Amazon is creating a series focused on a future in which Amazon and its like do not exist, nor do billionaires? It will be interesting to see how much they taint that, especially given the initial perspective of the protagonist towards The Culture
Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would critique capital end up reinforcing it instead.
A quote from Disco Elysium
As long as you have to buy, capitalism doesnt care what it has to sell.
Fuck bezos though
That’s exactly my problem with any Amazon adaptation of the Culture novels.
This isn’t just about my hatred of Bezos personally. I can watch it without paying him money if I really want to. My problem is that Bezos claims to be a huge fan of the Culture novels, meaning he’ll take a personal interest in any adaptation. And Bezos flat out does not fucking get the Culture novels. Banks was an outspoken socialist. He despised people like Bezos with all his heart. There could not be a greater gulf between the author of a work and the person trying to adapt it.
A Consider Phlebas Amazon series will most likely end up a toothless mess. I could be wrong - The Boys has a profoundly anticapitalist streak, and Disney put out Andor, one of the most proudly antifascist works of media I’ve seen in years, so maybe they’ll slip something really cool past the guys with the money - but I have a feeling this will be a weak sauce adaptation at best.
Which is a shame, because Consider Phlebas has plenty of moments that would look amazing in a high quality adaptation.
LESS JOLIER VEPPERS AND MORE LUXURY GAY SPACE ANARCHY!
If you ruin this, I will be furious.
The way Apple ruined Foundation, via Mister “I’m better than Asimov!” Goyer.
Amazon is 1 for 4 on doing justice to adaptations I was very excited for. I’m not holding my breath on this one.
Obligatory fuck amazon of course, but Reacher and Jack Ryan are both excellent adaptations imho. And Goliath is superb, not just because of Billy Bob Thornton, the supporting cast and writing is fantastic. None of these are sci-fi though, so maybe the genre matters? Ugh, now I feel weird defending amazon…
Fair enough! I haven’t seen any of those nor am I familiar with the source material. Maybe there’s hope yet
Was it foundation that did this to you?
will admit though that that one punishment - being left to live in permanent sensory deprivation while also knowing that there is literally no one in the universe who knows you exist because they were all killed - is probably the most horrific punishment i’ve ever read in fiction
Honestly, after reading some reviews I haven’t even watched it.
Oh boy, this makes me nervous but cautiously excited. This is one of my favorite books, and is the first in my absolute favorite series of sci-fi novels. Banks’ Culture series represents the apex of space opera narrative for me, and it was the one series I was totally fine leaving on paper since it’s so dear to me.
I’m usually less critical of TV adaptations than most, so they’d reallllly have to fuck it up to ruin it for me. I’m an Asimov fan for example, and I didn’t hate the Foundation show…I know, I know, the heresy! So we’ll see what happens. There’s a lot they could do beautifully, and a lot they could really mess up.
I liked how one of Asimov’s greatest cultural legacies was the Laws of Robotics…and then in the first season of an Asimov “adaptation” they have a robot fucking murder someone. I swear, the Will Smith movie had a better understanding of the material.
Ha! iRobot, what a trip that movie was…
Yeah, I don’t disagree at all that they were totally unfaithful to the material. I still enjoyed the show, but I deliberately force myself to take a huge step back and just watch those kinds of adaptations independent from the source material. I try my best to block off the memories of reading the books, and just enjoy the interpretation as much as I can. Doesn’t always work, but Foundation was visually beautiful enough to me that I could forget about what the story should have been and just escape into what it was.
I don’t know how I feel about a show following a live action shape shifting Zap Brannigan. Do they play it straight and end up with a character who’s supposed to be pathetic or do they satirize the satire and make an over the top mess?
I just started reading it lol
I recommend starting with player of games. It is the best of his work imo and it is super approachable.
I know this is the common advice but I started with Consider Phlebas and it is far from unapproachable. There are some benefits of the PoV character being outside The Culture I think. As much as I liked The Player of Games, I much preferred the second half of the book.
Yeah, Banks made a very deliberate and conscious choice in asking readers to first approach the Culture from the outside. Dude knew what he was doing.
100% this.
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How is it
Banks is genuinely one of my favorite sci fi authors of all time. Excellent writing and really incredible world building.
Thanks! That will make me go read into him
Only reached page 40 or so, quite interesting! Lots of names that i have to remember because I knew nothing about the series haha
Banks has an approach to exposition that could best be described as “Kill it with fire.” His goal is to only ever provide you with exactly as much information as you need to make it through the next paragraph, and nothing more. Very often he deliberately leaves you confused about critical aspects of the world building in order to intrigue you with questions that will be answered later. This can be jarring, especially if you’re used to lore-dump heavy SF/fantasy.
Consider Phlebas is a bit of a rough start. I found it to be more rewarding on a second read-through after finishing several other Culture novels. By all means keep reading Phlebas, it’s very good, but it’s ok to sit back and sort of let the book happen, if you get my drift. It’ll become clearer as you read.
Does this mean there might be a possibility of an Excession adaptation if all goes well? 🥹
I’m not sure how you’d go about adapting that, but I love that book so much.
Every single Culture book would have to be it’s own limited series. I think Phlebas was probably chosen for the amount of action and the limited exposure to the Culture. The other books are going to be harder to adapt despite getting more love from fans.
OK, now I have a semi.
I really hope this is a limited series. I really enjoyed this book but I’m not sure the story has legs beyond that. Interesting names behind it as well. Call me cautiously optimistic.
