On Monday, November 27, 2023 at 7:15:38 PM UTC, Lynn McGuire wrote:novels due to ill health. I am not going to think any less of it because it does not end with all of the loose ends tied up. It does help that Drake declared (and I think succeeded) that every book in the series was written to be enjoyable as a stand-
Does a series have to be complete to be good ? Many authors are guiltyOne of my favourite series is David Drake's RCN (Mundy/Leary) series, which tails off, partly because Drake seemed to have tired of or exhausted the possibilities of the main cast, and partly because Drake has retired from the business of writing
of this, John Ringo is definitely this. Of course, show business goes
with the "always leave them hanging" phrase so incomplete series may not
be bad.
Lynn
Throughout the series we are reminded that start travel is risky, espcially star travel on the edge, impelled by military considerations, exploration, or sheer competitiveness. A few of the characters reflect that, given the life that they have chosen,the chances of them surviving long enough to worry about tapering off to a graceful retirement are not high. I sometimes consider that perhaps one day the RCN Princess Cecile lifted off from Cinnaber, transitioned to its high drive... and was simply
Does a series have to be complete to be good ? Many authors are guiltyOne of my favourite series is David Drake's RCN (Mundy/Leary) series, which tails off, partly because Drake seemed to have tired of or exhausted the possibilities of the main cast, and partly because Drake has retired from the business of writing novels
of this, John Ringo is definitely this. Of course, show business goes
with the "always leave them hanging" phrase so incomplete series may not
be bad.
Lynn
Does a series have to be complete to be good ?
Does a series have to be complete to be good ? Many authors are guilty
of this, John Ringo is definitely this. Of course, show business goes
with the "always leave them hanging" phrase so incomplete series may not
be bad.
A series can have more than one author, though
it isn't fashionable. I wonder if any commercial
series with "house name" pseudonym still exists...
of course there's the formula of "Very Famous
Author collaborating With Cheaper Author Who
Has Done Almost All The Writing". New James Bond
books have been published quite recently.
New Doc Savage books are still credited to Kenneth
Robeson, though there is no longer any effort
to conceal the true author. As far as I am aware,
new Tom Swift, Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys books are
still done under the classic house names, though
side projects like comics seem to get more real credits.
Does a series have to be complete to be good ? Many authors are guilty
of this, John Ringo is definitely this. Of course, show business goes
with the "always leave them hanging" phrase so incomplete series may not
be bad.
Lynn
Does a series have to be complete to be good ?
On 27/11/2023 13.15, Lynn McGuire wrote:
Does a series have to be complete to be good ?
Absolutely not. One example that comes to mind is the Vorkosiverse.
It only had eight volumes when I first read it, and it was great
even then. I still thought that it was great when I thought that
LMB was done with it. Since that time, she's added _Cryoburn_,
_Ivan's Alliance_, and _Gentleman Jolie_. These additions didn't
make the first part retroactively suck.
In article <851fea24-f882-4ac0-80ff-08a4b44b3ea4n@googlegroups.com>,
Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> wrote:
A series can have more than one author, though
it isn't fashionable. I wonder if any commercial
series with "house name" pseudonym still exists...
of course there's the formula of "Very Famous
Author collaborating With Cheaper Author Who
Has Done Almost All The Writing". New James Bond
books have been published quite recently.
New Doc Savage books are still credited to Kenneth
Robeson, though there is no longer any effort
to conceal the true author. As far as I am aware,
new Tom Swift, Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys books are
still done under the classic house names, though
side projects like comics seem to get more real
credits.
On Monday, 27 November 2023 at 19:15:38 UTC, Lynn McGuire wrote:
Does a series have to be complete to be good ? Many authors are guiltyA series can have more than one author, though
of this, John Ringo is definitely this. Of course, show business goes
with the "always leave them hanging" phrase so incomplete series may not
be bad.
it isn't fashionable. I wonder if any commercial
series with "house name" pseudonym still exists...
of course there's the formula of "Very Famous
Author collaborating With Cheaper Author Who
Has Done Almost All The Writing". New James Bond
books have been published quite recently.
I quite liked Eoin Colfer's _And Another Thing..._,
which picks up from _The Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy_. I understand it to be a new original
work. (New as in 2009.)
ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) writes:
In article <851fea24-f882-4ac0-80ff-08a4b44b3ea4n@googlegroups.com>,
Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> wrote:
A series can have more than one author, though
it isn't fashionable. I wonder if any commercial
series with "house name" pseudonym still exists...
of course there's the formula of "Very Famous
Author collaborating With Cheaper Author Who
Has Done Almost All The Writing". New James Bond
books have been published quite recently.
