Genre Novels That Would Make Excellent Television

It has proven an incredible stroke of good fortune for the fantasy genre that some of the most successful recent TV shows have been adaptations of books that might not otherwise reach mainstream attention.  I am thinking specifically of True Blood, inspired by Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries, and Game Of Thrones, based on A Song Of Ice And Fire by George R.R. Martin.  It is undoubtedly no coincidence that the success of these two dramas derives from their home at HBO, known for high production values, in-depth storytelling that does not insult the viewer, and huge marketing campaigns which ensure a wide audience.

This got me thinking: there is a wealth of fantasy and horror literature out there to be mined for miniseries success.  Below are a few novels that I think make excellent candidates for adaptation.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Considered by many of Gaiman's fans to be the most ambitious of his novels, American Gods is a modern epic.  There has been talk on and off for years of a film version, but I think the cast of memorable characters and apocalyptic story arc would be better suited to the 12-hour series format of HBO, allowing ample time to explore the bizarre world that ex-con Shadow finds himself becoming a part of.  The great thing about this particular corner of Gaiman's universe is that there is room for expansion: the collection Fragile Things includes a Shadow novella, and the novel Anansi Boys features one of the supporting characters from American Gods, so producers would not run out of source material for a while.

The Book Of Lost Things by John Connolly

Considering the number of fairy tale-inspired pilots that came out this season (Grimm, Once Upon A Time, 17th Precinct), I'm surprised this book hasn't already been adapted.  The story of a teenage boy who accidentally enters a world comprised of myth and legend and is immediately threatened by the sinister Crooked Man, there is enough folkloric whimsy and genuine menace in the source material to make ideal family viewing - imagine the quirky charm of Doctor Who with the combined humour and violence of Buffy.

Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter

While that other infamous circus-centric HBO show Carnivale was an ultimately shortlived lesson in avoiding overly complex mythology, the recent film Water For Elephants has proved that there is still mileage in the backdrop of the travelling fair.  Carter's magical realism would make for some impressive visuals, in particular her winged heroine Sophie.  The novel is separated into sections based on the circus's location (London, Paris etc.), so an episodic format would fit the narrative fairly well.

Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite

A show about vampires in the American South? Yes, it sounds uncomfortably similar to True Blood.  But Brite's edgy, sexy novel was around long before Charlaine Harris dreamed up the by-comparison wholesome Sookie Stackhouse series.  Lost Souls centres on a band fronted by best friends Steve and Ghost, and the vampires who come to town to see them play.  If the bluesy, bloodsucking content is too similar to True Blood, then there are other options from Brite's oeuvre: Drawing Blood, in which a troubled comic book artist returns to a small town where the past is a living thing, or Exquisite Corpse, a twisted saga about two serial killers who fall in love (think Dexter, only ten times darker).

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

The hugely popular Interview With The Vampire movie, starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, brought a massive readership to Anne Rice's novels.  The second fim adaptation, The Queen Of The Damned, tried to incorporate too many of the saga's various backstories and ended up being a bit of a mess (although it wasn't without its high points).  Anne Rice has since stated that her style of storytelling might be better suited to television.  A longer, more leisurely format would certainly compliment the lengthy character histories and far-reaching events covered in the novels.  If all ten books were to be adapted, from the now-classic Interview to the more recent and much more convoluted Blood Canticle, not to mention the offshoot "New Vampire" books, there'd be at least a dozen potential seasons of slick, sumptuous television.  Personally, I'd be fascinated to see how showrunners would portray the Egyptian origin story, which the second film completely skipped.

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Top 5... Fictional Characters

I could list ten, twenty or thirty fictional characters who have stayed in my mind for one reason or another.  This limited list includes peeps from classic literature, noir and fantasy.

5. Philip Marlowe
Created by Raymond Chandler
Featured in The Big Sleep, The Little Sister etc.
The Big Sleep, Chandler's first novel to feature Philip Marlowe, was a curious mix of Greek tragedy and post-war sleaze.  Marlowe embodied these qualities wholeheartedly, navigating the seedy underworld of Los Angeles with his own brand of honour, knowing that the world was not as it should be, inhabited by people more inclined to violence and theft than to honesty and peace.  He didn't sugar the pill when it came to the sorry status quo, but he also never took advantage or allowed himself to be swayed by the numerous femme fatales that came his way.  There is a certain pleasure to be had in reading the stories of a man who is, while definitely no angel, a good guy among bad guys.

4. Jed Parry
Created  by Ian McEwan
Featured in Enduring Love
You know almost from the very beginning of this novel that there is something slightly strange about Jed Parry.  In the aftermath of a bizarre and tragic balloon accident, Jed accompanies the protagonist Joe Rose in his search for survivors, and it is during this time that he suggests they kneel down and pray together.  Joe does his best to shake off this oddball, but Jed has become fixated, and spends the next few hundred pages thinking up ways to invite himself into Joe's life and convince him to profess his love.  Sinister yet somehow guileless, Jed is so realistically imagined that his peculiar brand of devotion will stay with you long after you've turned the final page.

3. Sophie Fevvers
Created by Angela Carter
Featured in Nights at the Circus
Sophie Fevvers was found on the doorstep of a brothel in Victorian London, a baby girl lying on broken eggshell.  The working girls who take her in don't truly believe that the child was hatched - that is, not until white feathers begin to sprout from her back, growing into a magnificent pair of wings.  Sophie goes on to become a famous aerialiste in a travelling circus, earning herself the stage name "The Cockney Venus".  Nights at the Circus is a fantastically written piece of magical realism, and its protagonist Fevvers is a larger than life character in just about every way.  Outspoken, curvaceous, aggressively sexual and always charming, Fevvers bewitches the reader like the fairy-tale creature that she is.

2. Atticus Finch
Created by Harper Lee
Featured in To Kill A Mockingbird
I don't know what to say about Atticus that hasn't already been said by fifty years' worth of literature enthusiasts, except that he is bold, brave and honourable without ever being unrealistic or sentimental.  He is the mould from which all fathers should be made, and he is the kind of man that all men should endeavour to become.

1. Faith
Created by Joss Whedon
Featured in Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel
Best described as "the working class Slayer", the introduction of roguish Faith in Season 3 of Buffy provided an effective dramatic foil for the heroine.  Faith was the unwanted sister in Buffy's life long before Dawn appeared out of thin air, and it was through her mistakes that Buffy learned what it truly means to be a Slayer.  Whether she was casually taking people's virgnity, going on violent sprees or facing up to her own self-loathing, Faith was always compelling.  It pleased a lot of fans when Faith reappeared towards the end of Buffy's run as a reformed character: while still a tad on the loose side (Faith remains the only openly promiscuous female character in the Buffyverse), she was repentant and no longer coveted Buffy's life.  Her time in prison had granted her perspective, and she was wiser for it.  Which is nice for her character arc, but much less fun to watch than any one of her many violent smackdowns with frenemy Buffy.

Other memorable characters who are worth your time: the benevolent Jean Valjean (Les Miserables), the adventurous Lyra Belacqua (His Dark Materials), the incompetent Rincewind (Discworld) and the deliciously arrogant Sherlock Holmes.