Incomplete books <sobs>

Joditaylorfan · 12/10/2020 13:28

Feeling your pain!

CloudyVanilla · 12/10/2020 13:30

Mmmhmmmm. Apparently Philip Pullman hadn't even started writing the third Book of Dust when the second of the trilogy was published a couple of years ago! It sucks!

Original poster

Soubriquet · 12/10/2020 13:32

It’s like tv shows being left without an ending but I think books are worse cos you put so much effort into reading them

My series is Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott

OP posts:

DancelikeEmmaGoldman · 12/10/2020 17:20

Quite often it’s because the publishers don’t renew the contracts, if a series hasn’t been selling well enough. A series I’ve enjoyed has come to an abrupt end for that reason. A publisher will encourage a writer to stay with their more successful books, if they have more than one, or write something different. It’s also why some authors and characters survive long past the point the writer has shuffled off the mortal coil.

Paying a writer to write the next Robert B Parker novel or Ian Fleming thriller is, apparently, a better financial proposition, than nurturing a new writer. You can’t blame publishers for wanting to turn a profit, but it’s why good series disappear and series which should end, live on, long after their writers clearly want them dead and gone.

The public bear some of the blame for happily buying their hapless Dad the latest James Patterson as written by , every Xmas, whether the book itself is worth reading or not.

elkiedee · 12/10/2020 21:41

I don't know anything about Victoria Scott but I think the end of a book should have a reasonable ending even if there are questions left unresolved to be explored in another book. I listened to the second in the Book of Dust series in abridged adaptation on Radio 4, and was horrified by the cliffhanger ending - wah, you can't do that to me!

I intend to read the print copies buit need to read The Amber Spyglass - I did listen to it on unabriged cassettes a long time ago. I will probably read the first of the Dust books (have heard some of it on R4 but not all) in print but will wait to read #2 again unitl #3 comes out. I just hope Philip Pullman lives into a very healthy old age (he's curerntly mid 70s I think)

KatyaZamolodchikova · 12/10/2020 21:45

Philip Pullman needs to bloody get on with it

Although Serpantine is out on 15 October which bridges the gap between The Amber Spyglass and The Secret Commonwealth.

Patrick Rothfuss needs to crack on with the Third Name of the Wind book. I’ve read the first but am putting off the second because I know the third isn’t done.

And let’s not even get started on George RR Martin..!

OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea · 12/10/2020 21:56

I shall add Jasper Fforde to the list. What happened to Pickwick? I need moreThursday Next and a sequel to Shades of Grey please.

Also hoping Pullman doesn't perish before Book of Dust 3. I was in year 7 when Northern Lights was published. I now have a year 7 child myself, and that's not even my oldest child. I have been waiting a long time!

teaandcustardcreamsx · 12/10/2020 22:10

@Soubriquet

It’s like tv shows being left without an ending but I think books are worse cos you put so much effort into reading them

My series is Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott

This! I’ve recently finished a book that was released a few weeks ago and that fucking cliffhanger

although that tends to be why fanfiction has come about!

bookworm14 · 12/10/2020 22:12

Lucinda Riley needs to get on with the final book in the Seven Sisters series. Another one with a huge cliffhanger!

DorotheaDiamond · 12/10/2020 22:15

I’ll see all of those and raise you Melanie Rawn Ambrai books - first was something like 1997, second a couple of years later...still hasn’t written the third (last).

burnoutbabe · 12/10/2020 22:15

Quite a few kids authors where I want one final book
Trebizon. What happened in sixth form?
Kingsctote (though someone write a very good follow up that girls gone by publishing published)

Beamur · 12/10/2020 22:20

@OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea

I shall add Jasper Fforde to the list. What happened to Pickwick? I need moreThursday Next and a sequel to Shades of Grey please.

Also hoping Pullman doesn't perish before Book of Dust 3. I was in year 7 when Northern Lights was published. I now have a year 7 child myself, and that's not even my oldest child. I have been waiting a long time!

