After Game of Thrones, this very dark fantasy work would make a perfect series

On Hitek, we regularly talk to you about the fantasy works we've loved and/or would like to see adapted for the screen. Last year, we suggested these 10 books, among the best of 2024, a ranking you greatly appreciated. Here we are back with an excellent fantasy novel, praised by George R.R. Martin (between two blog posts explaining that we will one day read the sequel to Game of Thrones, but we no longer believe it) entitled Serve Cold, which would make an excellent mini-series! src="https://static.hitek.fr/img/up_s/2154764424/b7a27_gameofthrones.webp">

For the past twenty years, Fantasy has earned well-deserved acclaim and is firmly part of the audiovisual landscape, thanks in particular to works such as The Lord of the Rings by Peter Jackson, which has won 101 awards, or Game of Thrones, to name just two well-known examples. This genre, appreciated by the general public, is of course not limited to these works, and has existed for much longer than the early 2000s. However, it is experiencing a boom at the dawn of the 21st century, marked by the 500 million copies sold of Harry Potter, the best-selling fantasy book series of all time. The number of fantasy novels continues to increase year on year, and according to our colleagues at the Guardian, sales of science fiction and fantasy books exploded between 2023 and 2024, while non-fiction declined by around 6%.

Reader enthusiasm is also an enthusiasm of female readers, proof that the genre is far from masculine, despite a persistent label. This craze is due in large part to the ever-growing community of romantasy enthusiasts, a subgenre which, as its name suggests, includes a large portion of romance. It's a trend that's not new, and you already know several examples of it: True Blood, Outlander, A Discovery of Witches, Carnival Row, Buffy the Vampire Slayer... This ever-increasing public demand for literary fantasy is also reflected in the expensive expansion of the television universes of Lord of the Rings on Prime Video or Game of Thrones and soon Harry Potter on HBO, despite not always guaranteed success and audience figures. Serve cold, a novel in the vein of A Game of Thrones, ideal for a mini-series src="https://static.hitek.fr/img/up_s/2154764424/d57e6_servirfroidabercrombie.webp">

Can we say that what fueled, among other things, the fervor surrounding the famous series Game of Thrones (at least, until season 8) was the mix of sex, perversions, and violence, all served up by perfectly written characters and dialogue in grandiose settings? If so, this is the formula that HBO should return to, and the novel Servir Froid lends itself perfectly to this exercise. Written by Joe Abercrombie, this approximately 800-page novel, available in paperback from Bragelonne, is a story of revenge, filthy and bloody, just the way we like them, with its share of murders, felons, and sex.

Serve Cold, J. Abercrombie
A violently funny, excruciatingly exhilarating book. As for the heroine, she is devilishly ruthless, and her traveling companions are wildly immoral. In short, a story that could not be more captivating pic.twitter.com/GGI6ozbEoT

— NGM (@NIC0GM) June 14, 2019

The plot begins with the brutal assassination of mercenary twins Benna and Monza Murcatto, after their employer, Duke Orso, learned of their betrayal. Assassination, really? For Benna, death is immediate: but her sister miraculously manages to escape her attackers, despite her body being torn to shreds. After a painful convalescence, hidden from the eyes of her enemies, she vows to avenge her brother's death by killing Duke Orso and his small bodyguard. During her quest, she will be accompanied by a group as bizarre as they are suspicious, including a good soldier with too much of a drink, a murderer obsessed with numbers, a poisoner and his assistant, and a tortured barbarian from the North. This adult and much less heroic version of Arya Stark reels off the list of names she vowed to kill in order to find peace...

George R.R. Martin praised this Serving Cold, arguing that "Abercrombie strings together betrayals, twists, and turns so well that he maintains the suspense until the very end. It's his best novel." And indeed, the story has some unexpected twists that you'll discover for yourself, and which would work wonders on the small screen. The plot is ideal, in terms of intensity and length, to become a miniseries. HBO has already proven it's not afraid of violent and sexual programming, and Servir Froid offers exactly that type of content. Audiences were infatuated with Arya Stark during the Game of Thrones era, or with the Bride from Kill Bill at the dawn of the 2000s, proving their appetite for female figures who buck the stereotypes of fiction: merciless, cunning, obsessive, and morally ambiguous. With the right casting, a short-form series of eight one-hour episodes would have a good chance of winning over viewers.

In 2023, Deadline announced on its website that Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible, Dune) was in talks to star in a film adaptation of Best Served Cold, directed by Tim Miller (Deadpool) for Skydance. Since then, the project has stalled, and that's not a bad thing. The choice of actress is excellent, Rebecca Ferguson having proven her talent for playing cold and disturbing female figures, while being charismatic, but the film format wouldn't do justice to the character development and the thousand details of the plot. The script, co-written by Joe Abercrombie, already exists. All that's left is to cross our fingers that HBO takes on the project and delivers a faithful and thrilling version... While waiting for the future to (perhaps) teach us some good news, we leave you with our top 10 best fantasy comics, to be consumed without moderation!