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Looking for audiobook ideas that have TV/movies released
Hey folks! I’m looking for some audiobook ideas (preferably fantasy and science-fiction). I want them to have a TV series or Movie about them though I could watch before listening to them.
All ideas welcome!
The Sandman full-cast audio book, written by Neil Gaiman and starring James McAvoy and Kat Dennings, is really fantastic. It's the story of Dream of the Endless, a sort of god of dreams, and his encounters with his strange family and some even stranger people. The Netflix adaptation has thus far only had one season, adapting half of the first audiobook, but that season is excellent too.
What about Good Omens by Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett? I haven't read the book yet but the series was excellent.
Excellent book, and there's now an audio adaptation with a couple of familiar voices as Crowley and Aziraphale. Haven't listened to that version but frankly David Tennant and Michael Sheen could read the Dr Bronners soap bottle to me and I'd stay through the whole thing
The Expanse. There are several seasons on Amazon Prime. The series doesn't complete the books so you'll have to read them to get the full conclusion.
The Martian if you want single book/movie.
The Martian audio book was very good, I think even read by the author himself. If you haven't seen the movie yet, listen to the book first, it's so much better to listen to it without knowing the entire story.
There are 2 different audobooks of the Martian, depending on when you bought it. The original recording was done by RC Bray (not the author), and was hailed as a masterpiece of narration.
When Audible bought exclusive rights to the auidiobook a few years back, they didn't get the rights to the recording, and RC Bray was busy recording the Expeditionary Force series, so they got Wil Wheaton to read it.
The Wheaton version is also good, but Bray's recording is among the greatest of all time.
Not sure, but probably RC Bray, because it was done very well.
Andy Weir: The Martian, great movie and even better book
His other book Project Hail Mary has a movie in the works directed by the guys who made Into the Spider-Verse. But who knows when or if that’s coming out with what’s happening in Hollywood.
The book is great though.
So there’s some controversy with the narrator - there’s an RC Bray version (who is generally considered excellent) and a Wil Wheaton version (which is currently on audible and seems to be getting some criticism). I’m guessing you listed to the RC Bray version?
didn’t even know they change narrators, I got it a long time ago. I just listened to the sample on Amazon (didn’t want to have to log in) and it definitely wasn’t Wil Wheaton version that I had.
I can’t wait for the Project Hail Mary movie. What a fantastic book. I listened to the audiobook after reading it on my Kindle and loved it even more.
I haven’t finished it, but Ray Porter is a fantastic narrator.
The things on this list are here because I think the books or stories are good. The movie adaptations are all over the place. Start with science fiction:
Dune has several adaptations. If you want the one most faithful to the books (and that covers the most ground), the SciFi channel miniseries for Dune and Children of Dune are very good. The 1984 Lynch movie is still my favorite, but it will not shed any light on the book. To understand the Lynch movie, I think you have to read the book, watch the movie, read the book again, then watch the movie again. So YMMV.
The Netflix adaptation of Altered Carbon is pretty good, but significantly different than the books, which are excellent.
There's a host of P. K. Dick adaptations, and many of them are his short stories: Blade Runner / Do androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Total Recall / We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, Through A Scanner Darkly, Paycheck, Minority Report, Next / The Golden Man, an Amazon Prime series of The Man in the High Castle
The Time Traveler's Wife is one of the best, deepest pieces of science fiction ever written. The audio book is very good because it has two narrators for Henry and Claire. The movie was rubbish.
H.G. Wells The Time Machine
2001 by Arthur C. Clarke. The movie adaptation by Standard Kubrick is a bizarre masterpiece.
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Multiple adaptations of Frankenstein, and after you read watch them, be sure to watch Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. It is some of the best comedy on the big screen ever.
On the fantasy side, there is an excellent animated version of Watership Down, one of the best fantasy books ever written IMO.
You have the Disney adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time
Amazon did an adaptation of the first (of fourteen) books of The Wheel of Time. The audio books are a great way to experience WoT. The whole series is narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, who are both amazing and married in real life.
Of course you have multiple cartoon adaptations of The Hobbit and* The Lord of the Rings*, as well as the Peter Jackson movies.
Silo was recently released on AppleTV. It’s based on a great series of books.
Interesting. I felt the series did a much better job than the book overall, which at least made sense to me. I think Wool started as a series of novellas by a first time author on the new (at the time) Kindle format, right?
I thought the series did a good job smoothing it out and introducing the important characters.
Wool was the weakest of the books, IMO, so I’m excited to see where they take it.
I really like the series, maybe even because it’s not completely true to the books. Makes it a different story, like it’s told through someone elses’ memory
The movie Arrival is excellent and based on a “Story of your life and others” by Ted Chiang. The book is a collection of short stories and there are 2-3 bangers, well worth the read (or listen)!
Ender’s game is a great sci fi book (and series of books “Enderverse”) and has a mediocre movie, which I watched and kinda forgot about. I listed to the first 1-3 audiobooks and a parallel book to the first one called “Ender’s Shadow”.
Annihilation (2018) was based on the first book of the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. I think the audiobook I got was just called "Area X" and had all three books together.
It's a loose adaptation. I thought the books were pretty interesting but enjoyed the film a lot more.
The Witcher audiobooks narrated by Peter Kenny are fantastic! The netflix series has its flaws, but if the show gets you hooked on the universe, there's a great time to be had with the books. (The games have their qualities as well, though the books are the best at telling the actual story)
Adulting This was a web series on YouTube before Amazon acquired the rights. They have made audio series too. First two seasons are still on YouTube though. Two working women in big city trope. Audio is Hindi only sadly. Just sharing cause I like the series.
Ready Player One - mild sci-fi with heavy emphasis on 80s nostalgia, especially geek culture. The audiobook is narrated by Wil Wheaton and I think he did a great job. The movie adapted the material well.
I had a great time reading Legend of the Condor Heroes not long ago. It's a pretty classic fantasy book from the 50s from China that's been adapted a bunch of times and in some pretty interesting ways (particularly the Wong Kar Wai movie Ashes of Time, which is kinda all about recontextualizing and upending the original story)
It's one of the best selling novels in the world ever (allegedly — I guess the figure depends on bootleg sales?), but it didn't get a legit English translation until only a few years ago. That was pretty fun for me — it felt a little like I got to "discover" something that's already a classic to millions of people without the kind of weight reading classic books can have. Also could be a fun way to check out a new kind of fantasy story if you haven't read any wuxia stuff.
I read the regular books, but there is an audiobook that people online seem to think is good. It was originally a newspaper serial, so it's got short, self contained chapters and a pretty improvisational feeling plot, so I think it would make the transition to audio pretty well.
For something a little different, HEAT 2 is a sequel to the movie in book-form and its really good. They're going to be making a series or movie out of it in the near future
The Chinese Tencent series Three Body on YouTube is 30 episodes with subtitles in English, based on the book The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Great series, fascinating story! It has science fiction, history, and a video game. The detective steals the show (no spoilers!).
There's the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. Between three and five of the books got turned into one film: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
There are I think three narrations. Simon Vance, Patrick Tull, and Ric Jerrom.
There are 20 books in the series. Are they all worth reading?
Really surprised nobody's said Foundation on Apple TV - the series is really good. I liked The Expanse, but think Foundation is even better.