San Antonio Public Library discussion

It feels like there are so many books and comics getting adaptations lately! Between Jupiter's Legacy, Invincible, Sweet Tooth, and Bitter Root I feel like there's a real boom in the comic adaptation market, and I'm excited. But there's also a ton of adult and YA novels getting turned into TV and movies too (looking at you Shadow and Bone!). I think we've talked adaptations before, but do you like them? Are there any you're excited for coming soon or rumored to be in the works?

IMO, Game of Thrones (despite its ending) showed that if you want to REALLY do a novel justice, you're looking at a season of television, not a movie. You can cover the basic plot of a novel in a movie, but making the fans happy involves the space and time afforded by a series. Imagine the folks who would have been happy with Lord of the Rings if they'd had an episode or two of Tom Bombadil, and LOTR has a fairly straightforward plot, with really only two or three threads or so at a time.

I agree; there are sometimes unusual cases where a movie manages to encapsulate the mood of a series if not the exact events like the Akira film, but more often than not fans of a series want the whole experience, their favorite moments played out on the screen. I'm not sure I trust the Wheel of Time series to happen, but I think it could be amazing if it does.

Of course, you have adaptations that go the other way, like the Hobbit movies. They tried to stretch one fairly short and straightforward story into three long films. They ended up adding a bunch of material that didn't come from the Hobbit at all!

This one isn't exactly "anticipated" because I didn't even know about it until it was already available on Netflix: "Enola Holmes" based on the young adult series of books beginning with The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer. I enjoyed the books very much, so when I saw the ad for the Netflix original film, I was excited. And I really enjoyed their adaptation of the books.

Has anyone seen Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu? I loved the book. I hope they did a good job of the adaptation.

The Enola Holmes movie was fun! I haven't read the books, but they did just announce a sequel in the works, so I hope it keeps the same energy.

We will not speak of the atrocities that are the Hobbit movies, Cris. Truly, a case of what not to do when adapting. ;)

I watched the series Little Fires on Hulu. I thought it was really good but I admit I didn't read the books.

Thanks, Tracey. I didn’t read her first book, only Little Fires. Now I’m really anxious to see it.

I'm a big fan of Looking for Alaska and I have pretty much avoided the Hulu series like the plague because I fear it not doing the book justice, lol. Maybe I'll get brave one of these days.

You definitely need some time to let a good book simmer on the screen, something a single film (or even a trilogy) doesn’t always allow. The Magicians is a fine example of how this works amazingly on the small screen. In the right hands though, it can be done (shout out Da Vinci Code series and Hunger Games). To the contrary, that nonsensical 3 movie The Hobbit should only be taught in film school under ‘how to shamelessly exploit a franchise for maximum profit’.

It seems that some of the best book adaptations are the mini or limited series, like Station Eleven. which is doing great so far.