Sci Fi Channel Plans 'Earthsea' Miniseries

Gumpy writes "The Sci-Fi Channel has started producing a TV miniseries based on the first two books of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series. The Earthsea miniseries is supposed to start on the Sci Fi Channel in December 2004."

Comments

DragonLance

[ruronikenshin83]

I'd personally rather see a DragonLance miniseries.

Re:DragonLance

[B'Trey]

The Earthsea series is one of the defining series of fantasy. It is a classic in every sense of he word. The Dragonlance series is mildly entertaining escapist fiction with stock characters and a predictable plot. A Dragonlance movie or series might be amusing, but it wouldn't be near as significant an event.

Re:DragonLance

[sehryan]

I would rather see David Eddings' Belgariad or Mallorean done. Those have some potential to be awesome in the theater.

Re:DragonLance

[Anonymous Coward]

The Dragonlance series is mildly entertaining escapist fiction with stock characters and a predictable plot. A Dragonlance movie or series might be amusing, but it wouldn't be near as significant an event.

Just replace dragonlance with belgariad, I enjoyed these books as a teen only to reread them and realize that what I once thought was fantastic foreshadowing, was more along the lines of a plot summary, and the characters were written to be oblivious to it. Its as if the prophacy were as follows

A great hero will come, he is standing right beside you, he is that kid, you can't miss him, yes him, the one pointing to himself and shaking his head, yes he is the next great wizard and hero and is going to marry that chick over their, yeah her. He is going to defeat the big bad guy, yeah that one over there, yes you mr brooding arch type, the string bean kid is going to whip your butt. Just to make this more prophecy like, it will all happen after the sun rises in the east, your cat coughs up a fur ball that looks like jay leno, and the ground hog sees his shadow runs and hides but spring come early anyways because he is in fact just a ground hog and not soothsayer of doom and weather.

Re:DragonLance

[blancolioni]

I'd personally rather see a DragonLance miniseries.

What a bizarre non-sequitur.

Earthsea is widely regarded as a classic, and not just within the genre. Dragonlance is somebody's D&D campaign written up with pedestrian prose, shallow characterisation and a corny plot.

Though I admit Ged doesn't roll nearly as many natural 20s as whoever those PCs were.

Re:DragonLance

[B'Trey]

I thought there was a serious drop-off in quality between the Belgariad and the Mallorean. I would have said they'd have a hard time capturing the essence of the Belgariad on film, but I would have said the same thing about the Lord of the Rings, and I was proven wrong there.

Another series I'd love to see would be Patricia McKillip's "Riddlemaster of Hed" series. I think the plot would lend itself quite well to film.

Another series of a quite different sort that would make an excellent film or series is Zelazny's Amber books, particularly the first series. You could spend a few hours just talking about who to cast in the various roles there.

Re:DragonLance

[JLSigman]

I can think of tons of other fantasy/sci-fi I'd rather see, since I've never read the Earthsea books. I figure since I have about 50 more years to live, Sci-Fi has plenty of time to get around to them all. ;-)

Re:DragonLance

[B'Trey]

I don't think the Belgariad is great literature by any means. Even within the genre, it's definitely a step below the Earthsea books, the Lord of the Rings and other classics. However, I think the series is much better written than Dragonlance and such. There is definitely a stock element to some of the characters, but it's literally impossible to write classic fantasy without running into some of that. The only reason you can't say that about the Lord of the Rings, for example, is that they're the archetypes on which the stock charactes are based.

You're right that it's easy to see certain things as a reader, but I don't believe those things are meant to be hidden. Belgarath and Polgara are well aware of whom Garion, Ce'nedra, etc. are and what role they play in the prophecy. The books feature reasonably deep characters with good interplay and a well-developed, coherent plot. Not great literature by most definitions but certainly a cut above Dragonlance.

Re:DragonLance

[TeknoDragon]

Sounds like you barely made it through "Dragons of Autumn Twilight".

And let's get one thing straight: "Magic Kingdom for Sale/Sold" is escapist. The "Narnia" series is escapist. "Dragon Lance" is an epic that develops multiple plot lines that can be read in any order based on what books you read after the first 3 (Chronicles). Name one other serial novel with that feature.

I'm glad they're picking the "classics" rather than the books and characters I enjoyed. After they pushed out a stillborn and half-finished "Riverworld" I lost much faith in SciFi's studio cred. They're just speculating on a series by producing the first 1/4 to 1/6 of what the show should be in the hopes of getting a larger Nielsen share. Then MAYBE if they get the ratings they want they'll produce the ending to the series. We might see the ending of "Battlestar", but it's hopeless for "Riverworld". They can bolox-up "Earthsea" all the want, and don't expect to see the ending.

Besides... they'd never get Angelina Jolie to play Tika.

Re:DragonLance

[B'Trey]

Narnia is escapist and Dragonlance is not? Surely you're trolling.

Re:DragonLance

[BJH]

Heh. I agree with you.
I tried re-reading the Belgariad just recently, nearly twenty years after I initially read it.
I loved it when I was a pre-teen; now it just gets up my nose. All the twee repartee, the fantasy cliches piled on top of each other, the utter lack of anything approaching suspense in the plot... taken all together, the books are just unbearable.

Re:DragonLance

[TeknoDragon]

Ok

Narnia: kids walk through a wardrobe into a fantasy land.

MKFS/S: guy follows up on a classified ad and becomes the king of a fantasy land.

Dragonlance has no such infantile segue from reality to fantisy. What criteria do you use to categorize a book/series as escapist?

Re:DragonLance

[gbjbaanb]

multiple plot lines that can be read in any order based on what books you read after the first 3 (Chronicles). Name one other serial novel with that feature.


maybe I'm mistaking what you mean here, but .. CJ Cherryh's Company Wars/Merchanter/Union novels.

Read in any order (though perhaps its a good idea to read the earliest half before the later half), each is stand-alone, but all build on the central universe definition - even taking the same events and portraying them from opposing viewpoints. Highly recommended.

Re:DragonLance

[jd142]

There is definitely a stock element to some of the characters

The big problem I had with the books is that not only are the characters stock characters, but the world they lives in demand that they be that way. Any person born in *that* country must act like this. Sure, it made sense within the book that the people would be affected by their patron god and take after him in personality, but it made the characters that much flatter. Not only are they stock, but they can never grow beyond it because they are limited by the rules of the world they live in.

Rereading the Belgariad and the Mallorean is like reading a checklist. You just check things off as you go. Flowers supposed to bloom? Check. Person supposed to be saved? Check. Evil defeated? Check.

Re:DragonLance

[1u3hr]

Hey moderators: how di these "Dragonlance" posts get "insightful"? Just ignore it or mod it "offtopic". It's got nothing to do with the topic.

Re:DragonLance

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok:

Narnia: Written by a professional author who was also a college professor, in an attempt to produce quality literature for young adults. The 'infantile' segue, which is a very common literary device in classic fantasy, serves as a mechanism to help the reader understand that they are transitioning from the real world to a fantasy world, so that they know to suspend their disbelief.

MKFS/S: Written by a professional author who was trying to sell books by creating a humorous line of fantasy novels. The 'infantile' segue is meant as a parody of other fantasy novels which use similar techniques and have among their respected ancestors the Narnia books mentioned above.

Dragonlance: Written by a couple of former game designers, with very little writing experience, in an attempt to make some extra money and help their company sell more games. Continued by numerous other authors also employed by that company, in order to sell more games. Sold by that company to bookstores by using the term 'soap opera' in their marketing literature. Full of infantile segues of the quality of soap operas from scene to scene, even if they do not try to segue from reality to fantasy.

I did enjoy Dragonlance series at the time, but the quality of writing and plot definitely do not compare to Narnia. Although it may compare to MKFS/S.

All three are definitely escapist, but name one piece of fantasy literature which is not. Then tell me why it's not escapist, and explain why Dragonlance also fits that reason.

Re:DragonLance

[M. Silver]

What a bizarre non-sequitur.

I'd agree, though, but for different reasons than the grandposter. I'd have to add "... because I'd rather see them take something that's not so much of a challenge to adapt, rather than ruin something I value more."

Re:DragonLance

[B'Trey]

Escapist fiction is writing with no other pretense than to entertain. It's meant to distract you from your day to day existence. It doesn't attempt to address any issues; it doesn't attempt to teach any lessons; it has no theme or moral; it says absolutely nothing about the human condition. It's simply fun to read.

The Chronicles of Narnia are children's literature but they are most definitely literature. They address and examine a number of moral and ethical issues. Their purpose is to teach children WHILE they entertain, not just to while away some time.

Re:DragonLance

[R.Caley]

Narnia: kids walk through a wardrobe into a fantasy land.

Don't take this the wrong way, but are you Jerwish or of some other very non-christian background?

The only person I ever knew who had read the narnia books and didn't notice what they were was a Jewish friend. He liked them. Other people either like what they are doing or are able to set it aside.

They make my skin crawl, but they are definitely not just ``kids walk into a wardrobe...''.

Re:DragonLance

[Anonymous Coward]

What is this? Pick negative mod at random day? DragonLance is Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) therefore this post is no more of topic than its parent.

Re:DragonLance

[Minwee]

"Dragon Pants" is an epic that develops multiple plot lines that can be read in any order based on what books you read after the first 3. Name one other serial novel with that feature.

That sounds like Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time". After the first few books they were all the same anyway.

Re:DragonLance

[Anonymous Coward]

Aslan loves you. Save $8.50 on "the passion..." and just read Aslan's death scene.

Re:DragonLance

[rueba]

I am (officially) a catholic and I never noticed all this religious stuff in Chronicle of Narnia when I first read it.

It was only much later I started hearing "Aslan represents Christ" and C.S. Lewis was propagandizing for Christianity e.t.c...

Of course, I was 10 years old at the time and not particularly insightful in things.

The same thing happened with Animal Farm (allegory for Stalinism).

Personally, I think it is very cool when books have this property. Gives it a more of a 'geek' flavor.

Re:DragonLance

[PinkStainlessTail]

The Sci-Fi channel could do a good job with something like Dragonlance because it's really pretty simplistic. The channel sucks at complexity and subtlety, which is why Riverworld was no damn good, and Earthsea probably won't be. I wouldn't want to see Sci-Fi's Book of the Long Sun either.

Re:DragonLance

[dustmote]

Thank you. To follow up the above poster, the Chronicles of Narnia are widely considered classics of children's literature, and the series is an allegory to the religious themes that Lewis explored much more fully in his adult writing. They teach graduate level courses over CS Lewis, spending the first two months on the heavy symbolism and messages inherent in the Narnia books. My mother just finished one such course as a part of her Masters program. Aslan as a Christ figure, et al. If you think there are no themes being explored through them, I submit that maybe you haven't read them since you were a kid?

Not trying to flame or anything, seriously, but I think that if this is the case, there's a whole 'nother level to those books that you may not have been able to catch when you were young. I know I didn't. Now bear in mind, I think Lewis' heavy-handed Christianity as displayed in his other works kind of makes me leery of actually taking on the undertaking of reading them all again, and they are children's literature, after all, but having to listen to endless analysis after analysis of C S Lewis' books over the last semester or two from my mother has given me a different viewpoint on them than the you seem to have.

Another thing that I think a lot of people don't think about with the Narnia series is that they were written in the 50's. They predate pretty much all of the modern fantasy genre. Even if they don't seem that fresh or thought provoking to you, (though they do to me), they were astoundingly original at the time, and helped shape a generation of authors. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Dragonlance series, but I don't think that a hundred years from now they will be considered classics. I imagine the Narnia series still will.

Re:DragonLance

[Svet-Am]

I don't know about anyone else, but personally I'd prefer to see Silverberg's Majipoor Chronicles made into a mini-series...

Or, if we have to stick with Le Guin, what about The Word for World is Forest or The Left Hand of Darkness ?

Re:DragonLance

[deaddrunk]

Yep Im refusing to buy any more of his books because, lets face it 10 books so far and no sign of an ending.

Re:DragonLance

[The Spoonman]

"Riverworld" I lost much faith in SciFi's studio cred.

Ugh, I just finished watching their "Dagon" which I DVRed a while back. Worst adaptation EVER. Now, the new Battlestar Galactica...awesome! :)

Re:DragonLance

[Anonymous Coward]

You lack taste.

Re:DragonLance

[B'Trey]

You may very well be right. While they didn't do too bad a job with the story of Dune, they failed utterly in translating its depth. To echo the thread above, they essentially transformed it from a work of literature into a work of escapist fiction. I'm not sure it's possible to translate Herbert or Wolfe or even, say, Silverberg, to film. The mediums are too dissimilar. On the other hand, as I've already commented, they managed to succeed with Tolkien, so perhaps the right director and cast could do justice to other works of depth.

Re:DragonLance

[Anonymous Coward]

All three are definitely escapist, but name one piece of fantasy literature which is not.

Actually, the Earthsea books (though I realise this is too on-topic for a slashdot post). I found them a departure from escapism when I first read them precisely because they painted a picture of a place I wouldn't necessarily want to go - it's kind of dark and there's definitely something wrong there (which didn't get fully fleshed out until the last novel (The Other Wind), for Le Guin or for the reader).

