20 Fantasy Adaptations That Could Be Bigger than Game of Thrones
By Jenn Reid
The First Law. Image via Gollancz
19. The First Law
The Books: The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie
The Story: If you’re looking for something Game of Thrones-y, you can’t go wrong with The First Law series. The books are set in an epic fantasy world during war, loosely based on Medieval Europe. The three major kingdoms at war are The Union, based on Western Europe, The Gurkish Empire, based on the Middle East, and The Northman, based on Vikings. It’s considered a “darker” fantasy series (again, like Game of Thrones) thanks to its complicated characters and a generous amount of bloodshed.
The trilogy consists of The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings. There are also stand alone books set in the same world, often including minor characters from the main trilogy. These books are Best Served Cold, The Heroes and Red Country.
The Adaptation: It could be Game of Thrones, it could be Vikings, it could be 300. It needs to be big, action-packed and full of epic battles and war scenes. The fights in the book are already written in a way that could only be described as cinematic. There’s no doubt they’d lend themselves beautifully to the screen. Wherever the show ends up, they should nab Neil Marshall of the epic Blackwater Game of Thrones episodes to direct.