyyy... They didn't even adapt most of Feast & Dance. These books had material to cover several seasons. There are several theories as to why: either they didn't want to lean into the weirder aspects of Asoiaf and stick more to the classical fantasy stuff. Or: they had been offered to be showrunners for some Stat Wars adaptation and wanted to rush through to get rid of GoT. Ironically, they didn't get Star Wars because they fumbled GoT

[@Anavrin9]

GOT also failed from the get-go at adapting the magical aspects of ASOIAF. They excelled at the political intrigue and character development (more or less: I still think show Jon Snow is poorly written.) but the elements of magic and prophecy were lacking or non-existent...... and their design for the Others is terrible.

[@arthur99mun]

@@Bookborn Not really though... that was a problem but not the main problem. you havent seen GOT right?

[@Luke-jo4to]

@@Bookborn If the book series remains unfinished then I'd argue that the series is by definition unadaptable. Also the "they ran out of books" line is just cope from hurt fans honestly. It's a partially true oversimplification. Dan and Dave didn't like Feast or Dance, so they didn't really adapt those books. Season 5 and 6 are ok TV, but they're a terrible adaptation.

[@francb1634]

I've tried writing a plot breakdown for an HBO style Malazan series and yeah you do have to drop like over 90% of the content right off the top. mine was solely focused on the Chain of Dogs/Bonehunters.

[@ezrider1968]

More and more, I tend to agree that I’m not really interested in adaptations anymore. Like you said about Time War, a lot of my favorite aspects of books I love are directly tied to the medium itself. Not to say my favorite books couldn’t be adapted well. They’d just be something else that I don’t really want. Which is fine.

[@Tyronekong]

I can see The Stormlight Archive being done by the same team behind Castlevania anime on netflix. The world and characters would be too complex to turn into a live action.

[@johnsonasiziba5172]

I bet the stormlight archive would work better in animation

[@austinr4405]

I feel like they could adapt the first law trilogy to around 16 hour-long episodes. 5 each for the first two and 6 for LAOK. The first few episodes could be a bit of a slow burn, but would have to be captivating with the character dialogues and occasional visceral action sequence and bread crumbing the world building.

[@genghisgalahad8465]

This totally appeals to my ego of wanting to have read a book that's not your "now on netflix" perma-label bandwagon, although, although, WoT and its breathtaking prologue and beautiful first chapter is precious to me so that the stream series both inspires for existing and doesn't take away from the book series' place in my heart! LotR with its cinematic divergences (no, not that YA, please) is for me a fond favorite! I must say that it's this channel, Bookborn, that somehow challenged me most to take on Gardens of the Moon, as a "toe-dip" (I know one does not simply walk into Malazan...) and if somebody could please do a video diagramming the visuals of the (oh, SPOILER CHAPTER ONE action WAY OF KING SPOILER) Way of Kings Chapter One "heist" of life! It's likely akin to the visuals of a sequence in an unrelated film. GoT it!

[@tanyam928]

Sanderson talked about how he sold the rights to make the Emperor's Soul, and when he saw the outline of what movie they were going to make it was completely different. That is one that would be hard to make though.

[@line4169]

Live action TV adaptation is strictly not a requirement, Joe Abercrombie books can be made into video game like red dead or be turned into a rpg like disco elysium, Sanderson books can work very well as anime, without cutting corners & some things just look good in animation especially with huge worldbuilding & insane battle scenes, Malazan can be made into multi parter movie franchise like HP, you just have to condense the plot for each movie.

[@korhankosar7233]

As you mentioned in the video nothing is unadatable. But making it good, watchable, enjoyable is another thing. I can imagine all 3 series and 1 novella you mentioned in this video are adaptable. I think the most difficult one would be Malazan. What a good adaptation need is hard to get, which are: -People who are doing it not because of just money but because of the passion and the love for the story: showrunners, directors, screenwriters even actors. - Budget. -Creators involvement: It sould be reviewed, consulted and consented by them at least. Same as you, I never thought One Piece was adaptable but they did it with the combination of the things above. If they can do a good JoJo adaptation (not the anime that is great, I'm talking live action) truly everything has a chance. As far as series go I always wondered if a full Discworld adaptation would be ever done. Now that is lifetime of work!

[@Ocean5ix]

I think a lot of fans just want everything to be adapted while me personally, I just want the story to be told in a media that people I know would be able to watch. A good example is the recent Yakuza (Like a Dragon) show... is it good? Not really. Does it actually tell the story of the first game and the prequel with all the key plot bits included? Yes, it does. Don't get me wrong, it completely goes into fan fiction territory with the small details but the MAIN story bits are there and I was happy that my wife, who is not a gamer at all, was able to enjoy the beginning of a story that I love so much. And she loved it. In my opinion the Stormlight Archive deserves the "spotlight" Game of Thrones got. It deserves to be a show that makes the world stop at Sundays to watch it. And while this might sound a bit... derrogatory of my part, I just don't think animations are able to burst their bubble. For some weird reason the only animations that manage to truly become mainstream are Disney Pixar movies, everything else is just kind of niche and underground, even Arcane which is a HUGE show, is just not able to reach the house of the average boomer dad/mom like GoT did. Last but not least, going back to the first paragraph, it's not that books (or games) NEED adaptations, it's that sometimes you finish a book you know someone will love but they will never ever read 3, 500 page books. It's painful, frustrating, even agonizing to have absorbed a fantastic story and only be able to share this experience with a very specific group of people.

