Five Books I Would Like to Be Made into SF Films

After stumbling across John Scalzi’s Whatever blog I noticed that one of his most recent articles entitled “Five SF/F books I think would make good movies”. Scalzi uses ‘Children of Men’ as the primary example as a science fiction book done right and I couldn’t agree with him more. So since I consider myself a SF aficionado of sorts, or at the very least a person who is well-read and knowledgeable of the science fiction genre, I thought I’d give my own personal choices for five books I would like to be made into SF films if they had a good director and writer backing it (without resorting to Scalzi’s choices). So here they are in no particular order.


1) Ender’s Game by by Orson Scott Card

This book has been in what I love to call ‘development hell’ for at least a decade. Believe it or not this actually came close to becoming an actual film as early as three years ago. It’s script was finished and they even managed to sign on Wolfgang Petersen to direct (which in my opinion would have been a fantastic choice). However, for some reason shortly after that Petersen removed himself from the project leaving the film adaptation to slowly recede once again into the flames of development hell.

The story revolves around Ender Wiggin and his adventures aboard a satellite military station where children are trained in war games in preparations to fight aliens known as ‘buggers’ later on in adult life. The plot revolves around our nine-year-old protagonist as he slowly rises among the ranks of his fellow cohorts eventually becoming captain of his squad. Of all the movies listed I think this one has the best chance of succeeding, plus it would have been cool to see it on the big screen.

2) Neuromancer by William Gibson

I think I can safely say that the chance of seeing a film adaptation of ‘Neuromancer’ by William Gibson is slim to none unless it was done as an anime feature en par with ‘Ghost in the Shell’. When this novel was first published in 1984 (the year I was born) it defined the genre that would shortly thereafter be known as cyberpunk and developed a wide legion of fans to boot. It made words like ‘cyberspace’ and ‘ICE’ enter our lexicon and won Gibson the ‘Triple Crown’ of science fiction awards (that being the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Philip K. Dick Award).

This novel also happens to be one of my personal favorites as well. I even went so far as to write a cyberpunk novel entitled ‘Second Death’ which to this day I’m still trying to get published (Read ‘Second Death’ here). Nonetheless, Neuromancer solidified and distilled our postmodern fears of late capitalism and technology and how Gibson was able to write this twenty-five years ago (also his first novel) I’ll never know. But I do know this, this book does deserve to be made into a film.


3) Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

I have a confession to make, I haven’t read this book, but I’m more than halfway through it as I write this post. For those who aren’t unfamiliar with ‘Spin’, or indeed the works of Robert Charles Wilson, let me give you the watered-down synopsis of the book. Three children in October are playing in their backyard one night while their parents are throwing a party inside their home. It is not too long after that when they look up at the sky and see the stars slowly disappearing out of the sky. What’s come to be known as ‘The Spin’.

That’s as much as I’m going to say about the plot. Sufficed to say, the story revolves around three best friends and follows the path of their lives well into adulthood. Wilson paints a landscape of humanity’s reaction to the ‘The Spin’ but it is always pushed into the background. This is a dense page-turner that will leave you agape with surprises and shocks with each passing chapter, but is also detailed enough to vividly imagine each scene as I’m reading it. Whether or not, you’re a science fiction fan, this would make a great film.

4) A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller

More than fifty years ago Walter Miller is flying during World War II as a tailgunner and witnesses a church being blown up over the Italian landscape. It was that moment that inspired him to write ‘A Canticle for Leibowitz’. It’s hard to believe that the original text was written half a century ago alongside Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein. I often see it as a companion piece to Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’.

I should point out that if someone did decide to make this into a film it would be long, slow, and not appeal to mainstream audiences. Think of Solaris (the 2002 version), The Fountain, even 2001: A Space Odyssey. The book is split into three sections that were published separately in the Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy. The first section takes place 500 years after a nuclear war known as ‘The Deluge’ and humanity experiences an era similar to that of the medieval dark ages. The second takes place 1000 years after ‘The Deluge’ in what would be comparable to our Renaissance period. The final section takes place 1500 years after the holocaust, where humanity has risen relatively the same point as before the Earth was destroyed, only to be destroyed again. Through it all you follow the ‘Order of Saint Leibowitz’, Leibowitz, a Jew originally, who is given sainthood when several articles are found in his abandoned fallout shelter. An epic film.

5) The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

I know what you all are thinking. Another movie based on the work of Philip K. Dick, and while I share in your sympathies this is more of a personal choice more than anything. That being said it should be noted that ‘The Man in the High Castle’ is one of Dick’s tightest works, with well thought-characters and just a fantastic plot.

The book follows 1960s San Francisco after Germany and Japan won World War Two and has divided America down the middle. As an alternate history novel where the Nazis won the war, it was nice to read a book that was honestly not that different than the world we live in now, at least to all appearances. It’s the characters that drive this novel, as the book follows six connected subplots and string it all through an underground text entitled ‘The Grasshopper Lies Heavy’, a book written about a reality where the Nazis didn’t win the war.

While readers are probably scoffing at me for even suggesting another Philip K. Dick book keep in mind this list is what I’ve read. There’s still plenty of science fiction books out there to be enjoyed and read and, with any luck, made into a film or two.