New Doc Savage books are still credited to Kenneth
Robeson, though there is no longer any effort
to conceal the true author. As far as I am aware,
new Tom Swift, Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys books are
still done under the classic house names, though
side projects like comics seem to get more real
credits.
The Mack Bolan series is now up to #631. Right up Lynn's alley.
Looks like it's had about 60 authors.
There are still new books being published in
_The Destroyer_ series (Remo Williams), and
the original authors have been deceased since 2015.
OBSF: One of the original Remo authors (Warren Murphy)
co-wrote the modern arthurian adventure _The Forever King_.
On Tuesday, 28 November 2023 at 00:45:03 UTC, Robert Carnegie wrote:
On Monday, 27 November 2023 at 19:15:38 UTC, Lynn McGuire wrote:
Does a series have to be complete to be good ? Many authors are guilty of this, John Ringo is definitely this. Of course, show business goes with the "always leave them hanging" phrase so incomplete series may not be bad.A series can have more than one author, though
it isn't fashionable. I wonder if any commercial
series with "house name" pseudonym still exists...
of course there's the formula of "Very Famous
Author collaborating With Cheaper Author Who
Has Done Almost All The Writing". New James Bond
books have been published quite recently.
I quite liked Eoin Colfer's _And Another Thing..._,I meant to mention cases where a publisher
which picks up from _The Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy_. I understand it to be a new original
work. (New as in 2009.)
and not an author cuts a series off. If that leaves
an author considering finishing their story
in another way for little or no payment, it's quite
reasonable that they postpone that.
I think it's important to distinguish between proper series, each
book of which works as a stand-alone, and abominations, in which
one is buying fragments of a story with no guarantee (in fact,
good odds against) of an actual resolution.
I think it's important to distinguish between proper series, each
book of which works as a stand-alone, and abominations, in which
one is buying fragments of a story with no guarantee (in fact,
good odds against) of an actual resolution.
Does a series have to be complete to be good ?
James Nicoll wrote:
I think it's important to distinguish between proper series, each
book of which works as a stand-alone, and abominations, in which
one is buying fragments of a story with no guarantee (in fact,
good odds against) of an actual resolution.
Sure. Another good example of the former is the Culture series. Not
only are the books loosely coupled, but for the most part the books can
be read in any order without too much problem. Few if any character
appear in multiple books.
The closest to a sequel really was Look to Windward, which built on the events of Consider Phlebas but was set well after it. In fact I read
those in reverse order and didn't suffer for it.
The Hydrogen Sonata made a brief mention of Excession, and if one
hadn't read the latter that part might a bit unclear, but it the main
idea was still clear.
On 2023-11-27, Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
Does a series have to be complete to be good ?
You want to wait until _Perry Rhodan_ is finished??
More seriously, from TV shows where the season-based production
penalizes any longer term story arcs, I've come to the conclusion
that often enough the journey *is* the destination.
David Gerrold's unfinished _War Against the Chtorr_ series is very
good, despite being another case where the author knew how to begin
the story, but apparently not how to end it.
Some series are just designed to be open-ended. Laurell K. Hamilton's
_Anita Blake_ series wasn't going anywhere particular when I stopped
reading.
I thought I knew what John Norman had planned for a final _Gor_
novel (fb boivbhfyl gur erghea bs Cn-Xhe, jubfr qrngu unq bayl orra
vasreerq ng gur raq bs gur svefg abiry naq jubfr obql unq abg orra
sbhaq), but I guess we're long past the point where this would have
made sense or where he actually would have wanted to stop.
I think it's important to distinguish between proper series, each
book of which works as a stand-alone, and abominations, in which
one is buying fragments of a story with no guarantee (in fact,
good odds against) of an actual resolution.
The problem with the Chtorr is that David Gerrold kept on teasing us
with excerpts from book five. I am convinced that his son will publish whatever he finds when Gerrold passes on. Of course, Gerrold could just publish a novella finishing the chtorraforming of Earth and all the
humans die rapidly.
On 2023-11-30, Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
The problem with the Chtorr is that David Gerrold kept on teasing us
with excerpts from book five. I am convinced that his son will publish
whatever he finds when Gerrold passes on. Of course, Gerrold could just
publish a novella finishing the chtorraforming of Earth and all the
humans die rapidly.
But book five was no longer supposed to be the final one. At the
end of book four there is an interview with Gerrold where he says
the series will have at least seven books.
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