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Earthsea

Posted by Chris Turner on 2005/03/31 10:36

Admittedly it wasn't as widely advertised as Dr Who, but did anyone else
manage to catch it at the weekend? I've not read the books personally, so I
can't compare, but I liked it, even if it was short.

Chris

"He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy"
- Monty Python's Life of Brian

Earthsea

Posted by Simon Richardson on 2005/03/31 12:41

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Turner" <chris@>
To: chat@
Subject: Earthsea
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 10:36:00 +0100

Admittedly it wasn't as widely advertised as Dr Who, but did anyone else
manage to catch it at the weekend? I've not read the books personally, so I
can't compare, but I liked it, even if it was short.

Please do not let the TV version put you off reading the books. We saw the
first installment (the Sunday half) and voted it the worst adaptation of all time.
We didn't bother tuning in for the Monday half, because it sucked. Bad.
A while ago I ran a game set in that world, hundreds of years after the
action in the books, and the players that saw it and hadn't read the books
could spot the differences. (I don't run many story backgrounds in my
games, which might tell you something of the high opinion I have of this
particular series.)

Even IMDB barely rated the TV adaptation over a '5'. The user comments
start "Worst Adaptation EVER. Shame on you, Sci Fi Channel" and go
downhill from there. I went through the user reviews looking for a positive
one, but in the end I gave up.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407384/

Even the author hated it: her public response is a matter of record:-

http://www.slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2111107

But don't let that put you off reading the books. They are good, and they
are in the IFIS library. If you want a taster of the world, dip into the short
story "The Rule of Names", which is in volume 2 of "The Wind's Twelve
Quarters" - also in the IFIS library.

Earthsea

Posted by Chris Turner on 2005/03/31 13:37

On Thu Mar 31, 2005 at 11:41:47AM +0000, Simon Richardson wrote:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Turner" <chris@>
To: chat@
Subject: Earthsea
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 10:36:00 +0100

Admittedly it wasn't as widely advertised as Dr Who, but did anyone else
manage to catch it at the weekend? I've not read the books personally, so I
can't compare, but I liked it, even if it was short.

[snipped just how bad an adaptation it was]

But don't let that put you off reading the books. They are good, and
they are in the IFIS library. If you want a taster of the world, dip into
the short story "The Rule of Names", which is in volume 2 of "The Wind's
Twelve Quarters" - also in the IFIS library.

I'd seen comments online about it being a bad adaptation and having read
Ursula's article on it, it's fairly clear that they changed it quite a lot.
But that doesn't mean it's going to be a bad program in it's own right. My
one and only complaint was that it was too short and felt like the plot
rushed past.

Anyway, I've yet to watch something that has put me off reading the original
books. The only thing that will put me off reading the books, is the lack
of time and the large number of books I've already got sitting at home
unread.

Chris

"He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy"
- Monty Python's Life of Brian