Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Forums

All of the above for me! Though at this stage, having only seen a couple trailers, I'm feeling well disposed towards the show. It's clearly big budget and looks amazing! I love Jarred Harris in everything I've seen him in, including the amazing Chernobyl, and I especially love to see him eating up the scenes in The Expanse! We are living in the golden age of entertainment with so many new content sources and so many hits including many great genre properties.

What gives me so much confidence, at least for now, is that so many of these excellent new shows are sticking close to the source material and having great success with book fans while still attracting a new broader audience. I know they're going to add new characters and combine a few and change gender and race and move them around in time etc. etc. etc. but I'm OK with that if it makes the story work for film and keeps true to the author's vision.

For my money, Asimov is a genius at big ideas and grand adventures on a titanic scale. Where he's not so great is the small scale character development stuff. I love Foundation and read it several times in my youth and what resonates with me today is the feeling of awe at the hugeness of the empire, the grandeur and horror of Trantor, the massive time-scale of events, the titanic intellect of Harry Seldon, the advanced science etc. I'd be hard pressed to name another character other than The Mule.

But that's all world-building and exposition. The show will need strong characters to make it work so I'm expecting that much might be very different from the books while the plot and effects keep it rooted in the source material. There are grounds for optimism these days - seasoned with caution of course. For every LOTR, which was a pretty faithful adaptation in my opinion, there are a dozen Hobbits which miss the mark completely. I feel like we're getting more hits than misses these days though so it feels a little less risky to hope a film is going to be as good as the book I love.

I should follow your example and re-read the books again before the show premiers. Though that might jeapardize my enjoyment of the film if the creators didn't do their homework.