Bobby’s Comments (group member since Mar 15, 2013)

Bobby’s comments from the Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy group.

I Am Legend was also made into movies The Last Man on Earth (1964) and The Omega Man (1971). There was an earlier adaptation of She in 1935, with
Helen Gahagan as the title character. How about books that straddle genres, like Frankenstein or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ? They would probably make your list unmanageable unless you kept out sequels. Both Invasion of the Body Snatchers and "Who Goes There?" have still more adaptations. The former has one from 1978 and one from 1993 (just called Body Snatchers and the latter has one from 2011 (another The Thing.

Roadside Picnic was made into Stalker.

Wasn't The Terminator cribbed from a Harlan Ellison story (according to Ellison)?

@spooky

Nah, there's long and longer. But the longer one is definitely better.

Kathy wrote: "I read The Stand by Stephen King years ago. I remember he wrote something about it sometime after commenting that after he'd written 500 pages he didn't know where it was going...and did a lot of r..."

Did you read the long one or the short one?

I was just about to write that, Jim. I love these kinds of lists, and like most times, there are some I know but a bunch I don't, which is more the point, I think.

Spooky1947 wrote: "man, I won $4...from now on I'm going to have people read to me...."

Hahahahahahaha! You do that, bro, you do that.

Spook...you're not reading enough.

G33z3r wrote: "Bobby wrote: "G33z, you never cease to surprise. I would've expected you on the other side of the argument for sure...."

There was an argument? I was simply pointing out the causality that a seque..."

You know, G33z, you like to pull out this "knuckle-dragger" persona but it's not actually the case. A Canticle for Leibowitz wasn't a mouth-breathers book on any level. It was extremely smart, passionate, insightful and was written really well. It was a Art, brother and you know it. One might even call it Literary. ;-)

@Justin,

It was interesting regarding Ex-Machina; it occurred to me afterwards that the concept was old to me, Westworld, Blade Runner, The Stepford Wives, Cherry 3000, (among others) all dealt with similar subject matter. But to >ahem< younger people, it might seem newer and more interesting. Likewise, The Hunger Games. Like most people, I'm a big Jennifer Lawrence fan but the popularity of those movies baffles me because that storyline has been done so many times before. But not if you're fifteen...

G33z3r wrote: "A.J. wrote: "The movie business lacks creativity. "

In the movie business, creativity doesn't pay.

2015's "originals" (not based on books or video games or TV or previous movies) didn't do all th..."

G33z, you never cease to surprise. I would've expected you on the other side of the argument for sure.

What you're talking about, while accurate, is an indictment of the community -- and not always true in any case. The Matrix (and Mad Max and Star Wars initially) was an original story/piece/event that made a ton of money because it was dazzling. Capitalism can be blamed for a lot of the crippling of creativity in Hollywood, but there's also an extent to where that's just an excuse.

This Star Wars, almost entirely bereft of new ideas or any semblance of originality or even moving the narrative forward, has been almost purely (IMO) a triumph of marketing. I literally saw a Star Wars based perfume ad on television the other day. The entire culture has been told that a great thing is happening and so they respond as though this great thing is happening. But I would hope there's more to making art than what was the best financial investment. I get that that sounds hopelessly naive, but there I am.

Justin wrote: "I was blown away by ‘Ex Machina’. The scene with the employee trying to dig under his skin and figure out if he was an android or not was fantastic. SF at its best.

I was disappointed by ‘The Mar..."

Ha! Excellent. I thought Ex Machina was waaay overrated. Been there, done that, many times before in sci-fi. Didn't believe for a second that the mad scientist was actually smart enough to accomplish what he accomplished and if somebody is that smart, that obsessed, I think they do more than just create a closet full of nerd sex fantasies. People who are actually like that always take it to the next level. I had other beefs but I can't remember them all. Whereas I thought -- well, I enjoyed The Martian but the jokiness got on my nerves and the optimistic outlook became really unbelievable after a while. So I appreciated the relative depth and humanity Damon brought to the character. You're starving, you have nothing, no comfort, no companionship, nothing and death is literally everywhere around you just on the other side of the wall. No one is that freaking upbeat. So, I thought the movie made a little more sense in that regard. As much as I dis that book though, I did enjoy it.

Mad Max was reeeaaally overrated. Find an excuse to race in one direction, get there, run out of plot, race back the other way. Also enjoyable, but also skin deep.