Ged going to mage school is precisely everything that Harry Potter is not. Earthsea has the feel of a mundane place, even when there's magic going on (and every time it's used, there's a cost - often a painful one). It's about humanity, nature, society, power, and a bunch of other neat stuff. In fact, it's a lot more Taoist than escapist, though hardly didactic about it (except for Tehanu, which is an atypically angry book).

Dragonlance is your usual fantasy churned out for a buck. Nothing particularly wrong with that, if people enjoy it. Whether it's escapist or not depends mostly on the reader; I don't think the writers cared that much one way or another.

Re:DragonLance

[Anonymous Coward]

Where can you buy a paperback for less than $8.50 these days?

Re:DragonLance

[ultranova]

The Dragonlance series is mildly entertaining escapist fiction with stock characters and a predictable plot.

And the Earthsea is not ? Did anyone really not see that Ged would need to face his shadow and fears and in so doing grow up ? Or whatever-her-name-was to realize the pointlessness of following the dark and escape the catacombs ? How much more cliche can you get ?

Not to say that Earthsea isn't a good series - but unpredictable it is not. Then again, what classic would be ? Classics tell timeless stories, and they wouldn't really be timeless if we wouldn't get a feeling for the "right" end - or did anyone really expect for Odysseys to not return home ?

Then again, Dragonlance was the first fantasy series I read, so there's a lot of nostalgia in my view of it... But, I really couldn't foresee Raistlin turning to the dark side completely or Sturm dying. And has any hero besides Flint ever died of heart attack on their way to the final battle ?-)

Thought I must admit my all-time favorite fantasy book is "The Black Wing", telling the story of Khisanth the black dragon, the one in the ruined city the heroes first went (can't remember the name). It had such great characterization, making Khisanth both likable and believable and still clearly a villain... It's a rare book which manages to actually make me care for the main character. Pity she had to die... Then again, at least she was spared the embarrassment of suffering a retcon after retcon as Weis-Hickman and other authors keep on remaking history.

"Takhisis was one of the creators of Krynn ! No, in fact she's a daughter of the creator, Chaos ! No, she and Chaos were both children of the creator, and now she's dead, so there, nyah nyah, can't change that anymore !" Not to mention the book outside the main series, which had her blowing up a star system with a single word, and then be beaten by a bard (in "The Dark Queen") :)...

And I'm not even going to Soth who can't decide whether he's the evil-to-the-core death knight who rather kills his son and gives up his only chance for redemption than say he's sorry (in "Knight of the Black Rose"), or just a poor misunderstood person who's really nice at heart but just made some unfortunate mistakes (in the soul war trilogy), or even if he's supposed to be in Ravenloft or Krynn...

Oh well. Good to see that some people still take trolling as an art form it is, as opposed to artless swearing and insulting people. Condescending patronization always worked better than outright insults, and you have that down perfectly.

If your post wasn't meant to be a troll... Then I'm scared ;).

Re:DragonLance

[vivian]

I stopped reading them after I read about 6 of them, then heard a rumor he was under contract to write 22 or so of them. Good story for the first few, but then it started getting bogged down and taking a whole book to move the plot forward amonth or so, and that's just too slow for me. I like a book with a definite endpoint. (I do remember wishing when I was 10 that the neverending story really was, but that just goes to show - be careful what you wish for...)

Re:DragonLance

[TeknoDragon]

It is litteral escapism.

As well as symbolic escapism as IMHO any christian mythology is.

Re:DragonLance

[TeknoDragon]

Of the Dragonlance series only the first book is completely void of ethical or social issues.

It's not a great treatise on the superiority of lifestyle X or belief system Y but it's much more than "find the dragon orbs and kill the dragon dudes".

Re:DragonLance

[B'Trey]

Interesting that you see a simple statement of fact as condescension. From a literary standpoint, the Earthsea series is clearly superior to Dragonlance. If you're really not capable of seeing this, perhaps your local university offers a course in literature appreciation that might interest you.

This isn't to say that Dragonlance is worthless or a waste of time to read, nor that a movie based on the books would be a bad thing. It might be quite fun. However, it would not be as significant an event as a movie based on the Earthsea series.

Re:DragonLance

[AP31R0N]

@ Gah i hope sci-fi doesn't do it. The only series they did that i liked was BattleStar. DL deserves a full hollywood budget. With halle berry as that ship captain, and leslie neilsen as Fizban. maybe jennifer garner as laurana.

Re:DragonLance

[oregonnerd]

I'll disagree with you slightly. The Earthsea series is in fact great fiction--Ms. Le Guin managed to modify a good many of the 'rules' of fantasy and is probably instrumental in bringing 'sf' into mainline fiction. (I thought it was terrible that I found the...fifth book of the trilogy...as a bargain buy, new.) She, Delany, Zelazny, Ing, Pournelle, Niven...all used complete characters as opposed to the two or even one dimensional characters of sf (okay, Heinlein in his later years helped a lot too). She and Delany in particular created great art that was more-or-less incidentally in the category of 'sf' (Dhalgren, for instance, is hardly standard science fiction fair). ...And to expect any series or movie to approach great writing is to expect too much; in this case the medium factually is the message in many respects. I didn't include Tolkien because he wasn't writing fantasy that could be easily included in the 'sf' of that time.

Nice synopsis for Earthsea Trilogy newbies

[bcolflesh]

Ursula LeGuin's Magical World of Earthsea

Re:Nice synopsis for Earthsea Trilogy newbies

[Shimbo]

Although one should note that there are five Earthsea novels in the series; the last two being relatively recent additions.

Re:Nice synopsis for Earthsea Trilogy newbies

[The Grassy Knoll]

"The hero, Ged, born with the name Duny, learns magic tricks from his aunt, the town witch, who sees in him the possibility of great power. When his home island of Gont is attacked by the vicious Kargs, Duny casts a simple fog spell which enshrouds the village, hiding the villagers from the enemies and saving the village from certain massacre. Word of this deed spreads to Ogion, the great mage of Re Albi"

Lordy! What a bucket of absolute toss.

Re:Nice synopsis for Earthsea Trilogy newbies

[BJH]

Please don't think that summary is in any way representative of the novels.

In fact, I would recommend people not to read those summaries, because they give completely the wrong impression.

Re:Nice synopsis for Earthsea Trilogy newbies

[snake_dad]

Please don't think that summary is in any way representative of the novels.

In fact, I would recommend people not to read those summaries, because they give completely the wrong impression.

Agreed. The synopsis that bcolflash linked to is good, but when quoted out of context it will give the wrong impression.

What about Riverworld?!?

[Roger Keith Barrett]

Aren't SCI-Fi ever going to continue with the Riverworld books, or was the response to that too disapointing?

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[kannibal_klown]

Yeh. That movie they did was pretty good.

I haven't read any of the books yet. But a friend of mine highly recommends it. I'll probably go out and register for a library card (haven't needed to do that since grade school).

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[frenchgates]

I am very curious about that myself. I thought they did a pretty good job with the pilot. The casting was superb.

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Looking of the quickness they agreed to make B.G. into more shows my guess would be no.

But ofcoz they killed Farscape too and make shows like "Mad house" (can we get done with the "Reality" shows already!), so I'm sure they probably don't gives a rats-a.. about what we think anyway.

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[bhima]

I did not know the Sci-Fi network even did a Riverworld series.

This gives me hope for a "word of tiers" series!

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[Roger Keith Barrett]

They only did one and I am not sure what parts of the books it covers. I haven't seen it in whole either because when it was first on I was waiting for the cable to be turned back on from a move.

But it is exciting to see them dip their toe into works like Farmer and Herbert and the like... it sure goes against the current trend of film scifi-- just finding something that they can easily rape. I love Phillip K. Dick movies, but Hollywood is taking all the meat out of those stores and only using them because it's easy to throw action scenes around his main plot... really sad.

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[Dinosaur Neil]

I thought the movie felt more like a Hercules/Xena spin-off and found it, well, kinda disappointing. I was hoping for better; they did a good job with Dune (certainly better than Dino DeLaurentis did in the 80's). Maybe they'll do okay with EarthSea.

The books are worth reading, at least until they start explaining What It All Means four or five books in...

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[kannibal_klown]

First, I think the remake of Dune and the following books was damn good.

As for the Hecules / Xena: WP -> Riverworld reference, I can sort of see that. Kevin Smith (the one that played Aries on Hercules and Xena, not the cool one) was playing a warlord in much the same way he acted on both Olympian shows. The "bad guys" also sort of looked like a batallion from Hercules or Xena: WP.

But in my opinion, that's where it ended. Like I said, I've never read the books, but it appeared to be pretty good. It was more of a group dynamic than Herc Xena, where those 2 shows focuses on 2-and-only-2 characters 98% of the time. While the astronaut was the main focus, you can easily see how the rest of the eps focus mroe on the larger group that got away on the boat (though probably more on like 7 of them: alien, Mark Twain, little girl, British girl, etc).

I mean, in my mind, that's exactly how I'd imagine the scenario given to us. People "wake up" to this lush, green world. Obviously, there's no known tech or infrastructure in place, so they'd need to go the whole "old-school" route; with bamboo, forges, etc. Heck, for a a good chunk of the population, that was probably the norm when they were alive anyway.

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[escallywag]

they did a good job with Dune (certainly better than Dino DeLaurentis did in the 80's)

Delaurentis is (was?) a producer, that movie was directed by David Lynch...

I really liked the Dune movie by Lynch, although he modified the story here and there (especially the rain at the end), I feel he nailed the imagery and general atmosphere of the Dune Universe perfectly.

The person who designed the absolutely ridiculous costumes should be shot, hung and quartered for totally ruining the SciFi Channel Dune miniseries... The costumes were marginally better in the second cycle (Children of Dune) but the storytelling was awful... I knew what was going on but for someone who hasn't read the novels it must have been utterly confusing

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering where SCI-FI's TV has gone recently, I think this would be a great TV show to add to their line up of dimenishing products (no more Farscape for example, and who Watchs Mad Mad house?). I mean as far as TV shows go, I only really watch Stargate on SciFi now.

Riverworld's pilot had a great cast, and was very entertaining. They could even bill it as educational (by placing historical figures in episodes people could learn about). And the potential for clashes of different groups that couldnt of happen (Ie Hitler vs Napoleon, or Julis Cesar vs Alexandar the Great, to name a few) would be very entertaining. And of course using Mark Twain as a character would be interesting to see his take on things.

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

They could even bill it as educational (by placing historical figures in episodes people could learn about).

Yeah, and ketschup is a vegetable too!

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[Snowdog668]

"I haven't read any of the books yet. But a friend of mine highly recommends it. I'll probably go out and register for a library card (haven't needed to do that since grade school)."

I'll probably get flamed to hell for this one but... I loved the first book in the Riverworld series. It was a really cool idea that could have gone so far in so many different directions. As soon as I read it I went out and borrowed a copy of the next three books in the series from a friend. Man, that was probably the most disappointing series that I ever read, epecially after such a great start. The story just plods on and on and never seems to go anywhere. I gave up halfway through the third book, or was it the forth, whatever the next to the last one is. I've tried to pick up the story every couple of years thinking I'm just missing something but never get far. Reading through the reviews on Amazon I don't think I'm alone in this. The ratings for the series drop steadily down as you go along.

I can see why they wouldn't make a full mini-series of this. Great pilot episode, snooze through the rest.

Hey, a question for someone that actually finished the series, do they ever find out what the meaning of it all is?

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[redink1]

Yep. Almost everything is explained at the end of the 4th book, and the end of the 5th book clears up any dangling questions.

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[deadboy2000]

I loved Riverworld -- I think it's a solid foundation for a whole series, not just a mini-series! Hopefully the right people will get together to make it happen. These things take time.

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[jerky42]

Not to mention William Hurt's sleepwalking through it.

I thought Lynch's was much, much better, and Dune is my favorite book of all time.

Re:What about Riverworld?!?

[DonGar]

Sorry, but what is B.G. ?

Woah... How was "The Lathe of Heaven"...?

[Mitleid]

I meant to watch The Lathe of Heaven when Sci-Fi aired that a few years back, but missed it, so I'm whether or not to have my hopes up or not. I was sort of impartial to their interpretation of Dune, but then again I only saw the first miniseries. A Wizard of Earthsea wasn't the most "dense" of LeGuinn's novels, so hopefully Sci-Fi won't be able to mangle it too bad. This should be sort of interesting to check out; I might be actually excited. Heh...

Re:Woah... How was "The Lathe of Heaven"...?

[RLiegh]

I haven't seen it since 79 (so take this with a grain of salt) but the original movie was good enough that I'd consider ordering it online, if need be. If you love the book, you'll like the movie.

If you mean the second movie, with Lisa Bonet...stay far, far, faaaaaarr away from it. It's total dogshit.

Re:Woah... How was "The Lathe of Heaven"...?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually... SciFi didn't air Lathe of Heaven... A&E did! I recall watching it just out of curiosity, and I must say I was mildly impressed. James Caan gave a superb performance and it was a pretty decent movie... if you still want to see it, it's availble on DVD.

But... any idea on getting the original 1984 (or 83?) release? AFIAK, it's not on video.

Re:Woah... How was "The Lathe of Heaven"...?

[RLiegh]

the A&E version is SHIT. This is the one you want. (apparently broadcast in 80, not 79, my bad)

Re:Woah... How was "The Lathe of Heaven"...?

