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Kzinti in new graphic novel ("Ringworld" adapted!)

Therin of Andor

Therin of Andor

Admiral
Moderator
It's been a looooong time since a new Trek-related book turned up on bookshelves and I had no idea it was coming.

If you're starved for Filmation TAS kzinti ("The Slaver Weapon" and its LA Times Syndicated newspaper strip, "The Wristwatch Plantation"), complete with batwing-ears, then try "Ringworld: The Graphic Novel, Part 1" (Tor/Seven Seas, July 2014), adapted from the Larry Niven novel by Robert Mandell and illustrated in a b/w manga style by Sean Lam.

If Marco Palmieri & Greg Cox mentioned this book in their Shore Leave presentation last weekend, then it was in the first few minutes (or last year).

It looks wonderful!


Ringworld graphic novel uploaded by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
 
Wait... there's a Ringworld graphic novel adaptation? Sold!!

I wouldn't actually consider this Trek-related. As a Niven fan, I want this strictly on its own merits. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! :techman:
 
I'm sure someone suggested that this could work being adapted as a future Star Trek movie?
 
I'm curious how graphic the adaptation will be when it comes to rishathra. :)

I've had this for several weeks (it came out in early July), and didn't think to mention it here because, frankly, it's not Treklit-related. We don't see threads for the latest Man-Kzin Wars books, after all. *shrug*

The art style used here doesn't really work for me.
 
Therin of Andor said:
If Marco Palmieri & Greg Cox mentioned this book in their Shore Leave presentation last weekend, then it was in the first few minutes (or last year).
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No, they didn't. They only talked about Tor's prose projects.


Danlav05 said:
I'm sure someone suggested that this could work being adapted as a future Star Trek movie?
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Why would anyone want that? It's a Known Space novel, so it should be adapted as a Known Space movie. Known Space is not some inferior tributary state of Star Trek just because of that one episode. It's a rich, independent science fiction universe in its own right and it's actually older than Star Trek, or at least equally old; the first story in the Known Space universe was published in 1964, and at least six Known Space stories -- including the Kzinti's debut story, "The Warriors" -- were published before TOS premiered in September 1966. (More like ten or eleven stories, probably, since magazines typically come out 3-4 months before their cover dates. There were multiple Known Space stories coming out in magazines dated October to December '66.)

Besides, we're talking about Ringworld, for Pete's sake, one of the most famous and influential SF novels of all time. Adapting it as a Star Trek movie makes about as much sense as adapting Lord of the Rings as, oh, a Hercules: The Legendary Journeys movie.

Not to mention that Ringworld isn't just about the Kzinti. It doesn't work without the Pierson's Puppeteers and the Pak, without General Products hulls and boosterspice. It's a foundational and integral work within the Known Space universe and can't simply be rejiggered into another universe. (Heck, even "The Soft Weapon" wasn't really Trekkified as "The Slaver Weapon" -- rather, three Trek characters were plugged into an otherwise unaltered Known Space story.)

And then, of course, there's the fact that Ringworld is just the first of a four-book series that overlaps with the 5-book Fleet of Worlds series that Niven and Edward M. Lerner have been publishing since 2007. Any Hollywood studio is going to see it as the beginning of a new franchise of its own.


EDIT: Allyn said it more concisely and better. The Kzinti are not a Star Trek topic, they are a Known Space topic. Niven just loaned them to Trek a couple of times. (And his Trek comic strip storyline also included a species from his Draco's Tavern universe, but I've never seen anyone post a Draco's Tavern thread in Trek Lit.)
 
You know what? I am really, really sorry I even mentioned it.

When I once ran out of new Trek to read, discovering "Ringworld" (years after it came out, but new for me) - and then "Ringworld Engineers" being released in MMPB just a few months later - was a Very Exciting Thing, and I thought people here might appreciate it. Certainly I had better things to do in my vacation hotel room than prop open the artwork to get a pic for everyone.

Pardon me for daring to be so Off Topic. I did warn it was a post for those "starved for Filmation TAS kzinti". If you're not, then I wasn't sharing for you.

The kzin in this even looks more like a TAS kzin than the art on "The Wristwatch Plantation", in which their batwing ears were eliminated.

Sorry mods. Remove the thread if necessary.

See you all in a few months.
 
Honestly Therin, there's no need to react that badly, no-one's attacking you. Yes it's not actual Trek Lit but no-one's complained to me.
 
The batwing ears are not a "TAS Kzin" feature, they're a feature of the real, original Kzinti from Known Space. Filmation could usually be relied upon to be faithful to its source material.

And no, Therin, I'm not upset at you, just shocked by the suggestion in post #4 that anyone would want to see the most important work in the Known Space universe adapted as a Trek movie, of all things. It always saddens me to see Trek fans who have no interest in or knowledge of the literary antecedents of Trek. TOS was one of the most SF-literate TV shows ever, rivalled only by the original The Twilight Zone. Its creators distilled tropes from prose SF that had rarely if ever been seen on television before, and recruited numerous prose-SF greats to bring their own talents to the show, like Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Theodore Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Norman Spinrad, and eventually Larry Niven on TAS, not to mention James Blish as the novelizer. Isaac Asimov himself was a friend and consultant for Roddenberry. Star Trek should be a gateway drug, an entry-level work that fires people's curiosity about the original writing done by these authors and opening the door to a much larger realm of science fiction. I think that's what its creators intended it to be (although the same doesn't go for its successor shows), and it's certainly what it was for me.
 
