8 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books to Read (or Re-Read) Before Their Adaptations Hit the Screen

Each calendar month we sharean avalanche of young booksto give your need to take . But there are also tons of sometime sci - fi and fantasy books worth your time , too — include those with the add interest of telly or movie adaptations on the agency . Here are eight titles you should supply to your read ( or re - read ) list ; if you really want an even 10 , go before and throwDuneandThe Standon there too .

1) Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

There’llsoon be an HBO seriesbased on this 2016 colored fantasy novel about a young African American Isle of Man whose experiences growing up in blatantly racist mid - century America — as well as his thick love of scientific discipline fiction — help prepare him for the strange thing he get word about his family ’s past . Tied into that : a nefarious secret society , the funnily elastic ways of space and time , and some truly unsettling H.P. Lovecraft - invigorate horrors , as well as dynamic supporting theatrical role who go on their own fascinating journeying .

With the wonderment - twin powers of Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams behind the scenery , and talents like Aunjanue L. Ellis ( When They See Us ) , Jonathan Majors ( The Last Black Man in San Francisco ) , and Jurnee Smollett - Bell ( Birds of Prey ) heading up the form , we ’d be excited even if we did n’t already love the Good Book it ’s based on . Though of line , it ’s too former to know for sure , some of the graphic symbol listed onthe show ’s imdb pagehint that the Lovecraft Country series will take at least a piece of originative license with the record book — which is to be expected . But even if the show sound like a certain thing , why await ? The source material isan engrossing , wildly creative read from start to cultivation .

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Detail from the cover of Station Eleven.

Detail from the cover of Station Eleven.Image: Vintage

2) Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

ThisArthur C. Clarke Award - deliver the goods novelcame out back in 2014 , so if you record it back when it was on every “ best of the class ” list , why not break up it up again ? No less a literary authority than George R.R. Martin called it “ a book that I will long think back , and return to . ” And , of course , there ’s a reinvigorated reason to revisit Station Eleven : The Word — a beautifully write narration set both at the very beginning of a global pandemic and 20 year after its far-flung destruction — is being adapted into a limited seriesfor the soon - to - launch HBO Max streaming religious service . Mackenzie Davis ( Terminator : Dark Fate ) stars as Kristen , a new charwoman who grows up as a member of a traveling dramaturgy company , with Himesh Patel ( Yesterday ) play fellow post - apocalyptic survivor Jeevan and Gael García Bernal playingArthur , a Hollywood starwho has interactions with both Kristen and Jeevan in unlike spot and sentence .

Confirmed fans of Station Eleven who are impatiently waiting for the serial to arrive will need to eff that Mandel ’s long - wait next novel , her first since Station Eleven , is due out next month ; it ’s called The Glass Hotel and follows interwoven plots about a break down Ponzi schema and a adult female ’s mysterious disappearance at ocean .

3) The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

speak of acclaimed writer with new books out in March , record - set , history - create Hugo victor N.K. Jemisinhas New York - limit epic fantasy The City We Became on the very near sensible horizon .

But another project forthe in use Jemisinisa potential boob tube adaption of The Fifth Season , the book that kicked off her Broken Earth trilogy , about woman from different time periods — some of whom have extraordinary gifts — struggling to recover in the backwash of ruinous climate - change events on their planet .

Though there has n’t been much in the fashion of updates since August of 2017 , when the authortweeted her excitementthat TNT would be evolve the book as a drama serial , these things obviously take time — and with that time , you’re able to plunk into not just The Fifth Season , but also the other Hugo - get ahead books in the trilogy , The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky , while you ’re at it .

Image: Henry Holt and Co.