[WillAdams]

Agreed. The movie from the '70s was great! Especially for a low budget production with cheesy effects ;)

Very true to the book, which is wonderful.

Rather a shame the movie got hung up on the rights to the Beatles' song, ``I get by with a little help from my friends''.

William

Re:Woah... How was "The Lathe of Heaven"...?

[Anonymous Coward]

It sucked. The book was full of subtleties, but the film had one or two subtle things, and completely missed any continuity or undercurrent. They even took out the ending. It's like they amputated the whole storyline, and produced a few scenes :/

Prepare for disappointment

[rjstanford]

More than most fantasy, the Earthsea books spend time on internal character development. They can make you think. Their plots, frankly, are nothing to write home about - in my opinion, at least. Unless this is going to be an "adaptation" along the lines of Starship Troopers, I can't see it doing very well. But, who knows - I'd love to be wrong about that...

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[abscondment]

Yeah, I really can't see it going anywhere--there's not enough day-by-day action to keep people watching, unless they twist the books a lot. Of course, if we got Peter Jackson to do it, it might turn out okay...

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[mariox19]

[T]he Earthsea books spend time on internal character development.

The first one, especially, is a kind of Once and Future King with a touch of Harry Potter (though of course it predates H.P.). I'm thinking about the old wizard tutoring Ged a la Merlin, before sending him off to wizard school.

The whole way to make this successful would be to concentrate on character and philosophy. These were the most enjoyable parts of the book, as I recall.

I still remember being fascinated with the idea that Ged, having transformed himself into a bird to effect an escape, might lose himself in the bird's nature and not be able to transform himself back. (The old wizard eventually had to lend him a hand.)

Television might have a hard time carrying this off without a lot of boring exposition. (Of course, well-written dialog and charismatic casting would avoid all that.)

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Otter]

Certainly my tastes are a long way from standard sci-fi fan -- you couldn't pay me to read anything by Robert Heinlein except Starship Troopers and his older space opera-ish short stories. So take this with a large grain of salt:

I find Ursula LeGuin's books utterly painful, the most boring things this side of, well, Robert Heinlein. Even Left Hand of Darkness, pretty much a consensus all-time top ten, bored the hell out of me.

(As an aside, where's Connie Willis' rabid fan base? Her books range from excellent to mindblowing, but I've never heard people fawn over her like they do LeGuin or the other tedious female sci-fi authors. Is a general warmth towards tradition and religion too politically incorrect to be assigned in those classes that are always pushing LeGuin? It's not like she's Margaret Thatcher.)

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[HeelToe]

I have to agree. I've read the trilogy 4 times in my life (starting at about 7th grade). I've read the newer three books twice each.

The books make me think about much different things each time I read them. They are definitely focused on character development and have a lot worthy of critical literary praise.

Read them before you see this miniseries.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[david.given]

I find Ursula LeGuin's books utterly painful, the most boring things this side of, well, Robert Heinlein. Even Left Hand of Darkness, pretty much a consensus all-time top ten, bored the hell out of me.

You should be aware that Ursula LeGuin has an evil twin, Skippy. Quite a lot of her books were in fact written by Skippy.

For example: the original Earthsea trilogy was written by Ursula LeGuin, and is wonderful. Tehanu, on the other hand, was written by Skippy.

Likewise, The Eye of the Heron is by Skippy, The Lathe of Heaven is by Ursula. The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness are collaborations, however.

Basically, while Skippy is not necessarily a bad writer, she's so concerned about pushing her message that the plot suffers immensely. Tehanu just doesn't fit in Earthsea: but instead of designing a new world were the message could fit comfortably, Earthsea got twisted until the message could be wedged in somehow. In my opinion I think the book's terrible. (The huge deus ex machina at the end is just clumsy, too.)

But when Ursula manages to keep Skippy under control, she can be fabulous. You didn't like The Left Hand of Darkness, but I love it. There's a message, but it fits so beautifully...

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[IceAgeComing]

LeGiun's stories are psychological/social, as opposed to outward/physical. For those who like action movies with lots of fighting and explosions (testosterone orgy), her stories are comparatively boring.

A common theme in her stories is the hero narrative: one person fights against all odds to change history. The internal struggles are often just as intense as the outward ones.

Many of us struggle internally with lots of difficult issues, like how to prevent the environmental devastation happening right now, or how to prevent radical extremists (and every society has them) from destroying all the good in the world. It's nice that LeGuin is around to help us realize we're not alone.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Anonymous Coward]

Starship Troopers the movie was horrid. Heinlein surely spun in his grave.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[BJH]

Skippy - heh.
I didn't particularly like Tehanu either, but I don't think her "message" did the book in - I think it was just that my memories of the original Earthsea trilogy come from my childhood, and Tehanu took a point of view that tended to stomp those rather naive memories into the ground.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Mr. Slippery]

Tehanu just doesn't fit in Earthsea: but instead of designing a new world were the message could fit comfortably, Earthsea got twisted until the message could be wedged in somehow. In my opinion I think the book's terrible.

I was disappointed with it initially too, it's a jarring change in tone from the original trilogy. It went down better on a re-read, and with the last two books in place, it fits pretty well (even the deus ex machina at the end of Tehanu makes sense at the end of the The Other Wind).

But I don't have high hopes for this miniseries - they're doing A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, which means a lot of restructuring to get a single plot line out of both books. (The ending of A Wizard of Earthsea still amazes me almost a quarter-century after I first read it.)

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[LordMyren]

be careful, when you say a book spends time on internal character development you think a very explicit form of doing so, verbose pages of character development.

earthsea was beautiful in its lack of showmanship and implicit character development. character development through actions not words.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[17028]

A fascist message and nubile young women in the nude? I think he would've been real happy with it. :)

For the record, I think the fascist theme was a subtle parody.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

The Left Hand of Darkness was her first book and it was rejected by someone who felt the same way as you.

On a similar vein: the 'Toten Hosen' - a German punk band who sold zillions in the 90's were previously rejected by CBS (?) because they could not imagine that there would ever be a market for that kind of noise. There was.

Connie Willis? Sorry, I have never heard of her.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[AndroidCat]

You owe me a new screen!

There's also a collection of Earthsea shorts, but I think Skippy wrote parts of that too.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Dr. Smeegee]

Perhaps the fact that there are a mess of good sci-fi writers around now who happen to have a uterus has somthing to do with it.

Are you trolling with the religion crack? I am confused by it.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Anonymous Coward]

You owe me a new screen!

you are 1337.

that is all.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[geoswan]

Starship Troopers the movie was horrid. Heinlein surely spun in his grave.

Maybe he is spinning in his grave. He never had much of a sense of humour.

But I will differ with you over it being horrid. I thought its examination of the excesses of blind patriotism was brilliant.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Ruds]

Oh, it was terribly, terribly subtle. It wasn't like the fascist propaganda messages were patently ridiculous, obviously done with tongue in cheek, or campy as all hell.

Subtle. I barely noticed the clever satire of a fascist ideology.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[R.Caley]

[Connie Willis vs LeGuin] Is a general warmth towards tradition and religion too politically incorrect to be assigned in those classes that are always pushing LeGuin?

Er, sorry, are we talking about the same LeGuin? The one whose works are perhaps the most religiously based in mainstream SF, with the possible exception of late PKD? The one who is so warm to tradition that she created a whole culture to be able to show us fragments to make us think about the importance of tradition (and of knowing when to throw it away)?

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[MrEd]

with a touch of Harry Potter (though of course it predates H.P.)

I think you could take any fantasy book (written before J.K. Rowling's hit that is) and be right in suggesting it has a touch of Harry Potter in it... :)

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Bombula]

I think the general viewership may be disappointed because of the similarities of A Wizard of Earthsea to Harry Potter, with the school of wizardry, the prodigal child, and so on. Of course it will be lost on these viewers that Le Guin's books date to the early 1960s...

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Earlybird]

• As an aside, where's Connie Willis' rabid fan base? Her books range from excellent to mindblowing, but I've never heard people fawn over her like they do LeGuin or the other tedious female sci-fi authors.

Here's one fan, based on reading To Say Nothing of the Dog. As brilliant as that book was, though, it was hardly more than a thrilling adventure story, a breezy, slapsticky time-travel romp with not much emotional or philosophical weight. Le Guin's stuff, on the other hand, is arguably Literature.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Gilmoure]

When I read the first two HP books, I was totally bummed out by how they had missed the whole awe factor in magic, unlike the Earthsea books. In Harry Potter, magic is basicly the same as James Bond gadgets; cool but meaningless.

In the Earthsea books, Le Guin really captures the wonder of magic and the danger it's use carries. Another set of books that really explore the whole consequences of power is Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy. Would like to see a big screen version of those books.

I hope this production doesn't miss out on that as well.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Anonymous Coward]

Otter wrote:
>
> I find Ursula LeGuin's books utterly painful, the most boring things this side of, well, Robert Heinlein

So, pray tell, what do you find "not boring" or "not utterly painful"? Let's bet 1000 to 1 that it's total shit. Tom Clancy? Piers Anthony? Tolkien?

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Anonymous Coward]

There were some interesting elements to all of that, but it's all done in by the director's obsession with cool special effects that show various ways in which flesh can be pierced by spikey chitinous things. And again. And again. And again.

Feh. If Verhoeven could grow up and develop more confidence in his work, he might actually be a director one day.

(still won't make up for mangling PKD if he does)

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[DunbarTheInept]

Wow. How are they going to do that? I mean "Tombs of Atuan" was so different from the first book that back when I read it I had a hard time believing it was supposed to be the sequel until finally Ged shows up at the very end briefly. Tombs of atuan, while good, felt like a seperate self-contained new setting from scratch. The third book (can't remember the name) actually seemed to fit as a sequel to the first much better.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[affreca101]

I remember seeing the movie before reading the booking and thinking "This is so Heinleinesque, especially the coed shower." The subtle parody reminded me much of "Stranger in a Strange Land." It's just nothing like the book it's named after.

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Evil Pete]

As another poster has said, sometimes LeGuin pushes a message just too hard. I liked "Left Hand of Darkness" very much indeed, and liked most of her stories. Whereas, I just couldn't finish "The Disposessed" even with 3 tries ... ugh, how did that ever win an award ?

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[Rob Simpson]

Some of Le Guin's books are both literature and excellent stories, and some of her stuff - as pointed out earlier - is written by Skippy. Earthsea is one of the former, and could be very good if SciFi doesn't screw it up.

Doomsday Book is an earlier work of Connie Willis and certainly has weightier subject matter, though I enjoyed both books immensely. From the prologue:

"And lest things which should be remembered perish with time and vanish from the memory of those who are to come after us, I, seeing so many evils and the whole world, as it were, placed within the grasp of the Evil One, being myself as if among the dead, I, waiting for death, have put into writing all the things that I have witnessed.
And, lest the writing should perish with the writer and the work fail with the laborer, I leave parchment to continue this work, if perchance any man survive and any of the race of Adam escape this pestilence and carry on the work which I have begun..."

Brother John Clyn
1349

Re:Prepare for disappointment

[genus babbage]

Connie Willis - try reading "To Say Nothing of the Dog", great fun

Rehash

[Captain_Amigo]

Oh, come on now...let's be honest. They're just re-airing Seaquest episodes.

Re:Rehash

[cfuse]

Oh, come on now...let's be honest. They're just re-airing Seaquest episodes.

The dolphin with stephen hawking's voice was the best actor in that whole pile o'shite. Ugh!

This is good news... but I want to see the movie

[myownkidney]

This is indeed good news. I am a big fan of Ursula K. Le Guin. Whilst a TV miniseries is better than nothing, I was really hoping for a film coming out soon.

Never really clicked for me

[AnonymousKev]

It's been a long time since I read the Earthsea trilogy. I remember enjoying the first book, but the other two just didn't click. The premise was really interesting and held a lot of promise, but I just couldn't get interested in the plot.

Not sure why. I like the Lathe of Heaven and think The Ones Who Walk Away from Oomlas is one of the best short stories ever written. If I had cable, I'd probably watch it out of curiosity. But since I don't ... oh well.

Re:Never really clicked for me

[R.Caley]

The premise was really interesting and held a lot of promise, but I just couldn't get interested in the plot.

That's rather the problem for a visual adaptation. They aren't really plot driven. The plot is just an excuse to watch the characters grow. The first three are little studies of three aspects of becoming adult (responsibility, identity, mortality).

The fourth never spoke to me, and I haven't yet read the fourth.

I can't imagine them manageing to recreate that when the temptation to jump at magic battles with dragons is there.

Re:Never really clicked for me

[AnonymousKev]

Maybe I was too young to realize the character development (it was over twenty years ago). But I read Earthsea at the same time I read The Prydain Chronicles. I was more drawn to Taran's journey of maturity than Ged's.

Re:Never really clicked for me

[Anonymous Coward]

The Ones Who Walk Away from Oomlas

Spelling and Reference Nitpick: It's actually "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas".

Re:Never really clicked for me

[Mr. Slippery]

But I read Earthsea at the same time I read The Prydain Chronicles. I was more drawn to Taran's journey of maturity than Ged's.

Taran's is a straightforward tale of becomming a man. Ged's is a complex tale of becoming a wise man. So yeah, you might have been too young to realize the character development. :-)

I might re-read The Prydain Chronicles for fun and escape if I came across a copy; but even now as an adult, each time I re-read the Earthsea novels I feel a little wiser.