Phil wrote: "Bobby wrote: "Phil wrote: "Bobby wrote: "Phil wrote: "Going back to Spooky's original post- I have a question. Was there ever a time when you went into a bookstore and everything on the SF shelf wa..."

Yaah, Origins of Marvel Comics I had received as a Christmas present way before that. That was my version of the Red Rider BB Gun. I can still remember it glowing underneath the Christmas tree like the Holy Grail.

Phil wrote: "I struggled with Wolf of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume One because the main character's name is Khlit... "

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

>hoo boy<

Phil wrote: "Bobby wrote: "Phil wrote: "Going back to Spooky's original post- I have a question. Was there ever a time when you went into a bookstore and everything on the SF shelf was good? Because I grew up i..."

Phil, you're beautiful. The comics were why I was there too. Though I found some at B. Dalton too. Not so much individual comic books but both Waldenbooks and B. Dalton were where I went looking for Son of Origins of Marvel Comics, Bring on the Bad Guys: Origins of the Marvel Comics Villains, The Superhero Women, The Amazing Spider-man, Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty, The Silver Surfer, The Incredible Hulk, Marvel's Greatest Superhero Battles, so on and so forth. Ah, memories.

Phil wrote: "Going back to Spooky's original post- I have a question. Was there ever a time when you went into a bookstore and everything on the SF shelf was good? Because I grew up in the 80s, and it was mostl..."

You know what, Phil, I think that's a really interesting point. When I think about my own experience with science fiction as a literary form, a huge boost was provided by the Science Fiction Book Club. It was in a postcard nestled in the middle of the pages of one of those very same Conan pastiches you were talking about (which I had found my way towards via Marvel Comics) and you could mail it in and get like four books for $ .01.

("What if God was a computer?" I remember the card asking. There were other questions too but that's the only one I remember.)

That signed you up with the club. Then they automatically shipped you the featured selection every month unless you said otherwise. Financially, that was brutal on me but that book club was how I became aware of, oh man, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, Ursula K. Le Guin, John Varley, Donald Kingsbury, Frederick Pohl, Piers Anthony, wow, so many. Those are just off the top of my head. It was that book club though, that made all the difference. If it had been up to Walden Books or what was the other one? B. Dalton! I wouldn't know anything about science fiction. Good call.

Phil wrote: "As far as whether science-fiction has gotten more pessimistic, I think the really popular books have gotten a bit more pessimistic. Personally, I suspect a lot of those books of trying to cover up ..."

You know, it's interesting. Unless a work of art is bred from a formula with a history of happy endings, i.e. Star Trek, Star Wars, it almost seems like the norm right now is to end on a downer. In horror, nobody beats the monster anymore. It's like, optimism used to attract the best writers, say Arthur C. Clarke or H. G. Wells. Now, optimism, a happy ending, is seen as inherently shallow. I even think that's fair to an extent, not accurate but fair. We spent a lot of time giving everything a happy ending, now the pendulum has to swing the other way a bit before it can rest in the middle somewhere.

Tani wrote: "Bobby, I'm not 100% sure which of the books I listed that you're asking about, but I'm guessing Mercy Thompson? In which case, yes, I highly recommend the series! I'm not a huge romance reader, so ..."

Exactly. I'm with you on the paranormal romance, but surprisingly enough, my lady digs them. I've seen these around so your recommendation comes at a good time because I don't think she's read them. But yeah, I always tease her about her "angsty monsters".

April wrote: "The short works challenge is one I'd like. I love short stories! It would pair nicely with my 2016 reading challenge goal. Last year I set mine at 25 and ended up with 41 books. Dropping short stor..."

You know what? Me too. I actually love short stories.

Tani wrote: " Fire Touched (Mercy Thompson, #9) by Patricia BriggsFire Touched by Patricia Briggs
Mercy Thompson is one of my favorite urban fantasy/paranormal romance heroines.
"

So, you would recommend her for the girlfriend? Hmm...

NOTHING! NOTHING! I need no more books on my "want to read" list! GAAAAHHH!!!

I've never done anything like this. I'm very excited by the idea. With the way my life is, the year long challenge is definitely the way for me to go. I'm interested in two groups in particular, well, three: Explorer, General and Award winner though I can kill two birds with one stone with explorer.

How do we start?!?!? I'm ready!

Jonathan wrote: "That's funny, small world brother, small world. I remember watching the NBC version when I was really young. I actually re-watched it recently and while I certainly don't think anyone would call it..."

I work in professional theatre and did an adaptation of The Martian Chronicles with kids. It's very fertile ground for adaptation.