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The Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko are great books. He builds a wonderful fantasy realm in the first book, something I found very unique and intriguing. Better yet, the series remained compelling throughout.
I'd heard about the series because the movies (Russian) had gained such critical acclaim. I usually read books first if I can, and in this case, it saved me.
Horrible, horrible, awful, terrible movie! I actually purchased the Blu-rays sight unseen, and wanted to toss them in the fireplace (kind of useless, since I have asthma and our fireplace remains unused). The story changes, and the terrible, terrible "stylistic" editing just drove me nuts. There's such a thing as too artsy... though we owe the fast-cut style to least artsy Directors of all, Michael Bay.
Absolutely great books.
A Clockwork Orange would be a great counter example here. An amazing film, with Kubrick using the visual form to truly enhance the story and characters. An equally amazing book. Equally, I say, because Kubrick did such a good job bringing it to the screen. I want to say "the most faithful" text-to-screen production ever, but I prefer the American version, always feeling like the final chapter (in the English version) was just tacked on.
-Pie
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