Daily Archives: Monday, June 13, 2011

Cover Art

Cover Art + Synopsis | REAMDE by Neal Stephenson

By Aidan Moher June 13th, 2011

Nicked from the bald yeti:

REAMDE by Neal Stephenson

US Cover

REAMDE by Neal Stephenson

UK Cover

Synopsis:

Four decades ago, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa family, fled to a wild and lonely mountainous corner of British Columbia to avoid the draft. Smuggling backpack loads of high-grade marijuana across the border into Northern Idaho, he quickly amassed an enormous and illegal fortune. With plenty of time and money to burn, he became addicted to an online fantasy game in which opposing factions battle for power and treasure in a vast cyber realm. Like many serious gamers, he began routinely purchasing viral gold pieces and other desirables from Chinese gold farmers— young professional players in Asia who accumulated virtual weapons and armor to sell to busy American and European buyers.

For Richard, the game was the perfect opportunity to launder his aging hundred dollar bills and begin his own high-tech start up—a venture that has morphed into a Fortune 500 computer gaming group, Corporation 9592, with its own super successful online role-playing game, T’Rain. But the line between fantasy and reality becomes dangerously blurred when a young gold farmer accidently triggers a virtual war for dominance—and Richard is caught at the center.

In this edgy, 21st century tale, Neal Stephenson, one of the most ambitious and prophetic writers of our time, returns to the terrain of his cyberpunk masterpieces Snow Crash and Crpytonomicon, leading readers through the looking glass and into the dark heart of imagination.

Give me the US cover any day of the week. I like the skyline on the UK cover, but that weirdo texture at the top just is cheap and confusing; plus, a cityscape doesn’t really seem to properly represent the novel outlined in the synopsis. I love the bold, fuck you typography on the US cover. I’m not usually one for Stephenson’s work (“work” being the first word that comes to mind when I think of picking up one of his novels), but Reamde has my attention. I mean, British Columbia (where I live) and MMORPGs-come-to-life? Sign me up.

News

An Aside | AMERICAN GODS coming to HBO?

By Aidan Moher June 13th, 2011

Via The Hollywood Reporter:
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Tom Hanks’ Playtone Productions is set to produce an open-ended series, American Gods, for HBO, based on Neil Gaiman’s award-winning novel, while the company’s next project, Major Matt Mason, is in talks with Robert Zemeckis to direct in 3D, Playtone partner Gary Goetzman told The Hollywood Reporter.
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The series-in-development, revolving around the question “are you a god if no one believes in you?” is executive produced by Goetzman and Hanks, with Bob Richardson, and Gaiman on board as executive producer and writer.

Now slated for six seasons, each season will be of 10-12, hour-long episodes with a budget of around $35-40 million per season, targeted to debut on the cable powerhouse in 2013 at the earliest.
Rich in religious folklore that spanned millennia and featuring deities from Greek and Nordic mythology, and even the Judeo-Christian monotheistic God making an appearance, in the contemporary U.S., American Gods will be effects-heavy to do justice to the awe-inspiring power of the divine beings. “There are some crazy things in there. We’ll probably be doing more effects in there than it’s been done on a television series,” said Goetzman.

With the screaming success of Game of Thrones, it was inevitable that HBO would dip their pen back into the endless inkwell of classic speculative fiction. This time around, it looks like that will be tackling another of my favourite narratives, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods

The obvious hitch, here, of course, is that American Gods, though complex and layered, is not long enough to support six seasons of television. This makes me wonder whether the first season or two might not cover the novel and then move beyond to cover content included in Anansi Boys, some of Gaiman’s short fiction and, of course, storylines exclusive to the television series. I’m worried, too about how well the story and the characters will translate to the screen. Much of Shadow’s appeal in the novel was his enigmatic personality and some of the novel’s greatest twists might be more difficult to pull off under the more direct narration of television. Ideally, I’d love to see the show follow a format similar to The Wire, exploring a new facet of the world, a new story arc and a new cast of characters with each season.

Of course, as with anything Hollywood/TV, it’s best to take this news with some tempered expectations and enthusiasm. These things have a habit of falling through before they ever materialize.