I'd caution that this only means that they might do this.
and reminds me of Auther C. Clark's "Rendezvous with Rama"
Quote from: Blackstar on 10/01/2017 01:21 pmI'd caution that this only means that they might do this.We might hope they don't -- movie/TV adaptations of classic SF have so far been pretty disappointing IMHO.
I dunno. I thought that Childhood's End was excellent. And it got much less attention and praise than it deserved. And The Expanse has been a great adaptation.
Can't wait to see a Pierson's puppeteer.
Quote from: catdlr on 10/01/2017 03:54 pmand reminds me of Auther C. Clark's "Rendezvous with Rama"I think there was discussion of doing that as a TV movie. Cannot remember specifics, but obviously it has not happened.
That image makes the ringworld look really small! The surface area in the book is around 3 million times that of the Earth. I really hope they have someone with a big enough imagination to do this justice.
Quote from: nacnud on 10/01/2017 05:30 pmThat image makes the ringworld look really small! The surface area in the book is around 3 million times that of the Earth. I really hope they have someone with a big enough imagination to do this justice.Their imagination will have to include a way to make the ringworld fundamentally stable. Which is ain't...
Quote from: synchrotron on 10/02/2017 03:15 pmQuote from: nacnud on 10/01/2017 05:30 pmThat image makes the ringworld look really small! The surface area in the book is around 3 million times that of the Earth. I really hope they have someone with a big enough imagination to do this justice.Their imagination will have to include a way to make the ringworld fundamentally stable. Which is ain't...Yes, that was brought up at the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention, and Niven dealt with it in The Ringworld Engineers (1980).
It's perhaps good that Amazon has picked up this property. If Syfy was going to do it, all of those nice scenes featuring rishathra would have been censored out...
Quote from: Sam Ho on 10/02/2017 03:47 pmQuote from: synchrotron on 10/02/2017 03:15 pmQuote from: nacnud on 10/01/2017 05:30 pmThat image makes the ringworld look really small! The surface area in the book is around 3 million times that of the Earth. I really hope they have someone with a big enough imagination to do this justice.Their imagination will have to include a way to make the ringworld fundamentally stable. Which is ain't...Yes, that was brought up at the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention, and Niven dealt with it in The Ringworld Engineers (1980).Yep -- Bussard ramjets mounted along the ring walls, collecting and burning the solar wind-generated gasses, served as "attitude control jets" for Niven's Ringworld.
Like Rama, Ringworld is heavy on world-building but not much on narrative. The first part is largely talking and Exposé, during the second part, the protagonists just go from one place to another, encounter weird people and phenomena, they have little say on the events unfolding, just tag along, then more talking and revelations until the end.A naive and helpless female protagonist. Breed for luck. Tasp. I think many concepts are very hard to adopt for TV audience. Removing all those hard, unpopular, tedious stuff, there is not much left. A few actions, but not enough. Unless they can pull a Total Recall or Blade Runner on it.Nobody can possibly do justice to a world that huge, not even Larry Niven himself. Imagine the geography, history, culture, fauna and flora, possibility is endless, but the actual story is such a let down.
Amazon will adapt Ringworld, Snow Crash and Lazarus into TV series for Amazon Prime:https://arstechnica.co.uk/gaming/2017/09/snow-crash-lazarus-and-ringworld-shows-are-coming-to-amazon-prime/
As for the prospects for the show (if it indeed happens), I think it could be used as an interesting setting for something, something based on Ringworld rather than a retelling. Because the book plot is not very compelling.
The Expanse had me at "hi, we're at least kinda trying to do hard sci-fi." Do wish they'd drop the sound effects in a vacuum thing, though. Play some music to keep the audience engaged during exterior space shots, dagnabbit.The problem is that sci-fi isn't as big a draw as I wish it was. So sci-fi has to be all 'splodey to sell. I'd love something along the lines of a 2001 show sans aliens that tried to do hard SF right. E.g., shouldn't combat engagement distances be ginormous in space? First one to spot the other guy wins? Fire a missile/laser/railgun at the far-away target and only see the results on your instrument panel? Do boarding actions or special ops if you want an adrenaline rush. I know stuff like this is more niche, but it does get done outside of sci-fi (e.g., Tom Clancy's stuff).
The Ringworld series is a series of science fiction novels written by American author Larry Niven. It is part of his Known Space set of stories. Its backdrop is the Ringworld, a giant artifact 600 million miles in circumference around a star. The series is composed of five standalone science fiction novels, the original award-winning book and its four sequels:1970: Ringworld1980: The Ringworld Engineers1996: The Ringworld Throne2004: Ringworld's Children2012: Fate of Worlds (by Niven and Edward M. Lerner)Fate of Worlds is also a sequel to the four books of the Fleet of Worlds series, set in the same "Known Space" universe and all written by Niven and Edward M. Lerner:2007: Fleet of Worlds2008: Juggler of Worlds2009: Destroyer of Worlds2010: Betrayer of Worlds