Yesterday, I shared five predictions for where I believe fantasy is heading, with #5 being the one I harbour most of my mixed feelings towards.
Here, I predicted there will be a boom of films being made from our favourite indie books in the coming years, thanks to a two-letter acronym that inspires fear and excitement in equal proportions…
A.I.
This genie isn’t going back in the lamp, no matter how many people have wished, prayed, and likely sacrificed many lambs for it to do so.
It’s also lowering the barrier for everyday creatives to create entire animations around their favourite author’s work, like Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. This romantasy juggernaut has swamped BookTok and Bookstagram for more months than I can recall.
Type “Fourth Wing” into Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram, and you’ll be flooded with fan-created, AI-animated scenes that are so cinematic, some folks think they’re Netflix trailers… only to collapse into a hole of despair when they learn they are not.
And therein lies the origins of my prediction, Legionnaire.
A gap in the market that’s already being set upon by creative entrepreneurs.
Don’t get me wrong, AI still has quite the journey to undertake before it can compete with the deep pockets of Hollywood producers, but the trajectory is clear. Give it a decade, and this tech will be strong enough that even mainstream directors will be using it in-house to cut costs and churn out more films for less budget.
It’s already happening in gaming with indie developers creating entire immersive worlds that look AAA on a shoestring budget.
That same evolution is coming for books-to-film in my uncertified, uncanny, but always correct opinion.
And I think this is mostly a good thing.
“Mostly” being the operative word.
While I'm generally quite upbeat about the future, I liken wholesale AI products with little human input to be akin to McDonald’s:
Tasty, fast, affordable (perhaps not nowadays)… but missing the nutrients of a proper meal.
Too much indulgence and you risk bloat and an ick-induced hangover that lasts several hours or days.
Balanced properly with hearty, homemade meals (human-created content), however, and I don't care what the health gurus in skin-tight jeans tell you, it's not going to harm you. In fact, I'd argue it will leave you quite satisfied.
And before you call me a hypocrite, I've long held this position with my own audiobooks.
Despite my current stock of wares having been painstakingly produced using virtual voice licensed by a professional narrator for quite a pretty penny — that hundreds of readers have thoroughly enjoyed — I still have plans to commission a human narrator in the future once The Divided Region is complete.
It allows me to fill in any gaps this fantastic tool may leave behind while still giving my readers the thing I care deeply about:
Choice.
The same way, only a week ago, I gave TDR fans the option to buy paperbacks of the series for the very first time.
So watch this space; lots of exciting things I see coming down the pipeline.
Who knows, perhaps a tech-savvy fan will pick up The Divided Region and flood our socials with animated recreations of the khueger encounter in Exiled…
Or the steelspirits in Forbidden Forest…
Or the frantic and deadly race through the Wildlands in Last Alliance…
Or the nasty twist at the end of One True King…
Or the skarlox attack in The Great Betrayal.
For now, though, the ebooks, virtual voice audiobooks, and paperbacks will have to do.
To grab one or more of these books, in whatever format your heart desires, go here:
https://www.djjwatsonstore.com
DJJW