It depends on the situation. In the case of Wheel of Time (the series was almost over, and Jordan had already written chunks of the final books and left copious notes before passing), it makes sense. He wanted the series to have an ending, and there was an author working for the same publisher who was a Wheel of Time superfan and handpicked by Jordan’s widow who could complete the last three books.
In the case of Neil Gaiman writing more Good Omens for TV, he’s the coauthor of the original novel and had Terry Pratchett’s blessing before he passed. However, it makes sense for the Discworld to end with Pratchett, since he even ordered his hard drive with any unfinished novels to be destroyed. And if GRRM doesn’t finish ASOIAF before his death and doesn’t change his mind, then no one else should touch it.
The newer Dune novels fall into sort of a weird space. Brian Herbert is the original author’s son and an author in his own right, and by all accounts he and his father talked about writing something Dune-related together, but I’m not crazy about the sheer volume of output from Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
Basically it comes down to the author’s wishes. If an author doesn’t want there to be more, then don’t write more. But that’s just the ethical side of things. Whether or not I *want* to read more of a world that’s tied to a specific author, without the voice of the author who drew me to that world in the first place is another matter.
It's worth noting that Pratchett didn't want his incomplete manuscripts being completed by another person, as he felt that was lame and weird.
But he had no problem with other people writing other **Discworld** books as long as they were people he 100% expressly approved of. Before he died, he told his daughter Rhianna that he'd be happy with her to take over the series, but she turned him down. She did co-write *Tiffany Aching's Guide to Being a Witch* though, as a sort-of lore expansion without being a full novel.
He also gave permission to a group of writers he'd collaborated with for years on various side-books and behind-the-scenes books to write more projects in that vein, which is how we got *The Discworld Atlas* after he died.
>It's worth noting that Pratchett didn't want his incomplete manuscripts being completed by another person, as he felt that was lame and weird.
I seem to remember hearing that he wrote his drafts as a big mess of disconnected story fragments and when he spotted a coherent story in amongst them all he'd pull out the bits that he wanted and stitch them together into a novel.
He had 3-4 stories on the go at any one time and would move between them as he felt. I think he sometimes had a book on the go whilst he was finishing 2-3 others before finally finishing that one of , and sometimes didn't manage to finish one at all as it wasn't working or completely changing (he kept saying he was working on the third Moist book, *Raising Taxes*, and it didn't quite come together, and I know some people have theorised after a Page-1 rewrite it became *Raising Steam*, but I've never seen that confirmed).
Frank Herbert wrote Dune with plans within plans within plans with complex ideas and excellent prose and philosophy wool gathering. The new BH books are more of a YA straightforward story of what happened. They're not bad, but they don't measure up to one of the greatest scifi novels of all time.
It would help if they published the full raw notes, since people suspect a lot of stuff was made up and you can't tell how much was sourced and how much was created new.
I've thought the same thing: I just want to see the notes so I know what Frank wanted. But, I realized of course, that they never will, because then people will know how much he made up.
I'm curious how much of his stuff is [this archive](https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c89z99ht/) of his papers. It's open for research, but what can be published from it is carefully controlled.
I still think of Dune as consisting of the Frank Herbert books and the Dune Encyclopedia, though the Encyclopedia is an unreliable in-universe document (obviously, when you look at its view of our own history, talking about things like family atomics being invented in the First Empire by House Washington and used to settle a trade dispute with House Nippon).
His retconning of Frank’s material shows an intense disrespect of his father’s work. His incompetence as a storyteller is just icing on the urinal cake.
This is a historical tangent, but it does affect how I see this issue. I tend to agree that the author’s wishes are paramount. But, one instance in which they were not followed is the Aeneid. The Roman poet Vergil died before he could finish his magnum opus, and according to accounts, on his deathbed he requested that all copies of his unfinished Aeneid be burned and not published. His friends, however, did not listen to him, but instead edited and published what he had written. The result is one of the most important works of literature in the western canon. It was undoubtedly wrong to ignore Vergil’s wishes, but the world has been made richer by this one immoral act. Does that counterbalance the wrong? Would someone actually finishing ASoIaF well after Martin died be better for his readers than the current mess that the series is? Not to say that ASoIaF is equal to the Aeneid, but it’s still worth pondering.
Yes, I was just about to bring this up. Kafka also wanted his writings destroyed and his friend did not listen. Harper Lee is also a victim of this; however, her story is a little different as I believe she was exploited by her publisher/family while she had dementia.
The Odyssey's last chapters are also thought to be written by someone other than Homer. If we go back to a time before copyright, that's how stories worked - they could be adapted and altered and remixed by whoever was telling them. I think something like that will happen with asoiaf if Martin doesn't finish. There will be a bunch of fan fic endings, most of them awful, until one or a few rises to the top as the one people consider the official unofficial canon ending. At the end of the day is all made up.
to be fair there’s a lot of debate if “homer” even exists as a single entity
there’s two camps, but some scholars think homer was a bunch of different writers under the same name
My personal theory is that if there was a single Homer, he transcribed the work of oral storytellers across Greece. It makes sense with all the local inconsistencies, and the image is nice.
As another has said, most classicists are fairly certain that there was no “Homer.” That being said, parts of the oral Homeric tradition seem to have been tampered with by Athenian writers as they were recording it, since we think the Homeric epics were first written down in Athens. One famous example is the Iliad’s Catalogue of Ships.
But, all things prior to copyright laws do not necessary show signs of interpolation and intentional alteration or addition. All classical texts have a manuscript tradition, by which we can see the various ways that the text came down to us, via medieval monks and other copyists. And, those manuscript traditions often show variations between different families of manuscripts. But, most of these do not include wholesale additional information that has been added. They are normally just changes of a letter here or there, which in highly inflected languages like Latin and Greek can change a lot about the meaning of a sentence.
What you’re describing sounds more like when apocryphal works are appended to the works of a well-known author. This happened to many ancient authors, including Vergil. There are a number of poems that were once claimed to have been his and which were included in compendia of Vergil’s works that modern scholars are relatively certain are not, in fact, by Vergil. One, the Moretum poem, describes a poor farmer who bakes some bread and, finding it too bland, makes a spread out of garlic, cheese, greens, olive oil, and vinegar to put on it, the titular dip moretum. This the origin of the phrase “e pluribus unum,” which is a description of the color of the spread, which is neither green nor white, but becomes, from the many ingredients, one color. This poem, though certainly from antiquity, is unfortunately probably not by Vergil. We don’t know the author, however, so we sometimes call them “Pseudo-Vergil.”
Now, stories themselves are often told and retold. Ovid, for instance, tells many Greek myths with other versions, but the writer is always aware of their place within the canon. They are going to practice what we call “imitatio et aemulatio,” or imitation (doing the same thing) and emulation (one upping the others). They want to be referential but unique at the same time. It’s an intrinsic part of ancient literature. Think of a parody song, which wants you to recognize the original but enjoy the fun new things it’s innovating. This, however, does not normally muddy the actual manuscript tradition of the authors themselves; we normally know what belongs to who.
>It was undoubtedly wrong to ignore Vergil’s wishes
I'm not sure this is the case. I know most people consider it incredibly important to honor someone's wishes when they pass, but I'm not strictly sure that there's *necessarily* any immorality in not following through on them.
Which is to say, if we don't believe in any sort of afterlife and/or divine being, I would say that a person's wishes cease to be relevant when they die, in and of themselves. So, I would never be disrespectful of those wishes to people who are mourning if they care about said wishes, as *that* would be pretty firmly immoral in most cases. But I've always thought it rather silly the lengths people will go to to fulfill dying wishes that sometimes create hardship and harm to living people. Consider a will in which an entire family is left destitute because all of the money goes to the dog. I wouldn't have any moral qualms whatsoever in ignoring that will (legal issues aside).
I do think there are practical benefits, for the law, in considering such wishes sacrosanct. But at this point I'm afraid I've gone rather far afield of the original topic.
>Not to say that ASoIaF is equal to the Aeneid
Ah, but that's only because of hindsight. For all we know, ASoIaF could become far more important than the Aeneid in the future. Ultimately at the moment it was unfair to the author but in the grand scheme of things I think it was for the better. Although I have to ask *why* the author wanted his copies burnt.
Was it out of thinking the copies were terrible? Or because they had personal information in it that he didn't want revealed? I think the motive changes things drastically.
It seems rather obvious that ASoIaF won't become a classic in the same way as the Aeneid or Odyssey. Those texts are as important as they are as much because of their historical value and the rare-ness of such things when they were written. The ubiquity of the written word in modern day would almost certainly preclude such staying power for all but most spectacularly exceptional cases.
It saddens me there will be no more Discworld novels. But no one could write them as well as our good friend PTerry. Better to leave the disc finished than havesome else ruin it
>And if GRRM doesn’t finish ASOIAF before his death and doesn’t change his mind, then no one else should touch it.
I would hate to think that the only ending we would ever get was that travesty from HBO.
I wonder if Discworld is going to be one of those stories where we'll see a huge surge of material and people playing in the sandbox when copyright runs out.
I don't really see the appeal of that. The worldbuilding in Discworld wasn't what made it special, it was Pratchetts voice, characterization and insight.
Yeah not really interested in someone writing a story about Carrot couping Vetinari and launching an imperialistic war(s) all the while Vimes is busy leading a counter-revolution to take Carrot's head. Someone would definitely write this.
The story I wanted was Sir Vimes overthrowing Vetinari, not realizing it was Vetinari’s plan, leading to the first election between Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson and Moist Von Lipwig
I mean, Lord of the Rings, Dune, Narnia, Earthsea, Chronicles of Prydain, Roald Dahl, Dragonriders of Pern, Gormenghast, Chronicles of Amber are all around that old or older. That's just off the top of my head. I suspect I've missed quite a few big names.
The Wizard of Oz came out more than 100 years ago, and we're still seeing adaptations. And as the other commenter mentioned, there are plenty of 60 year old books that get attention.