Re:Never really clicked for me

[red floyd]

I think that Alexander aimed more for a juvenile audience, and Prydain is a bit more action oriented (though Taran Wanderer is very introspective), whereas LeGuin was aiming at a more adult audience, hence your attraction to Taran's journey rather than Ged's.

Re:Never really clicked for me

[R.Caley]

The Prydain Chronicles

Never read it, who is the author?

I read very little fantasy because almost all of it is drivel written by people who don't understand there is more to it than the same old plots with elves and swords thrown in (just like pseudo SF which is just the same old plots with lazers and space ships). Finding any that is worth reading is almost impossible.

Re:Never really clicked for me

[AnonymousKev]

each time I re-read the Earthsea novels I feel a little wiser.

I feel the same about Prydain. As an adult, I still re-read it every few years. The love and care Lloyd Alexander used when drawing the characters overcomes its "juvenile" label for me. YMMV.

I still think that Taran's revelation at the Mirror of Llunet is wonderfully stated. (When he's telling Anlaw Clayshaper what he's learned.)

If you're interested in getting a copy, there's a hardback version with all five books + a book of Prydain-related short stories. (The dust jacket art is horrible -- Taran as Adonis :P, but that can be remedied) It pops up on eBay now and again for $5-$10.

Re:Never really clicked for me

[AnonymousKev]

Lloyd Alexander wrote these in the late-60's/early-70's. They are: The Book of Three, The Black Caldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer (my favorite), and The High King. There is also a book of short stories but I can't recall the title.

Prydain is only classified as fantasy because of the setting (based on Welsh mythology).

Be warned, these are filed under "Juvenile Fiction" and are written at a Middle School/High School level. If you can't get past that part, I don't recommend them. I do believe in spite of the reading level, the books present very adult (in the good sense of the word) concepts and situations.

Re:Never really clicked for me

[larkost]

Lloyd Alexander is the author. Many people know the series by the second book "The black cauldron", as chunks of the story were made into an animated move by that title.

Re:Never really clicked for me

[R.Caley]

Be warned, these are filed under "Juvenile Fiction" and are written at a Middle School/High School level.

Well, two of the handful of fantasy works I consider worth reading are Juveniles -- Earthsea and His Dark Materials. Done well, fantasy doesn't need to deal with things only of interest to adults, nor does it need complexity which would make it inpeniterable by young readers. The complexity should be in what one can draw from it, which is why the best can be re-read so sucessfully.

Earthsea gets that complexity from LeGuin's Taoist underpinnings. HDM from what is going on around the children where adults are doing their bizzare and meaningless (to children) things.

Re:Never really clicked for me

[Mr. Slippery]

If you're interested in getting a copy, there's a hardback version with all five books + a book of Prydain-related short stories.

I'll have to keep an eye out for it. Thanks.

Ambivalence

[Peldor]

Should I quiver with anticipation or recoil in horror?

Either way, I'd feel better if LeGuin was mentioned in that press release as collaborating on this project.

Been dreading this for years.

[R.Caley]

Someone was bound to try. I wonder how much they are going to try and do.

I suppose they did relatively well with Dune (certainly better than the god awful movie), not so well with Children.

But Earthsea is subtle. I dread to think what they'll do with the dragons.

Earthsea Trilogy was great

[babylon93]

I loved those books, and have been hoping someone would make a movie about them.

The story line is something like Harry Potter meets Pirates of the Carribean.

I thought the third book really tied it all together though, so I hope there are also plans to do that one as well. That one small book could fill an entire feature-length movie script though, so maybe that's why it's not on the list yet.

Yay.

And a recent interview

[tiltowait]

from this Feb. here.

Re:And a recent interview

[Pastey]

Favorite part of that interview:

Q: Do you have a favourite TV programme?

UKL: I used to watch Star Trek, until they went off the rails with Voyager, and when we were in England about two centuries ago we got hooked on Dr Who - the guy with the long scarf and the great nose, not the one after him who looked like he needed some vitamins. There isn't much to watch on American TV now unless you are into violence and/or canned laughter. Did you know that most of the laugh tracks they use are so old that the people you hear laughing at the sitcom are mostly dead? It seems appropriate.

Appropriate indeed. I always wondered why "Friends" left me feeling "unclean". Now I know it was the living dead laugh-track.

Or David Schwimmer's acting abilities....

Re:And a recent interview

[LetterJ]

Unfortunately, after the recent stories on Slashdot and NPR about that really famous scream that gets used over and over in movies and TV, even the screams are living dead.

Re:And a recent interview

[davez0r]

if you watch one of the "behind the scenes" specials about friends (i believe it was the one right before the 10th season), they talk about how they use the actual laughs from the studio audience. sometimes they have to add a little and sometimes they trim it down a bit to get the desired effect. or so they say.

Re:And a recent interview

[Jaeph]

Watch David Schwimmer in Band of Brothers. That changed my opinion of him as an actor.

-Jeff

Re:And a recent interview

[BigBadBri]

Or 'The Breast Men' - he was better than I thought he could be, based on my limited experience of avoiding watching Fiends in its endless reruns over here.

Hate to be a Cassandra

[arivanov]

Time to put the asbestous suit.

Hate to say it. It is likely to be a flop. Compared to Earthsea the Lord of the Rings is simple. I(very biased)MO this is the second most impossible movie after the Lord of Light. The reason is that you have both an extremely complex, logical and well described world along with a complex story line and complex characters.

I love the rings, but the rings characters are like cartoons compared to the Earthsea (or nearly any Ursula Le Guin book).

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[!3ren]

I tend to agree with you unfortunately, subtlety has never been a strong suit for them.
On the other hand, introducing a new generation of readers to the world of Earthsea is a positive IMHO.

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[DoNotTauntHappyFunBa]

I(very biased)MO this is the second most impossible movie after the Lord of Light.

Are you referring to this?

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[jfengel]

Earthsea's characters are much better developed than LotR's. I think that's an opportunity for them, not a predicament. The script for LotR is tricky because the dialogue, which reads beautifully as an epic poem, sounds silly coming out of the mouths of actual characters. Additional plots were written in to give the characters some depth. They used distressingly little of the original dialogue.

If the writers, director, and actors of Earthsea can use this to their advantage, they have an opportunity to give strong, interesting performances.

The strength of LotR is the depth of its background material. That allowed them to create extraordinary visuals, and that's the real reason for the success of the films. Not that I have any particular faith in the Academy, but they roughly reflected its strengths: many awards for visual elements, zero for acting. Not that the actors were bad, but the roles don't give them many opportunities to really succeed.

Earthsea, on the other hand, was written more like a modern story and less like an ancient epic. They've got a real opportunity here, a great work by a master storyteller. I hope it works out.

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[Unknown Kadath]

I don't know if they have any designs on Lord of Light yet, but last I heard, Sci-Fi was planning on an Amber miniseries, written by Richard Christian Matheson, whose past writing credits include such tours de force as The A-Team, Knight Rider, and The Incredible Hulk.

P.S. You're not a Cassandra if people believe you. ;)

-Carolyn

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[superflippy]

Granted, it's been about 8 years since I read A Wizard of Earthsea, but from what I remember it would be possible to distill the book down to a simple, film-able story.

We read this book for a religion class in college and in our discussion focused on the importance of names in the book. That may be why I remember the story as basically a young man's quest to discover the name of the evil thing and thus defeat it. I can't remember if becoming a wizard was part of his quest or defeating the evil thing was part of his becoming a wizard, but I don't remember it being that complicated, plot-wise.

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[geoswan]

Some 20 odd years ago I heard that a made-for-tv movie had been made of her "The Lathe of Heaven". Two years ago a higher budget version was remade starring James Caan, Lisa Bonet and Lukas Haas.

They were both diasppointments. Some legal hassle held up distribution of the original. It had a very limited release, on PBS. I waited almost 20 years to see it. And... it wasn't really very good. But, while the newer version had better actors, it had been eviscerated.

FWIW.

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[Maserati]

That's the one !

Gods, a Jack Kirby screenplay and concept art. It won't happen, but somewhere in a universe near here...

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[geoswan]

Any relation to this Richard Matheson?

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[sielwolf]

P.S. You're not a Cassandra if people believe you

Wait, we're believing this guy now?

Then why did we go to all of the trouble of getting this giant wooden horse in here?

*greek hoplite stabs sielwolf*

Oh crap.

*sielwolf dies*

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[Unknown Kadath]

I think R. C. Matheson is that guy's son.

-Carolyn

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[R.Caley]

We read this book for a religion class in college and in our discussion focused on the importance of names in the book. That may be why I remember the story as basically a young man's quest to discover the name of the evil thing and thus defeat it.

I hope you didn't pay for that class:-). If that's the impression of the book you came away with, either someone missed the point entirely, or they were not able to get the point across.

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[hey!]

I think you are right here. Earthsea is clearly much easier to dramatize than LotR, because it is much closer in spirit to drama to begin with. This has nothing to do with its relative merits.

Earthsea, on the other hand, was written more like a modern story and less like an ancient epic. They've got a real opportunity here, a great work by a master storyteller. I hope it works out.

LotR is not really written like an ancient epic either. I know, I've read the Kalevala and the Illiad and, of course, Beowulf. Although imbued with the spirit of the ancient epic, LotR is totally unlike any of them.

The key to LotR's difficulty is its elaborately non-linear structure, the parallel pieces of which are finely and accurately dovetailed together with scenic details in a way a movie goer can't be expected to follow. If a characer looks at the sky and notes the phase of the moon, it is not a throw away scene, but a clue to chronology. It's a very skillful way of letting the careful reader in on details that the charcters are not privvy to without lots of exposition.

With respect to the language used, Tolkien is much more careful than he is usually given credit. He doesn't put archaic speach into characters' mouths willy nilly. Elrond speaks archaicly, because that's how an immortal who learn your language hundreds of years ago would sound. On the other hand as TA Shippey points out, Saruman speaks exactly like a modern politician; the fact that he speaks this way has signficance.

In any case while the dialog in the movie is somewhat different (lines are often moved to different characters), the movie pretty much proved that its archaism is not a cinematic problem. The only place where the dialog felt awkward was when it was forced into performing some script writing function ("Now the battle for Helm's Deep has ended..." etc.).

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[superflippy]

I seem to remember that the class was on symbolism, and the professor chose this book specifically because it had so much to do with naming and the power of names. Not that that was the entire point of the book, but that's the point of view from which we discussed it. I remember that as far as required religion class readings went, it was on the more interesting end.

AWoE was just one of many texts discussed that semester. My recollection of The Sacred and the Profane or any of the other books we read is probably similarly garbled. It was actually a very interesting and worthwhile class, as the professor encouraged discussion and often asked controversial questions to spur it.

I think I may read LeGuin's book again this summer. I remember thinking it was a little too Marin County for my tastes at the time, but my perspectives have changed a lot in the intervening years and I might like it better now.

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[Anonymous Coward]

...such tours de force as The A-Team...

Well, I suppose it's only fitting, given the casting of George Peppard in Damnation Alley. Even better if this guy contributed to a script for Airwolf.

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[Unknown Kadath]

Wait, we're believing this guy now?

Then why did we go to all of the trouble of getting this giant wooden horse in here?

Oh, no reason.

*sets horse on fire*

-Carolyn

Re:Hate to be a Cassandra

[R.Caley]

I seem to remember that the class was on symbolism, and the professor chose this book specifically because it had so much to do with naming and the power of names.

Hm. ISTM that the true-names in Earthsea are not a comment on the power of names in reality, but a metaphor for the difference between the name (Sparrowhawk) and the thing (Ged) -- in Earthsea the true-name is the thing itself, so manipulating the true-name is manipulating the thing.

So the story is about Dunny/Ged/Sparowhawk learning that he doesn't need to use archane methods to find the true name of the thing, which he can see is impossible and so runs scared, rather he needs to recognise the thing. By the rules of the Earthsea universe, once you recognise something for what it is, the true-name must be obvious.

Same thing happens in the court of the fountain near the start of The Farthest Shore when Ged recognises the young man who has arrived for what he is, and so knows his true-name.

As a nerdy analogy, a use-name is a variable which may point into memory (reality) if you are lucky. A true-name is the actual sequence of bits in memory. Once you are looking a the right bit of memory, you see the true-name directly.

In the real world, where we don't have true-names, the equivalent of knowing the true-name is precieving the thing itself (as opposed to it's appearance).

The Tao which can be spoken of is not the true Tao
The name which can be named is not the true name

The nameless is the origin of heaven and earth
the named is the mother of the ten thousand things

Very cool

[0x0d0a]

The Wizard of Earthsea series is one of the most underread fantasy series I know of. It isn't the best fantasy out there (that's reserved for Paula Volsky -- try Illusion and see what you think), but it's very good, and very different from most fantasy.

I'd read the first book before anything else. I was kind of disappointed with The Tombs of Atuan book 2), which was very different from the first book. The third book was okay, but not as good as the first -- sort of the Dune syndrome.

The setting is different from most fantasy -- a bunch of islands, lots of emphasis on sailing around. There are not a lot of epic things going on -- there's lots of pragmatic, down-to-earth people.

Re:Very cool

[Wylfing]

The Wizard of Earthsea series is one of the most underread fantasy series I know of.

