Amazon to adapt Iain M Banks' "Consider Phlebas" as a TV series

[muriel_volestrangler]

If they get it right (the writer of 'Utopia' is a decent start), it'll be magnificent.

Jeffrey P. Bezos, the CEO of Amazon (and owner of The Washington Post), has announced that Amazon Studios is adapting Iain M. Banks’s Culture novels as a TV series. Bezos is a self-announced fan of these books, but they are relatively unknown in the United States, and did not sell as well as they deserved, even in Britain, where Banks was a famous author. Reversing the stereotype, Banks subsidized his science fiction by writing ‘literary’ novels that sold much better. However, even if the Culture novels were never bestsellers, they have been extraordinarily influential on other writers, thinkers and, for that matter, political scientists. Here’s what you need to know.

The Culture novels are a series of science fiction novels written by Iain Banks (under the notably transparent pseudonym ‘Iain M. Banks’) and published between 1987 and 2012. They are entries in a particular subgenre of science fiction called “space opera,” which typically involves lots of space travel, extravagant plots, exotic planets, baroque aliens and mind-bogglingly enormous constructs. Banks’s books had all of these elements and more, combined with a keenly ironic sensibility.
...
The common element in all the books is the Culture — a loosely connected interstellar civilization of human beings and artificial intelligences (Minds), living on planets, Orbitals (vast constructs), asteroids and enormous spaceships (General Systems Vehicles). The Minds are vastly more intelligent than humans and take care of most of the difficult political, social and economic problems, leaving humans to play and work on interesting projects.
...
As Banks noted in numerous interviews, the Culture is a utopia. Specifically, since Banks was a socialist, it is a socialist and secular utopia. When superhuman intelligences are in charge, a planned economy may possibly work. The Culture is also attractive to many libertarians, because it imagines what human life might be under conditions of near-complete material abundance, where the distinctions between socialism and libertarianism become very blurry.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/02/21/amazons-next-big-tv-series-is-based-on-iain-bankss-culture-novels-what-are-the-culture-novels/?utm_term=.d2c48893e8f7

It turns out that Jeff Bezos is a fan, as well as Elon Musk. And Paul Krugman.

[Bleacher Creature]

1. That's really cool. I've always wanted to get into his books.

Any ideas of a good place to start?

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. A perennial question. Consider Phlebas was the first published

so I'd tend to say that (one or two later ones like 'Look to Windward' and 'Hydrogen Sonata') do refer briefly to the events in it). It is the most 'space opera'ish - lots of machines and people on missions, firing weapons at each other. Many think 'Player of Games' is a good one to start with, and more thoughtful. 'Use of Weapons' is quite dark, so only a starting point for someone who likes that. "State of the Art", a short story collection with the title being close to a novelette (and the one interaction of 'The Culture' with Earth) is a possibility too.

His non sci-fi, as 'Iain Banks' without the 'M', could be a place to start too. "The Wasp Factory" is famously dark, and some say twisted. "The Bridge" (part fantasy, part real world) is very popular. "The Crow Road" (adapted by the BBC) is fairly mainstream.

[shenmue]

2. I'll give him a try

[eppur_se_muova]

4. HO. LEE. SHIT. THAT is something to look forward to -- IF they get it right.

Phlebas was his best book, in many ways. At least IMHO.

Um ... "TV series" ... meaning what ? Premium Cable ? Netflix ? Other ?

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Amazon Prime Video - their own streaming service

a competitor to Netflix.