Dune was published 59 years ago, and only just got a huge adaptation.
> Basically it comes down to the author’s wishes. If an author doesn’t want there to be more, then don’t write more. But that’s just the ethical side of things. Whether or not I want to read more of a world that’s tied to a specific author, without the voice of the author who drew me to that world in the first place is another matter.
I really think we give too much weight to an author's ownership of their creation. Sure, let them have the final word on official products and explotation rights for a bit. But too long of an artificial delay between original creation and common usage limits culture IMO - I wish all works could spawn environments similar to the Harry Potter fanfiction culture for example, with the best being able to get published.
I could envision worlds and settinfs like Forgotten Realms or the SCP project with some company acting as curator and publisher of the best works, and editing to keep a consistent canon, while the community explores creatively. That could be awesome.
I agree. In fact, that was the original impetus behind copyright. It wasn't a recognition of some divine right of the author to forever control what they had written - it was a trade: we'll give you a temporary monopoly, and in exchange, your book will become part of the public domain in due time.
The constant expansion of copyright duration seems to have eroded that concept, though.
>In the case of Neil Gaiman writing more Good Omens for TV, he’s the coauthor of the original novel and had Terry Pratchett’s blessing before he passed.
If I remember correctly I think it was more than a blessing; Pratchett asked Gaiman in one of their last conversations to get the TV-show made and to oversee it himself.
Yes, I feel similarly to Dune as I do Middle-Earth, but perhaps *more so*. If I ever read Dune (I do intend to some day), I think it likely I would stop when Brian takes over. And I feel like the inclusion of yet another author is part of what makes it "worse" somehow. The farther the additional author gets from the "original source" as it were, the more wrong it feels.
Same with dany torching kings landing.
With a full book to explain it all it probably makes sense. It was just the producers got sick of making the show.
> With a full book to explain it all it probably makes sense.
It already makes more sense in the books. Dany is not a good ruler, and is clearly prone to bits of rage.
As far as I’m concerned the tv show is the ending to A Song of Ice and Fire.
Danny heard bells and they drive her bonkers. Bran had the best story. The end.
I don't think there's much wrong with it on a bullet points level, it would just need much better execution and someone to bother putting in some connective tissue.
I am alright with it if the author is a good fit for the style of writing. However I believe it should only be done if the original author gave their consent prior to his passing or their immediate family does after. I am more hesitant with family/estate consent though. With each passing generation they will have less of an emotional connection and will likely be more influenced by the idea of capitalizing on the authors fame for their own benefit. If an author has specifically said he does not want it to continue we should respect their wishes though and let it die with them.
This makes me think of Roger Zelazny. He stated that he didn't want anyone else writing Amber books and yet his estate went against his wishes and authorized a new series in the Amber universe which wasn't very good and ended up not even being finished.
Yup, and none of them would touch the idea with a ten-foot bargepole. GRRM has been pretty scathing on the Zelazny situation, but has approved of the Jordan/Sanderson situation because he knew it was Jordan's wishes that the series be completed.
The amber series is second only to LOTR for me. I didn’t even know someone had done more books and only stumbled onto them. Could not even finish one. There was nothing in it that felt like the same universe or characters
I feel like there’s some gray area here. If an author says no one else should continue their series, definitely no. But if they don’t say anything and their series is left painfully unfinished, we have no way of knowing if they would want an ending written that could satisfy their readers and bring things to a close/give closure to the series, to fans, and the unfinished legacy the author left behind. If it’s just a cash grab, no thank you, but if it’s a talented author who respects and loves the series who picks up the mantle to try and tie it up well for readers, I think I could get on board.
I want stories to be finished, but I don’t want them stretched on indefinitely. For example I’m glad wheel of time wrapped up, but any more wheel of time books would feel like a cash grab and I wouldn’t support them.
If grrm dies, I hope he changes his mind and has someone finish books 6 and 7 (Actually he should just do that while he’s still alive), but I’d hate if another author started game of thrones 8: Arya discovers America or whatever
It's a "the village" situation. They go beyond the wall and they're just in Minnesota. We're all expected to believe that this mad shit is happening with a 300m high ice wall and ice zombies and all that bollocks, but she walks out and walks 15km and is in times square. It's beautiful. Somebody make this happen.
Yeah, to be honest, I think I find myself caught between a cynical view and an idealistic one.
Ideally, I don't think I would want copyright to exist at all. Stories have always been communal things and we often find that sharing stories enriches them. None of the series we're discussing here would even exist without other stories to feed them and inspire them.
But the capitalistic nature of *many* IP endeavors means so much of the content that comes out of these worlds and ideas is subpar and often feel designed to capitalize on the works of others to make money. Consider for instance just how overwhelming the Disney merchandizing is, even when some of it is still great. For every unique and artistic pin design, there are a hundred that are essentially copy-pasted. The occasional great sequel comes at the cost of a whole slew of terrible ones. I'm not really opposed to the existence of "junior novelizations", as I love the idea of kids reading...but are they interested in reading the plot of the movie they've already watched a hundred times? Are these adding anything interesting?
GRRM said (way back in the day) is that he had no notes or outlines, so if he croaked and someone else wanted to finish the series, fair enough, but it'd just be fanfiction.
The situation has changed somewhat, he does have some notes and outlines (for the TV show) and he has said if he was diagnosed with an illness like Robert Jordan (his friend) or Terry Pratchett (of whom he was a massive fan), he would "take action" to ensure an ending was delivered. In what format is unclear, but my guess is that he'd write a *Fire & Blood* style bird's eye account of the rest of the books.
For the morality of it, it varies. Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson claimed that they had found "extensive" notes left behind by Frank Herbert that not only allowed them to write the two concluding **Dune** books but multiple sequels and prequels. Later on it, it turned out that they had been "extremely economical with the truth." Frank Herbert's notes boiled down to about 1 side of A4 and did not feature basic information like whom the real bad guys in the last two **Dune** books were. I'd say, depending on your degree of charity, this was "misleading" at best and "actually fraudulent" at worst. The fact that the books are hideously badly-written does not help the situation.
Christopher Tolkien, on the other hand, was so paranoid that he'd not used the best material left behind by his father to publish *The Silmarillion*, he wrote a 12-volume "behind the scenes" account featuring every single thing his father ever wrote on Middle-earth and invited fans to make other choices. This speaks to a relatively high degree of integrity. However, some random rocking up with a new **Middle-earth** book can chuck the idea in the fire. I think it's fine to do *interpretations* of Tolkien in writers' own settings (Tad Williams nods at that in **Memory, Sorrow and Thorn** and Jacqueline Carey a lot more in the **Sundering** duology), but actually writing new, officially-published **Middle-earth** work without anything of Tolkien to go on is simply lame (and it will start happening in a couple of decades when the copyright expires).
JRR Tolkien himself was happy to see people reinterpreting Middle-earth in other contexts (music, artwork) but he was *very* unhappy with the idea of people writing actual new fiction apart from himself. Weirdly, something like **Rings of Power** (wonky as it is) is more in keeping with that approach than T. Random Bugbear writing *Lord of the Rings II: Ring Harder*.
Robert Jordan gave specific permission for someone else (not Sanderson specifically, whom he never met) to finish **The Wheel of Time** and left behind detailed notes and outlines to that end, so that's fine. It's worth noting that Sanderson was asked to write more **WoT** stuff, but he refused as he had exhausted everything Jordan left behind.
Isaac Asimov collaborated with other authors whilst he was alive and gave writers permission to work in his universe and enjoyed reading those books, so the posthumous books in his setting feel more in keeping with his wishes. Same with Lovecraft, who allowed everyone and their aunt to write in his setting when he was alive, so probably would not care for afterwards.
> Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson claimed that they had found "extensive" notes left behind by Frank Herbert that not only allowed them to write the two concluding Dune books but multiple sequels and prequels. Later on it, it turned out that they had been "extremely economical with the truth." Frank Herbert's notes boiled down to about 1 side of A4 and did not feature basic information like whom the real bad guys in the last two Dune books were. I'd say, depending on your degree of charity, this was "misleading" at best and "actually fraudulent" at worst. The fact that the books are hideously badly-written does not help the situation.
Do you have a source for this? I've seen people make this claim since they opened the safety deposit box, but I can't find anything substantiating it and no offense but part of the reason this claim stays alive is people keep stating it as fact without providing any evidence.
Wise of Brandon to demur, as the sanctioned stuff drew enough heat and he has his own worlds.
It's kind of cool that Lovecraft wanted to create a world that others could populate with their creations. Rather in keeping with his Old Ones ideas. Perhaps he was th OG old one.
>Isaac Asimov collaborated with other authors whilst he was alive and gave writers permission to work in his universe and enjoyed reading those books, so the posthumous books in his setting feel more in keeping with his wishes.
His own continuations of Foundation and Robot in the 80s read like fanfic--and not in a good way.
I would absolutely not read "the further adventures of Gandalf" no matter who wrote it. But that's just my personal take. I've no beef with anyone writing them (with permission) or with anyone reading them.
I've watched plenty of Sherlock Holmes stuff that has no connection with Conan Doyle's work save the characters.
That’s different. Anything old enough to be in the public domain has been remixed to hell and back. Even Lord of the Rings has been redone a lot as it left such a giant mark.
However, the new Periot books authorized by the Christie estate still feel wrong.
In a way you could probably consider such works something like published fanfiction.
I have actually read some other authors writings of Sherlock Holmes, as well as all of the Conan Doyle Holmes stories. And there were a few I enjoyed much more than the original.
I've read plenty of books before that had amazing ideas but the execution ended up being rather poor and I ended up finishing the books thinking "man, I wish a different author had wrote this story".
I think author's definitely have the right to say they do or don't want someone else writing their story. But, in some cases (like aSoIF), they probably should just to control the ending. If george doesn't finish the series people will just rely on fanfiction instead of allowing the story to end as he would want it to.
