# Any authors just abandon a successful series right in the middle? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 7, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598 "2005-01-07T17:20:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/1 "2005-01-07T17:20:19Z")
I presume a lot of authors of such sereis are under contract and are probably hamstrung legally from doing it, but have any nonetheless tried? Just said, screw it? ---
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/2 "2005-01-07T17:23:47Z")
Let me clarify – I meant series in which there was a definite, planned story arc, to be resolved at the end of the series. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/3 "2005-01-07T17:34:50Z")
Niven & Pournelle’s _Jannisaries_ series has been stalled at three books for about five years. They promise a new volume Real Soon Now. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/4 "2005-01-07T18:14:07Z")
It seems like George R. R. Martin has abandoned \*A Song of Fire and Ice[\i]… (yeah, yeah, I know he hasn’t really. But it’s been almost five years!) Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/5 "2005-01-07T18:23:39Z")
> [@zev\_steinhardt](#): > > It seems like George R. R. Martin has abandoned _A Song of Fire and Ice_… > > (yeah, yeah, I know he hasn’t really. But it’s been almost five years!) > > Zev Steinhardt Arrrgh…don’t say that!!! I’m only halfway through the second book! Actually, the guy that lent me the books is about ready to hunt Martin down and hold a gun to his head until he finishes the next one. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/6 "2005-01-07T18:25:23Z")
David Gerrold abandoned the War Against the Chtorr series with maybe one, at the most two books left. Bastard. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/7 "2005-01-07T18:33:10Z")
Last I checked, Orson Scott Card had several half-finished series floating around. Robert Jordan hasn’t abandoned his series yet, though some would argue he should, but he definitely hasn’t gone anywhere with it in the last couple of books. Then he took time off to write a prequel instead of the next series entry. I honestly think he doesn’t know how to finish it any more. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/8 "2005-01-07T18:52:29Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Last I checked, Orson Scott Card had several half-finished series floating around. > > Robert Jordan hasn’t abandoned his series yet, though some would argue he should, but he definitely hasn’t gone anywhere with it in the last couple of books. Then he took time off to write a prequel instead of the next series entry. I honestly think he doesn’t know how to finish it any more. Grr! I came in here to say OSC. The one about the space monkey. I thought it was really god. It’s co-authored, and there’s meant to be three books in the series, but that was 1994 he wrote the one. When you e-mail their website, they say “It will be written as soon as the authors’ schedules matched”. Robert Jordan is the only fantasy-type author I have no hope of ever liking. May he never write another book, or at least, may I never be tempted to read one. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/9 "2005-01-07T19:01:26Z")
I’m still waiting for _The Last Dangerous Visions_. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/10 "2005-01-07T19:37:47Z")
I don’t know whether it was a _successful_ series, but Barbara Hambly’s The Sun Cross (comprising two books - The Rainbow Abyss and The Magicians of Night) always seemed to be a trilogy where the third book just never materialized. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/11 "2005-01-07T19:38:17Z")
Greg Costikyan still owes me about two series to end, too. The one with greeps, and the dragon one. Conan Doyle attempted to run away from Holmes midstream. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/12 "2005-01-07T19:41:39Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > Conan Doyle attempted to run away from Holmes midstream. Well, to give him some credit, he **did** kill Sherlock, when he tried to run. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/13 "2005-01-08T01:23:05Z")
Does Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children series sort of count? I read the first four books in the early 90s. By the time the fifth book came out 10 years later I’d mostly forgotten the previous plots (such as they were) and never read it. How long between books constitutes abandoning a series, then? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/14 "2005-01-08T01:53:29Z")
Melanie Rawn is a good seven years out from the second volume of _Exiles_, and shows no signs of having a finished _Captal’s Tower_ anywhere in her brain, despite having finished at least two other unrelated novels since the release of _Mageborn Traitor_. Grrrrr… ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/15 "2005-01-08T02:54:15Z")
Alan Moore’s BIG NUMBERS, LOST GIRLS and the finale of 1963. All started, never completed, that damnable hairy Brit git. Though in these cases there’s always something going south with either a publisher or artist collaborator and not necessarily the author walking away – although I’m still wondering when I’ll get the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen III and the second season of TOP TEN and the promised 49ers mini-series. Hell, I’m still waiting for DC to come to their senses and approve the TWILIGHT OF THE SUPERHEROES. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/16 "2005-01-08T03:05:05Z")
John Jakes took the _Kent Family Chronicles_ from America on the eve of the Revolutionary War to 1890, then quit (or at least has quit for about 25 years). You’d think he’d consider WW1, the Depression, WW2, Vietnam, etc., important, but nope. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/17 "2005-01-08T03:40:05Z")
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro intended to write a trilogy based on the characters of Dracula’s brides. Sales on the first two were disappointing and the third was never released. William Forschen and Newt Gingrich intended _1945_ to be the first volume of a series but the subsequent books were never written. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/18 "2005-01-08T03:44:21Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > David Gerrold abandoned the War Against the Chtorr series with maybe one, at the most two books left. Bastard. Has he, really, or are they simply not being done in a “timely” manner to suit his fans? Seems I recall reading on his site that he is working on them. Barring his death, I bet they will be done.\* Sir Rhosis \*Unless he has posted or said that he is definitely abandoning them. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/19 "2005-01-08T03:45:33Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > John Jakes took the _Kent Family Chronicles_ from America on the eve of the Revolutionary War to 1890, then quit (or at least has quit for about 25 years). You’d think he’d consider WW1, the Depression, WW2, Vietnam, etc., important, but nope. Not quite. He planned on writing to current times, but at the end of the last one he wrote that he had come to a stopping point, the beginning of the last decade of the 19th century. So, he may have considered WWII, etc, important, he made a decision to stop. Did he abandon it? I guess you could call it that, but I think the eight or so books are a good enough saga on their own. **elfkin** , I was going to mention Jean Auel. Trust me, you didn’t miss much with the 5th book. Ayla didn’t invent much, the run-in with Jondalar’s ex-girlfriend was a big fizzle, and she had her baby, a daughter. I’m not anxiously awaiting book 6 as I was for book 5. It was very disappointing. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/20 "2005-01-08T04:49:54Z")
Christopher Stasheff seems to have abandoned the **Starship Troupers** series after three books. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598.md?page=2)