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.

Another site I read regularly, Stainless Steel Droppings (yes, a stainless steel rat reference) has recently had a “book week”.

And one of the articles was pointing at an incredible set of book-made-art, the work of artists Sue Blackwell and Brian Dettmer. And it really is stunning.

It’s a great article, with many quotes and links and lots more images, go check it out

I still havent read his most recent set, but I think I want to read this new one more.

Interview @ locus:

http://www.locusmag.com/2008/Issue09_Stephenson.html

A couple reviews:

http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2008/09/locus-magazines-gary-k-wolfe-reviews.html

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-ca-neal-stephenson7-2008sep07,0,7020583.story

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/04/AR2008090402460.html

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-review/note.asp?note=19062744&cds2Pid=22560

http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/09/11/Stephenson/

Amazon.co.uk Widgets

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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Scifi dimensions has a podcast interview with Ken McLeod http://www.scifidimensions.com/podcast/2008/07/14/the-scifidimensions-podcast-11/
I’m glad I found it as I somehow had missed that he had a new book out. I happen to read this McLeod’s blog, too, although it is not updated very often, but he hadn’t pimped the book there that I noticed (I have been busy this summer but still!).

It seems it is another one of his near future thrillers - I liked his far fetched books better, but he’s a very enjoyable writer in any mode (as long as you are open minded about speculative politics, that is).

Amazon.co.uk Widgets

While on the subject of speculative politics, or political scifi (usually thrillers), here’s a nice article at the Huffington Post about a selection of them which came out this summer, by another good author and editor, Jeff Vandermeer - here’s the article. The only one I had heard about is Cory Doctorov’s, but I will have to look them up.

To think Jeff Vandermeer was once so little known I got an email from him for just mentioning his book on my wishlist here… I think he lost track of who mentions his books nowadays. I havent read anything by him in a while, he seems to focus on editing, or I missed the books like I missed McLeod’s…

I think I will request some of these from the library, give these authors a boost