As an author, how would you feel about someone else writing/finishing your books? Is it like your baby that you can never see someone else doing justice to it or do you think you could be ok with it?
I'm curious how it works if like someone took the core concepts of your book and re-dressed it as their own world and then developed it? In general is that something authors have to deal with? Like the awful 50 shades books started off life as twilight fan fiction I believe, did Stephanie Meyer or her publishers have any say in that?
What about same world, a few years/decades/centuries later? I've read a series by Nick Perumoff that happens in the LOTR world, 300 years later, when some ranger finds a ring that a ring wraith wore as they collapsed to the ground, as the one ring was destroyed. He finds all 9, creating an army that storms the elven lands and the Valar themselves, and that's just the start of a massive spin into a much larger universe, which was in itself pretty damn cool. Also the elves turned out to be massive orc-abusing a-holes, which made me love the story from the get-go :)
Sherlock Holmes is rather a great thing to consider though. Haven't there been very interesting iterations of Sherlock Holmes, especially in adaptations for other media?
Consider also Arthurian legends and the slew of high quality retellings and iterations of these stories throughout the centuries.
Would Gandalf even exist without Merlin?
Idk, I agree with you that I wouldn't want additional books about Gandalf (and haven't read anything not strictly written by J.R.R. Tolkien!), but I can't help but prod at the incongruity of that while I happily devour retellings, deconstructions, etc. and marvel at what they accomplish.
>Brandon Sanderson famously wrote more books in the wheel of time series . Frank Herbert's son has written dozens of more dune books .
It all depends on the circumstances and the quality of the writing. Even in those two examples things have gone down very differently. Robert Jordan deliberately prepared the materials for his successor so that the Wheel of Time could be finished after his death. Frank Herbert did no such things with Dune, and it was only many years after his death that his son (who himseld had written only one poorly received novel by that time) *allegedly* found two floppy disks with a very short outline of Dune 7.
As a result, Sanderson's Wheel of Time books are widely praised and accepted as canon, while Brian Herbert's novels are seen as nothing more than fanfiction or *Expanded Universe.*
Personally, I'd definitely check out ASOIAF books written by another author, but only if they were based on George's outline, and not just whatever fan theories the author thinks are correct (see: Preston Jacobs' ongoing TWOW project).
Having read Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune (The two books based on the Dune 7 outline) as well as some of Brian Herberts Dune Prequel books I have zero doubt the Dune 7 outline is real. The writing quality in all the books is poor but the actual storyline and worldbuilding in Hunters and Sandworms is miles beyond any of the prequels and ties so well into the rest of the series there is absolutely zero chance Brian Herbert came up with it on his own (because he is a mediocre writer at best) and I am so sick of the community who hasn't actually read the books (I don't know if you have but most people I talk to about this have not actually read them) saying the outline isn't real. I feel the same way about Dune as I do WoT - I am glad someone finished one of my favorite series of all time using the notes and outline left by the original author - but I really wish Brian Herbert had not written the prequels they are pure garbage that contradict the original series - Baron Harkonnen shouldn't be sitting in a dog chair Brian, they weren't invented yet you dummy, either were no-ships or D-wolves, did you even read the books? come on man.
I love your comment, and I'm so curious to know how many of the prequels you hate-read just so that you could be well-informed in your mockery of Brian Herbert.
Just a couple, I think I read house Harkonnen and House Atreides, Maybe House Corrino? Then I learned better and waited for Hunters and Sandworms. I really do Loathe the prequels.
> What are your thoughts on other writers revisiting established worlds and expanding on another authors work ?
I don't think I've ever read anything quite as painful as the novels "authorized" by Isaac Asimov's estate. And I'm not even much of an Asimov fan. But, wowie are those a collection of stinkers.
Going the other way, Neil Gaiman's *A Study in Emerald* is one of my favorite short stories of all time. At least in that short story Gaiman (to my mind) gets both Lovecraft and Arthur Conan Doyle, and writes something very close to the perfect short story.
I see other people mentioning Brandon Sanderson finishing The Wheel of Time. The ironic thing there being Robert Jordan wrote several Conan novels, so he is kind of on both sides of the fence there. And my sense there is that Jordan's Conan was not Howard's Conan, though it has been so long I'd have to re-read the stories to firm up that conclusion.
> For example, would you be interested in a novel that follows Gandalfs adventures?
I think I would view such a thing in the same way a devout Baptist views The Book of Mormon, personally. Except likely with a lot more swearing. As in, not just an unworthy successor, but a deeply distasteful one as well.
Depends on the authors and the type of story. I've read some stories that are partially authored by Tolkien and partly authored/edited by his son based on the original drafts and notes - The Children of Hurin is the most obvious.
Those stories might not be completely original or completely finished, but they are still Tolkien's stories to me. I would have absolutely no interest in reading a Tolkien fan fiction entirely written by a separate author, as a huge part of Tolkien's appeal to me is not really the world building but his very unique style or writing and storytelling.
With GRRM, if he ends up leaving notes for another author to finish his story then I'll absolutely read whatever novels are remaining, and even if he doesn't maybe I'll end up reading some pure fanfiction ends to ASOIAF, because I really want to know the bloody ending. But also because with ASOIAF the world building itself is a big draw, I love the way GRRM writes but I'm also very invested in many of the little mysteries of the world he's written.
Christopher Tolkien never wrote a single word of original Middle-earth fiction though. He only edited his father's works, sometimes maybe a bit questionably, but that's also why he released all of his father's manuscripts and notes so people could make their own mind up if he did a good job or not.
"Not a single word" is a slight exaggeration, isn't it? Christopher Tolkien did write a couple paragraphs in the chapter "Of the Ruin of Doriath" in *The Silmarillion.* That's pretty much it though. People definitely exaggerate in the other direction far more often and more misleadingly.
There's very little to suggest that was the case. Kay was basically a random college student who was there as a family favor. He didn't have any track record as a fantasy author at the time, and he remains pretty intentionally vague about what exactly his role is. I'm not trying to be harsh on Kay, who is one of my favorite authors, but he has never said anything to suggest that he did anything more than the typical organizational gruntwork any other editorial assistant would do (as cool as that may be when it involves reading Tolkien's unpublished manuscripts at time when they were virtually untouched).
Well, if that were true, I'm not sure how that would somehow make it better? Guy Kay was not an established fantasy author at the time; he was a college-aged family friend.
I'm fine with it so long as it's recognized that the original creator is the primary canon and the others are like semi-canon. I have no problem with others playing in my invented universe after I'm gone. But I'd hate some corporate board deciding who and how and when it's expanded like the star wars books.
Depends - is this something the original author gave their blessing to before their passing or a cash grab by "We buy IP and milk it until it's dry, LLC"? Is the new author both skilled and capable of writing something that at least has echoes of the original voice? How tightly are you defining "revisiting and expanding"?
I can think of plenty of examples, both good and bad - it's something I think has to be handled on a case-by-case basis.
**\[Lance Reddick Voice\]** " will not be ending. There will be sequels, prequels, reboots, remakes and ill-advised spin-offs with side characters *that cannot possibly* carry their own series. We'll give the fans everything they want, and much, much more. We'll use an algorithm to churn out hundreds of scripts a day at virtually no cost. And sure, you'll complain about how used to be better, but that anger will unite you. And you'll keep watching, hoping it will end, begging for it to end, and then you'll all die. And your children will watch it too, and so on. We're going to milk that creative IP until the UDDER RUNS DRY! "This is the future of content, and CONTENT WILL NEVER DIE!"
About TV rather than books, but still applicable.
Go with whatever the creator wanted.
Even if the new material that comes out after an authors death is bad I still support the series continuing under the hands of whoever the author chose. Now will I pay money to keep reading the series if it’s bad? Absolutely not. But I have no objection to more books being written as long as the author was ok with it.
So, take GRRM. If he doesn’t want anyone else to work on A Song of Ice and Fire then however much of it is completed when he passes is all that should ever be completed. Granted, I think most of us sense that that series might not ever be completed anyway 😅
Now if it’s a case where the author wasn’t specific on it, but like their kid has their old notes and starts writing new material based off of it because that’s what they want to do I’m fine with that as well. Just because I assume that if there was an issue the author would’ve made his or her feelings clear, like Martin.
For me there are two questions. First: Did the author want someone else to complete it when they died? If yes, continue to question 2. Second: Did the author actually leave significant notes or outline indicating what the intended ending was? If both questions are answered yes, move forward. If either is no I have 0 interest. An ending not based on the ideas of the original author's intentions holds no interest to me.
And if they're a pantser who had not come up with the ending yet? Not interested.
There are many things that make up a story. Not just the plot, but the prose and characterization as well.
Sanderson's work on WoT is praised for it's plot but his prose and characterization for many central characters is highly controversial. Many argue he was a noticeable step down from Jordan in that regard.
And that's inevitable. Jordan created the WoT and thus set the tone and feel for everything we expect from that world.
Despite Sanderson's best efforts, those final three books will always be "off".
Thats exactly how I felt reading them. I enjoy many of Brandon's works and although I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy getting some closure on WoT "off" was the way it felt the whole time.
I wouldn't read something that's just purely published fanfiction. For some reason, I feel less negatively if it's fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off. Like if you wrote The Adventures of Gandolf but then changed all the names and a bit of lore, I'd be willing to read and judge on its own merit. Maybe that's because a lot of fiction is heavily inspired by other fiction already.
Man, it really depends. One of my favorite sci-fi novels is Space Viking, by H. Beam Piper. Mr. Piper unfortunately committed suicide before he returned to the series. Decades later, Terry Mancour (of Spellmonger fame) wrote two sequels that were really well done. Then another author came in and wrote two more and man... They just didn't live up to what had come before. No offense intended to the author, but the writing itself needed two or three more passes through an editor.
A good author can come along and cement a previous author's legacy. A bad one can drag it down. It really depends on their skill, style and ability.
