Ever come across a series that never finished?

[Cayal]

As I sit in the midst of wanting to write 3 different stories and thinking if I ever did publish one I'd probably get to a stage where I would find a better story idea and want to commence with that and I have no doubt I am not the first who comes across this.

So my question is, are there actually any series out there that haven't been completed (where the author didn't die)?
Funnily enough I don't think I've ever comes across one.

 

[Hypnos164]

The most infamous example I can think of would be David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr - which went 4 books before stopping without resolution ... a 5th book has been "in progress" for way over a decade.

David has published other books and done quite a lot of TV work in the meantime - but I certainly haven't ever bought anything by him since (nor will I ever unless its Chtorr book 5...)

 

[chrispenycate]

Jerry Pournelle's "Janissaries". Book one came out in '79, and he could have stopped there; it would have been a good finish, leaving you imagining. Then he gained a collaborator, and books two and three came in '82 and '87. So we were expecting the grand finale some time in the early ninties. Over twenty years later it's still not arrived, nor has he died or (quite) stopped writing.

 

[Cayal]

Intriguing. I wonder what the reasons are? Perhaps they could never find enough story or a satisfactory ending.

 

[Clansman]

Doesn't Melanie Rawn have a long-outstanding novel for her Exiles series? The trilogy is Ruins of Ambrai, The Mageborn Traitor, and the unwritten finale is Captal's Tower, but Mageborn Traitor was published in 1997.

Doesn't seem like Rawn is terribly interested in finishing the Exiles story. Has she written much else since? I enjoyed the Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies in the early 1990s.

 

[clovis-man]

Patrick O'Brian. He wrote 20 complete novels in the Aubrey/Maturin series but didn't live to finish number 21. Still one of the best out there, finished or not.

 

[vgunn]

Hunter of the Light by Risa Aratyr
Morigu: The Desecration & Morigu: The Dead by Mark C. Perry
Dark Border series by Paul Edwin Zimmer

 

[Trailblazer]

A song of ice and fire will probably end up in this category.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Doesn't Melanie Rawn have a long-outstanding novel for her Exiles series? The trilogy is Ruins of Ambrai, The Mageborn Traitor, and the unwritten finale is Captal's Tower, but Mageborn Traitor was published in 1997.

Doesn't seem like Rawn is terribly interested in finishing the Exiles story. Has she written much else since? I enjoyed the Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies in the early 1990s.

Good call Clansman, yeah she has written other stuff, but when questioned on her website about the Ruins of Ambrai she basically said that she wasn't going to finish, giving no reason other than that.

It is still listed as forthcoming, and according to Amazon the date it will be out is 2009....

 

[thatollie]

The Dark Tower by Stephen King doesn't end, according to some people.

 

[K. Riehl]

The Childe Cycle by Gordon R. Dickson
All of those great Dorsai books which led to ???

Teot's War and Blood Storm by Heather Gladney. The beginning of a very interesting series which didn't sell enough for the publisher to support.

I thought that the Liad series by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee was over in the late eighties but they kept writing and restarted the series in the late ninties/early aughts. This made me very happy,

 

[Mary Hoffman]

Unless the author dies before finishing the series, the answer will always be that the publisher would not publish more because the sales figures were not good enough on the previous books.

Trust me, it is very unlikely that the writer starts a series without wanting to write them all and knowing at least in outline how they should develop.

 

[cornelius]

I hope we won't have to put ASOIAF in this thread...

 

[Tam-I-Am]

Good call Clansman, yeah she has written other stuff, but when questioned on her website about the Ruins of Ambrai she basically said that she wasn't going to finish, giving no reason other than that.

It is still listed as forthcoming, and according to Amazon the date it will be out is 2009....

She's written some new books now - Spellbinder (not impressed) and Fire Raiser (didn't bother reading). In the foreward to Spellbinder she stated that she'd had a bout of clinical depression whilst writing The Captal's Tower and that she hadn't been able to finish it, and now had no desire to return to it. Which is a real shame, I think the Exiles are her best books, I just wish I knew how they finished!

She's apparently got some new books coming out next year. Shan't hold my breath as to the quality, yet.

ETA: Whilst looking up info on her new series, it seems that her publisher has cancelled the third book in the Spellbinder series, too, so that probably won't ever be finished either. She's getting a bit of a reputation as an 'unfinisher'. Not good.

 

[Lord Soth]

Game of Thrones? lol...

edit: oh I see someone has already thought of that!

 

[Norlan]

I personally have never stumbled across a series that was never finished. Don't know about others though.

 

[Chaoticheart]

Did E. C. Tubb ever finish the Dumarest saga before he died?

 

[Moggle]

Unless the author dies before finishing the series, the answer will always be that the publisher would not publish more because the sales figures were not good enough on the previous books.

Trust me, it is very unlikely that the writer starts a series without wanting to write them all and knowing at least in outline how they should develop.

If that's the case then it would seem to me that a writer has an obligation not only to readers but to themselves to finish the book and self publish it as an ebook and paperback.

 

[Clansman]

If that's the case then it would seem to me that a writer has an obligation not only to readers but to themselves to finish the book and self publish it as an ebook and paperback.

You mean, they have an obligation to do the work of writing a novel and give it away? They should work for free?

Bollocks. There is no contract between an author and readers to finish a series.

If you like a series, buy it when it is new, and get as many people you know to also buy it. If enough copies sell, the series gets continued. If a lot of books sell, then the publisher gives it more marketing dollars. The mill that created the book (i.e. the author) needs the raw materials (i.e. money) to complete a series.

Hard to write a book when your time is spent working your butt off in the local factory to feed your family.

 

[Heather Myst]

Storms of Destiny was supposed to be the first book of the Exiles of Boq'urain series by A.C. Crispin. I think it was 2005 when I purchased the book so I am assuming that the series is dead. It is too bad because I really liked this book.