# Totally Unexpected, Out-of-Left-Field Literary Endings **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 31, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668 "2011-03-31T19:20:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/41 "2011-04-01T20:45:06Z")
Frederick Forsyth’s books - especially his older ones – have twist endings. **The Devil’s Alternative** has the twist on the very last page\*, but I suspect that’s not the sort of thing the OP has in mind. \*As does Edgar Rice Burroughs’ _The Monster Men_, although it’s not much of a twist. And as does Anthony Berkeley’s _The Poisoned Chocolates Case_, although that is the last of a whole stack of twists. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/42 "2011-04-01T20:50:27Z")
What, no mention of Shakespeare? _Love’s Labour Lost_ is a fairly standard comedy, ending with everyone in love (with the right people, who are also in love with them), and pairing up for marriage, and oops, my dad just died, half the cast has to go back for the funeral and mourning, OK, I guess no shacking up after all. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/43 "2011-04-01T21:10:35Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > I was taken by surprise by the protagonists’ …er… backstory in _The Gone-Away World,_ although if I had heard there was kind of a twisty ending I may have guessed it, which is why I hesitate to post even this much. An interesting, if manic, book – I’m curious if anyone else has read it. I read it last month, and yeah, it was an odd twist, but I felt it worked. Although I’m still mulling over what seem like a couple of plot holes, I guess the nature of the weapon used to cause such an effect allows them to be handwaved away. ---
**Author:** ![Alias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/44 "2011-04-01T21:28:08Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > I was taken by surprise by the protagonists’ …er… backstory in _The Gone-Away World,_ although if I had heard there was kind of a twisty ending I may have guessed it, which is why I hesitate to post even this much. An interesting, if manic, book – I’m curious if anyone else has read it. LOVED that book. Such a strange story set in such an odd world. It’s one of those books (like Atwood’s Oryx and Crake) where you wonder if the story is supposed even to take place on planet Earth. I loved the protagonist’s backstory. Very well done, in my opinion. Not at all out of left field, given then crazy style of the story. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/45 "2011-04-02T02:37:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What, no mention of Shakespeare? _Love’s Labour Lost_ is a fairly standard comedy, ending with everyone in love (with the right people, who are also in love with them), and pairing up for marriage, and oops, my dad just died, half the cast has to go back for the funeral and mourning, OK, I guess no shacking up after all. It is very likely that it had a sequel, ‘Love’s Labours Won.’ (That’s not a bad joke - it’s what Shakespeare scholars think). But yeah, it is a total non-ending. As You Like It has many problems in the ending, but the biggest is a God suddenly appearing in an otherwise real-world setting and nobody thinking it’s odd. This sort of thing is, of course, where the term deus ex machina comes from; Hymen would have appeared dramatically from the stage machinery. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/46 "2011-04-02T04:42:56Z")
> [@Sevastopol](#): > > _Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow_: studied and intricate novel of Denmark/Greenland colonialism and post-colonialism, digressions into sub-Arctic lifestyle. Driven by a crime thriller narrative and a kickass protagoniste. > > Then: What? [No spoiler proffered] That’s one I was going to mention. It really destroyed the book for me. I mean the solution to the mystery involves _ice worms from outer space_? Or whatever the fuck they were? Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/47 "2011-04-02T05:26:52Z")
I wouldn’t go with _destroyed_. ‘Uneven’ or on a bad day ‘anti-climactic’, but it remains a book I have recommended to others. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/48 "2011-04-02T13:32:00Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > That’s one I was going to mention. It really destroyed the book for me. > > I mean the solution to the mystery involves _ice worms from outer space_? Or whatever the fuck they were? Sheesh. Hmmm… I’m off to rewrite the endings to most of the books here. I’m thinking they can be made much more logical with the judicious application of _ice worms from outer space_. Oh, feel free to do what I’m doing: hearing that phrase in the style of _Piiiigs Innnn Spaaaaaace…_ But seriously, I have mentally re-written the ending to SO many books that I’ve been frustrated with. I should do it for a living. Watch for my future tome: \ ***"It Is A Far, Far Better Thing That I Do** : The Endings That Should Have Been" \* It seems a number of authors get to the last chapter of a book and go “Man, I am OUT of ideas. Why didn’t I have a plan? How the hell am I going to end this? Well, the publisher’s clamoring for it-- I’ll just wrap it up before dinner…” ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/49 "2011-04-02T16:06:45Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > David Wingrove’s _Chung Kuo_ series, which was this science fiction series where the world is ruled by these seven Chinese warlords who are constantly jockeying for power. Some people criticized the book as anti-Chinese, but I don’t think it was. The series was extremely morally ambiguous…you had likeable and “good” characters do some horrible things, and really awful characters make tremendous altruistic sacrifices. The books dealt with themes like stability vs change, order vs freedom. and I found them engaging. Until I got to the last book. I agree, and I recommend AGAINST ever reading this series. The ending is such a total god-from-the-machine, totally different from the prior six books. I actually gave away my copies (hardbacks), and thought seriously about burning them in the fireplace. On the plus side, the British mystery author Robert Barnard often has Twilight-Zone type surprise endings, but they’re always absolutely consistent with what went before… he just surprises the reader in the last paragraph or two. A brilliant writer! ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/50 "2011-04-02T17:15:40Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > I agree, and I recommend AGAINST ever reading this series. The ending is such a total god-from-the-machine, totally different from the prior six books. I actually gave away my copies (hardbacks), and thought seriously about burning them in the fireplace. > > On the plus side, the British mystery author Robert Barnard often has Twilight-Zone type surprise endings, but they’re always absolutely consistent with what went before… he just surprises the reader in the last paragraph or two. A brilliant writer! Regarding Chung Kuo, did you see [this](http://www.keepingthedoor.com/2009/08/19/new-publisher-to-re-write-chung-kuo-ending/)? From the link: “A new publisher is attempting to acquire British science fiction writer David Wingrove’s Chung Kuo masterpiece, with the intent of splitting it into 19 volumes and re-writing the unpopular ending” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/51 "2011-04-02T17:53:02Z")
