Sci Fi Channel Plans 'Earthsea' Miniseries 308
Gumpy writes "The Sci-Fi Channel has started producing a TV miniseries based on the first two books of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series. The Earthsea miniseries is supposed to start on the Sci Fi Channel in December 2004."
Nice synopsis for Earthsea Trilogy newbies (Score:5, Informative)
And a recent interview (Score:5, Informative)
Very cool (Score:5, Informative)
I'd read the first book before anything else. I was kind of disappointed with The Tombs of Atuan book 2), which was very different from the first book. The third book was okay, but not as good as the first -- sort of the Dune syndrome.
The setting is different from most fantasy -- a bunch of islands, lots of emphasis on sailing around. There are not a lot of epic things going on -- there's lots of pragmatic, down-to-earth people.
Great! (Score:5, Informative)
Earthsea world is a fun world to game in despite the difficulties thrown in by the latter stories.
I wonder will they remake the lathe of heaven, and I'd love to see "The word for world is forest" or even "Rocannon's World"!
Re:Woah... How was "The Lathe of Heaven"...? (Score:2, Informative)
The original was better (Score:3, Informative)
Almost... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Five? (Score:2, Informative)
I've read four, unless something came after Tehanu.
Yes, The Other Wind, which IIRC ties in to both Tehanu and The Farthest Shore.
There was also a collection of short stories called Tales from Earthsea, which is sitting on my shelf, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.
Not a trilogy. (Score:5, Informative)
Wizard of Earthsea
Tombs of Autan
The Farthest Shore
But in 2001 Leguin published Tehanu. [tinyurl.com] The earthsea trilogy is now called the Earthsea Cycle. Of all of The Earthsea cycle books, Tehanu really showcases LeGuin's political and feminist slants. (This is a good thing I believe). Tombs of Autan had some and the other two books required a little more digging to get into her philosophy.
If you want to read some great LeGuin I would reccomend: Always coming home [tinyurl.com] and The Dispossessed [tinyurl.com]. Both of these books are very thought provoking and well worth the time to read. There was an edition of Always coming home publihsed with a cassette tape of the music and poetry that was created by the societies described in the book. Wonderul stuff.
"Grain grows best in shit" Ursula K LeGuin
(Tinyurl links got to amazon Please use fewer 'junk' characters.
)
Re:Nice synopsis for Earthsea Trilogy newbies (Score:2, Informative)
In fact, I would recommend people not to read those summaries, because they give completely the wrong impression.
They're still around? (Score:1, Informative)
The Farscape Mini series just finished taping. I'd rather look forward to that than anything scifi could come up with.
Re:Cautious optimism is called for (Score:5, Informative)
This seminal work was read by both Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and its impact on their work is clear. Especially the "I am not gonna explain Magic to you, dumbshit, it's Magic!" attitude they all share.
Written in the 19th century, it runs in the same vein as Alice and Kipling's works. The english is chewy at times, and can get down right sloggy.
Old news... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Cautious optimism is called for (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not a trilogy. (Score:2, Informative)
But why only the first two books, anyway? Are they planning on following up with the rest? After reading Wizard, I kept wondering, "Why am I here?" while reading Tombs. Farthest Shore helped make sense of that.
Re:Five? (Score:3, Informative)
Myst (Score:3, Informative)
Does anyone know if that's still going forward? How many planned miniseries actually come to completion -- if Myst was silently cancelled, are the chances of this one being finished questionable?
Re:DragonLance (Score:5, Informative)
The Chronicles of Narnia are children's literature but they are most definitely literature. They address and examine a number of moral and ethical issues. Their purpose is to teach children WHILE they entertain, not just to while away some time.
Re:Never really clicked for me (Score:2, Informative)
Prydain is only classified as fantasy because of the setting (based on Welsh mythology).
Be warned, these are filed under "Juvenile Fiction" and are written at a Middle School/High School level. If you can't get past that part, I don't recommend them. I do believe in spite of the reading level, the books present very adult (in the good sense of the word) concepts and situations.
Re:Not a trilogy. (Score:3, Informative)
The Other Wind [scifan.com], a full novel, came out in 2001, as did Tales From Earthsea [scifan.com], a collection of short stories.
IIRC, the short story Dragonfly was originally published in Robert Silverburg's Legends [scifan.com] compilation.
--darren
Re:Not a trilogy. (Score:3, Informative)