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Christopher said:
The batwing ears are not a "TAS Kzin" feature, they're a feature of the real, original Kzinti from Known Space.
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Yes, I know. ;) But there was a decision to eliminate the style for "The Wristwatch Plantation", IIRC the Niven essay that discusses the LA Times Syndicate kzin storyline (and the almost-novel he was going to co-write for Pocket). Yes, I expected this "Ringworld" kzin to have batwing ears.

It was a looooong day. Awake at 4am, eleven hours on a plane from NYC (after discovering that Coney Island Museum - the only reason for a brief jaunt to New York; not to mention two friends cancelling their lunch dates) is now closed on Tuesdays as well as Mondays, and afternoons only) but across time zones so, at about midnight Brain Time, it was still about four in the afternoon in Hawaii.

Never revisit a TrekBBS thread after midnight. (It just seemed like people didn't even want the info posted. I've been traveling USA alone for six weeks now and these little moments of sharing are meant to be fun.)

Bad day.

Actually, I recall wanting to see "Ringworld" as a Trek movie, or Trek animated movie, when I first read it, too. But then along came TNG's "Relics" - and the whole Dyson Sphere wordbuilding aspect was kind of wasted - so its very hard to imagine a Trek-linked "Ringworld" doing justice to the "Ringworld" novel. So yeah, Danlav05's comment didn't worry me.

Loved finding Ringworld marked on the chart in Bantam's "Star Trek Maps".
 
So far as I'm aware, the only time I've seen a need to refer to the bat-ear Known Space/Slaver Weapon Kzin(ti) is when comparing and contrasting them to the cat-ear Kzinti(s) in the Star Fleet Universe.

The SFU Kzintis have cat ears, no tails, sentient females, use "Kzinti" in singular and "Kzintis" in plural, are genetically related to SFU-native species like the Lyrans and Carnivons, and have no Ringworld to live on.

(Their factional template was re-worked into the Mirak Star League in Starfleet Command 2: Empires at War on PC, potentially due to licensing issues.)
 
Christopher said:
Star Trek should be a gateway drug, an entry-level work that fires people's curiosity about the original writing done by these authors and opening the door to a much larger realm of science fiction. I think that's what its creators intended it to be (although the same doesn't go for its successor shows), and it's certainly what it was for me.
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Crap. As with most things in life, I'm backwards here too. True confession time: I never liked Star Trek when I was young. I don't even remember why, but the result was I never really gave the show a chance. I did, however, love reading science fiction novels. I actually really only got into Star Trek because someone gave me a Star Trek book as a joke, because they knew how much I disliked it. Well, one day I didn't have anything else to read, so I figured I'd give the Star Trek book a shot... and ended up liking it. After that, I started watching the show, and the rest, as they say, is history. But I was into literary SF well before I was into Star Trek.

Fandom: I'm doin' it wrong! :lol:

Therin of Andor said:
It just seemed like people didn't even want the info posted.
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I'm not sure who this is referring to, but if I gave you this impression, I apologize. This completely slipped by me and I appreciated seeing it here.
 
No, it's cool, but yours and several other posts mentioned the "wouldn't actually consider this Trek-related" aspect and, after a journey of about 20 hours of daylight traveling, and no sleep, it kinda hit me hard. I was probably delirious. Six weeks of US travel and am now in Honolulu, about to ride out a double hurricane instead of going home.

when comparing and contrasting them to the cat-ear Kzinti(s) in the Star Fleet Universe.
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Felinoid ears here:


LA Times Syndicate kzinti, "The Wristwatch Plantation" by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
 
Avro Arrow said:
Christopher said:
Star Trek should be a gateway drug, an entry-level work that fires people's curiosity about the original writing done by these authors and opening the door to a much larger realm of science fiction. I think that's what its creators intended it to be (although the same doesn't go for its successor shows), and it's certainly what it was for me.
Click to expand...

Crap. As with most things in life, I'm backwards here too. True confession time: I never liked Star Trek when I was young. I don't even remember why, but the result was I never really gave the show a chance. I did, however, love reading science fiction novels. I actually really only got into Star Trek because someone gave me a Star Trek book as a joke, because they knew how much I disliked it. Well, one day I didn't have anything else to read, so I figured I'd give the Star Trek book a shot... and ended up liking it. After that, I started watching the show, and the rest, as they say, is history. But I was into literary SF well before I was into Star Trek.

Fandom: I'm doin' it wrong! :lol:
Click to expand...

No, that certainly works too. :) The important thing is to explore and try new things.
 
I meant "teep" as in "telepath". (I recall the term being used in Babylon 5, though I may be mistaken.)
 
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