I was having dinner the other night with my friend Brian, who was visiting from Los Angeles, and the television show Game of Thrones came up. Each season of the show roughly corresponds to one book in George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" fantasy series. This gives the creators plenty of time to develop the characters, the setting, etc.
That reminded me of how S.M. Stirling's "Emberverse" novels had been optioned for the purposes of a television series, with each season corresponding to a year. Stirling said at DragonCon that short stories make good films and books make good miniseries--again, there's more room for character development and the like. I own his book Island in the Sea of Time and there are two, perhaps three "break points" making for a four or six-hour miniseries. Heck, I think there's enough material for making each book a television season a la Game of Thrones.
That got me thinking about the Wastelands novels. Although Battle for the Wastelands takes place chronologically over maybe two months (just before harvest to just afterward), there's so much going on in so many different places that a lot would need to be cut to make it into a movie. A television series would be much better.
However, to get a full TV season per book, even longer books like the ASOIAF ones need more material. I've only read the first two ASOIAF novels and haven't actually watched the TV series, but based on the recaps, there's a lot of stuff that's not in the books. A lot of it is tied with the new character Ros (the redhead prostitute at Winterfell) and the various people she's involved with in a professional capacity, plus in Season One we see an...intimate moment between Renly Baratheon and Loras Tyrell and I think we actually see King Robert Baratheon's fatal hunt. And in Season Two, again based on the recaps, there's a scene involved Renly, Loras, and Renly's wife Margaery Tyrell and a scene where Littlefinger delivers Ned's bones to Catelyn Stark and proceeds to hit on her.
Of course, all this is putting the cart before the horse. I need to get the novels as good as they can be and find a buyer. Then they need to be successful--I've heard the average book sells only 1,000 copies.
456: Mighty Ducks 3
5 days ago
Regarding ASOIAF, I don't think that items are being added to insert more material, in fact there are obvious indications that the producers are having to omit certain materials. The reason for added material or characters, is to better adapt it for a television aducience. Ros's character is serving as a better sounding board for giving us a more in depth look at Littlefinger in the series. Whereas the producers have decided to thus far omit Rivverun for its difficult design and to keep Rob's character moving around.
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