10. The Alex Verus Series By Benedict Jacka
orbitbooks.netSet in a modern day London, the Alex Verus series tells us the story of Alex Verus (duh) who runs a magic shop in Camden. In Verus' London, there are mages, all of which hold differing sets of powers. Verus' own power is that of probability: he can predict all the possible outcomes of a current event and thus act in order to see the outcome he desires. As is the theme with any good book series, the setting is fantastic and from the very first novel, Jacka paints a picture of a secret London that Verus himself would rather not be a part of it. He is often pulled into the affairs of other magic users due to the nature of his powers (probability mages are supposed to be rare and being able to predict what happens next is probably the most useful power of all.) The way Jacka describes Verus' power and how it works would also make for great television visuals: his powers enable him to visualise and experience every single possibility in his mind before making the choice he needs to. The unfortunate side effect is that he has experienced his own death thousands of times. Imagine how much fun the visual effects wizards could have with that. Reliving his death all the time gives Verus a hard edge and we reckon Christopher Eccelston (expect to see a lot of ex-Doctors on this list) would be perfect for the combination of everyman and hardened soul Verus is portrayed as.