Hate Mail????

[Juan Dolor]

Hahaha, I'm sorry, would they have preffered a Harry Potter Ending? Oh, what an epilogue...

A Harry Potter ending?  Like, maybe, a last book in the series that's so unbelievably dumb it makes you wonder if you really liked the previous six books?  Hm...  Maybe it's just me, but I think it's better to end a series with readers wanting a little more than with readers wishing you had written less.

[Solatika]

Hahaha, I'm sorry, would they have preffered a Harry Potter Ending? Oh, what an epilogue...

*twitch*

[White]

Hahaha, I'm sorry, would they have preffered a Harry Potter Ending? Oh, what an epilogue...

*twitch*

Of course, then there's also the Harry Potter post-epilogue tidbits too.
... but somehow, I don't think EUOL is going to be jumping out and telling us that Hrathen was really gay?

[Bookstore Guy]

Oddly, Mr. Scalzi himself blogged about a similar thing on his website yesterday.  It was a good read...

http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=663

SCALZI!!!!!!

[Comatose]

*Possible Harry Potter Spoiler*

I agree about the harry potter epilogue, it was too much.  So everyone who started dating in highschool is actually meant for eachother, adn they all end up getting married, I hate that, but since she did the 19 year later, she couldn't really have introduced new characters, people would have been mad if it didn't work out with Harry and Ginny, she should have just left it off with them getting back on the hogwarts train for the last time, riding off to an uncertain, but hopeful future.

[White]

Oh, what really got me was deciding to name the kids after every character who'd ever been in the book.

I mean, that was just like - the characters hadn't moved on at all, like they were living in the past instead of looking to the future.

-_- Fail.

[AvalonDreamer]

Seriously though... You have to know when to let the story die (or to use a Stargate-ism: ascend to a higher plane of existence, as good books surely do), and the way to do that is not by doing a 19 years later thing... or by telling us rather pointlessly that the headmaster was gay. So what? Pointless, useless, mucky muck muck muck.

That being said, I've always had fundamental issues with all of her writing, but alas, I digress, as this thread has become a thing of tangents and ADD.

Whoever wrote that email was probably one of those creepy fanboy people who's latest obsession recently died out (probably some obscure Japanese cartoon) and he's shifted his insane need to totally dote on something to Brandon's work.

[neiana]

The person who wrote that email obviously has some much deeper problems than a book with an ending he/she didn't like.  I hope he never has to read The Lady and the Tiger.  Heaven forbit the author allows you to use your imagination. 

I actually immediately thought of that when I read this originally, but it got lost somewhere.  It's an excellent example of exactly what this individual is complaining about, and really its a perfectly masterful story.  Props to the best English teacher I've ever had for introducing it to me.

I remember reading that in jr. high.  I had an assignment to decide the outcome, write it, and explain why I chose it.  That was one of the most annoying assignments I have ever had to complete.

[BloodlessVictory]

"Stories that spark effective sequels do so [...] because there's more than one good story to be told in the world they've created."  - Ansen Dibell, 'Plot'

... but after a writer comes up with a world where more than one good story waits to be told, he isn't obligated to tell any more.  By all means, write in and tell him how much you loved that world and story, and how disappointed you were to hear no more are planned, but when you start to get irate or accusatory, you're just making a gluteus maximus of yourself.

Any time you publish a really good standalone volume of speculative fiction, I think some readers will see obvious potential for another good story, so there will be many who feel disappointed when they find out you have no plans to write one.  I love huge worlds and epic multi-volume series that practically generate thousands of character possibilities by themselves, but I think someone does need to make a stand and get plenty of one-off works out there.  If there aren't any stories that stick to one book under 400 pages, it will get harder to attract the new casual reader to fantasy & sci-fi.  They'll all be intimidated away by the huge pile of reading they have to undertake to "get the whole thing."

So I expect to be somewhat disappointed at the cutoff when I finish Elantris (it's sitting in my to-read pile now), but at the same time I can also support the decision not to automatically do a sequel.

[White]

"Stories that spark effective sequels do so [...] because there's more than one good story to be told in the world they've created."  - Ansen Dibell, 'Plot'

... but after a writer comes up with a world where more than one good story waits to be told, he isn't obligated to tell any more.  By all means, write in and tell him how much you loved that world and story, and how disappointed you were to hear no more are planned, but when you start to get irate or accusatory, you're just making a gluteus maximus of yourself.

Any time you publish a really good standalone volume of speculative fiction, I think some readers will see obvious potential for another good story, so there will be many who feel disappointed when they find out you have no plans to write one.  I love huge worlds and epic multi-volume series that practically generate thousands of character possibilities by themselves, but I think someone does need to make a stand and get plenty of one-off works out there.  If there aren't any stories that stick to one book under 400 pages, it will get harder to attract the new casual reader to fantasy & sci-fi.  They'll all be intimidated away by the huge pile of reading they have to undertake to "get the whole thing."

So I expect to be somewhat disappointed at the cutoff when I finish Elantris (it's sitting in my to-read pile now), but at the same time I can also support the decision not to automatically do a sequel.

Of course, then we could have a big debate over series which do use an interesting setting as a springboard for other stories, and then wind up getting into a debate about the comparitive pros and cons over the Star Wars Extended universe series of literature... (or, at least, if this was less of a fantasy thread) but I really have to agree that sometimes a one-off story set in a universe can really be even more special, sometimes; than an extended series.

To list a more fantasy series I guess the Mercedes Lackey extended universe also springs to mind perhaps...