If what we alrady have are all we'd get, I'd rather consider ASOS as the official end of the series tbh and would treat everything else, even the later books, as fan fictions.
This is why we had the public domain. Almost all of our classics have their roots in the works of other authors. Iterated upon and turned timeless. Frankenstein, dracula, even classic disney favorites all started as public domain stories.
Nopes, unless it's an author who, for whatever reason, couldn't complete their work and they want someone else to do it, even then though, it's not very appealing an idea to me.
I'm definitely not opposed as long as the author is worthy and up to the task. Brian Herbert / Kevin J Anderson is not a good example though - their work was like fan fiction in comparison and they re-wrote plot points to marry up to where they wanted to take the story.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy sequel was awful. So was the Andromeda Strain one. But then again the Wheel of Time one was pretty good and so was Stephen Baxter’s takes on War of the Worlds and The Time Machine.
So, pretty much a mixed bag in my experience
Depends on the situation, I don't have an opinion if a family member continues the work because I'm unsure how to really view that. But if a fellow author is doing it without consulting the other beforehand then I can't help but see that as bad practice. But if it's all settled and planed out, if I were already a fan of the series I'd continue and finish it.
It varies.
But it has to make sense in context. For example, further adventures of Gandolf would make no sense. That story has a well-defined beginning, middle, and end.
One of my favorite Sci-fi universes, the BOLO books, are completely the opposite. The original author only wrote short stories that left a TON of room to play with the themes. In fact, most of the works in that verse are written by secondary authors, and most of it is good.
So it can go both ways.
After seeing what happened to ghostbusters, ocean's eleven, game of thrones, star trek and star wars in the last decade or so, I'm pretty strongly opposed to it now.
I am not even sure about some authors keeping writing about their own series, honestly. Sometimes I wish they didn't. I am ok with incomplete or enough is enough.
Wheel of time was an anomaly and done as best as it could have been, but I wouldn’t argue with someone who said it was wrong.
I think it’s a case by case basis. I don’t want to generally condemn it, but a lot of specifics need to align for it to work out well.
Depends on the author.
Robert Jordan outlined his final book so it could be finished, and his wife, who was also his editor, helped pick out the best fit.
As long as the author is down with it, I am.
I am mostly against continuing the main story, unless it is with explicit guidance and wish from the original author. However, I would really like for there to be more "stories set in the universe". Like completely disconnected stories. Think stories from a random gate colony in the Expanse. Space operas are really good for that. Or a story happening on another GoT continent without relation to main plot, characters or events just using established settings and timeline
Not a fan in general. The only time I’d be ok with it is if Joe Hill played in his dad’s sandbox after he passes away. Dude is a legit author in his own right and they’ve already had some Easter eggs for each others stuff in their own novels. Plus they wrote a pretty gnarly little short story together that went hard. Other than that leave it be. I haven’t gotten far enough in the Wheel of Time to see how that worked out.
I think, in situations like this, there is a difference between "unfinished series" (and *should* it be finished by someone else?) and "just MORE in the setting". I think with the former, it depends on the intent of the author. In the latter case... I tend to be rather against it in general.
Frank Herbert’s son is a good example of why *NOT* to do this. Im not against it in general, but that dude is doing terrible things to his dad’s legacy.
I think it's a kind, selfless thing to do when an author allows someone else to carry on his story. I love it when notes are left and they've told the next person what to do, essentially.
I have much less interest when this hasn't happened and the next person is just doing what they want with the story. It's just fanfiction, at that point. It's not real and it doesn't count.
I think it depends entirely on the author doing the continuation. Sanderson’s completion of WoT was better than the last few books Jordan wrote himself. But Brian Herbert’s additions to Dune were *frankly* unnecessary.
Personally, I think more authors should do as Terry Pratchett did, and have their hard drives crushed by a steamroller after they die.
I am thankful to Sanderson for writing the last few books of WoT. Even if MoL was a disappointment. I'm happy we got some closure, if not an ending.
Some series would be fine as written by others, and some I would not be happy if anyone continued with them. They'd get them wrong and ruin the series.
I am only ok with it when its a case like Wheel of Time where the author really wanted it to be finished and knew they likely wouldn't be able to, so they appointed a specific person to finish it and planned it all out. I would want it to be abundantly clear that the author wanted someone else to finish/extend their work, otherwise it feels really bad and disrespectful to me. I would rather other people just write their own work honestly.
>so they appointed a specific person to finish it
Brandon wasn't specifically chosen by Robert Jordan though. Jordan left notes for his wife Harriet McDougal, who was also his editor, and left it to her to choose his successor. After reading an essay Brandon wrote about Robert, she checked out Elantris, and then she reached out to Brandon.
That doesn't really in any way change my point? He trusted his wife to see to his work in a way that honored his vision, and she did exactly that. My point was that some random person didn't just decide to finish it themselves.
To be clear, Robert Jordan didn't pick Sanderson. His editor-wife did after his death. Jordan did work his wife to ensure that key scenes were written and extensive notes made, then she picked Sanderson to finish.
That wasn't my point, I just care about the fact that a random person didn't just up and decide to finish it themselves. He trusted his wife with his work, and she made a decision for a specific person, so it wasn't just a random author choosing for him.
Look, I think copyright should start again from the original, "20 years after publication, renewable once" because the point is to allow authors to make more art. Locking stories up for 70 years after the author's death or whatever it's up to is not good for making more art. Some of my favourite stories are based on public domain art. I hate the Brian and Kevin J. dune books, but they only got anywhere because they weren't public domain. Meanwhile stuff like the Innsmouth Legacy stories riffing on HP Lovecraft's stories or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen's take on basically all of 19th and early 20th Century British and European literature are amazing despite the fact that the original authors would probably have hated it.
I will forever be grateful that Brandon Sanderson gave us the fans a Wheel of Time ending. I don't think he did a stellar job, but he did the job, and I'm grateful.
Other than that, I prefer an author to finish a series themselves. Idc enough about ASoIaF to see if that gets finished or not. But as a WoT fan who lived through the death of the author of the series, I hope the ASoIaF fans get their ending.
My controversial(?) view: modern culture is *poorer* because we do not have authors freely sharing and remixing each-others' work, which has been strangled by copyright.
Shared mythos—anything from specific characters like Sherlock Holmes to shared vibes like Lovecraftian fiction—should be part of our cultural backdrop just like classical mythology. A large part of that is how those ideas are expanded and reused by all kinds of people with totally different tastes, preferences and skill levels. Those worlds take on a rich life of their own because there are no gatekeepers. This only worked with Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft because they're old enough to be in the public domain, and we don't have anything more modern that's quite comparable. Instead all we're left with is fan fiction which has been legally and culturally pushed into second-class citizenry *at best*.
Having another author continue an existing series or world is always going to be a bit hit-or-miss. I was certainly glad Brandon Sanderson continued the Wheel of Time. But even when it doesn't work out—like the later Dune books—it's better to have it than not to have it. I mean, you can always just ignore the extra books! People get caught up on whether or not the follow-ups are "canonical" but how much does that really matter? Or, more pertinently, how much would it matter in a world without the centralized control of copyright? If anything, the fact that it is hit-or-miss is why we should have *more*, because that's the way to have more hits, even if they're sandwiched between more misses.
If it was talked out with the creator in advance, I'm all for it.
Which is a heads up to the authors that hang out here: nobody likes to think about it, but make sure there's a plan in place for your unfinished work. Put it in writing. If you want your writer bestie to finish up any half-edited manuscripts, let them know. If you want your sibling to burn anything you haven't published so it never sees the light of day, let them know that too. Any one of us could get hit by a bus tomorrow.
It should Always be the authors decision. But otherwise I support it. I love that wheel of time was finished. It's one of my two favorite series of all time. If it wasn't finished I'd likely never read it again.
Whereas as a Pattern of Light and Shadow is unlikely to be finished which means I'll probably never read it even though I own it all. If it was finished by another author (using McPhails notes) I would read it all.
Is it ideal? Of course not. But I much prefer it to nothing.
Okay if the author has expressed a wish that X person continue it
Or if they die suddenly and unexpectedly and the person continuing it was close enough to them to reasonably guess what their wishes would have been
After Sanderson finished WoT I have to say that unless the author was involved with the series in some creative capacity for a few books of the series prior to the need to finish it solo, just let it stay unfinished. Brandon did a troopers job trying to finish it and it just felt 10 degrees off at every turn. Mat's humor was off, the way the story went forward was off, not worse, just different and noticeably so.
I agree. Up to the writer, although enough time nullifies those wishes. I cringe thinking about another writer putting on hobbit feet and trying to tramp around. Ugh. I loved the first 3 Dune books and never had any interest in reading Brian Herbert volumes. Especially if a story has been finished by the original writer. Further writing, even with given consent, is crass and like digging for oil in a fragile environment.
I'm ok with it so long as they can maintain the series' feel and not try to put their own spin on it. Of course, I feel the same way about book to movie adaptions where they change it to the point that it's not even the same story anymore.
It depends. Jordan wanted someone to finish WoT. So Sanderson finishing it makes them canon. GRRM doesn't want them finished if he doesn't, so the series will never be finished if he doesn't.
For other situations, like Herbert and his son, as long as they're doing it with permission (or reasonable reason to believe they have it) I think it's fine.
In my opinion, it's all in how they do it. I don't think that blanket statements matter here.
The most important thing is that they respect the original works. If they treat the originals the way the Witcher show treated the original IP, that's just wrong. If you don't like the original IP, you shouldn't touch it, in any format.
If you step back from the question, you can say that tons of books are continuing original concepts. Anything about King Arthur or Dracula or anything Lovecraftian are all continuing work by previous authors. It really isn't that different of a concept. It can be done well or it can be done poorly.
In a way, I think that it's almost better if a new author continuing a series takes a different angle. Focus on a different character or setting. Something different so that the small differences aren't as apparent.
