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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I wouldn’t go with destroyed. ‘Uneven’ or on a bad day ‘anti-climactic’, but it remains a book I have recommended to others.
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…”
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?
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”
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 and Insomnia suddenly turn into Tremors.
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.
Everything seems to be on schedule according to Chung Kuo Press Release from publishers Corvus/Atlantic-Grove | INTERSTELLAR TACTICS
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.
Tim Winton’s Breath
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
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.
Any of Jodi Piccoult’s novels.
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.
Thurber’s short story, "The Greatest Man in The World".I did not see that ending coming.
The bizarre ending of Saberhagen’s great Book Of 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?