> [@Sevastopol](#): > > I wouldn’t go with _destroyed_. ‘Uneven’ or on a bad day ‘anti-climactic’, but it remains a book I have recommended to others. It was the fact that much of the book was so interesting and engaging that made the ending so annoying. And it wasn’t a problem because it was anti-climactic, it was because it was so incongruous. It was like it was tacked on from a completely different kind of book. It was like having a cross between [Dersu Uzala](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dersu_Uzala_(1975_film)) and [Insomnia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insomnia_(2002_film)) suddenly turn into [Tremors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremors_(film)). ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/52 "2011-04-02T19:02:00Z")
I’m a HUGE Heinlein fan, but I recognize that many of his books have unsatisfying endings. Not WTF endings, but many of his novels feel like he got tired of writing, and arbitrarily wraps everything up in three or four tacked-on pages. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/53 "2011-04-02T20:25:45Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Regarding Chung Kuo, did you see [this](http://www.keepingthedoor.com/2009/08/19/new-publisher-to-re-write-chung-kuo-ending/)? > > From the link: > > “A new publisher is attempting to acquire British science fiction writer David Wingrove’s Chung Kuo masterpiece, with the intent of splitting it into 19 volumes and re-writing the unpopular ending” Everything seems to be on schedule according to [Chung Kuo Press Release from publishers Corvus/Atlantic-Grove | INTERSTELLAR TACTICS](http://rockitboy.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/chung-kuo-press-release-from-publishers-corvusatlantic-grove/) > [@](#): > > an entirely different ending, with over 500,000 additional words of new story. David Wingrove said ‘This is no Director’s Cut, but a total revision, giving the last few volumes the power and breadth of vision they were always meant to have. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/54 "2011-04-14T01:46:19Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Frederick Forsyth’s books - especially his older ones – have twist endings. **The Devil’s Alternative** has the twist on the very last page\*, but I suspect that’s not the sort of thing the OP has in mind. > > . I bought that book several years ago at a yard sale and only got around to reading it this month. It was a fun twist that I didn’t see coming. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/55 "2011-04-14T02:09:07Z")
Tim Winton’s Breath > **[Breath (novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breath_%28novel%29)** > > Breath is the twentieth book and eighth novel by Australian author Tim Winton. His first novel in seven years, it was published in 2008, in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US, Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany. > The novel is set in a small Western Australian logging village named Sawyer, near the fictional coastal town of Angelus, which has featured in several of Winton's works, including Shallows and The Turning. It is narrated by Bruce "Pikelet" Pike, a divorced, middle-aged paramedic... A fetish for Autoerotic asphixiation was not the ending I expected from a novel about a young man growing up in a small coastal town and learning to surf ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/56 "2011-04-14T02:21:11Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > David Wingrove’s _Chung Kuo_ series, which was this science fiction series where the world is ruled by these seven Chinese warlords who are constantly jockeying for power. Some people criticized the book as anti-Chinese, but I don’t think it was. The series was extremely morally ambiguous…you had likeable and “good” characters do some horrible things, and really awful characters make tremendous altruistic sacrifices. The books dealt with themes like stability vs change, order vs freedom. and I found them engaging. Until I got to the last book. > > In the last book, we find out that the character of Howard DeVore, who’s always sort of been the villain of the books…DeVore is this European banker who’s leading a resistance/terrorist movement against the Chinese warlords based partly on racism and partly on his desire to just liberate the world from the oppressive system of the warlords…we find out he’s an extradimensional alien spider creature who is responsible for almost all of the historical evils of mankind, who wants to rape people and then destroy all life on earth. He’s beaten and then we find out that the world set up throughout the series is just a simulation and not the “real” world, but all the characters in it are also characters in the real world (although they’re different people), and the book ends on a space colony in the real world, which had been set up by a colony ship in the imaginary world. Really? Because I’ve read _Chung Kuo_ as well, and while it really went off the rails in the last book, I don’t remember anything about it going off the rails in the direction you said it did. I just remember going from the Seven Kingdoms to suddenly being about interstellar colonization for no particular reason I could fathom. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/57 "2011-04-14T03:47:41Z")
Any of Jodi Piccoult’s novels. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/58 "2011-04-14T05:14:16Z")
I think Chip Kidd’s _Cheese Monkeys_ is fairly autobiographical, and maybe there’s some elements of wish fulfillment in Winter’s downfall. I have read the sequel, in which Himillsy makes a brief, enigmatic appearance. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/59 "2011-04-14T05:42:37Z")
Thurber’s short story, "[The Greatest Man in The World".](http://www.cudaclass.info/enc1102/ShortStory/GreatestManText.pdf)I did not see that ending coming. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/60 "2011-04-14T05:46:30Z")
The bizarre ending of Saberhagen’s great [Book Of Swords](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_the_Swords) series. It was like he just got tired of writing. Late in the series the Emperor identifies himself thus: “Some long ago have called me the Sabbath, or the Covenant–Some have called me Wisdom. Some lately have said that I am the Program of Creation.” WTF? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668.md?page=4)