[@duffypratt]

The Book of the New Sun would be extremely difficult to adapt. Unreliable narrators will always create a problem for adaptation (though Kubrick did well with it). But on top of that, so much of the fun in this book is trying to figure out what the world looks like and how it works, and that would all simply become literal and obvious in an adaptation. Agree completely with First Law. With Sanderson, you would also have to give up the “to the rhythm of anxiety” nonsense. But that might be a good thing - it always annoys me, and I have no idea how to visualize it. Malazan, I think, the main difficulties are the scope and the lack of a main character. If a studio was willing to to commit to, say, 200-300 hours of TV, I think you could adapt it, and even tell the Genebackis, Seven Cities, and Letheri stories in parallel. But you would still have to focus on who your main characters are. As a standalone series, I think the Letheri stuff would probably be easiest. And could be shortened to maybe 4-5 seasons.

[@suede__]

I would be disappointed to see any of my favorite series/stories be animated, but that may be the least expensive way to do something like Stormlight with wild geography, wild weather, spren, concrete magic system, and human's flying. I probably would not watch an anime of any of them.

[@Atrulion]

I don't think there are books that are necessarily *IMPOSSIBLE!* to adapt, but there are books where it *is* impossible to adapt it, and it match the source material. A great example is God Emperor of Dune. It's not really a narrative ... kind of? It's mostly just two characters talking, and that's very well fit for a book, because conveying ideas through dialogue (and generally just conveying weird ideas through the narration, another thing this book does) is very much a book thing, hence why God Emperor, in my opinion, is such a good book, but practically impossible to adapt a way that it manages to capture the book well.

[@JBTriple8]

I thought Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spathis adapted Frank Herberts Dune Book very well it changed some things but it kept the essence that false messiahs arent good as well the populace to follow them blindly.

[@shawnlinnehan7349]

That’s why I hate adaptations. Why change anything? The story is there. It shouldn’t be changed. That’s what I will never understand.

[@JBTriple8]

@shawnlinnehan7349 as long as essence I'm find with it looking forward to Dune Messiah

[@overnightgrowth]

I don't want an adaptation for Malazan, I love it too much, unless Erikson himself does the screenplay treatments again otherwise no chance. The first law has the most chance for me, also because its cast is more focused so it's more manageable.

[@ssejr01]

When ever i think of spren, my brain immediatly goes to the movie Who framed Roger Rabbit. Hand drawn, animated, cartoon being's existing in the real world. My mind doesn't see Syl as a CGI character but a cartoon dancing with the wind lol

[@mcell9161]

It’s getting an adaptation but idk how they’re going to do MurderBot. How to visually represent the hacking etc

[@andreassundberg9426]

Discworld. I know there have been adaptions but I always think they are missing something. The translation from Pratchett's written word to the screen is always missing something

[@andreassundberg9426]

Good omens is the best Pratchett adaptation so far.

[@andreassundberg9426]

Also there is a short film on youtube called Troll Bridge that is an adaptation of a Discworld short story that is great

[@crimsonraen]

I would love to see Stormlight done in the style of Castlevania.. That may be the most ideal.. The studio behind Blue Eyed Samurai would be a good fit as well. I definitely don't care if it's live action. A lot of the things would feel less cheesy in an anime than in live action.

[@keshinilt]

I also "love my books for being books and don't really need an adaptation" but also would look it if it's good

[@esteban280889]

Yeah I can't see Malazan in full. I could see aspects of the story or stories set in the world. Also where did you get to in your malazan read?

[@bullbythehorns808]

I think mistborn would be hard to adapt too. Koloss, mist cloaks, amd kandra would look bad in live action imo. Steel inquisitors would be pretty cool to see tho For abercrombie, i think his standalones would work okay but yeah gotta agree with points you made with lack of plot movement and fantastic inner monolgue.

[@VinnieMF]

4:04 With FL I think the lesser amount of "plot" in favor of more action is already what the book does so that wouldn't be a great impediment imo.

[@TheJordanK]

If someone ever pulls of How to Lose the Time War and have it make sense I’ll be so incredibly impressed.

[@jlodomauthor]

Your concern about First Law is why I think the most recent Persuasion adaptation failed, or at least ONE of the (many) reasons. Anne Elliot's characterization is so heavily interior, how do you show her complexity on screen without her seeming dull or one-note. So they gave Anne a fleabag/fourth wall situation in the newest adaptation, and it went completely counter to the heroine's nature in the books.

[@TheCronedoggy]

I think things like Hyperion and the blade itself would benefit from a short tv show, 1 per main character then make books 2 and 3 movies

[@joshhickeysmoviereviews]

I think Stormlight could work as a streaming series, with each episode being about 2 or 3 hours. You take each "Part'' and make it an episode. Stranger Things last season had 3 hour episodes apiece! You make the interludes the stuff that happens right before the credits