Underread and underrated. If you've read the original series, Tales from Earthsea is a fantastic read. I also recently picked up The Other Wind and thought it was wonderful as well.

Re:Very cool

[tillerman35]

I must be in a very small minority because I liked the second more than the first. Don't get me wrong- I loved the first book! I simply liked the direction that the character Ged had taken. Here he is this amazingly powerful wizard- the Archmage of Roke, in fact- yet his gentleness and human qualities are what really make him what he is. IMHO, the character development is very well done. Ditto for the third book.

I agree, however, with the majority view in that I can't see how they can possibly pull this off. Here's an example: LeGuin uses the concept of everything having a true name, that is, a name in the true speech, the language the dragons use, the language that Ea used when he spoke the world. This is not just some interesting concept found throughout the novels- it defines them and binds them together as a coherent whole. The first book is Ged's quest to find the true name of the Gebbeth and thus bring about its absumption. The second book's most inspiring moment is where he gives the girl her true name. In the third, the drama is made more intense when Ged discovers that the dragons lose their speech. How can these be communicated (meaningfully) in a visual medium? I think it would be quite shameful for this central theme to be made irrelevant or worse transformed into something entirely different from the author's intent. At best, you get dialogue that completely confuses anyone who hasn't read the book. At worst, you either leave it out (which makes the mini-series pointless) or you turn it into something completely different and piss off the very-vocal fans of the book (e.g. "Wierding Modules" in the original Dune movie). And this is only one of many important themes LeGuin weaves into these books. Leave them out and all you have left is a "Magik Island Adventure" story.

Anyone who trusts the sci-fi channel to remain true to the book should look at what they did to Battlestar Galactica (yes, I know it was a series, not a book). To quote Edward James Olmos, "I know the Sci Fi [network] wants to say that everyone's going to like it, but in the case of longtime fans, they're not." I think the same will apply to Earthsea.

My Predictions (serious and otherwise):

1. They'll turn this into another Harry Potter clone.
2. The tiny hedgehog creature (Hoag) will be replaced with an ewok.
3. Looksfar will have an outboard motor.
4. The gebbeth will be played by a wisecracking Eddy Murphy
5. Ged will NOT be black, nor will the majority of the cast. The Kargad people, however, will be black savages. (For those who haven't read the book or haven't read it in a while, it's the reverse).
6. Ged and Tenar/Arha will fall in love in the mini-series.
7. The ring of Erreth-Akbe will be referred to as the Ring of Earthsea or some other name to avoid explaining who Erreth-Akbe was. There will be no mention of it being in half, nor will it have any rune on it whatsoever.
8. Alternate prediction to #7 above: The ring will not be mentioned because test audiences thought it was "too much like Lord of the Rings." The screenwriters will come up with some other plausible explanation for Ged to be wandering about underground.
9. One of my most beloved books will be ruined for those people not fortunate to have read it before seeing the mini-series.

Re:Very cool

[Anonymous Coward]

Volsky? I like tales the French revolution and the Venetian republic as much as the next guy, but putting your characters in the same situation then making them do magic or placing them on another planet is more like embellished historical fiction than speculative world-building on the grand but subtle scale that Le Guin writes on. Le Guin has put some thought into what kinds of cultures would emerge and come into conflict on the Archipelago and the Hainish Ekumen, not surprising for a Kroeber.

And as good as Volsky writes, Le Guin writes better.

Great!

[bhima]

This is great! Although I've read and enjoyed ALL of her books, the first two books are far better suited for this than the others (not being depressing or anti-men). They're short enough to translate OK into the mini series format. So far I'd give the Sci-Fi network good marks on their attempts to bring the Dune series to film.

Earthsea world is a fun world to game in despite the difficulties thrown in by the latter stories.

I wonder will they remake the lathe of heaven, and I'd love to see "The word for world is forest" or even "Rocannon's World"!

Re:Great!

[funwithBSD]

They already did:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0290230/

Not too bad... they skipped a lot of the hard parts, quite frankly, to avoid the confusion.

Lisa Bonet (from the Cosby show) does a very good job in this movie, considering her lackluster career.

The first adapatation, which was a VERY formitive movie I saw on PBS when I was young, was much better.

Add to that the Ascent of Man (Think "Connections" with a brain) turned me into the twisted geek I am today...

Re:Great!

[(Pev)]

the first two books are far better suited for this than the others (not being depressing or anti-men)

I'm not sure where you're getting the anti-men bit. Feminist yes, but I haven't seen anything anti-male. As a matter of fact I refer you to "The Matter of Seggri" in The Birthday of the World which tells the story of a group of men oppressed by a principally female population on a small planet and their subsequent liberation. It's a good story and speaks well to the restrictive roles of men in our society now.

Don't get too excited

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering the uhmmm, "quality" of most SciFi Channel productions, I'm not exactly jumping up and down over this one. The Earthsea books aren't likely to translate well to TV even in the best of hands.

I'd love to see a big-screen version, though. I think there would be a better chance of getting it right in the larger format. Not because of "action" scenes or dramatic landscapes or any of the usual things people want to see in a movie, but because to do these books justice, you really would need to immerse the audience in the film in a way that isn't possible on a typical 29" screen.

Re:Don't get too excited

[dpille]

The Earthsea books aren't likely to translate well to TV even in the best of hands.

Agreed. I'm not sure how they can go from the now-freed-of-his-shadow ascendant mage to Tenar's plotline without the in-print convention of having to pick up another book. Years since I've read them, but I distinctly remember being entirely focused on the new characters and situations in the second book, then being blown away by Ged starving and dehydrated, lost in the tunnels. To say nothing of the character development from that point forward.

If they can't get that one bit right, the video treatment will miss most of what I loved about those books as a whole.

Re:Don't get too excited

[Anonymous Coward]

"quality"? Didn't you enjoy the Dune comedies?

Fantasy, SciFi

[use_compress]

what's the difference?

Re:Fantasy, SciFi

[Reverend Beaker]

I remember reading a book on writing "Speculative Fiction" by Orson Scott Card, and he put it as, in the most basic of terms, in fantasy something happens because of magic, in science fiction something happens because of a machine. Obviously you can go into all sorts of variations and point out where that explaination is wrong, but, in my opinion, or sort of comes down to how the story feels to the reader.

Re:Fantasy, SciFi

[Eklypz]

Fantasy has magic and SciFI has technology. Both typically create new worlds for your mind to explore. I also have read in many philosophical ideals in many books that have had me thinking in new directions.

Re:Fantasy, SciFi

[Nimrangul]

The bounds of probability, allusion to reallity and illusion of believability. One has them, the other does not.

Fantasy doesn't try to really have things make sense they just tell you that a thing works, they do not explain it.

Science Fiction often bases it's marvels on actual theory of the modern day, expanding upon it's fantastical possibilities.

Nanotechnological devices repairing a person's wounds are a little more believable than a man chanting a bunch of words than putting his hands on a would and it being healed.

Also, most Fantasy makes sides Black and White and Science Fiction uses more Grays.

This is not of course completely true with all books called Fantasy or Science Fiction, some think anything set in a almost medieval psudoeuropean setting is Fantasy and anything in the future Science Fiction.

Re:Fantasy, SciFi

[Anonymous Coward]

According to an old "What's New with Phil and Dixie" strip, from Dragon magazine, science fiction and fantasy are exactly the same except that everything in Science Fiction is electric. (You know, electric swords, electric horses... etc.)

Re:Fantasy, SciFi

[Anonymous Coward]

One is good, one is whack.

Re:Fantasy, SciFi

[use_compress]

I meant the above comment to refer to the odd fact that the Science Fiction channel was producing a fantasy movie.

Re:Fantasy, SciFi

[Mr. Slippery]

Also, most Fantasy makes sides Black and White and Science Fiction uses more Grays.

Unless by "Grays" you mean those funky aliens who show up to anal probe people, no. Science fiction is also rife with simplistic morality - see almost anything written before the late 60s (Evil Aliens versus Galactic Patrol), as well as 90% of what's published today. Fantasy has the same problem (Dark Lord Syndrome), but also has its wonderful exceptions - like A Wizard of Earthsea.

Re:Fantasy, SciFi

[juhaz]

Odd? It's not like Sci-Fi channel does not have a lot of shows more fitting to fantasy or horror categories than pure Science Fiction.

It's got pretty much every aspect of speculative fiction covered, it's just a name, not definition of policy.

Re:Fantasy, SciFi

[Samrobb]

Fantasy Guy and SF Guy drinking at a bar...

Fantasy Guy: "Look - Trolls!"
SF Guy : "Mutants!"
FG : "Trolls!"
SG : "Mutants!"
FG : "Trolls!"
SG : "Maybe they're... mutant trolls?"
Bartender : "You idiots are looking in the mirror again!"

Heh. Phil and Dixie... good stuff.

Re:Fantasy, SciFi

[shotfeel]

Well, I guess it has about as much to do with science fiction as "Scare Tactics", "Mad, Mad House", or "Crossing Over" (does anyone actually watch that show?).

Re:Fantasy, SciFi

[Nimrangul]

Well, I suppose I should have used the adjective modern when describing these. That's like with how The Raven by Poe was a gripping piece of Horror liturature, now it's just a slightly creepy poem. Once upon a time, nigh ever story was told black and white. Most Fantasy I've read from the 80's on has been black and white and most Science Fiction from the 80's on I've read have been shades of gray.

My Lord...

[bobej1977]

I just crapped my pants.

I loved those books growing up. The first book ranks with Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game in my esteem as the best 2 novels ever written.

I just hope they don't turn it into one of those special effects crap-fests they usually put on. I understand that a little CGI can go a long way towards shrinking the budgets of these smaller productions, but the Earthsea stories don't need fancy ornamentation, just a faithful portrayal of the characters. This is a prime example of how most good fantasy/sci-fi stories are NOT their settings.

Re:My Lord...

[ddama]

Both Ender's Game and Wizard of Earthsea are, by themselves, great children's novels. Both of them become more complex in the context of their sequels.

However, the intensity of LeGuin's character development outshines Card. Card's no slouch, but Ged always came across as real in ways that Ender, whose world is much closer to ours, didn't.

This is, of course, merely one reader's opinion. YMMV.

Get an account and you can filter

[mrnick]

You know, If you got an account here you could set your preferences to filter out articles that are on subjects that you don't care about.

Remember, one man's trash is another man's treausre.

Nick Powers

Re:this is not Slashdot worthy

[frenchgates]

Okay, AC, here's a tech issue for you:

Why don't some slashdot readers seem to know that they can use technology to filter categories they aren't interested in so they don't have to waste their precious time on them and can more quickly return to outsourcing/being outsourced?

Discuss...

SciFi Channel

[galtenberg]

Not wanting to post flamebait, but this is why capitalism shines (sometimes)...

It takes organizations or businesses like SciFi to grow to a point where projects like this can be undertaken.

This may not be a great project (see Dune miniseries), but it is a good project. I wish there were more of them.

Re:SciFi Channel

[Anonymous Coward]

Not wanting to post flamebait, but this is why capitalism shines (sometimes)

Yeah, it has nothing to do with personal choice, freedom, pursuit of happiness, being allowed to chase the American Dream, not having to wait in bread lines and being able to buy as much toilet paper as you want. The real reason capitalism is great is because we get to watch shit on TV. BWHAHAHAA! What a fucknut.

Re:SciFi Channel

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, yeah. This is the worst argument for capitalism since Huey, Dewey and Louie.

Re:SciFi Channel

[galtenberg]

Making one point about capitalism doesn't mean it applies to the entire concept. Or are we not allowed to make points in this forum?

Be humorous, but drop the rudeness. You had a point, but now you're a troll.

Yeah, right.

[aanand]

Like anyone can actually pronounce those names.

Re:Yeah, right.

[Anonymous Coward]

Moderated by someone who hasn't read the books. ;)

Earthsea's good

[Operating Thetan]

But I want to see The Dispossessed

Read the books whilst you can...

[mccalli]

For anyone planning on watching this, now would be a good time to read (or re-read) the books.

I'm not suggesting that the books are about to disappear. Nor am I implying that the TV series will be terrible. I have no idea how well the product will turn out, and the books will be as available after as they are before.

No, what I'm saying is that pretty soon this series will influence your view of things, whether you want it to or not. I'm seeing this with my nephews, who are reading Lord of the Rings directly after seeing the films. They're seeing the book as much more action-packed than I did, and I'm sure that this is due to expectation after watching the films.

So read them now, and then watch with interest. You're going to be influenced - can't help but be, but at least you'll have your own ideas in place beforehand.

Cheers,
Ian

Re:Read the books whilst you can...

[shotfeel]

They're seeing the book as much more action-packed than I did

That's probably good. What I fear more is that my kids (my oldest is just starting to read the books) will find the books "boring" compared to the movie because it isn't all action.

Sounds Good To Me

[kjeldor]

I don't see why so many people think this will fail. The series has great character development, very intense scenes, and one of the scariest villains I've ever read about. Plus with the popularity of Harry Potter, any wizard school-boy type miniseries is bound to get a good amount of viewers.

Please use mini-series

[SmackCrackandPot]

Everytime I speed-read miniseries, it looks like miseries.

Re:Please use mini-series

[Minwee]

Everytime I speed-read miniseries, it looks like miseries.

Watching them on the Sci-Fi channel can do that too.

