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

Yeah, thanks for the heads up. I'm calling the comic book store today.

 

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.

 

No, they didn't. They only talked about Tor's prose projects.

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.)

 

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.

 

Yup, that would be amazing. It would come close to seeing that Peter Jackson Halo movie that wasn't meant to be.

 

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.

 

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.)

 

No, that certainly works too. The important thing is to explore and try new things.

 

I wasn't familiar with that incarnation, thanks.

(Actually, I'm minded of another distinction by that sample dialogue: the SFU Kzintis have no teeps.)

 

I meant "teep" as in "telepath". (I recall the term being used in Babylon 5, though I may be mistaken.)