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10 fantasy books that haven’t been adapted as TV shows (but should be)

By Isobel Pankhurst

Rows and rows of books, from the floor to the ceiling, inside The Book Exchange, a used books and puzzles shop at 8719 South U.S. Highway 1, in Port St. Lucie. "It's like a dream come true," said Meghan Wood, the new owner. The shop specializes in selling and trading quality used paperback and select hardback books.Tcn Book Exchange
Rows and rows of books, from the floor to the ceiling, inside The Book Exchange, a used books and puzzles shop at 8719 South U.S. Highway 1, in Port St. Lucie. "It's like a dream come true," said Meghan Wood, the new owner. The shop specializes in selling and trading quality used paperback and select hardback books.Tcn Book Exchange /
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Amazon Prime Video recently debuted The Wheel of Time. They’re also making a Lord of the Rings adaptation. Disney+ has a Percy Jackson series on the way and Netflix has The Witcher and Shadow of Bone under its hat. These are just a few of the fantasy series that have arrived in the wake of the success of HBO’s Game of Thrones, which also has a prequel series in the works.

More and more networks and streaming services have gotten on board with adapting fantasy series. Just last year Hulu announced they would be adapting Sarah J Mass’ A Court of Thorns and Roses, and AMC announced adaptations of two Anne Rice series: The Vampire Chronicles and The Mayfair Witches.

With the Bookseller reporting that demand for TV rights has “never been higher,” it’s likely that even more fantasy adaptations will be hitting our screens soon. Here’s our list of books that we hope to see adapted; some have already been optioned but none have made it to air…yet.

An Ember in the Ashes, by Sabaa Tahir

Internationally bestselling series An Ember in the Ashes follows Scholar girl Laia of Serra, who lives under the oppressive Martial Empire where Scholars are treated as second-class citizens and even sold into slavery. After her brother is arrested and taken away by the Martials, Laia seeks out the help of The Resistance, an anti-Empire group of Scholar rebels. In return for their help, she agrees to infiltrate the infamous military school Briarcliff Academy. Here she meets Elias Veturius, a reluctant soldier with doubts about the Empire. The two realize their fates are intertwined with one another.

The twists and turns of the plot of An Ember in the Ashes make it a perfect choice for TV. The film rights were bought by Paramount in 2014, with Mark Johnson (The Chronicles of Narnia, The Notebook) signed on to produce. But no further information was ever released, and quite frankly this series would work much better on the small screen than the big.

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