4) North American Lake Monsters: Stories by Nathan Ballingrud

Hulu is full steam onwards on an anthology series based on this 2013 collection of stories , though the show will have the more sleek title of Monsterland . Hulu has already found success withBlumhouse ’s Into the Dark horror anthology series , but Monsterland count to have more of an X - Files lineament , based on a recent description of the show ( as part ofDeadline ’s reportthat Mike Colter , ofEvilandLuke Cage fame , was joining the cast ) as being “ full of encounter with mermaid , fallen angels and other strange beasts ” and “ [ pursue ] break people tug to desperate acts in an attempt to repair their liveliness , ultimately showing there is a thin lineage between homo and monster . ”

That sounds pretty true to Ballingrud ’s resonant , Shirley Jackson Award - gain collection , which contains revulsion as varied as wolfman , lamia , white supremacist , Hurricane Katrina , and a trunk full of human skin . The generator ’s other citation admit The Visible Filth , the novelette that was made intothe 2019 repulsion feature Wounds , which also found a home on Hulu ; Wounds director Babak Anvari is one of Monsterland ’s executive producer .

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5) The Witches by Roald Dahl

Why not start your Halloween countdown early with a quick read of this enduringly chilling story ? Roald Dahl ’s 1983 novel , which is aspire at tiddler but contains the variety of nightmare stuff that ’s potent enough to haunt adult , already has one memorable adaptation out there . And soon , Nicolas Roeg ’s 1990 film , starring Anjelica Huston as the glamorous loss leader of a coven of witches — glamourous , that is , until she casually peels the skin from her face , revealing her grotesque lawful smiler — will be join bya new version from Robert Zemeckis , with Anne Hathaway as the Grand High Witch .

6) A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

This 2015 Bram Stoker Award - winning novel is about a family throw into pandemonium when their teenage daughter abruptly start up exhibit signs of stern mental illness . It ’s so terrific that her parents , coax on by a local Catholic non-Christian priest , begin to wonder if perhaps there ’s something satanic inside the girl — and then , in despairing need of cash , agree to appear on a reality telly show about their plight . The story then picks up over a decade later , as the girl ’s younger babe recalls her conflicting memories of everything that pass .

go pretty challenging , does n’t it ? Filmmaker Scott Cooper — whose upcomingAntlers is one of our most awaited repugnance movies of 2020 ; his other credits include moody dramas Crazy Heart , Out of the Furnace , and Black Mass — was justconfirmed to be directing the big - silver screen adjustment , with Margaret Qualley ( Once Upon a Time in Hollywood , The Leftovers ) star , presumptively as the younger sister who develop up haunt by her traumatic past .

7) Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Hot on the heels ofThe Witcher , Netflix is busily ready another heroic fantasy adaptation : Leigh Bardugo ’s hugely popular Grishaverse novels , which let in a trilogy that begins with 2012 ’s Shadow and Bone , and a duology that get with 2015 ’s Six of Crows . The eight - sequence show will really hatch events from both series , but Shadow and Bone is the obvious starting stage for fledgling .

https://gizmodo.com/netflixs-shadow-and-bone-adaptation-adds-jessie-mei-li-1838702052

8) Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

The handsome - screen adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi ’s 2018 West African - pep up phantasy ( which was comply by a sequel , baby of Virtue and Vengeance , in December 2019 ) was earlier a Fox 2000 labor , but fortuitously , it made the leap to Lucasfilm and Disney after , you have a go at it , that whole job — with managing director Rick Famuyiwa ( The Mandalorian ) apparently still seize .

Not unlike Shadow and Bone , Children of Blood and Bone follows a young woman who finds the fate of a kingdom on her shoulder — a Graeco-Roman fantasy plot — but the stories are quite different otherwise . Adeyami ’s tale introduces us to Zélie Adebola , who remembers her female parent ’s magic in a world where enchantment has been wiped out by a monarch who never want to see it riposte — though Zélie soon becomes caught up in a precarious adventure to impart magic back , including her own abilities . So far there ’s no throw news to report , but we ’re activated to see Disney putting its considerable might behind an entertaining fancy tale that is n’t based on one of its own quicken moving picture or well - worn successful franchise .

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