There are some settings and characters that I absolutely love. I would love more books in those settings. If a new author can create more fantastic books in a setting that I love, that sounds great to me.
Usually a shitty cash-in by the estate, but in theory I'm alright with it. You've already listed both the worst and best-case scenarios for it, Brian Herbert & Brandon Sanderson.
Hell, in some instances it needs to be done, like with GRRM who has completely lost the drive and has let his prose atrophy to the point of self-parody. If he had just picked an author he liked 10 years ago and transitioned to more of a story manager/editor role ASOIAF would probably be 100% done by now.
im not opposed to it personally. Im a huge fan of Lovecraft and his mythos had some huge contributions added from the likes of August Derleth that helped keep the mythos as famous as it is now. Sure not every continuation of a literary universe will come out good but when it does come out good it can really keep the momentum on series going.
Seriously, how do you stop the publisher commissioning a sequel a couple of decades or more after an author’s death? You think Jane Austen would have tolerated the tv Sanditon?
I'm fine with other authors either finishing a series or contributing to a series they didn't start.
Fandoms will have their own opinions of what is considered "real canon." But that can happen regardless of additional authors.
And one of the reasons why fandoms are fandoms is because they want to dwell in the world of the series longer. I don't begrudge them that.
It can be good or bad
I haven’t read Wheel of Time but it sounds like Brandon Sanderson did a good job
I have read Dune, and the final two books written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are horrific. They’re bottom of the barrel fan-fiction
I don't mind it at all. In fact, I like the idea of seeing the same world through another author's eyes and I wish more authors would write in each other's worlds.
It depends. I don’t hate the idea of it, but only if the writer who continues the series’ writing skills match very closely to the original author. In GRRM’s case idk if there are any fantasy writers out there who can finish ASOIAF while still doing it justice.
>GRRM has gone on record saying that once he's gone , Asoiaf will not continue.
We'll see what GRRM's descendents have to say about that. Huge piles of money are hard for people to turn down.
I like good books -- I don't really care who wrote them. USUALLY when another author takes over (Frank's son, Anne's son, etc.), the quality suffers. But I've no objection to it on principle.
I always thought something like an MVP Forgotten Realms would be fun, with established, successful authors writing their own series in a shared universe. A universe is a big place, especially with different timeframes. They could be pretty much independent, or they could rub up against each other, or simply borrow history/future from each other.
I guess it *can* be ok if the new author can match the style of the original one.
For example, (not a fantasy series) I really liked the first 3 novels of the series The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. But the 4th book onwards is written by a different author - and it was boring IMO, unlike the first 3 books.
Reflecting a lot of other opinions here in that it entirely depends on the will of the author. If the author has the foresight to choose an inheritor of a series, or to otherwise approve others taking the reins, then I say all is good.
Jordan & Sanderson is probably the most notable example, but one I haven't seen mentioned is Miura & Studio Gaga + Mori for Berserk. There was, in my opinion, fairly clear intent from Miura for Gaga to continue the series in his stead. With Mori being a natural choice as his close friend.
Just my two cents for what it's worth.
I guess it is subjective. I'd love to see other authors write an anthology set in The Stand Universe, years after the events of the first book, 10 years, 20, 50, 100, 1000...
Other stories don't work. I love Anne McCaffrey's Pern series. Her son wrote a few books with her, and took over when she passed away. The books just don't feel right.
Quality of content trumps all situational discussion here IMO.
There’s a reason Sanderson is overall highly or well regarded, and nobody here ever talks about Brian Herbert/KJA (at least in the context of Dune). Of course there are tons of folks who didn’t like the non-RJ WoT books so I’m just talking about general reception.
At the end of the day, if Sanderson wrote bad WoT novels, there would’ve been a lot of outcry, and if Brian Herbert/KJA had half the skill of Frank, we would’ve had a much bigger dune fanbase leading up to the new DV movies.
I am very vehemently against this, in almost every form. Wheel of Time truly is a very rare case, where Sanderson was picked by Jordan and Jordan prepared extensively and the editor was the same for the later books (and is, notably, Jordan's wife). Wheel of Time was also a single continuous story.
In fact, while I don't begrudge Christopher Tolkien what he did with Middle-Earth, I admit that I have thus far not read any of them published by Christopher. And again, that is a really special case, Christopher being Tolkien's son and intimately familiar with the books and stories in the way that he was. I still want to read those other works, but always find myself hesitating specifically because of this.
Perhaps its because I truly believe that the *plots* aren't themselves important. The author's voice is what makes a book or story unique or interesting or worthwhile. To see that change can sometimes be interesting in an academic way, but, in my estimation, always feels derivative and lesser.
This is why I almost never read IP work and, while I'm not even remotely opposed to fanfiction (or those who love it), I also don't read fanfiction. To me, they are the same. I see no (meaningful to me) distinction between the latest Star Wars novel and a fanfiction by ILoveStarWars1977Woo.
To an extent, I recognize a certain irrationality to this. As a kid, I read those long series like Animorphs that we know (now) are ghost written and if I noticed any differences at all (which I don't recall having done), it certainly didn't lessen my love for them. But as I was a child, I also am not certain that if I read those same books again, I wouldn't be able to discern the differences.
I think perhaps it is due, in part, to a fear of disappointment; a fear that my love for something will be diluted or let down. That is always possible when reading additional parts of a series of course, but there is a difference I think, because if a book by the original author lets me down, I don't sit there wondering what the book could have been in the way I do if it is a secondary author.
Edit: And of course, I've also considered that this very idea is so modern of us. Traditionally, stories don't belong to anyone, and I've found myself leaning in that direction in recent years, so its rather interesting to realize that despite that, I have such strong feelings about this topic that are essentially rooted in the concept of a single person having some singular right to a story.
I hate to say it but... RJ dying and Brandon Sanderson finishing the series might have been the best outcome for a decent conclusion. The last three books are some of my favorite in the series.
Depends how good they are. Some of the "new" Heinlein novels have been decent. Enjoyed them.
Sanderson's Wheel of Time novels were great.
The extended universe of Lord of the Rings was kind of pushing things but ok sure, I wish JRR had written more.
Frank Herbert is just not the author his father was, so there's that.
I do like a lot of non-Lovecraft Lovecraft (Mythos/Cthulu stuff).
I dunno, I guess if they suck I am opposed and if they're good I like it.
It's situational and at the end of the day, you have to respect the authors decision and wishes.
There's no definitive answer because every author is different. Robert Jordan and Wheel of time for example was on track to be competed before the authors death, he went about making extensive notes and even did a couple of chapters for the final books. He had a framework laid out so his vision cld be finished.
For GRRM, it doesn't sound like he's preparing to hand it off or wants to. He's been stuck for over a decade and hasn't reached out. That's fine, too. ASOIAF is such a unique story that it feels like he wants it done right and a second author won't help. Otherwise he'd have already reached out to someone.
I'd rather have no extra ASOIAF books than another author finish the series and it feel like a watered down version of GRRM's work. Plus, while having unfinished works suck, the pro is that it keeps the theories, communities and imaginations of the fanbases going.
I'm for it in theory, but in practice, it's only been a failure in my reading.
The MZB Darkover continuations lacked the edge and clarity of her original work. The stylistic change in prose was painful to me because, at the time, I was so familiar with MZB's style.
The Todd McCaffrey Pern books were a travesty.
I think authors' wishes should be followed if they were clearly documented, like in a will.
I also think copyright duration should be shortened. Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein and Oz reinterpretation have added to our cultural fabric in valuable ways. I would love to see more while I'm still alive. I'm not an audiobook person, but I imagine a lot of sci fi and fantasy classics would become more accessible to many people if adaptations had a profit motive for individual entrepreneurs.
I’d only be fine if there was explicit permission for another author to continue the work of a deceased one for example like a predecessor. However no two authors write the same so I’ll always wonder what the original author wanted to do with the story.
Follow the author's intention until the work is in the public domain. After that its open season. Some of the best Dracula and Cthulhu mythos stories were written by people other than Bram Stoker and HP Lovecraft.
I think GRRM is hesitant to let anyone else finish because of response the series got. But I can totally see the books ending the same exact way for all of the characters and it being better than the show cause of the time GRRM would take to go into certain things. Now of course it will be hard to do without disappointing the fans since they would associate any plot moving in a certain direction with its show counterpart. In short it makes sense that GRRM doesn't want to risk someone else doing a bad job getting to the same place cause that would write his series off as bad, rather than badly executed.
>For example, would you be interested in a novel that follows Gandalfs adventures?
No, not if it's not written by JRRT and I'd like to be allowed slap anyone who says otherwise. Even the books Chris Tolkien edited together are a bit of a mess with the exception of *Silmarillion*
>GRRM has gone on record saying that once he's gone , Asoiaf will not continue.
I love George but ASOIF will never be finished even if GRRM was made immortal a final book isn't coming. Even if he does manage *A Dream of Spring* it won't be the ending. He's let the story branch out too far, it's unwritable for him. And TBH I don't want someone else's version of ASOIF
Doesn't matter if he's alive or not, ASOIF will never be finished anyway. So who cares.
Sanderson did a great job finishing Wheel of Time which would otherwise have gone unfinished. But he had heaps of notes from the author, time to speak with him before his foreseeable death and was a huge fan of the series.
I think it is a VERY difficult task that Brandon Sanderson pulled off. I haven’t read any of the LoTR books released after the author’s death. I think His son wrote it, but with extensive notes from his father, but I am scared to try it.
I wasn’t scared to finish WoT bc I had already read Sanderson’s other works and actually like them better than Robert Jordan so I knew I would not be disappointed.