Re:Prepare for enjoyment

[Anonymous Coward]

I would be skeptical too, but they did such an incredible job with Dune that I have *some* hope that they'll get this one right too.

Every time someone tells me that the reason Peter Jackson butchered Lord of the Rings is that "it's too hard to make a book like this into a movie", I point them to ScFi Channel's production of Dune -- which was done with a very small budget and with (excellect!) no-name actors.

Making a good movie is really about having a great script and great actors. The rest of the Hollywood crap is just eye candy for restless nine year olds.

I wonder if they'll use black or dark Polynesian actors like the books call for?

The original was better

[PIPBoy3000]

I think I preferred the low-budget version on PBS they aired in the 70's. It seemed to have more heart, plus I missed the aliens at the end.

Re:The original was better

[AndroidCat]

The PBS version was perfect, I don't see how adding names and effects to it would help at all. (More likely the reverse although I haven't seen the newer version yet.) Even lines that were added fit so well that I was surprised when I re-read it that they weren't there.

Antwerp!

Five?

[JoeGee]

I've read four, unless something came after Tehanu.

Re:Five?

[Feathers McGraw]

I've read four, unless something came after Tehanu.

Yes, The Other Wind, which IIRC ties in to both Tehanu and The Farthest Shore.

There was also a collection of short stories called Tales from Earthsea, which is sitting on my shelf, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

Re:Five?

[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

That is a pity, The Other Wind follows on directly from the last of those short stories - Dragonfly. All of the other stories there tie in directly with the main line except 'Darkrose and Diamond'.

Re:Scifi

[wickedj]

Apparently, you've never read Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy. Or maybe perhaps J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter books. You can also try out some of Anne Rice's works (Flash Site). Hmmm... what else? Oh there's Madeleine L'Engel's Time Quartet.

not really suited for SciFi

[laura20]

They are wonderful novels, and I'd love to see them adapted but... so completely not suited for the SciFi style of miniseries making. They need almost nothing in the way of special effects, and a proper adaption would depend on really strong actors who can bring out the inner development. This is especially true of Tombs of Atuan, where a large part of the story involves the main characters wandering around underground.

It's truly a pity that the BBC never picked up an option -- that have been a perfect combination.

I'd rather see a Dragonlance game

[PIPBoy3000]

I think a t.v. show is quite unlikely considering the budget required to do it well. A movie's been talked about for years, but no movement has happened.

What's most likely is that we see a NeverwinterNights module based on Dragonlance. Think I'm kidding? Take a look at these folks.

Re:I'd rather see a Dragonlance game

[Theodrake]

There is also a NWN persistant world at Krynnhaven.

What about a bit more science?

[Anonymous Coward]

I find that the SciFi channel is always on the fantasy, sensational side, to the detriment of the scientific side. I wish they had more sci-fi shows where science plays a more important role. That is, more in the way of hard sci-fi shows.

Re:What about a bit more science?

[Gilmoure]

Maybe they could do some Robert L. Forward, Larry Niven, or Hal Clement? All would be interesting.

G

Cautious optimism is called for

[Anonymous Coward]

The three thin books of the Earthsea Trilogy are IMO the second best fantasy series ever written (LoTR being #1), and probably the most *original* fantasy series ever. How LeGuin was able to create an entrie world with such economy is totally beyond me.

If you haven't read it yet, I envy you.

The SciFi Channel did an amazing job with Dune, another very cerebral book, so there's hope that they'll take the same intelligent approach with Earthsea. That clown Peter Jackson could learn a lot from these people: respect the books, have a great script, and don't spend so much time wanking around with special effects.

Re:Cautious optimism is called for

[funwithBSD]

Ever read George MacDonalds the "The Princess and the Goblin"?

This seminal work was read by both Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and its impact on their work is clear. Especially the "I am not gonna explain Magic to you, dumbshit, it's Magic!" attitude they all share.

Written in the 19th century, it runs in the same vein as Alice and Kipling's works. The english is chewy at times, and can get down right sloggy.

Re:Cautious optimism is called for

[tcopeland]

Yup, MacDonald has even been referred to by Jeff Gardiner as the grandfather of modern fantasy.

Almost...

[manonthemoon]

The setting is indeed stock, but at least the twins are not. Their interplay of dark/light was incredibly well done, giving the whole series texure and depth.

Re:Almost...

[Anonymous Coward]

Gack.

Texture and depth in Dragonlance? Surely you jest...

Dragonlance = Tepid, cliched fantasy written by two jaded hacks.

When did miniseries become a cable thing?

[ianscot]

In general it seems like the major networks can't make miniseries float, ratings wise. The last network ones that made my radar were the Jesus one on CBS (long enough ago that Debra Messing played Mary Magdalene and it wasn't a weird casting) and the Dinotopia one that flopped badly.

Back in the day, Shogun and Roots and that kind of thing were big money makers for the three broadcast networks. Now it's the SciFi Channel and that kind of venue putting out new series, or first-time-in-the-US ones anyway. (A&E ran the [fantastic, literate, well-acted] BBC Pride and Prejudice, for example.)

How long ago did this happen? Personally I'm not so sure it's a bad thing. The production values are lower, okay, but CGI can fill in rough edges for this science fiction or fantasty stuff. A miniseries is much better, much much better, for most books, and for characters in general, than any film release. The Aubrey Maturin movie this spring was pretty good, really, but there's just no way to do that in two-plus hours.

Maybe in 25 years we'll get Harry Potter miniseries done by some sort of children's network, and the plots and characters won't feel like they're being crammed inside of three hours to cash in at the box office. That first HP movie in particular was way, way frenetic.

Re:When did miniseries become a cable thing?

[superflippy]

The production values are lower, okay, but CGI can fill in rough edges for this science fiction or fantasty stuff.

Low production values + CGI can themselves be the rough edges. Remember the tiger attack from the Children of Dune mini-series?

Re:When did miniseries become a cable thing?

[NSash]

Maybe in 25 years we'll get Harry Potter miniseries done by some sort of children's network, and the plots and characters won't feel like they're being crammed inside of three hours to cash in at the box office.

In 25 years, no one below the age of 30 will know what Harry Potter is. (Kid living with mean family discovers he has magic powers, secret history. It's been done better before, and it will be done better again. Don't get me wrong -- I liked [most of] the books -- but don't confuse them for something they aren't.)

A tale of two lathes

[Anonymous Coward]

The cheeseball PBS version with the Dr. Who class production values was a truly interesting and transcendent experience for me. The more recent production (which I believe was A&E), with the high production values and world-class actors was a boring mess.

Otherworld

[jbsp39]

For me, I'd really like to see a miniseries (or better still a film) based on Tad Williams' Otherworld.

Re:Otherworld

[Arovin]

Otherland, and I would love to see it as well. It would just be too long to be realized. All the books in Otherland are really just one big story, and they encompass aleast 2 times more stuff then LoTR.

Re:Otherworld

[jbsp39]

Ahh ... a senior moment there! I knew it was Otherland but obviousy my fingers didn't :-)

Not a trilogy.

[flogger]

OK, Maybe it was originally a trilogy:
Wizard of Earthsea
Tombs of Autan
The Farthest Shore

But in 2001 Leguin published Tehanu. The earthsea trilogy is now called the Earthsea Cycle. Of all of The Earthsea cycle books, Tehanu really showcases LeGuin's political and feminist slants. (This is a good thing I believe). Tombs of Autan had some and the other two books required a little more digging to get into her philosophy.

If you want to read some great LeGuin I would reccomend: Always coming home and The Dispossessed. Both of these books are very thought provoking and well worth the time to read. There was an edition of Always coming home publihsed with a cassette tape of the music and poetry that was created by the societies described in the book. Wonderul stuff.

"Grain grows best in shit" Ursula K LeGuin

(Tinyurl links got to amazon Please use fewer 'junk' characters.
)

Re:Not a trilogy.

[DudeTheMath]

Tehanu was published in 1990/1991; The Other Wind was published in 2001. LeGuin calls them "The Books of Earthsea."

But why only the first two books, anyway? Are they planning on following up with the rest? After reading Wizard, I kept wondering, "Why am I here?" while reading Tombs. Farthest Shore helped make sense of that.

Re:Not a trilogy.

[ElaborateCalculator]

Actually, there's even more...

The Other Wind, a full novel, came out in 2001, as did Tales From Earthsea, a collection of short stories.

IIRC, the short story Dragonfly was originally published in Robert Silverburg's Legends compilation.

--darren

Re:Not a trilogy.

[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

You missed 'Tales from Earthsea' and 'The Other Wind'. One of those (guess which) is a collection of short stories.

Re:Not a trilogy.

[Myridon]

So, by your logic, _The Lord of the Rings_ is not a trilogy either...

Re:Not a trilogy.

[kirkjobsluder]

On the other hand:

The A Wizard of Earthsea, Tombs and Furthest Shore cluster together as a story about the career of a single character (Ged). The later books, developed 20 years later, focus on different characters, different themes and are done in a different style. Probably the best way to think of them is as a trilogy with two sequels.

Re:Not a trilogy.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not a trilogy, Dumbfuck. It's one volume split into six parts, published in three seperate books (against the author's wishes) for economical reasons. At least try to be reasonably informed about something before you post.

They're still around?

[Anonymous Coward]

I stopped watching SciFi after they killed off Farscape.

The Farscape Mini series just finished taping. I'd rather look forward to that than anything scifi could come up with.

Old news...

[Caduceus1]

The press release is from January, and they've talked about it back as far as August 2001...

I liked it!

[renehollan]

When I first saw LeGuinn's name mentioned in this article, I thought of The Lathe of Heaven. I rented it on DVD (yes, despite feeding the bastards, I do occasionally rent a movie -- I try keeping consumption down though -- better to support the brewing industry than the MPAA) a while back, and liked it very much.

YMMV.

Don't think I would buy the DVD, but it was worth the $5.00 rental, IMHO.

Wonderful title, that, too.

Re:I liked it!

[Anonymous Coward]

(yes, despite feeding the bastards, I do occasionally rent a movie -- I try keeping consumption down though -- better to support the brewing industry than the MPAA)

you are 1337.

that is all.

Wheel of time

[Gildor]

I wonder why no one has done a Wheel of Time mini-series? *ducks* (for the humor impaired, no, this isn't a serious intuiry)

Re:Wheel of time

[Caduceus1]

Perhaps you weren't being serious, but...it's been optioned for movies...

Re:Wheel of time

[Gilmoure]

They could interweave each episode with one from Terry Goodkind's ballast collection. Would anyone notice?

Re:Wheel of time

[Warlok]

Yikes! Does this mean movies 5-10 will be the same movie, just digitally changing scenery and dress, and adding more and more black circles under the Dragon's eyes?

Horrid

[wiredog]

Really, really, bad. The production values were good. But, well, the book is probably non-filmable.

Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Better than a "Goatse" Miniseries, I suppose!

devastation

[LordMyren]

they are going to blaspheme against one of my greater childhood memories.

i reread Wizard this summer. beautiful little Man v. Self. but there's no way they can lace the movie with all the subtle surrealism of the book.

Myren

Re:My Lord... (um...)

[Markvs]

You do realize, of course, that Card got most of his ideas *from* Ursula Le Guin? I encountered this little phenomena upon one of my friends being blown away by Card's "originality"... :-)

That's not a flame, just pointing out the obvious...

STOP AT THE 3rd BOOK!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

The fourth book in the series is utter crap and a real waste of the paper it's printed on, but I'm just into the 3rd book in my second reading of the first three. The first three are excellent. Does anyone know why the 4th book sucks so bad?

Re:STOP AT THE 3rd BOOK!!!

[funwithBSD]

Ex Dues Dragon.

Le Guin makes a sudden shuddering stop with Ged in a bad spot and a Dragon drops from sky to end the story.

Considering that the stories are based on AmerIndian folktales, dropping a Greek ending on you makes a bad ending.

Re:STOP AT THE 3rd BOOK!!!

[Shimbo]

The fourth book in the series is utter crap and a real waste of the paper it's printed on

Well, much as I love reading Le Guin, I did find the fourth book hard to take. I guess that was kind of the point, though.

However, it does prepare one for the fifth part of the series. So, I agree to some extent: don't stop at the fourth.

Re:STOP AT THE 3rd BOOK!!!

[ddama]

Tehanu is a fine book. It just happens to be utterly and completely different from the three before it.

Deliberately. LeGuin wrote it as an adult looking back on her juvenile work and finding it less than satisfactory, with the intent of allowing all of her readers to see as she did. Difficult, yes. I found it very powerful. Few people, especially creatives, have the self-discipline to critique themselves in that way.

It is neither utter crap, nor anti-men. That said, the Deus Ex Machina style ending, while foreshadowed adequately, is predicatble and a little tedious -- it is how the third ended, after all.

I always thought...

[tassii]

I always thought the Miles Vorkorsigan books would make a fantastic miniseries. So much material to work from and a lot of blanks to fill in for new stories.

Space combat, political intrigue, charismatic lead character.. how can you go wrong?

Unless Disney got a hold of it, of course.

Re:I always thought...

[Anonymous Coward]

I completely agree! This is definitely a set of books that could (note I don't use the word "would") translate well to either the small or big screen.

If the adaptions took into account the multiple levels of the stories (simplest level: adventure sci-fi, second level: how people surmount or come to terms with their own limitations), there would be something for everyone to enjoy.

