Media Changing Platforms

Some of you out there are probably aware of a podcast known as Welcome to Night Vale, which takes the guise of the community radio of a small desert town somewhere in the US where, as I heard it said somewhere, all conspiracies are true. It ranges from being completely absurd (Hiram McDaniels, literal five-headed dragon, often somehow manages to pull off the disguise of being Fred Chen, normal human being) to creepy (there is a faceless old woman who lives in your home whom you only ever see out of the corner of your eye, if at all) to intriguing and sweet and occasionally feel-punching.

As a podcast it works great. They have traveling live shows, which follow the same basic structure of the radio show, and is not as distracting as you would think to be able to see the voice actors even though they in no way resemble the characters they portray.

But now they’ve got a novel coming out in October and I find myself…conflicted.

I mean, I’ll buy it, no problem, but it’s a question of format. I’ve found that sometimes, when people who create in one format move to a different format, say from a TV show to a book, or a book to a movie, or some such, it doesn’t work. Someone may be brilliant at one format and absolute crap at another. Each form of media has its own conventions and tropes, and it’s hard to be good at all of them.

This is why most tie-in novels for TV shows and movies are written by established authors and not the people who wrote the TV shows/movies in the first place. I read a novel once that was written by the… producer? Director? Creator? …of a TV show, based off the TV show, and it was terrible. Absolute drivel. Definitely some of the worst prose I have ever read.

This Night Vale novel is written by the creators of Night Vale. They also write the episodes. But it’s hard to tell from the podcast’s format if it will translate well to prose. Very different animals.

But they’re also putting out the book as an audio book, narrated by the same person who narrates the podcast.

So I’m torn–do I get the book because I love books and that is my preference for consumption of almost everything? Or do I get the audiobook because if it turns out that it does not transfer well to prose, then I essentially have a long podcast episode?

I really can’t decide. Maybe they can write both books and podcast episodes and I’m worrying for nothing.

Alas.

Have you ever read a book based off another form of media that was terrible? Or brilliant? Or another form of media based off some other form of media that just didn’t work?