Once upon a time, a man named Douglas Adams wrote a brilliant novel called Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. A few years later a British television series arrived that was inspired by this book and really rather good, even if it wasn't a direct adaptation of the book. It was promptly canceled after only a few episodes. Then a few years later BBC America took a stab at the license and created a new show based on the book. In typical American fashion they opted for over the top nonsense like secret CIA projects and slapstick humor to appeal to audiences. Unfortunately, this worked and the show continued for two miserable season before it was canceled. This makes Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency the only book I know of that spawned both a great television show of the same name and a completely horrible one. I suggest you don't confuse the two.

Who cares about a farm boy from a backwater planet who got trained in magic by a green muppet. Everyone knows that the real heroes can only be found in Star Trek.

You can try After Eden and its second part Chasing Stars by Helen Douglas

Joy & Fare

Terrify is perhaps too strong a word, but From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryu Murakami has kept me up at night while reading it. The setting for the story is an alternate history timeline in which Japan is occupied by an invasion force from North Korea. War in general terrifies me, but reading about something that could conceivably happen very close to where I live made it even scarier.