Re:I always thought...

[goliard]

Actually, I think the most cinemagraphic of the Vorkosigan books is Barrayar, in which Miles is only a minor character.

Re:I always thought...

[tassii]

I definately agree that Barrayar would be the most colorful and rich movie, but I do think that the other Miles books would provide plenty of material for a tv series.

Could be good as a 2 hour pilot to introduce the characters.

The Name

[sutekh137]

If only we could discover the true NAME of the series, we could control how it turns out. Anyone?

Re:My Lord... (um...)

[Anonymous Coward]

You do realize, of course, that Card got most of his ideas *from* Ursula Le Guin?

Ideas are nice and all, but 90% is execution, wouldn't you say? I mean, LoTR wasn't great because for being earlier, but for being better.

Myst

[kundor]

The Sci-Fi Channel announced quite a while ago that they were making a Myst miniseries. I haven't heard a peep about it since.

Does anyone know if that's still going forward? How many planned miniseries actually come to completion -- if Myst was silently cancelled, are the chances of this one being finished questionable?

Re:Myst

[deadboy2000]

Dozens are planned, but it's rare that something is announced like this and then canceled. Earthsea has a lot of momentum behind it at this point. AFAIK Myst is no longer in development at SciFi.

with all of SciFi's funding...

[The Lynxpro]

Why can't they [SciFi] put the funds to good use, like co-financing the Beeb's revival of "Doctor Who" slated for 2005? SciFi would be a better outlet in the States for it than BBC America...and reach a larger potential audience since SciFi is a basic cable channel and BBC America is usually treated as something reserved for digital cable packages. Yep, load up 10 Spanish-speaking stations in basic cable, but make the Beeb a premium cultural channel. Nope, that's not discrimination at all! Damn you to hell, Comcast! :)

Re:with all of SciFi's funding...

[deadboy2000]

Earthsea has a larger potential audience than Dr. Who will ever have, no matter where it's broadcast! Earthsea appeals to more women and non-propellerheads, who, taken together, do make up the majority of the population.

Re:this is not Slashdot worthy

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only is it not worthy.

Isn't Scifi owned by Vivendi. Why are we promoting
a subsidiary of a RIAA member?

I wonder if Roy Schneider's available?

[Channard]

No? How about Michael Ironside then? Now, a V - 20 years later series - that's what I'd like to see.

Suuurreee....

[Keeper]

Yeah, they SAY they're going to be a miniseries based on the first two books. But after they do the first book, they'll cancel the second half citing poor ratings and high production costs...

What we Need is a Discworld Mini-series or Movie

[The Phantom Mensch]

With all this deathly serious fantasy coming out, someone really needs to produce some good fantasy parody, and Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is just the thing if you ask me. Start with "The Color of Magic" perhaps. This one brings in the fine wizards of Unseen University, heroes, magic swords, trolls, dwarves and whatnot and makes a good introduction to the whole genre.

better, by far, than harry potter

[option8]

the earthsea books were some of my first experiences with "fantasy" fiction, long before i was able to tackle the lord of the rings series, though i recall they seemed to be written well above my normal reading at the time.

unfortunately, the "fantasy" section at my local bookwhores were filled with tripe like the endless dragonlance series and their ilk. i took a bad turn, and for a long time was dissatisfied with the genre, delving instead into more sci fi than is healthy for an adolescent.

then i took up the first of raymond feist's magician series and, though the series has been a long-time companion whenever i am in need of something to read (it has gotten steadily worse through each sequel) the premise reminded me, for some reason, of the first earthsea book. so i read leguin again, and was struck by how good it was the second time through. the sequels to earthsea never did as much for me as the first. the tombs of atuan seemed, to me, too indiana jones for my liking. it's been a long time, though, so my memory may not do the series justice.

then came harry potter. a wizard going to wizard school, making friends and enemies while learning his special abilities and discovering his hidden power. huh. that sounds familiar. i awaited word of a lawsuit, but alas...

i have yet to trudge my way through any of the potter books, or for that matter see the movies, but i recommend to any of my adult friends who do that they read a wizard of earthsea before inflicting potter on their children.

hopefully the end result of the miniseries will be similar to that of the first dune series scifi did, which was that a lot of people i know took up frank herbert for the first time. the book store i frequent these days (they have good coffee) had a whole display of dune editions, collections, etc.

and, not to give away any spoilers to those who haven't read the books, i really want to see the scene where the guy's in the thing, and there's that other thing, AND...

i love that scene.

Re:better, by far, than harry potter

[Ruds]

then came harry potter. a wizard going to wizard school, making friends and enemies while learning his special abilities and discovering his hidden power. huh. that sounds familiar. i awaited word of a lawsuit, but alas...

i have yet to trudge my way through any of the potter books, or for that matter see the movies, but i recommend to any of my adult friends who do that they read a wizard of earthsea before inflicting potter on their children.

hey, what a good idea! let's trash a book we've never read!

i heard that wizard of earthsea has a wizard in it that fights dragons! that sounds a lot like the hobbit! tolkien's estate should sue!

it's great that you recommend that parents have their children read earthsea; it's a great book that's perfect for readers from curious pre-teens to fantasy-minded adults. but rowling writes some fine fiction for children, and for you to discount it without reading it is pretty lame.

here's a tip--try not to be so pretentious.

Re:better, by far, than harry potter

[Warlok]

I saw the first Harry Potter movie, thought it was formulaic, haven't yet read the books, but do have an observation.

A few years ago when Rowling's books were the literary version of Beanie Babies, I did a lot of travelling. On every flight, in every airport waiting area, there was at least one pre-teen kid carrying this five pound hard-cover monstrosity in their hands with a bookmark half-way through the book. My observation at the time was that any author that could convince a kid to read and carry a book the size of "War and Peace" or "The Stand" through an airport with them couldn't be doing such a bad job.

So while the stories may be like Spaghetti-O's to an Italian chef, if they get kids to stop draining their minds into the boob box, how bad can it be? You can't expect every twelve-year-old in the world to pick up Tolkein and devour it - wean them on Rowlings, work them through Earthsea and Wrinkle, introduce them to the Hobbit, and Bob's yer uncle.

Re:better, by far, than harry potter

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't expect every twelve-year-old in the world to pick up Tolkien and devour it - wean them on Rowling, work them through Earthsea and Wrinkle, introduce them to the Hobbit, and Bob's yer uncle.

Well, if you're reading stories aloud to them, I'd suggest a different order (take Middle Earth before Earthsea). With my daughter (who turns six next month), our first * l o n g * bedtime books were by JK Rowling (Harry Potter #1 - after she'd seen the movie) and Lloyd Alexander (The Book of Three - neither of us had seen the Disney adaptation then, though we've caught it since).

We moved on to Tolkien (The Hobbit, then Lord of the Rings -- finishing RotK just before the movie came out, to her immense delight), and we're now tackling Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea.

She enjoyed Neil Gaiman's Stardust (the graphic novel with Charles Vess illos, not the words-only version), and I placed orders on Amazon earlier today for George Macdonald's Curdie books (The Princess and the Goblin / The Princess and Curdie). I think TH White's The Once and Future King will creep in somewhere along the way...

Reading good books to children is fun, and can be very rewarding. I recommend it. (Besides, it feels good to know you've read every word of Lord of the Rings out loud... apart from the Appendices, that is. Nobody could be so cruel!)

Re:better, by far, than harry potter

[Anonymous Coward]

Sci-fi fans can only seem pretentious to other sci-fi fans. Real pretentious people look down on the lot of you. I should know, dork.

Re:better, by far, than harry potter

[option8]

okaaaay.

my lawsuit riff was a (feeble) attempt at humor.

and i didn't say i hadn't read harry potter, but that i have yet to finish it. borrowed it from a friend. not a big fan (if you can't already tell). i guess that wasn't clear. sorry.

admittedly it's something close to 20 years later, and i'm a different reader than the intended audience, but all my (insipid-best-seller-reading) friends were gushing over it, and they're reasonable adults... +5 insightful, i ain't.

well, i suppose i was trying at that point to make my post on-topic and get to the part where i said something lame about the scifi channel or something. i forget.

if i come off as pretentious, well, i guess it's because i think i'm better than you.

Sci-fi? Grand...

[grasshoppa]

Let's hope the show isn't well liked or anything. Otherwise, given Sci-fi's amazing ability to shoot itself in the foot, it'll cancel the show.

Cynical? Only on Wensdays.

Re:this is not Slashdot worthy

[Anonymous Coward]

Why are we promoting a subsidiary of a RIAA member?

you are 1337.

that is all.

Re:Scifi

[Anonymous Coward]

YHBT. HTH. HAND.

Actually...

[Svartalf]

One of the PBS stations, WMET 13 in New York, did manage to film the thing pretty much perfectly- AND, while the production values on the movie were comparable to early Dr. Who episodes, the acting is QUITE good and the movie is more than watchable.

I don't know about the A&E attempt at the same, since I didn't see that one yet. (Though, to hear it, it doesn't sound quite as good as the original attempt- reviews are mixed and lean towards making statements about it being "an inspired adaptation" and that people that saw the original movie or read the book would be disappointed.

Le Guin, Card

[imehler]

Mmmm... I wonder if they'll do the Ender's Saga series? Children of the Mind is the one I'm on right now, I've been consuming them at a rate of 3 or 4 days per book. I know they are long so there is the risk of the 'compression effect' which can screw up such great works, but maybe if they made it into one of the longer miniseries, like taken was. I can hope. And I really really do hope.

As for the Earthsea series, I loved the depth she put into the story and it's characters. I seem to be able to enjoy almost anything, so maybe my opinion doesn't really count for a lot, but I am definitely looking forward to seeing this.

ARRGH... Must preview posts!

[Svartalf]

That is WNET in New York...
(If only I could type instead of typo... :-)

Did anyone *like* Narnia?

[0x0d0a]

Okay, I'm just curious. Setting aside for a moment the rather disappointing (IMHO) religious ties Narnia has, did anyone actually enjoy reading it? As in, just as a story? It wasn't *awful*, and it certainly had character, but I really didn't like it nearly as much as a lot of other fantasy I've read. It's not something that I'd choose to read again unless I was stuck somewhere without anything else to read.

Re:Did anyone *like* Narnia?

[B'Trey]

How old were you when you read it? It's a bit simplistic for adults or even teens just to read as a piece of fiction. I've found that they're wonderful to read to children. I'm not at all religious but young kids usually don't recognize the religious references and the moral implications can be discussed without referring to Christianity as a source document.

Doh!

[flogger]

One of the thing I hate about living in a town with a small library, is that I miss out on things like this. I will have to order these other two books. Thanks for the suggestions.

Re:Doh!

[Anonymous Coward]

Also order the short-story collection Tales of Earthsea, which should probably be read between Tehanu and The Other Wind (it was written concurrently with the latter).

Tehanu is a bit didactic, but still worth reading. The Other Wind is a revelation in understanding how Earthsea came to be the way it is.

You've offended Narnia Fans everywhere!

[genner]

May Aslan forgive you.

Next

[dgagley]

Whats next?

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Dragons of Pern, etc.

Unless you spend alot of time and money to do it right it ruins the mental picture you got when reading the books. Plus, when SciFi does something right they will just cancel it.

Re:Next

[Warlok]

If someone could do the Covenant series correctly, I might actually go to a theater to see it.

I'm not above watching someone else's mental picture come to life, so long as they tell the whole story and don't take shortcuts to make the picture fit some Hollywood idea of what the story is. The imagery isn't the problem, it's the "adaptation" of the story to fit into the stereotypical American movie box.

Correction:

[Anonymous Coward]

You misspelled Stalminism.

I did

[ThousandStars]

I liked it, both times that I read it -- once when I was young, around 9 or 10. I read it again when I was 18. I'll probably read it a third time when I'm 40 or 50, and I think each time I understand it better. In time, perhaps, I will grok it fully, but it contains complex and fascinating themes hidden beneath a children's story. With the first read I didn't understand the underlying ideas, and with the second reading I suspect I still missed much -- yet both times I enjoyed the plot and the characters, particularly in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Stop the Presses

[STrinity]

Hey, I hear some obscure New Zealand guy is trying to make Lord of the Rings movies, and George Lucas has started work on the Star Wars prequels.

Come on, SciFi announced the Earthsea movies way back after the success of the first Dune miniseries -- which happened in the previous century. Times like this, I wish mod points applied to stories instead of just comments.

Re: Discworld Mini-series

[Kaimelar]

With all this deathly serious fantasy coming out, someone really needs to produce some good fantasy parody, and Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is just the thing if you ask me.

Actually, someone has already done that. The Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music have both been done as animated mini-series. I've seen the latter, and it's quite fun. I didn't care much for the style of animation, but the voice acting is wonderful.

You can get them at Amazon.com (and no, it's not a referral link).

