# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/21 "2005-01-08T05:13:26Z")
> [@Sir Rhosis](#): > > 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. Well hell, he’s published like a dozen other SF novels since his last Chtorr novel…I think he’s given up on it. ---
**Author:** ![Graycat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Graycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Graycat)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/22 "2005-01-08T05:18:34Z")
I have a 1987 paperback version of Robin McKinley’s _The Door in The Hedge_ (short story collection) in which the “About the author” blurb describes _The Blue Sword_ as the first volume in a trilogy, the second volume of which _(The Hero and the Crown)_ had been published in 1984. If the third volume was ever published I wish someone would tell me how to find a copy. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/23 "2005-01-08T11:36:46Z")
Bernard Cornwell {author of the **Sharpe** series} abandoned his Civil War series about four books in: the last book promised more sequels, which never eventuated. I think Cornwell had the sense to realise he’d written himself into a corner - the hero was a headstrong young man {read petulant brat}, born a Northerner but who was fighting for the Confederacy mostly in order to annoy his father, a fire-and-brimstone Abolitionist preacher. It didn’t really have a future, and Cornwell was wise enough to pull the plug. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/24 "2005-01-08T16:22:21Z")
Dean Koontz has been promising the end to the Christopher Snow trilogy for years now. He originally said the third book would come out right after Seize the Night (the 2nd book), but that was like 6 years ago. I just looked at his website and apparently it even has a title now: Ride the Storm. But “it’ll be done when it’s done.” :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Morelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Morelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morelin)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/25 "2005-01-08T17:30:45Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > 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… I recall that sometime in the last year she was asking fans from her messageboard to catch her up on the previous two books, as she’d be starting the third one soon. ---
**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, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/26 "2005-01-08T18:39:34Z")
> [@Morelin](#): > > I recall that sometime in the last year she was asking fans from her messageboard to catch her up on the previous two books, as she’d be starting the third one soon. If I don’t laugh, I think I’ll cry. I love her writing, I love her characters, I love the creativity of her worlds. Her work schedule, on the other hand, makes me think things that would land me in most religions’ conception of Hell. She asked her FANS to catch her up on her own books?! :smack: ---
**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, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/27 "2005-01-08T18:41:10Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > She asked her FANS to catch her up on her own books?! :smack: Which, on further reflection, is probably better than Jordan’s “I’m going to keep adding characters and subplots without actually taking the story anywhere so when I do forget something and write in continuity errors nobody will be able to remember that it’s a continuity error in the first place” strategy… ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/28 "2005-01-08T18:57:10Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > Greg Costikyan still owes me about two series to end, too. The one with greeps… Were they crottled? 😉 > [@Brother Cadfael](#): > > Niven & Pournelle’s Jannisaries series has been stalled at three books for about five years. They promise a new volume Real Soon Now. Niven had nothing to do with it. [Pournelle](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Jerry_Pournelle) wrote the first volume solo, and the second and third collaboratively with Roland J. Green. Larry Niven does, however, indicate that it’s often difficult to get Jerry to focus on a given book-in-progress when they collaborate, because he has other, non-fiction irons in the fire. (He’s in high demand, for example, as a computer hardware and software reviewer.) John Barnes seems stuck at the third volume of his Thousand Cultures (Giraut Leones) series, though it may just be he’s fulfilling contracts in order, since he has several series out. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/29 "2005-01-08T19:41:25Z")
At the end of Anne Rice’s **The Mummy or Ramses the Damned** , she leaves PLENTY of room for at least one sequel and my paperback copy even had a blip on the last page that encouraged readers to “Stay tuned for further adventures of The Mummy” or words to that effect. Given Ms. Rice’s record of writing series novels, I thought for sure we’d see a string of Ramses/Cleopatra novels. That was about 14 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/30 "2005-01-08T19:58:43Z")
Not exactly a series, but Barry Hughart wrote The Bridge of Birds, regarded as one of the finest and most innovative fantasy novels to come out in the past 25 years, wrote two sequels nearly as good, and then stopped, apparently because he was getting [screwed by his various publishers](http://www.massmedia.com/~mikeb/hughart/interview.htm). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/31 "2005-01-08T21:55:29Z")
Not fiction, but in Computer Science, the most (in)famous uncompleted series is Don Knuth’s “The Art of Computer Programming.” A seven “volume” series. Volume 3 was finished in 1973. Volumes 4 (!) are _still_ in a very early draft stage. Expected to be published later this decade. Don’t hold your breath. Some links: [http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html](http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Art\_of\_Computer\_Programming](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Computer_Programming) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/32 "2005-01-08T22:33:05Z")