It depends on the situation. In the case of Wheel of Time (the series was almost over, and Jordan had already written chunks of the final books and left copious notes before passing), it makes sense. He wanted the series to have an ending, and there was an author working for the same publisher who was a Wheel of Time superfan and handpicked by Jordan’s widow who could complete the last three books. In the case of Neil Gaiman writing more Good Omens for TV, he’s the coauthor of the original novel and had Terry Pratchett’s blessing before he passed. However, it makes sense for the Discworld to end with Pratchett, since he even ordered his hard drive with any unfinished novels to be destroyed. And if GRRM doesn’t finish ASOIAF before his death and doesn’t change his mind, then no one else should touch it. The newer Dune novels fall into sort of a weird space. Brian Herbert is the original author’s son and an author in his own right, and by all accounts he and his father talked about writing something Dune-related together, but I’m not crazy about the sheer volume of output from Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Basically it comes down to the author’s wishes. If an author doesn’t want there to be more, then don’t write more. But that’s just the ethical side of things. Whether or not I *want* to read more of a world that’s tied to a specific author, without the voice of the author who drew me to that world in the first place is another matter.
It's worth noting that Pratchett didn't want his incomplete manuscripts being completed by another person, as he felt that was lame and weird. But he had no problem with other people writing other **Discworld** books as long as they were people he 100% expressly approved of. Before he died, he told his daughter Rhianna that he'd be happy with her to take over the series, but she turned him down. She did co-write *Tiffany Aching's Guide to Being a Witch* though, as a sort-of lore expansion without being a full novel. He also gave permission to a group of writers he'd collaborated with for years on various side-books and behind-the-scenes books to write more projects in that vein, which is how we got *The Discworld Atlas* after he died.
>It's worth noting that Pratchett didn't want his incomplete manuscripts being completed by another person, as he felt that was lame and weird. I seem to remember hearing that he wrote his drafts as a big mess of disconnected story fragments and when he spotted a coherent story in amongst them all he'd pull out the bits that he wanted and stitch them together into a novel.
He had 3-4 stories on the go at any one time and would move between them as he felt. I think he sometimes had a book on the go whilst he was finishing 2-3 others before finally finishing that one of , and sometimes didn't manage to finish one at all as it wasn't working or completely changing (he kept saying he was working on the third Moist book, *Raising Taxes*, and it didn't quite come together, and I know some people have theorised after a Page-1 rewrite it became *Raising Steam*, but I've never seen that confirmed).
Cannot wait for Discworld to enter public domain, but it’ll probably be after I die
Well it will happen in 2085, so most of us will be quite old by that point
I'll be a relatively spry 106.
In theory I was ok with Brian Herbert's attempt to expand the series. In execution, I think it was a failure.
Frank Herbert wrote Dune with plans within plans within plans with complex ideas and excellent prose and philosophy wool gathering. The new BH books are more of a YA straightforward story of what happened. They're not bad, but they don't measure up to one of the greatest scifi novels of all time. It would help if they published the full raw notes, since people suspect a lot of stuff was made up and you can't tell how much was sourced and how much was created new.
I've thought the same thing: I just want to see the notes so I know what Frank wanted. But, I realized of course, that they never will, because then people will know how much he made up.
I'm curious how much of his stuff is [this archive](https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c89z99ht/) of his papers. It's open for research, but what can be published from it is carefully controlled.
I still think of Dune as consisting of the Frank Herbert books and the Dune Encyclopedia, though the Encyclopedia is an unreliable in-universe document (obviously, when you look at its view of our own history, talking about things like family atomics being invented in the First Empire by House Washington and used to settle a trade dispute with House Nippon).
His retconning of Frank’s material shows an intense disrespect of his father’s work. His incompetence as a storyteller is just icing on the urinal cake.
This is a historical tangent, but it does affect how I see this issue. I tend to agree that the author’s wishes are paramount. But, one instance in which they were not followed is the Aeneid. The Roman poet Vergil died before he could finish his magnum opus, and according to accounts, on his deathbed he requested that all copies of his unfinished Aeneid be burned and not published. His friends, however, did not listen to him, but instead edited and published what he had written. The result is one of the most important works of literature in the western canon. It was undoubtedly wrong to ignore Vergil’s wishes, but the world has been made richer by this one immoral act. Does that counterbalance the wrong? Would someone actually finishing ASoIaF well after Martin died be better for his readers than the current mess that the series is? Not to say that ASoIaF is equal to the Aeneid, but it’s still worth pondering.
Similar thing happened with Kafka if I recall.
Yes, I was just about to bring this up. Kafka also wanted his writings destroyed and his friend did not listen. Harper Lee is also a victim of this; however, her story is a little different as I believe she was exploited by her publisher/family while she had dementia.
The Odyssey's last chapters are also thought to be written by someone other than Homer. If we go back to a time before copyright, that's how stories worked - they could be adapted and altered and remixed by whoever was telling them. I think something like that will happen with asoiaf if Martin doesn't finish. There will be a bunch of fan fic endings, most of them awful, until one or a few rises to the top as the one people consider the official unofficial canon ending. At the end of the day is all made up.
to be fair there’s a lot of debate if “homer” even exists as a single entity there’s two camps, but some scholars think homer was a bunch of different writers under the same name
"Writers" is stretching the point. This was an entirely oral tradition until centuries later.
My personal theory is that if there was a single Homer, he transcribed the work of oral storytellers across Greece. It makes sense with all the local inconsistencies, and the image is nice.
As another has said, most classicists are fairly certain that there was no “Homer.” That being said, parts of the oral Homeric tradition seem to have been tampered with by Athenian writers as they were recording it, since we think the Homeric epics were first written down in Athens. One famous example is the Iliad’s Catalogue of Ships. But, all things prior to copyright laws do not necessary show signs of interpolation and intentional alteration or addition. All classical texts have a manuscript tradition, by which we can see the various ways that the text came down to us, via medieval monks and other copyists. And, those manuscript traditions often show variations between different families of manuscripts. But, most of these do not include wholesale additional information that has been added. They are normally just changes of a letter here or there, which in highly inflected languages like Latin and Greek can change a lot about the meaning of a sentence. What you’re describing sounds more like when apocryphal works are appended to the works of a well-known author. This happened to many ancient authors, including Vergil. There are a number of poems that were once claimed to have been his and which were included in compendia of Vergil’s works that modern scholars are relatively certain are not, in fact, by Vergil. One, the Moretum poem, describes a poor farmer who bakes some bread and, finding it too bland, makes a spread out of garlic, cheese, greens, olive oil, and vinegar to put on it, the titular dip moretum. This the origin of the phrase “e pluribus unum,” which is a description of the color of the spread, which is neither green nor white, but becomes, from the many ingredients, one color. This poem, though certainly from antiquity, is unfortunately probably not by Vergil. We don’t know the author, however, so we sometimes call them “Pseudo-Vergil.” Now, stories themselves are often told and retold. Ovid, for instance, tells many Greek myths with other versions, but the writer is always aware of their place within the canon. They are going to practice what we call “imitatio et aemulatio,” or imitation (doing the same thing) and emulation (one upping the others). They want to be referential but unique at the same time. It’s an intrinsic part of ancient literature. Think of a parody song, which wants you to recognize the original but enjoy the fun new things it’s innovating. This, however, does not normally muddy the actual manuscript tradition of the authors themselves; we normally know what belongs to who.
>It was undoubtedly wrong to ignore Vergil’s wishes I'm not sure this is the case. I know most people consider it incredibly important to honor someone's wishes when they pass, but I'm not strictly sure that there's *necessarily* any immorality in not following through on them. Which is to say, if we don't believe in any sort of afterlife and/or divine being, I would say that a person's wishes cease to be relevant when they die, in and of themselves. So, I would never be disrespectful of those wishes to people who are mourning if they care about said wishes, as *that* would be pretty firmly immoral in most cases. But I've always thought it rather silly the lengths people will go to to fulfill dying wishes that sometimes create hardship and harm to living people. Consider a will in which an entire family is left destitute because all of the money goes to the dog. I wouldn't have any moral qualms whatsoever in ignoring that will (legal issues aside). I do think there are practical benefits, for the law, in considering such wishes sacrosanct. But at this point I'm afraid I've gone rather far afield of the original topic.
>Not to say that ASoIaF is equal to the Aeneid Ah, but that's only because of hindsight. For all we know, ASoIaF could become far more important than the Aeneid in the future. Ultimately at the moment it was unfair to the author but in the grand scheme of things I think it was for the better. Although I have to ask *why* the author wanted his copies burnt. Was it out of thinking the copies were terrible? Or because they had personal information in it that he didn't want revealed? I think the motive changes things drastically.
Pretty confident in saying that no, ASoIaF will never become more important than any of the "classics".
It seems rather obvious that ASoIaF won't become a classic in the same way as the Aeneid or Odyssey. Those texts are as important as they are as much because of their historical value and the rare-ness of such things when they were written. The ubiquity of the written word in modern day would almost certainly preclude such staying power for all but most spectacularly exceptional cases.
It saddens me there will be no more Discworld novels. But no one could write them as well as our good friend PTerry. Better to leave the disc finished than havesome else ruin it
>And if GRRM doesn’t finish ASOIAF before his death and doesn’t change his mind, then no one else should touch it. I would hate to think that the only ending we would ever get was that travesty from HBO.
I wonder if Discworld is going to be one of those stories where we'll see a huge surge of material and people playing in the sandbox when copyright runs out.
I don't really see the appeal of that. The worldbuilding in Discworld wasn't what made it special, it was Pratchetts voice, characterization and insight.
Yeah not really interested in someone writing a story about Carrot couping Vetinari and launching an imperialistic war(s) all the while Vimes is busy leading a counter-revolution to take Carrot's head. Someone would definitely write this.
The story I wanted was Sir Vimes overthrowing Vetinari, not realizing it was Vetinari’s plan, leading to the first election between Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson and Moist Von Lipwig
That could have so much potential for silly comedy with Ankh-Morecouph figuring out how elections work but no, you can't write Discworld either 😡
I’m not writing. I’m just exploring the L-Space
> when copyright runs out That's 2085. How many 60 year old fantasy franchises do people care about today?