Re:Scifi

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok troll, I'll bite:

Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
Connie Willis: Doomsday Book, Bellwether
C.L. Moore: Jirel of Jorey
Nancy Kress: Beggars series
Tanya Huff: Blood series, Keeper series
Mercedes Lackey: Valdemar series, Bard series
Lois McMaster Bujold: Vorkosigan series
Andre Norton: Witch World series
Anne McCaffey: Dragonriders series
Jane Yolen: Cards of Grief
C. Dale Britain: Yurt series
Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Retrival Artist series
Kage Baker: The Company series
Nancy A. Collins: Sonya Blue series
Robin Hobb: Assassin series
Sharon Lee (with husband Steve Miller): Liaden series
Emma Bull: War for the Oaks

The Vagina and the Dragon

[0x0d0a]

[aka "Yes, dammit, women can write fantasy."]

i'd say that at a good half of the good (as in enjoyable to read, not classic) fantasy authors out there are women. Let's see (giving an example book and series, if I know it):

George R. Martin (A Game of Thrones), Raymond E. Feist (Magician - The Riftwar Saga), Robert Jordan (The Eye of the World - The Wheel of Time), J. R. R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Rings - The Lord of the Rings), Tracy Hickman (Dragon Wing - The Death Gate Cycle), Rodger Zelazney (Chronicles of Amber), Fred Saberhagen (A Sharpness in the Neck), Tad Williams (The Dragonbone Chair), David Eddings (Pawn of Prophecy), Terry Pratchett (Discworld), Lawrence Yep (Dragon of the Lost Sea [note: get the series with the hardcover or original covers, as the cover art is phenomenal IMHO]).

Compared to:

Ursula Le Guin (A Wizard of Earthsea), Paula Volsky (Illusion), Susan Cooper (Over Sea, Under Stone - The Dark is Rising Series), Margaret Weis (Dragon Wing - The Death Gate Cycle), Elizabeth Willey (A Sorceror and a Gentleman - Kingdom of Argylle Series), Andre Norton (Golden Trillium), Joan Aiken (The Wolves of Willoughby Chase), Robin Hobb (Assassin's Apprentice), Katherine Kerr (Daggerspell, Deverry), Mickey Zucker Reichert (The Last of the Renshai, The Last of the Renshai)

I'd say it breaks down about evenly.

BTW, I can remember a sort of book that seemed to be a fantasy take on perhaps the American Revolution? There were three people (a sort of bravo that carried dueling pistols, a boy who was a thief, and a girl of some sort) that were exiled to a continent across an ocean...once there the man sort of took over the people there in fighting happening on the other continent...darned if I can remember the name.

Narnia? Escapist? Wrong...

[qtp]

The "Narnia" series is escapist.

The "Chronicles of Narnia" are a protestant, christian allegory that borrows heavilyy from Spencer's (absolutely atrocious) "Faerie Queen", and are very much of the same intent.

"Narnia" is full of overly heavy and contrived symbolism. Aslan symbolizes the Royal Family, the Church of England, and Christ all at once, taking the place held by Gloriana in Spencers sixteenth century gharbage, while the White Witch filling the roll of Duessa as an allegory for the openess of the Catholic Church. The entire work is chock full of symbols of racism (Northern, Anglo-Saxon = superior and good. Southern, dark-skinned = subservient and bad) and the "artistry" of it seems to have been wacked together with a sledge rather than crafted with a fine brush.

Is "Narnia" heavy-handed attempt at creating a new "nationalist allegory" (ie: brainwashing the youth) for the UK?

Definately, but escapist it is not.

Race...

[qtp]

I hope they get the race issue correct, as most attempts to make film or TV from LeGuinn's books make the central characters white, despite her descriptions.

She never does specify a definate race, but all of her main characters are described as brown, red, or dark skinned. There may be a question as to what race Ged actually is, but he is definately not white.

Escapist can be literature

[hey!]

Escapist fiction is writing with no other pretense than to entertain. [snip]... It's simply fun to read.

Which in itself is a good thing and sufficient to justify a book's existence.

I always judge a book by two criteria: how much I enjoyed it and whether it acheived its aims; in the case of escapist literature, these are one and the same. For example, I enjoyed the His Dark Materials trilogy and the Harry Potter series about the same. However, the Dark Materials books are much more ambitious, and ultimately fail to acheive the kind of profundity they are aiming for. The weight of this failure taxed my enjoyment somewhat as the books progressed. On the other hand the Potter series is escapist in intent; where they surpass this, it's a happy surprise.

The Chronicles of Narnia are children's literature but they are most definitely literature. They address and examine a number of moral and ethical issues. Their purpose is to teach children WHILE they entertain, not just to while away some time.

I have to part ways with you here, not on the value of The Chornicals of Narnia,but on this idea that "literature" has to be yoked to a higher purpose. I'm a fan of Jane Austen, however I doubt that she had any intent for her books other than to be entertaining.

it says absolutely nothing about the human condition.

And this is the rub. It is not the intent that counts, but what is actually delivered. Jane Austen and Agatha Christie both set out simply to entertain, they both succeed about as well, but I've never felt the need to reread a Christie novel. On the other hand Dante set out to instruct in his Divine Comedy, and Tolkien in LotR purely (at least if we believe his preface) to entertain; yet both are books that have a lot to say about the human condition.

Re:Escapist can be literature

[B'Trey]

Well said; I don't disagree with anything that you said other than that I suspect that Jane Austen knew the depths of her book. She was intentionally commenting on the social structure and the position of women in that time. She certainly intended her books to entertain, and she suceeded in that regard as well.

You are correct, however, that a work of literature stands on its own merits and not the intentions of its author. For all I know, Weis and Hickman intended the struggles between the twins to be deep comentary on the nature of good and evil. If so, they failed. The examination of good and evil there is simplistic and never goes beyond the cursory. Tolkien may have intended solely to entertain, but his examination of the nature of good and evil goes much deeper than that of W&H.

Thanks for clarifying an issue I unintentionally left muddy.

Re:Escapist can be literature

[B'Trey]

Which in itself is a good thing and sufficient to justify a book's existence.

Certainly it is. If I implied otherwise, it was unintentional. I've spent many a long hours pleasantly enthralled in a work of escapist fiction.

Re:My Lord... (um...)

[Markvs]

True. But by the same token, is "Finding Forrester" just "Good Will Hunting"? The point I'm making is that (at least some) of the "Card-iacs" credit him for being such an original writer, whereas it's been done before.

It's not that authors build off of each other that I mind. That's the way of any progress. It's the zealots/fanboys who latch on and decry anything that's not "from scripture".

Earthsea Magic

[yintercept]

The thing I most like about the trilogy was the source of the magic. If you knew the true name of something, you could control it. In ancient times, magicians knew the true names of everything, but through their own arrogance the ancients destroyed themselves and the knowledge was lost.

Written before computers, the premise is akin to "some one lost the friggin' owners manual!"

Those that could figure out the API for the MUD would become magicians.

Target Audience?

[h4rm0ny]

In theory, the first two Earthsea novels shouldn't be too hard to film in that the effects are low-key. The magic is rare and easily within the bounds of modern CGI. The first spell I recall is to hide a village in mist. The most dramatic is to turn into a bird (I think). And the sets are mostly mundane - tombs, simple villages. A lot of boats I think, but no flying islands or Harry Potter schools.

But that just means the series will have to find meaning in the development of the characters. Everything they save on SFX will have to go on hiring really really good actors and a director with a lot of subtlety. I've never seen the SciFi channel, but if they put out the same sort of low-brow crap that Hollywood does then it'll be bad. The reason? Hollywood always aims to sell to as many people as possible and U. K. Guinn is really only suitable for those who like to think.

Anyway - why can't they do the Left Hand of Darkness? It's a classic, it's atmospheric, and it's filled with people who keep changing gender ;)

Re:Target Audience?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a classic, it's atmospheric, and it's filled with people who keep changing gender ;)

And Tilda Swinton can use another decent project!

Merry Christmas

[Ackmo]

Many moons ago, I received the Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Earthsea, and Foundation box sets as Christmas gifts. That may have been the best Christmas ever...

NO NO NO NO NO!

[Anonymous Coward]

As if thier bastardization of Dune wasn't enough!

Please don't screw it up...

[DaveCBio]

Please don't screw it up, please don't screw it up, please don't screw it up. I loved these books when I was younger and contrary to the LotR phenomena Hollywood only knows how to mess up fantasy stories.

Dont count on it...

[Cyno01]

Its been a mixed bag with sci-fi pictures doing books, I thought Dune was great and have both the DVDs, and Riverworld was good, but i felt they didn't do justice to the books with that Deathlands movie. I'd rather see them do a crappy Outlanders movie than Deathlands, but a good movie of either would be great. Also, who know how many of those saturday night "Attack of the Giant *BLANK*" movies are based on books...

Re:Prepare for enjoyment

[Anonymous Coward]

That's my big question. It would be SOOO cool if they did (except for the Kargs, obviously). I really doubt it though. Scifi fans are pretty white, and their marvelous open-minded outlook only goes so far when it comes to what they're prepared to watch.

reviews, and a query about creative control

[danny]

Check out my review of the Earthsea trilogy and other le Guin reviews.

I would be surprised if Le Guin sold the film rights without retaining tight creative control... Or did she sell them a long time ago, before she became famous enough to be able to set her own terms?

Danny.

Re:this is not Slashdot worthy

[Anonymous Coward]

Because we're just going to download the miniseries shortly after it airs and watch it ad-free, just as we did with Battlestar Galactica.

The vastest majority of us don't get The SciFi Channel anyway (we also download Stargate SG-1).

Next question?

Eddings 20 years on

[danny]

I kept telling people who flamed me over my Belgariad review that they should breathe deeply, go back to their lives, and see what they thought about Eddings in a decade. And I haven't received any hate mail over that for some time now...

Danny.

Re:Eddings 20 years on

[blancolioni]

Gosh, Danny, I remember years ago popping into alt.fan.eddings for a laugh (honest) (I was really bored). I realised I'd struck gold when I came across a thread that was all about rounding up a posse to go beat you up for writing that review.

It's a classic.

Use-mention distinction

[Anonymous Coward]

Please use 'mini-series'.

Every time I speed-read 'miniseries', it looks like 'miseries'.
---

There's a big difference between speed-reading miniseries and speed-reading 'mini-series'.

I love Earthsea

[Hecatonchires]

I read them when I was far to young, and a lot of it went over my head. I reread it a few years later, and I understood more. Again, I reread it a few years later again, and again I found more.

The first one is a story about facing your fears
The first one is about challenging who you are (and about the wondrous things that can be found in strange places)
The third is about accepting what you have become
I haven't read the fourth enough to pick a theme yet.

For such slim volumes, they pack a powerful punch. You dont need to write several thousand pages to really affect someone.

yes. Earthsea = ...

[x3ro]

... a waste of life. I don't read as much as I used to -- but when I did, I was a voracious reader of many kinds of SF and fantasy: Frank Herbert, Philip K Dick, Janny Wurts, Tolkien, Asimov, Melvyn Peake, Stephen Donaldson, William Gibson ... and I remember reading one of the Earthsea books. Horrificly boring. Just as bad as the Pilgrim's Progress that I had to struggle through for my English degree. I remember feeling incredibly depressed that I had just wasted several hours of my life reading two-thirds of the book (before reality set in and I threw the bloody thing into the dark corner where it deserved to moulder unread).

I should have previewed

[Hecatonchires]

That should read:

The _second_ one is about challenging who you are (and about the wondrous things that can be found in strange places)

Gayniggers from Outer Space

[handslikesnakes]

I love Gayniggers from Outer Space (and Gayniggers in general) but wasn't aware that Ralph Nader was involved in their production.

I guess I'll have to check the credits more carefully.

Re:Sci Fi Sucks!

[handslikesnakes]

Earthsea isn't sci-fi, it's fantasy.

The quality of today's trolls seems to be really dropping. I suspect it has something to do with the closure of goatse.cx

Re: your sig

[jfdawes]

Ok, so now it's about 362,000,000 results for 'B'. But why is it some commercial thing hits the top of the list?

Similarly (and more geeky):

It used to be that "A is for Apple" but now (post some odd relevance tweaking by google?) it seems that "A is for your Dictionary"

obOnTopic: In my memory, the passage where the evil mage uses their true names felt very similar to the orginal series, especially where Ged investigates the temple.

Wizard of earthsea

[Jondo]

I absolutely loved the first book in the series (I actually never knew there were 2 other books.)

It was pretty much the first novel I read when I was very young (about 10?) that I absolutely loved.

I don't remember all that much (I'll have to re-read it), but I remember how strong the main character was. How well I could identify. It was pretty much my first taste in literature like this.

Re:Scifi

[Anonymous Coward]

you should add in (in no particular order)
Julian May - The Saga Of the Pliocene Exiles (sadly out of print atm)
Patricia McKillip - The Riddle Master Trilogy, The Book of Atrix Wolfe, The Cygnet and the Firebird, and many others
Lois McMaster Bujold - her Miles Vorkosigan series is a clasic mentioned in other posts on this story, and her fantasy work isn't bad either
Barbera Hambly - Dragonsbane and its sequels, the Starhawk/Sunwolf series and many others are all excellent.

Theater would be even better,

[simon_clarkstone]

... since the books are all about the development of the characters, which is what theater shows well, and the setting is hardly needed, not even filming on location (e.g. West coast of Scotland).

Wizard of Earthsea

[Blue23]

The ending of A Wizard of Earthsea still amazes me almost a quarter-century after I first read it.

The Wizard of Earthsea happens to be the book that introduced me to reading fantasy. Before that it was just SF (A.C.Clark, I.Asimov, G.R.Dickenson, P.K.Dick, etc.)

Definitely a well done book.

Cheers,
Blue(23)