Amazon is "currently in preproduction, production or post on 67 TV series and 20 movies around the world." That's more than the old networks.<p>So finally, a video version of "Snow Crash". That should be fun. Bringing the scope of Ringworld to the screen will be very tough. Good that they're trying.<p>Finally, we're getting past Star [Trek|Wars|Gate|Craft] and the Marvel Recycled Universe, into better SF.
Sounds like there could be multiple more really interesting things to watch.<p>It's great to have entertainment choices, but does anyone else get the feeling that there are literally tens of thousands of interesting things to read, watch, look at, or play with, and only time to check out a handful of them?<p>It makes it hard for me to pick because I know I will be ignoring most of this huge pile of amazing stuff.<p>For example, I played The Witcher 3 for a month or two and really enjoyed it. But eventually after seeing 20 or 30 other things pop up that seemed amazing, I decided to check out a few of them. And then there are more and more. But I actually barely started progressing in The Witcher.<p>I have several books that I got really cheap used and I intended to read like Ringworld (which I don't remember if I actually read many years ago or not) and The Engines of God. Plus six more good ones. I got halfway through one of them before realizing I needed to catch up on some Westworld episodes or something.<p>The thing that makes it tough is I do a ton of filtering with metacritic or whatever to ignore everything except the best stuff, then I try to dismiss more things as boring or uninteresting but anytime I actually check them out, they are amazing like the reviews said. But then that means I am going to miss out on thousands of amazing things.<p>I guess I just feel like it's a shame that I have to ignore most of it, until such time as I no longer need to work or spend time on my own creations and can dedicate full time to consumption, and am able to upload my brain and clone it 500 times to start to trim the pile.
This is very “annoying” as I usually am able to dismiss most modern TV shows because of mediocre to bad writing. Each and every show I am able to skip is a huge win in life/time – most good old Star Trek and TV shows of the 80s and 90s let you skip episodes without you losing track of (most of) the story.<p>I digress. I’ve read Snow Crash and Ringworld – for the most part they were genuinely fantastic, let’s hope they don’t over-polish (most new productions don’t have “soul” IMHO) and over-stretch the TV adaptations (mini series ought to be enough in these cases).<p>While they are already at it - time to see a show based on Ursula K. LeGuin’s writings as well.
I hope Ringworld tries to be a bit funny. It's got a 200 year old playboy, an impossibly lucky female sex symbol, a conniving vegetarian coward, and let's not forget the gruff, cuddly, badass Kzin Speaker-to-Animals; not to mention the tech is godlike, I'd bet on a Known Space fleet beating a Star Trek fleet any day.<p>It should be more like Tripping the Rift, Lexx, or Stargate with Daniel and O'Neil than one of the more serious Sci-Fi shows.
Can't believe no one has made a Cryptonomicon series. It would be way more complex and interesting than Snow Crash, which has crazier visuals but a fairly simple linear story.
Worst news I've read in a long time. All series produced by Amazon based on books or comics I love have been a huge disappointment: The man in the high castle, preacher, American Gods...<p>You can watch a whole season and what happened? Basically nothing. They stretch and stretch a couple of plots and that's it. My friends says that's ok, they create a specific atmosphere/mood with that...bullshit, it's just like when you get a present and you're actually more exicited about unwrapping that fancy colourful wrap that in the content.<p>At least HBO (Game of Thrones) or Netflix (The expanse) tend to be more faithful to the content and things happen at a reasonable pace
Gil the Arm would make such a great detective show. I hope Ringworld is successful so Amazon develops the rest of Larry Niven's known universe properties.
I hope they don't end up reveling in the dystopia rather than accepting that it's the backdrop, not the story. I think The Man in the High Castle rather overdid the dystopia-part and suffered for it.
Wish it were Netflix or HBO or even Showtime. Amazon has a history of giving showrunners much less creative freedom and I have less faith this will be a satisfying adaptation. :/
I don't believe that you can do justice to Snow Crash in just an hour. Its going to be visually great, but with all the complexity and depth stripped out.
Yeah, you know, a monopolist's work is never done. No such thing as a perfect monopoly. Seems like you can never get that last one-tenth of one percent.
Chapter 14 (Interview with L. Bob Rife)<p>So Bezos will play the part of L. Bob Rife?
I love when books become movies/series. I get to sell off my mint 1st edition hardcovers :D<p>Apparently an unpopular opinion, but Snow Crash was horrendous. I slogged through that "in the present 3rd person point of view" satirical mess. Terrible prose, uneven pacing, painful.
I am certainly excited about this. However, I am also curious about what happened to Oasis <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Oasis/dp/B06W5H33JH" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Oasis/dp/B06W5H33JH</a>. The pilot was interesting and engaging. I'd like to see where that story goes, too.
Ever since I read Snow Crash, I wondered to myself, why hasn't this been adapted as a screenplay yet? It played in my head like a movie when I first read it. No other book has done that. Neal Stephenson's writing style is really cinematic and I'm glad it's now being adapted for viewing.
> “Snow Crash,” ..., is a one-hour science fiction drama ...<p>It sounds like it could be a very cut down version with just Hiro, Metaverse, maybe some sword swinging. I hope they'll go for more than just an extended action sequence in CGI world.
Snowcrash did not age well, in my opinion. I remember it fondly, and it was cool when it came out ... but Neal Stephenson is a great concept artist, but a terrible writer.<p>Diamond Age is so much better.
I hope they keep doing well.<p>And maybe someday, one of these networks will earn the right to make a miniseries out of Daniel Suarez's "Daemon."
Probably an unpopular opinion here, but maybe I'll watch Snow Crash now that I won't have to wade through the awful word vomit "let me prove how smart I am" never-ending-sentences that Neal Stephenson used in that book.<p>I've also read Cryptonomicon, and he dials it down a lot more in that one (although it's still present), and I found it a lot more readable.