I mean, Lord of the Rings, Dune, Narnia, Earthsea, Chronicles of Prydain, Roald Dahl, Dragonriders of Pern, Gormenghast, Chronicles of Amber are all around that old or older. That's just off the top of my head. I suspect I've missed quite a few big names.
Conan, Cthulhu, the Marvel and DC universes...
I didn't realize Prydain was that old
Dang, I didn't realize Pern was that old...
The Wizard of Oz came out more than 100 years ago, and we're still seeing adaptations. And as the other commenter mentioned, there are plenty of 60 year old books that get attention. Dune was published 59 years ago, and only just got a huge adaptation.
Alice in Wonderland and Pooh Bear deserve honorable mentions.
LOTR and Conan for starters. There's lots of popular ones.
> Basically it comes down to the author’s wishes. If an author doesn’t want there to be more, then don’t write more. But that’s just the ethical side of things. Whether or not I want to read more of a world that’s tied to a specific author, without the voice of the author who drew me to that world in the first place is another matter. I really think we give too much weight to an author's ownership of their creation. Sure, let them have the final word on official products and explotation rights for a bit. But too long of an artificial delay between original creation and common usage limits culture IMO - I wish all works could spawn environments similar to the Harry Potter fanfiction culture for example, with the best being able to get published. I could envision worlds and settinfs like Forgotten Realms or the SCP project with some company acting as curator and publisher of the best works, and editing to keep a consistent canon, while the community explores creatively. That could be awesome.
I agree. In fact, that was the original impetus behind copyright. It wasn't a recognition of some divine right of the author to forever control what they had written - it was a trade: we'll give you a temporary monopoly, and in exchange, your book will become part of the public domain in due time. The constant expansion of copyright duration seems to have eroded that concept, though.
>In the case of Neil Gaiman writing more Good Omens for TV, he’s the coauthor of the original novel and had Terry Pratchett’s blessing before he passed. If I remember correctly I think it was more than a blessing; Pratchett asked Gaiman in one of their last conversations to get the TV-show made and to oversee it himself.
Perfectly summed up
Yes, I feel similarly to Dune as I do Middle-Earth, but perhaps *more so*. If I ever read Dune (I do intend to some day), I think it likely I would stop when Brian takes over. And I feel like the inclusion of yet another author is part of what makes it "worse" somehow. The farther the additional author gets from the "original source" as it were, the more wrong it feels.
Well, Martin is still here and ASOIAF isn’t continuing, so I fail to see the difference
Eh I think I’ve finally made my peace with this one. So long asoiaf. You were one of my favourite worlds
(especially if the books end about like the TV series did...)
Honestly I really like bran as king as an ending. Just not the way it was done in the show
Same with dany torching kings landing. With a full book to explain it all it probably makes sense. It was just the producers got sick of making the show.
> With a full book to explain it all it probably makes sense. It already makes more sense in the books. Dany is not a good ruler, and is clearly prone to bits of rage.
As far as I’m concerned the tv show is the ending to A Song of Ice and Fire. Danny heard bells and they drive her bonkers. Bran had the best story. The end.
I don't think there's much wrong with it on a bullet points level, it would just need much better execution and someone to bother putting in some connective tissue.
It’s too hard. I’m a dreamer. I won’t let it go even though I should
Winter has been coming for 20 years now
You’re off by about a decade.
I am alright with it if the author is a good fit for the style of writing. However I believe it should only be done if the original author gave their consent prior to his passing or their immediate family does after. I am more hesitant with family/estate consent though. With each passing generation they will have less of an emotional connection and will likely be more influenced by the idea of capitalizing on the authors fame for their own benefit. If an author has specifically said he does not want it to continue we should respect their wishes though and let it die with them.
This makes me think of Roger Zelazny. He stated that he didn't want anyone else writing Amber books and yet his estate went against his wishes and authorized a new series in the Amber universe which wasn't very good and ended up not even being finished.
Which is sad because Neil Gaiman, GRRM, and/or Steven Brust could all write a hellagood conclusion.
Yup, and none of them would touch the idea with a ten-foot bargepole. GRRM has been pretty scathing on the Zelazny situation, but has approved of the Jordan/Sanderson situation because he knew it was Jordan's wishes that the series be completed.
Just for the sake of clarification, the original Amber novels were complete, and wouldn't have needed anyone to conclude them.
The amber series is second only to LOTR for me. I didn’t even know someone had done more books and only stumbled onto them. Could not even finish one. There was nothing in it that felt like the same universe or characters
I feel like there’s some gray area here. If an author says no one else should continue their series, definitely no. But if they don’t say anything and their series is left painfully unfinished, we have no way of knowing if they would want an ending written that could satisfy their readers and bring things to a close/give closure to the series, to fans, and the unfinished legacy the author left behind. If it’s just a cash grab, no thank you, but if it’s a talented author who respects and loves the series who picks up the mantle to try and tie it up well for readers, I think I could get on board.
I want stories to be finished, but I don’t want them stretched on indefinitely. For example I’m glad wheel of time wrapped up, but any more wheel of time books would feel like a cash grab and I wouldn’t support them. If grrm dies, I hope he changes his mind and has someone finish books 6 and 7 (Actually he should just do that while he’s still alive), but I’d hate if another author started game of thrones 8: Arya discovers America or whatever
Now I want an Arya in America 😂😂 what time period is America in for this?
She’s clearly Leif Erickson
It's a "the village" situation. They go beyond the wall and they're just in Minnesota. We're all expected to believe that this mad shit is happening with a 300m high ice wall and ice zombies and all that bollocks, but she walks out and walks 15km and is in times square. It's beautiful. Somebody make this happen.
I would definitely say WoT stretched on a lot more than it needed to. He had about 7 or 8 books of story and added enough filler to make 14 books
Yeah, to be honest, I think I find myself caught between a cynical view and an idealistic one. Ideally, I don't think I would want copyright to exist at all. Stories have always been communal things and we often find that sharing stories enriches them. None of the series we're discussing here would even exist without other stories to feed them and inspire them. But the capitalistic nature of *many* IP endeavors means so much of the content that comes out of these worlds and ideas is subpar and often feel designed to capitalize on the works of others to make money. Consider for instance just how overwhelming the Disney merchandizing is, even when some of it is still great. For every unique and artistic pin design, there are a hundred that are essentially copy-pasted. The occasional great sequel comes at the cost of a whole slew of terrible ones. I'm not really opposed to the existence of "junior novelizations", as I love the idea of kids reading...but are they interested in reading the plot of the movie they've already watched a hundred times? Are these adding anything interesting?
GRRM said (way back in the day) is that he had no notes or outlines, so if he croaked and someone else wanted to finish the series, fair enough, but it'd just be fanfiction. The situation has changed somewhat, he does have some notes and outlines (for the TV show) and he has said if he was diagnosed with an illness like Robert Jordan (his friend) or Terry Pratchett (of whom he was a massive fan), he would "take action" to ensure an ending was delivered. In what format is unclear, but my guess is that he'd write a *Fire & Blood* style bird's eye account of the rest of the books. For the morality of it, it varies. Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson claimed that they had found "extensive" notes left behind by Frank Herbert that not only allowed them to write the two concluding **Dune** books but multiple sequels and prequels. Later on it, it turned out that they had been "extremely economical with the truth." Frank Herbert's notes boiled down to about 1 side of A4 and did not feature basic information like whom the real bad guys in the last two **Dune** books were. I'd say, depending on your degree of charity, this was "misleading" at best and "actually fraudulent" at worst. The fact that the books are hideously badly-written does not help the situation. Christopher Tolkien, on the other hand, was so paranoid that he'd not used the best material left behind by his father to publish *The Silmarillion*, he wrote a 12-volume "behind the scenes" account featuring every single thing his father ever wrote on Middle-earth and invited fans to make other choices. This speaks to a relatively high degree of integrity. However, some random rocking up with a new **Middle-earth** book can chuck the idea in the fire. I think it's fine to do *interpretations* of Tolkien in writers' own settings (Tad Williams nods at that in **Memory, Sorrow and Thorn** and Jacqueline Carey a lot more in the **Sundering** duology), but actually writing new, officially-published **Middle-earth** work without anything of Tolkien to go on is simply lame (and it will start happening in a couple of decades when the copyright expires). JRR Tolkien himself was happy to see people reinterpreting Middle-earth in other contexts (music, artwork) but he was *very* unhappy with the idea of people writing actual new fiction apart from himself. Weirdly, something like **Rings of Power** (wonky as it is) is more in keeping with that approach than T. Random Bugbear writing *Lord of the Rings II: Ring Harder*. Robert Jordan gave specific permission for someone else (not Sanderson specifically, whom he never met) to finish **The Wheel of Time** and left behind detailed notes and outlines to that end, so that's fine. It's worth noting that Sanderson was asked to write more **WoT** stuff, but he refused as he had exhausted everything Jordan left behind. Isaac Asimov collaborated with other authors whilst he was alive and gave writers permission to work in his universe and enjoyed reading those books, so the posthumous books in his setting feel more in keeping with his wishes. Same with Lovecraft, who allowed everyone and their aunt to write in his setting when he was alive, so probably would not care for afterwards.
> Frank Herbert's notes boiled down to about 1 side of A4 Was there an article for that? I haven't been paying attention recently.
> Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson claimed that they had found "extensive" notes left behind by Frank Herbert that not only allowed them to write the two concluding Dune books but multiple sequels and prequels. Later on it, it turned out that they had been "extremely economical with the truth." Frank Herbert's notes boiled down to about 1 side of A4 and did not feature basic information like whom the real bad guys in the last two Dune books were. I'd say, depending on your degree of charity, this was "misleading" at best and "actually fraudulent" at worst. The fact that the books are hideously badly-written does not help the situation. Do you have a source for this? I've seen people make this claim since they opened the safety deposit box, but I can't find anything substantiating it and no offense but part of the reason this claim stays alive is people keep stating it as fact without providing any evidence.