Margaret Weis and David Baldwin seem to have abandoned their “Dragon’s Disciple” series after one book. At least, the first book came out in 1993, and there hasn’t been a sequel so far. ---
**Author:** ![Sinusoidal\_Saurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71e660/32.png) [@Sinusoidal\_Saurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinusoidal_Saurus)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/33 "2005-01-08T22:46:00Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > 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? Save yourself the trouble. I read it, and I wish she had abandoned the series. It’s an incredibly boring, repetitive vehicle to let the main character tell other people over and over and over again what happened to her in the first 4 books. Believe me, you don’t need to re-read the first ones, because Ayla will bring you right up-to-date in painful, painful detail. I guess you could say that Auel abandoned any pretense of good storytelling, at least. M. ---
**Author:** ![Anduin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Anduin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduin)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/34 "2005-01-08T23:19:33Z")
> [@Morelin](#): > > I recall that sometime in the last year she was asking fans from her messageboard to catch her up on the previous two books, as she’d be starting the third one soon. Yeah, if you actually read what she says on the message board, she talks about how much she hates re-reading her own work, especially after having to read it 5 or 6 times before it’s published. Back in February of 2004, she said she was starting it, and that it takes her 18 months to 5 years to finish her books. So I figure it’ll be (at the earliest) 2006 before we see it! ---
**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/35 "2005-01-09T01:00:32Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > David Gerrold abandoned the War Against the Chtorr series with maybe one, at the most two books left. Bastard. As soon as I saw the thread title this series popped into my mind. 🙂 > [@Sir Rhosis](#): > > 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. Well, it’s been twelve years since the last book, so I’d say that’s a bit longer than ‘not being done in a timely manner’. Yeah, looking at his web site it appears that he hasn’t abandoned the series. He’s still working on it in fits and spurts, but he’s vague on when the next book will actually be finished… ---
**Author:** ![Morelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Morelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morelin)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/36 "2005-01-09T02:12:01Z")
> [@Anduin](#): > > Yeah, if you actually read what she says on the message board, she talks about how much she hates re-reading her own work, especially after having to read it 5 or 6 times before it’s published. I do remember that. I didn’t see the need to put in all the details, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Detritus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@Detritus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Detritus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/37 "2005-01-09T05:37:08Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Dean Koontz has been promising the end to the Christopher Snow trilogy for years now. > > He originally said the third book would come out right after Seize the Night (the 2nd book), but that was like 6 years ago. > > I just looked at his website and apparently it even has a title now: Ride the Storm. But “it’ll be done when it’s done.” > > :eek: Another Christopher Snow? No kidding? (Of course I hear about it just in time to learn that it may never be. Figures.) Others… George R. R. Martin keeps assuring us on the website that _A Feast For Crows_ is coming along…and along…and yet along. As long as he keeps updating the website with some regularity I’ll keep my hope alive. “Hope” and “Robert Jordan” no longer go together in the same sentence. Even if he continues the WoT series, if he goes at the pace of the last few books it will take him another 10 books to finish the story… Not all ends unhappily, though. I was stuck in the back o’ beyond without internet or cable (or even broadcast radio or tv of much worth) in June 1999. My mother-in-law came in from work with a garbled tale from a co-worker about Stephen King having been killed by the van which struck him…and it was several painful hours until the local station bothered to give an update on him. The thought of the Dark Tower remaining unfinished…horrible! ---
**Author:** ![JerH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@JerH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerH)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/38 "2005-01-09T06:00:07Z")
Robert Anton Wilson’s _Historical Illuminatus_ series - though I suspect that was due to a loss of publisher interest. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/39 "2005-01-09T06:19:42Z")
Salman Rushdie planned _The Satantic Verses_ as part one of a trilogy. Psyche! Heh, heh. ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598/40 "2005-01-09T06:26:31Z")
I always kind of liked [Silverhand: Arcana Book 1](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671877143/qid=1105252334/sr=1-20/ref=sr_1_20/104-7818135-3057514?v=glance&s=books) and [Silverlight](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671877909/qid=1105252367/sr=1-29/ref=sr_1_29/104-7818135-3057514?v=glance&s=books) by Morgan Llewelyn and Michael Scott but the third book never happened. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-authors-just-abandon-a-successful-series-right-in-the-middle/283598.md?page=3)