So that’s what happened! Damn. I love those 3 books (all of which I made sure to get in hard cover). I wish he’d try again with another publishing house. Better yet, I wish another publishing house would get a clue and try to get him to write more of those stories for them.
The only one that springs to mind as abandoned is the Fire Dancer series by Ann Maxwell a.k.a. Elizabeth Lowel. As I understand it, it’s a publishing thing, so the series will never continue past the 3 books in existance. Shame too, as I thought it had a lot of promise.
AAAAAgh! I was afraid of that.
Heather Gladney’s Song of Naga Teot. The first two books were published back in the 80’s, and due to somebody at ACE having no brain, the third planned book never came out.
Ms. Gladney promised us fans there was a third in progress three years ago, but I haven’t heard a peep since.
Dammit. I’ve read my copies of the first two ragged.
Ooh, Robin McKinley. I’d forgotten about her Damar series. Good books, although I’m as clueless as you… suspect #3 is vaporware.
And – someone else who knows about Barry Hughart. Mon frere!
Next choice: Diane Duane’s ‘Door’ series. I reread them repeatedly.
I got my hot little mitts on the first three books in the late 90’s. And Book 1 (Door into Fire) and 2 (Door into Shadow) were published in 1984, twenty years ago.
#3, (Door into Sunset) turned up in an indie used bookstore about 3-4 years ago. Man, I love those places.
When I found out in 2001 about the 2002 omnibus containing rewritten versions of Book 1 and 2, I thought Christmas and all my birthdays had come at once, since that would imply the upcoming release of Book Four (Door into Starlight).
…It’s now January 2005, no omnibus #2 (author website still promises release in 2004), and I’m pert-near ready to mortgage something near and dear to my heart to find out HOW it all ends before I die of curiosity.
Er, the OP did specify successful series, so I don’t think either of those count.
Roger MacBride Allen’s Hunted Earth series. I picked up Vol 1 Ring of Charon and loved it. Great SciFi story about the Earth disappearing, but obviously it didn’t close out the story just there, it’s a trilogy. I looked it up on Amazon, the second book “Shattered Sphere” is out there, written in '94, but no third book.
Dammit, if you’re going to start a trilogy, at least have the balls to finish the thing up. Not like the guy never wrote after '94 either, he started and finished another trilogy since then…
I was discussing the Damar books with a friend of mine after I first read this thread. We decided that if the third Damar book had ever been published, people would know about it, if only by dint of it being horrifyingly bad or something. So I’d say yep, it’s a phantom.
When I was about twelve or so, I read a series of fantasy YA novels called The Night World by LJ Smith. They were very popular among the teeny gawth set, which I’m sad to report I fell into at the time (like, vampires were soooo romantic :rolleyes: ). What I think was meant to be the last book in the series, Strange Fate, just…never came out. The circumstances were quite odd. I believe Ms. Smith was rumored to be sick for a while, so the book was being delayed. About a year after it was supposed to come out, the book went up for pre-order on Amazon, complete with cover art, summary (it sounded like it was going to suck), and a release date within two months. It vanished from the site shortly before it was supposed to be released, with no explanation, and I’ve never heard anything about it again.
I believe NATURE’S GOD (III) has been privately published & is available on his website. I have the first two but just haven’t gotten the interest up to buy it.
To third it, I also thought of David Gerrold’s “War Against the Chtorr” series first when reading the OP.
Bastard.
I don’t mean that in a humorous way either, I am annoyed he dropped it.
Bastard.
I also find it interesting that two others thought of it in this thread. I thought maybe it was a more obscure series but it appears others liked it as well to have it top of mind 12 years later.
4 words:
Robert. Asprin. Myth. Series.
As I understand it, from a friend who’s met Asprin at cons in the past, he’s suffered severe writers block for years, though to be honest, after the first few books they really went downhill and the last few books, both MYTH and Phule’s Company, seemed more like textbooks on business management than novels, so it’s no great loss.
The last volume of Piers Anthony’s schlocky-but-fun Bio of a Space Tyrant series claims that a sequel, focusing on Hope’s sister Spirit, would soon be released.
That was in 1986.
But wait! I just learned from amazon.com that he did, in fact, write that book, and it was published in 2002.
Now I wonder if I still care?
The last two of the Phule’s series that I read sucked in a major way and I won’t read another. But then it was co-authored and I suspect that Asprin had only a small contribution. (my opinion though, not a fact.)
I believe **Larry Niven ** intended to write a 3rd volume in the series “The Integral Trees” and “The Smoke Ring”. I’m still waiting.
As for **Anne Rice’s ** “The Mummy”, she’s had a change of heart and has said (check her website) that she will not write a sequel.
Make me a 4th. It’s the first series I thought about when I saw the topic.
I sure don’t. I would have cared many years ago.
But I burned out on Piers long, long ago.
Kate Elliott’s Jaran books. There were 9 planned, she made 4 (well, actually only 3, they split the second into two books because of its size). I’m assuming they were popular, because the first book got a rerelease.
I’m still not sure how she would get up to 9 books, because the plot moved pretty fast in the first few…at the rate it goes, the characters would be about 3-4 generations through before the end.
Is that the one with The Angry Angel as the first book? That was one weird book. Couldn’t get through the second one though.
How is that series? I’ve heard much about it, and would invest in it if I was sure on the plot.
Samuel Delaney never finished the second book in the two book series that started with Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand, and it looks as though he never will. I don’t even think he writes fiction anymore, but focuses on lit crit now. Grrr.
I don’t know…he just released another MYTH book not that long ago…Myth-alliances or something like that. I do think the series is just sort of hanging out there though.
I really liked the first Phule’s book, the second was ok, but the last two are pretty lame. I’m buying them now more because I hate not having complete sets in my library, than anything else.
Excellent, IMHO.
The characters are well-written and engaging, the world and its cultures are suitably complex without detracting from the story, and the plot, while a standard variant of the Game of Empires, has some nice curves in it.
I especially like the blend of mysticism and technology, and the hints of older, more advanced civilizations.
Ms. Gladney also manages to avoid overexplaining stuff, invented words are kept to a minimum (just enough to give a flavour of Somewhere Else, without making it unreadable), the hero(s) are not perfect, and the politics are complex. And, best of all, I didn’t find it incredibly boringly predictable.
I wish Meisha Merlin would pick this series up, and encourage her to complete it.