8 book adaptations we want instead of more Lord of the Rings movies

2. The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee

Another fantastic series which deserves the big (or small) screen treatment is Fonda Lee’s The Green Bone Saga. Try to imagine a combination of the crime family drama from The Godfather or Yakuza with crazy martial arts action, a great magic system, global politics, and a sweeping scale that spans decades, and you have a decent idea of what you’re walking into with this one.

Comparing this to something like The Lord of the Rings is difficult because it’s so different, but isn’t that kind of the point? Give us something new, Hollywood! The Green Bone Saga would be a perfect fit for a network like HBO, owing to its bloody twists, complex characters, and adult themes.

Lee’s series is a masterpiece of modern fantasy, and really, it’s kind of shocking that some studio or other hasn’t gobbled it up by now. (Though Peacock did consider it for a while.)

3. The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

The two stories we’ve discussed so far have been mostly aimed at adults, but isn’t part of the appeal of The Lord of the Rings that it can be shared with your kids? What if you want a more family-friendly tale complete with those elements of wonder that made Tolkien’s world so enrapturing?

If we want to talk about classic fantasy and sci-fi series that deserve their day on the big screen, then Anne McCaffrey’s The Dragonriders of Pern is a great contender. Set on the distant world of Pern, the franchise is comprised of a slew of different novels and smaller series which detail various era and the struggles of the humans and their dragon companions who’ve settled there. There are a lot of memorable Pern books, which means that any studio looking to adapt them would have options for how to approach the series.

One of the things that really sets Pern apart from other fantasy or sci-fi stories is that there’s no dark lord or big evil thing threatening the galaxy. Instead, the people of Pern have to combat a periodic natural disaster that occurs when another celestial body moves into their orbit and rains extraterrestrial goop called threads down upon them. Riding dragons to burn threads out of the sky has become an integral part of the society on this planet. Factions take advantage of lulls in the Thread-falls to push their own agendas, creatures roam the wilds, and the question of whether the Threads themselves can ever be stopped for good looms. Given our own struggles with climate change, the natural dangers of Pern feel more relevant than ever.

McCaffrey’s Pern novels have been a mainstay of the genre since the late ’70s; it’s honestly kind of baffling that no one has made a show or movie out of them by now.