![]() ![]() But the least popular book is also my favourite, so I might be skewed. M: See, I have enjoyed each and every book at the speed of light. Imyril: The series does read like it was written for tv, but … the books are also very chunky! And there’s bits most of Cibola Burn that I wouldn’t miss …and I’m conscious of the irony given the Slow Zone – I felt most of Abaddon’s Gate could have been speeded up. But I know I’m a bad fan! Although I’m not sure they are going to have the budget to do the planet-side sequences in Cibola Burn etc. I definitely think they missed out on some characterisation and some beautifully, elegantly-done scenes from the books – but I think the TV series still has a lot to offer. M: But there are so many scenes I would like to see exactly as written. Here’s hoping Amazon gives it MOAR budget!) (if the show got cancelled, which it eventually was – however briefly. On the other hand, I do understand why they need to blend some characters together (budget, time) and I also get the feeling they rushed some of it because they weren’t sure they’d get a chance to cover it. M: I find most of the series reads like a nice script, and have always been boggled why they deviate so much. Yet they mostly rewrote that opening for the show, and I couldn’t really see why. It gave me the setting, it moved me around the ship, it introduced the characters and it did just enough so that when it all went to hell a few pages later, it mattered. It has no effect on what comes later, so it’s completely by the by – but when I read the beginning of Leviathan Wakes, it read like a script to me. Imyril: I know this is going to sound really stupid, but the thing I side-eyed the most was that they changed the opening sequence aboard the Cant. I would have to reread the books to have a firmer picture in mind of some characters but that’s a lot of reading to do… Lisa: The thing about having so many characters scattered over so many plot lines is that some stand out a lot and others don’t, and that will always be relative to different readers. So, having acknowledged that you can’t make a tv show without cutting some corners – how do feel about the narrative changes in the tv show? Does it work on its own merits? Does it work better? Is anything missing that bothers you? TV may have more screen time to play with, but it typically has a helluva lot less budget… That said, every book in The Expanse is a doorstop – plus it’s an ambitious space opera, with Leviathan Wakes set exclusively off-world on spaceships and asteroids – so I knew I’d need to curb my expectations. In theory ( Altered Carbon, we’ll get to you another month). The conversion will still take a great big pair of scissors to my beloved book, but less material should end up on the cutting room floor. Some of that is naive optimism (let’s face it, TV writers and producers can screw up just as easily as their film counterparts), but some of it comes from the knowledge that you’ve got more time in TV. It’s funny: I have fewer trust issues about translations from book to screen when it’s going to tv rather than to a movie. I turned the tables for SciFiMonth and dragged Lisa and M into debating the Big Question with me: sure, the tv show is good, but was the book better?Ī note up front: for those new to The Expanse, this discussion is pretty much spoiler-free (we hint at a few things we don’t go into detail) – and we talk specifically about whether you should start with the book or the show! And I’m ever so glad I let the gang’s enthusiasm drag me along, as it’s now one of my all-time favourite space operas. I had decided not to read The Expanse – until a SFFReadalong was announced last year (willpower: I’ve heard about it), which I just couldn’t resist (I like reading with friends, okay?). ![]()
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