Yes! The shades of grey book was amazing. Next book publishing date came and went...I wonder if he's lost interest/direction for it. Most recent book was good but maybe not quite vintage Fforde.

TeaAndStrumpets · 12/10/2020 22:46

I read The Last Dragonslayer books by Jasper Fforde, the third one was published in 2014, the fourth on due in January 2021! They are marketed as young adult, but I enjoyed them. A sequel to Shades of Grey would be fantastic.

I am hanging on for the next Fiona Griffiths book by Harry Bingham. Allegedly he is contracted for a couple more, but has not published for three years. There is a continuing mystery which is nowhere near being resolved !

Lalalatte · 13/10/2020 19:36

Used to love the Trebizon books, burnoutbabe - couldn't believe it when I found they were out of print.

ButterflyBitch · 13/10/2020 19:43

I’m still waiting on the ending to a series I started reading when I was 12. I’m 38 now!

schubertdibdab · 18/10/2020 09:30

GRRRRRRRRRRR Martin we're looking at you.

There's a wonderful clip of him asking Stephen King how he writes so fast.

Doubt you could make authors finish a series before publishing.

Also, authors will tweak as they go along or change characters based on public reaction.

Ellmau · 18/10/2020 17:01

The fantasy writer Melanie Rawn published two thirds of a trilogy in the 90s (94 and 97 acc to wikipedia), ending vol 2 with massive cliffhanger.

Still waiting for vol 3. She's written other things (less interesting) in the meantime.

Some years ago she posted on her own fan board (since shut down), could anyone remind her of the plot...

SleepingStandingUp · 18/10/2020 17:04

I feel for you but some authors write a series over decades or so, and presumably they need the sales from the earlier books to justify writing a series of 13 books

BobbinThreadbare123 · 18/10/2020 17:06

How's about poor Sue Grafton? She wrote up to Y in her series of alphabet detective novels, which I absolutely love. Then she sadly died before Z was written.

theproudgeek · 18/10/2020 17:09

@OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea

I shall add Jasper Fforde to the list. What happened to Pickwick? I need moreThursday Next and a sequel to Shades of Grey please.

Also hoping Pullman doesn't perish before Book of Dust 3. I was in year 7 when Northern Lights was published. I now have a year 7 child myself, and that's not even my oldest child. I have been waiting a long time!

Yes, yes, yes to more Shades of Grey. I read and enjoyed Early Riser but I did keep thinking, why couldn't he have spent his time writing the next SofG.

theproudgeek · 18/10/2020 17:16

Just seen other people mentioning Melanie Rawn, yep I'd like book 3 of that as well please.

My most frustrating unfinished book series is Power of Five by Anthony Horowitz. I read book 1-3 at the end of primary school, so early 1990s. Then nothing! He's too busy writing Foyle's War and Alex Rider. In the 2010s he finally goes back to the series and rewrites them completely from Book 1, so I will never know how my Power of Five would have ended. Its left me with an -irrational-- perfectly rational dislike of Alex Rider.

FurTeacup · 18/10/2020 17:20

I wish authors would have a full set of books ready to go when they publish their first book even if it’s only one book a year released

Eh, I know you're joking, but what do you think the author is supposed to live on while writing an entire series without publishing any of the volumes till it's fully complete? Or is your idea that the publisher gives them advances for all volumes before there are any sales?

And it's a rare writer who is able to live on income from their writing alone, so most have day jobs into the bargain, which slows down the writing.

Aaahhhbump · 18/10/2020 18:09

@ButterflyBitch

I’m still waiting on the ending to a series I started reading when I was 12. I’m 38 now!

Is it the Nightworld by lj Smith?

SquatBetty · 21/10/2020 20:00

Obviously not Sue Townsend's fault (as she sadly died) but I would have loved one more Adrian Mole book

elkiedee · 22/10/2020 22:53

SquatBetty, yes re Adrian Mole. He turned 14 in March 1982, which makes him just over 15 months older than me, so I feel as if I've grown up and then grown middle aged with him. I just hope he's in reasonable health after the last book. Though it might be better that we can imagine a happier ending romantically than he always had in the diary volumes!