i've never seen the movie. the book is dense and full of imagery that i can't imagine would have gone over well in transition to a film. throughout the novel, the story shifts chapter to chapter between storylines, and that can get annoying, but the entire story is woven together very impressive and the book itself is a groundwork for other sf types of books... kind of like an origin story or something. anyway, i think it's a great book to read in general... and it's pretty useful if you want to know where rj got some of the names and concepts for stuff with the aiel, too. (*giggle but yeah, overall, i wouldn't base any expectations for the book on the movie. it's rare for sci fi books and movies to be very congruent anyway from what i've seen with other book/movie adaptations.