A Book or series of related books in the same universe (not a list) that you (personally, not people on the internet) think would be great as an animated movie or tv series. Another note: This is NOT a contest. You do not have to pick something else just because someone else picked a book first.
I think the Mercedes Lackey “Vademar” series could only work as an animated series of movies, or perhaps a tv series.
Chris Bunch &Alan Cole’s “Sten” series would make a fun animated show. 8 books, so a book a season works well. Animated means Rykor, Otho and the Rilchium won’t look like muppets or bumpy-foreheaded humans.
I think Discworld and Aardman would make magic together.
My Beloved says the “Memory, Sorrow and Thorn” trilogy by Tad Williams would be her pick.
The Dresden Files series, by Jim Butcher. I think it would work best in a serious anime or anime-inspired style.
Anything by John Varley, particularly the Gaea trilogy, The Golden Globe or Steel Beach. I guess with Steel Beach you could get away with using a technology like the “volume” they use for Star Wars productions but I think the Gaea trilogy would need to be animated for sure.
I think most Science Fiction and High fantasy benefits from being animated - the SFX budget is pretty much built in after all.
Specific series: Vlad Talos / Jhereg Series / Dragaera Cycle by Steven Brust.
(different people call it different things)
It’s more or less a high fantasy series with some humans (including the main character) in a setting dominated by tall, elf-like (many provisos) beings who can use dramatic magic, magic weapons, and where the gods meddle with mortals. It’s got duels, witchcraft, wisecracking mini-dragon sidekicks, assassinations, scams, political drama, reincarnation, strange beings and otherworldly animals.
It’d be a nightmare as live action, perfect for animation, and you would benefit from having a skilled comedic or sardonic actor doing the voice, and leaving the action to the animators.
Hmm. I re-read Janet Kagen’s Mirabile recently, and now that I think about it, in the right hands it could translate well into a good animated movie or maybe series. It’s an ecology-themed collection of stories about a youngish interstellar colony, mostly dealing with odd alien wildlife and genetically altered hybrid “Dragon’s Teeth”. You’d need good animators and writers to make it work; it’s low on “action”, but high on nature and interesting critters so you’d want people who can capture the latter on-screen. I can just see the scene where somebody yells “stampede” and everyone tries to avoid getting trod on by the knee-high cattle herd.
There’s an alien pet called Mabob (short for Thingamabob) that would play onscreen well, I think. Smart, loud and looks like a three foot tall, orange-eyed, green cross between a parrot and a pangolin. “GRONK!”
Excellent, someone else knows those books. And yes it would work well on-screen I think; it’s a very “action filled” series that would translate well to a visual medium.
Needs the right writer(s) but I think an animated series set in the Talisman universe would be fun.
I see in the link that there had been a deal with Netflix but it fell through.
Side-by-side Dreamers is basically a manga written in prose.
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH was one my favorite books as a child in the 80s.
Don Bluth made a film of it in 1982.
Apparently both a film and TV series have been in “development hell” for the past ten years..
Dragonriders of Pern. I know that there have been various options for movies but none of them ever came to fruition. I think it would work well as an animated series.
L. Sprague De Camp’s Krishna series would be great fun.
I came to say the Gaea trilogy as well.
I have always wanted Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle + Cryptonomicon made into a live-action series. It’s historical fiction, with some sci-fi and a tiny bit of magic thrown in.
I’ve not been much of a reader as an adult but I read this huge series twice over. It’s captivating.
I always figured that when Game of Thrones got big, someone would take a chance on The Baroque Cycle.
I don’t think any of Stephenson’s stuff has been made into any other media. I’ve read all his stuff up to Anathem, which was just beyond me. But everything up through that was enjoyable and accessible.
I’d like to see Roger Zelazny’s Creatures of Light and Darkness as a surrealist experimental animated movie. Give it to one of the weirdo directors.
I’ve been jonesing for a movie version of Varley’s Gaea trilogy for over three decades now. I’d always hoped someone would do it once CGI got good enough/cheap enough but that was 20 years ago and still nothing. I’d settle for an animated series at this point.
One of the better reads I’ve come across in many a fortnight is For Whom the Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn. It would most likely have to be animated because many of the characters are demons (who are actually good guys, Hell in Jaysea’s universe being a place of justice and healing — which often does involve pain — rather than eternal torment). It would also need to be bowdlerized, since she is rather … graphic … when it comes to sex.
Definitely this one! I follow the series religiously( 
), and I about a third of the way through the book.
How about this: Dan Simmons’s Hyperion, with each traveler’s tale done in a different style of animation.
The next book, in turn, will mix and match based on the POV.