I’m currently reading Altered Carbon (the novel) to talk about it on a podcast this weekend, though I’ve read it two or three times before. Then next week on a work trip I’m going to binge the full Netflix show.
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I read the novel, and the subsequent sequels, back in the early 2000s when they first came out. I’d be curious if they hold up.
Amazon is going to adapt Consider Phlebas into a TV series.
I’m kind of torn on this. On the one hand, the more scifi on television, the better. On the other hand, I’ve read two culture novels, Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games, and didn’t particularly like either one. While the Culture, as a society, is super cool and interesting, the stories that Banks chose to tell in that universe, and the characters he chose to use to tell those stories, left me cold.
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Speak for yourself. I loved Player of Games. Consider Phelbas was… fine. I liked the exploration of the war. I wasn’t super keen on the adventure Bora Horza goes on.
I thought that’s exactly what I was doing?
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They really should have adapted Player of Games instead of Consider Phelbas. Consider Phelbas has way too many setpieces that will be difficult to adapt, and a less interesting story.
While I don’t disagree about Consider Phelbas, I don’t think adapting the Player of Games would have been much better.
Think about it… the majority of the book is either Gurgeh studying how to play Azad on the spaceship, or him actually playing it. Not exactly compelling television. Yeah, he goes to a party or two, but that’s about it really. Most of the book takes place inside his head and unless the show had a monologue of Gurgeh’s thoughts, most of the show would be silent. Also, there’s just no way you could stretch the show to fill a 7 episode series, let alone 13 episodes.
Neither book makes for a good adaption in my opinion, but for different reasons.
I just wish they adapted Player of Games so I could see some ultraporn.
At least with Phlebas we get some pirates. Yarrrr!
Drunk History is too good. I love that Crissle from The Read is on there.
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Agreed. Player of Games worked because Azad never had to be detailed or explained; its nature was just hinted at.
You couldn’t get away with that on film.
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If I think back to all of The Culture Books, Matter or Surface Detail would probably work best in a cinematic adaptation as they have the most straightforward, cinematic plots. Surface Detail in particular, although if they showed as much virtual hell as appears in the book, it would be un-rateable.
I’m curious to watch the series. The novel didn’t grab me but I tend to be turned off when books describe every female character as super hot and they all happen to fuck the protagonist. Altered Carbon had a bit too much of that.
Altered Carbon (the novel) has two sex scenes but for some reason I’ve seen this same “it’s full sex” reaction a few times. I think I know why, but it’s still curious to see such a strong response over and over when many other books contain way more sex.
It’s not necessarily that it is “full of sex”. It’s more that the women in the novel are viewed through a very sexualized lens. That is not necessarily a bad thing or bad writing, particularly if it is done from the perspective of a character rather than a narrator. But its a sci-fi trope I don’t really enjoy reading.
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We just watched The Mask You Live In, everyone should watch this. It’s about the hetero-normative masculinity and freaking fucked up it is.
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I recently finished the first season of HBO’s The Leftovers. This is a good, but weird, show about a “Rapture” like event occurring, where 2-3% of people around the world just disappear, with no explanation. The “Guilty Remnant,” a cult-like group that forms as a result of this, is both fascinating and also chillingly creepy.
The show is very ambiguous as to whether the weird things going on are the result of supernatural events or just the various characters going crazy, as a result of the traumatic event.
I’m looking forward to watching season 2.
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“The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes
Award-winning architect Piers Taylor and actress and property enthusiast Caroline Quentin explore extraordinary homes built in mountain, forest, coast and underground locations around the world.”
https://www.netflix.com/title/80213025
This is a really good house-porn series, if you like seeing interesting home architecture in interesting locations. Thankfully the down-to-earth nature of the presenters makes the unbelievable level of wealth privilege on display just about bearable.
Really, it might as well be called “Financial Inequality: The TV Show”. I can understand spending millions on a home due wanting to live in a city like New York or San Francisco or London. But 13 out of the 16 homes on this show are VACATION homes. As in, most are only used for a few weekends or weeks per year, but still cost millions to build. They are objects of performative wealth.
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I decided to to start watching “The Last Man on Earth” yesterday and got through about 6 episodes. It’s a rather light-hearted take on the post apocalypse where a virus has killed off seemingly everyone in the world except for the main character, Phil. Post-apocalyptic comedy is sort of a weird genre, but it worked pretty well for the first few episodes.
However, after that the main character’s personality takes a huge one-eighty and the next several episodes become about him trying to get laid, and focuses him on being an huge asshole. I might watch a few more episodes to see if it gets any better.
I watched some when it was new, partly because of Lord and Miller and partly because I’m a fan of Kristen Schaal. I didn’t get more than like 4 episodes in.
I enjoyed the new Tick. Binged it over two days.