Scalzi's thoughts on James Swallow and novelizations

[ronny]

John Scalzi talks up James Swallow and the new Stargate novel at http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/12/15/the-big-idea-james-swallow/ and gets into tie-ins in general, with a lot of props to tie-in writers in general.

I liked this quote.

In a larger sense, writing a tie-in is no different from the work of TV scriptwriters working on a series that they didn’t create; and when you think about it, writers who adapt a book into a movie are eligible for an Academy Award, while writers who adapt a movie into a book (which requires considerably more writing) are often labeled as hacks.

There's a couple more quotes I could put in but that one won out. Scalzi is a fairly new find for me but the more I read him the more I like him.

 

[William Leisner]

John Scalzi talks up James Swallow and the new Stargate novel at http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/12/15/the-big-idea-james-swallow/ and gets into tie-ins in general, with a lot of props to tie-in writers in general.

I liked this quote.

In a larger sense, writing a tie-in is no different from the work of TV scriptwriters working on a series that they didn’t create; and when you think about it, writers who adapt a book into a movie are eligible for an Academy Award, while writers who adapt a movie into a book (which requires considerably more writing) are often labeled as hacks.

There's a couple more quotes I could put in but that one won out. Scalzi is a fairly new find for me but the more I read him the more I like him.

Actually, that quote, I believe, is from James, not John.

That aside, Scalzi is definitely recommended reading, both in book and blog form. (As is James, of course.)

 

[ronny]

Oops, you're right, that is James. OK, here's a John quote.

...I think one thing that’s often overlooked in the discussion is the professionalism of the people doing the novelizations: Here are folks who have to take a script, bump it up to novel length, get it done usually in a short amount of time — and get it right. Yes, that’s work.

 

[Stevil2001]

I liked this quote.

In a larger sense, writing a tie-in is no different from the work of TV scriptwriters working on a series that they didn’t create; and when you think about it, writers who adapt a book into a movie are eligible for an Academy Award, while writers who adapt a movie into a book (which requires considerably more writing) are often labeled as hacks.

Whether it's fair or not, this difference probably stems from how the adaptation processes are different. Filmmakers make all sorts of changes to a novel to fit their own projects, to make it work better on screen, whatever, whereas novelizers are typically restricted to trying to reproduce the screen version as closely as possible, with not much room for big choices. A novel has to hew much closer to a film than a film ever has to with a movie.

That said, I think Steven Barnes's Far Beyond the Stars is beyond brilliant; I read it and loved it long before I saw the TV episode, and I think it's better.

 

[James Swallow]

I liked this quote.

In a larger sense, writing a tie-in is no different from the work of TV scriptwriters working on a series that they didn’t create; and when you think about it, writers who adapt a book into a movie are eligible for an Academy Award, while writers who adapt a movie into a book (which requires considerably more writing) are often labeled as hacks.

Whether it's fair or not, this difference probably stems from how the adaptation processes are different. Filmmakers make all sorts of changes to a novel to fit their own projects, to make it work better on screen, whatever, whereas novelizers are typically restricted to trying to reproduce the screen version as closely as possible, with not much room for big choices. A novel has to hew much closer to a film than a film ever has to with a movie.

What I'm taking issue with in that statement is the perception that there's less creative effort required adapting movie-to-book, that it's less 'worthy' than gutting a book to make a feature film; and as for the whole movie/book adaptation comparison, I think it was our own Keith DeCandido who first made that point.

 

[Stevil2001]

I got that; I was just offering my idea as to why the perception would exist.

 

[JD]

That said, I think Steven Barnes's Far Beyond the Stars is beyond brilliant; I read it and loved it long before I saw the TV episode, and I think it's better.

Hmm, I might have to check it out then. I've had it for years, but I've never gotten around to reading it. I do remember flipping through it and seeing that he actually added scenes from Benny's childhood, which I thought was really cool.

 

[Stevil2001]

It's about 50% new material-- it alternates between Benny in 1953 and Benny as an even younger man (in 1939, I think).

 

[Christopher]

^Yep. Almost all the novelizations of hourlong episodes (Far Beyond the Stars, Relics, Flashback) had to pretty much double the amount of material to fill it out to novel length. Relics added a subplot with Riker and an original crewman character, including a brief visit to the surface of the Dyson sphere. FBtS added the young-Benny material. Flashback added a nice Kes subplot and a subplot involving Paris retrieving the valuable substance from the nebula, and reworked the ending into something richer and more emotionally meaningful than the episode's technobabble ending.

The exception is the Trials and Tribble-ations novelization, which is an atypically short book. It does add a fair amount of the events of "The Trouble with Tribbles" to fill out the text, plus there's a really long introduction by David Gerrold, but it still comes out at only 180-ish pages. (I thought it would be cool if it had been a complete adaptation of both episodes, interwoven into one story, but I guess there wasn't enough time for that.)

 

[Stevil2001]

Yeah, but the added material in Relics feels like padding-- the story of what'shisface had nothing to do with Scotty. I did really like the expanded ending of Flashback, though. And Day of Honor added a really cute subplot about the EMH. So I guess I should assert that Far Beyond the Stars added a whole separate time period to the story that really worked with and added to the themes of the work, and that's what made it an exceptional novelization.

 

[Daddy Todd]

This discussion has made me want to read a Stargate novel, something I've never experienced before, so thumbs up on a great thread!

 

[JD]

^Yep. Almost all the novelizations of hourlong episodes (Far Beyond the Stars, Relics, Flashback) had to pretty much double the amount of material to fill it out to novel length. Relics added a subplot with Riker and an original crewman character, including a brief visit to the surface of the Dyson sphere. FBtS added the young-Benny material. Flashback added a nice Kes subplot and a subplot involving Paris retrieving the valuable substance from the nebula, and reworked the ending into something richer and more emotionally meaningful than the episode's technobabble ending.

The exception is the Trials and Tribble-ations novelization, which is an atypically short book. It does add a fair amount of the events of "The Trouble with Tribbles" to fill out the text, plus there's a really long introduction by David Gerrold, but it still comes out at only 180-ish pages. (I thought it would be cool if it had been a complete adaptation of both episodes, interwoven into one story, but I guess there wasn't enough time for that.)

Wow, I didn't realize the other one hour episode adaptations added that much stuff. I thought that was just a one time thing with Far Beyond the Stars.

 

[Christopher]

I strongly recommend the Flashback novelization. It really enhances the episode, especially if you're a Kes fan as I am.

 

[NurseChapel39]

Mr. Bennett: This is kind of off topic, but since you posted on this page I wanted to let you know that I really enjoy the annotations that you provide for all of your novels and short stories. They must be pretty time consuming to prepare. I also like how you integrate as much "real science" as possible in your novels. As a fellow science geek, ( I majored in chemistry and nursing in college) the links you refer to in the annotations are fun to investigate. Orion's Hounds and Greater than the Sum continue to be my favorite TNG-Titan novels.

 

[Christopher]

^Thanks!

 

[Geoff Thorne]

I think Vonda McIntyre's novelization of TWoK is FAR superior to the film and KRAD's prequel to ANDROMEDA made the series, as executed, look like a joke.