McMurphy

I remember a few years ago that I saw a classical music soundtrack to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I thought it was a novel (ugh, the pun....) idea.

Is there other soundtracks to fantasy or science fiction books out there on the market?

I always thought it would be a really cool idea to publish a book and get a soundtrack on the racks to help promote it. I am sure I am not the only one out there that pops in their favorite albums or blares their heavily rotated mp3 libraries when writing. Based on what you listen to when writing, what would be on your book's soundtrack?

Lacedaemonian

My staple soundtrack:

Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
Bryter Layter - Nick Drake
Neil Young - After the Goldrush

However, I generally select tracks to suit the mood of whatever it is I am writing.

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malfunkshun

Edgar Winter did a soundtrack for L. Ron Hubbard's "Mission Earth" series.

McMurphy

Interesting. I have never been much of a Hubbard fan, but you do raise a telling example. Is it safe to assume that, if there are a pocket of soundtracks for novels, they may well be done by fans of the series?

Off the topic: I like your profile's Temple of the Dog, Alice in Chains, Mother Love Bone, and Pearl Jam references. It's certainly some great music going on there.

I, Brian

I composed a soundtrack album for Chronicles of Empire .

Okay, so it's unpublished, but at one point the soundtrack was top of the charts at mp3.com - not bad at the time.

I'll add them to the site soon enough.

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knivesout

I think Mike Oldfield composed Songs of Distant Earth for the Arthur C. Clarke book of the same name.

Personally, I usually read in silence.

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Devillishgirl

Can't say that I've ever heard of a soundtrack for a novel. I usually don't have music on when I read..or if I do, it can't have lyrics since I have a bad habit of having to sing along...which doesn't work well in tandem with reading.

McMurphy

Yes, but I am usually not listening to a cd while watching a film.

littlemissattitude

Don't think I've ever heard of a soundtrack to a novel. I know of music that is influenced by literature. Of course there's Led Zeppelin and their Tolkien references. I think someone wrote a song about Card's character, Ender. Sting's "Moon Over Bourbon Street", on his first solo album, was said to have been inspired by his reading of "Interview With the Vampire". I imagine there are many others.

And, going the other way, I certainly think it would be interesting if someone wrote a novel based on Queensryche's "Operation: Mindcrime".

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Morning Star

One of my favourite albums is a double CD for the War of the Worlds. It's the soundtrack based on the novel, not the "not bad for its time but nothing at all to do with the book" movie.

LadyFel

Haven't heard of many, but I know there's a Discworld inspired album out there somewhere... I wouldn't mind getting my hands on that, but I'm afraid it might be too folk-musicky for me...

BandSmurf

I hadn't heard that there were any out there at all! I think I'll have to look into that...

Anyway, if you don't listen to music when you read, do you hear a soundtrack in your head anyway? Or am I the only insane one? I hear it like a movie sountrack though, with the ambient noises too, as well as the music.

~BandSmurf

hodor

me i could not stand any noise when i read.. it drives me absolutely insane. in fact i have to make my wife shut the living room door and i shut the bedroom door when i read.... that might be because the tv is in french and i happen to be reading english but anyways. i could not picture any of the music i listen to adapted to the stuff i read. i like SLAYER and other death metal. i just can start to adapt a song to one sentence in a chapter and then it all gets messed up.

"GOD HATES US ALL" slayer

but but prolly not me because my wife is beautiful and i love her

Circus Cranium

I've had certain songs/albums make me THINK of books I've read. When I do read, i need silence though. I usually need silence when writing, but when I wrote my novella I listened to Violent Femmes and the Repo Man soundtrack, to get into the character, who was an aging punk.

Leto

I can read with music or radio on (usually radio btw), but I don't hear the ambient sound (luckily for me when I'm in subway), what I hear is the book's dialogues.

Sting's song 'Moon over Bourbon street" is the only example of a song driving me into a book. And although I'm not fond of Anne Rice's others works - Interview with the Vampire is a book I like to re-read.

Strangely, AJ, I can't write without sounds around me - currently Cali and the Darkness are on my work playlist regular.