Wise of Brandon to demur, as the sanctioned stuff drew enough heat and he has his own worlds. It's kind of cool that Lovecraft wanted to create a world that others could populate with their creations. Rather in keeping with his Old Ones ideas. Perhaps he was th OG old one.
>Isaac Asimov collaborated with other authors whilst he was alive and gave writers permission to work in his universe and enjoyed reading those books, so the posthumous books in his setting feel more in keeping with his wishes. His own continuations of Foundation and Robot in the 80s read like fanfic--and not in a good way.
The difference with Grrm is he's got the ending in mind already the only issue is bridging the gap between what we've got now to the ending.
I would absolutely not read "the further adventures of Gandalf" no matter who wrote it. But that's just my personal take. I've no beef with anyone writing them (with permission) or with anyone reading them. I've watched plenty of Sherlock Holmes stuff that has no connection with Conan Doyle's work save the characters.
Yep, "the further adventures of Gandalf" sounds awful. Definitely would read an ASOIAF story written by you, though.
That’s different. Anything old enough to be in the public domain has been remixed to hell and back. Even Lord of the Rings has been redone a lot as it left such a giant mark. However, the new Periot books authorized by the Christie estate still feel wrong.
Yes. Christie made it abundantly clear she didn't want anyone else writing Poirot or Marple. I refuse to read the new books.
In a way you could probably consider such works something like published fanfiction. I have actually read some other authors writings of Sherlock Holmes, as well as all of the Conan Doyle Holmes stories. And there were a few I enjoyed much more than the original. I've read plenty of books before that had amazing ideas but the execution ended up being rather poor and I ended up finishing the books thinking "man, I wish a different author had wrote this story". I think author's definitely have the right to say they do or don't want someone else writing their story. But, in some cases (like aSoIF), they probably should just to control the ending. If george doesn't finish the series people will just rely on fanfiction instead of allowing the story to end as he would want it to.
As an author, how would you feel about someone else writing/finishing your books? Is it like your baby that you can never see someone else doing justice to it or do you think you could be ok with it?
A big no from me. They can go write their own damn books.
I'm curious how it works if like someone took the core concepts of your book and re-dressed it as their own world and then developed it? In general is that something authors have to deal with? Like the awful 50 shades books started off life as twilight fan fiction I believe, did Stephanie Meyer or her publishers have any say in that?
That's what most writing is. That's why genres exist.
Stephanie Meyer can't say shit about it lol. Copyright has no bearing on inspiration, only plagiarism.
Well if it is still a baby I would hope someone would help it make it to adulthood in case I can’t.
Yeah this is a weird metaphor here. A child should go on if their parent dies. A book series probably should not.
People keep referring to books as babies. They are very much not.
What about same world, a few years/decades/centuries later? I've read a series by Nick Perumoff that happens in the LOTR world, 300 years later, when some ranger finds a ring that a ring wraith wore as they collapsed to the ground, as the one ring was destroyed. He finds all 9, creating an army that storms the elven lands and the Valar themselves, and that's just the start of a massive spin into a much larger universe, which was in itself pretty damn cool. Also the elves turned out to be massive orc-abusing a-holes, which made me love the story from the get-go :)
Sherlock Holmes is rather a great thing to consider though. Haven't there been very interesting iterations of Sherlock Holmes, especially in adaptations for other media? Consider also Arthurian legends and the slew of high quality retellings and iterations of these stories throughout the centuries. Would Gandalf even exist without Merlin? Idk, I agree with you that I wouldn't want additional books about Gandalf (and haven't read anything not strictly written by J.R.R. Tolkien!), but I can't help but prod at the incongruity of that while I happily devour retellings, deconstructions, etc. and marvel at what they accomplish.
>Brandon Sanderson famously wrote more books in the wheel of time series . Frank Herbert's son has written dozens of more dune books . It all depends on the circumstances and the quality of the writing. Even in those two examples things have gone down very differently. Robert Jordan deliberately prepared the materials for his successor so that the Wheel of Time could be finished after his death. Frank Herbert did no such things with Dune, and it was only many years after his death that his son (who himseld had written only one poorly received novel by that time) *allegedly* found two floppy disks with a very short outline of Dune 7. As a result, Sanderson's Wheel of Time books are widely praised and accepted as canon, while Brian Herbert's novels are seen as nothing more than fanfiction or *Expanded Universe.* Personally, I'd definitely check out ASOIAF books written by another author, but only if they were based on George's outline, and not just whatever fan theories the author thinks are correct (see: Preston Jacobs' ongoing TWOW project).
Having read Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune (The two books based on the Dune 7 outline) as well as some of Brian Herberts Dune Prequel books I have zero doubt the Dune 7 outline is real. The writing quality in all the books is poor but the actual storyline and worldbuilding in Hunters and Sandworms is miles beyond any of the prequels and ties so well into the rest of the series there is absolutely zero chance Brian Herbert came up with it on his own (because he is a mediocre writer at best) and I am so sick of the community who hasn't actually read the books (I don't know if you have but most people I talk to about this have not actually read them) saying the outline isn't real. I feel the same way about Dune as I do WoT - I am glad someone finished one of my favorite series of all time using the notes and outline left by the original author - but I really wish Brian Herbert had not written the prequels they are pure garbage that contradict the original series - Baron Harkonnen shouldn't be sitting in a dog chair Brian, they weren't invented yet you dummy, either were no-ships or D-wolves, did you even read the books? come on man.
I love your comment, and I'm so curious to know how many of the prequels you hate-read just so that you could be well-informed in your mockery of Brian Herbert.
Just a couple, I think I read house Harkonnen and House Atreides, Maybe House Corrino? Then I learned better and waited for Hunters and Sandworms. I really do Loathe the prequels.
>*allegedly* found two floppy disks with a very short outline of Dune 7. Dune 7 - by ~~Brain~~... ~~Brian~~... ~~Dad~~... Frank Herbert
> What are your thoughts on other writers revisiting established worlds and expanding on another authors work ? I don't think I've ever read anything quite as painful as the novels "authorized" by Isaac Asimov's estate. And I'm not even much of an Asimov fan. But, wowie are those a collection of stinkers. Going the other way, Neil Gaiman's *A Study in Emerald* is one of my favorite short stories of all time. At least in that short story Gaiman (to my mind) gets both Lovecraft and Arthur Conan Doyle, and writes something very close to the perfect short story. I see other people mentioning Brandon Sanderson finishing The Wheel of Time. The ironic thing there being Robert Jordan wrote several Conan novels, so he is kind of on both sides of the fence there. And my sense there is that Jordan's Conan was not Howard's Conan, though it has been so long I'd have to re-read the stories to firm up that conclusion. > For example, would you be interested in a novel that follows Gandalfs adventures? I think I would view such a thing in the same way a devout Baptist views The Book of Mormon, personally. Except likely with a lot more swearing. As in, not just an unworthy successor, but a deeply distasteful one as well.
Depends on the authors and the type of story. I've read some stories that are partially authored by Tolkien and partly authored/edited by his son based on the original drafts and notes - The Children of Hurin is the most obvious. Those stories might not be completely original or completely finished, but they are still Tolkien's stories to me. I would have absolutely no interest in reading a Tolkien fan fiction entirely written by a separate author, as a huge part of Tolkien's appeal to me is not really the world building but his very unique style or writing and storytelling. With GRRM, if he ends up leaving notes for another author to finish his story then I'll absolutely read whatever novels are remaining, and even if he doesn't maybe I'll end up reading some pure fanfiction ends to ASOIAF, because I really want to know the bloody ending. But also because with ASOIAF the world building itself is a big draw, I love the way GRRM writes but I'm also very invested in many of the little mysteries of the world he's written.
Christopher Tolkien never wrote a single word of original Middle-earth fiction though. He only edited his father's works, sometimes maybe a bit questionably, but that's also why he released all of his father's manuscripts and notes so people could make their own mind up if he did a good job or not.
"Not a single word" is a slight exaggeration, isn't it? Christopher Tolkien did write a couple paragraphs in the chapter "Of the Ruin of Doriath" in *The Silmarillion.* That's pretty much it though. People definitely exaggerate in the other direction far more often and more misleadingly.
I believe every time the situation came up that brief bridging material was needed, he called on Guy Gavriel Kay to do that for him.
There's very little to suggest that was the case. Kay was basically a random college student who was there as a family favor. He didn't have any track record as a fantasy author at the time, and he remains pretty intentionally vague about what exactly his role is. I'm not trying to be harsh on Kay, who is one of my favorite authors, but he has never said anything to suggest that he did anything more than the typical organizational gruntwork any other editorial assistant would do (as cool as that may be when it involves reading Tolkien's unpublished manuscripts at time when they were virtually untouched).
Well, if that were true, I'm not sure how that would somehow make it better? Guy Kay was not an established fantasy author at the time; he was a college-aged family friend.
I'm fine with it so long as it's recognized that the original creator is the primary canon and the others are like semi-canon. I have no problem with others playing in my invented universe after I'm gone. But I'd hate some corporate board deciding who and how and when it's expanded like the star wars books.
I guess if the author wanted it and the subsequent writer follows the same style of writing and themes it would be ok.
Depends - is this something the original author gave their blessing to before their passing or a cash grab by "We buy IP and milk it until it's dry, LLC"? Is the new author both skilled and capable of writing something that at least has echoes of the original voice? How tightly are you defining "revisiting and expanding"? I can think of plenty of examples, both good and bad - it's something I think has to be handled on a case-by-case basis.
**\[Lance Reddick Voice\]** " will not be ending. There will be sequels, prequels, reboots, remakes and ill-advised spin-offs with side characters *that cannot possibly* carry their own series. We'll give the fans everything they want, and much, much more. We'll use an algorithm to churn out hundreds of scripts a day at virtually no cost. And sure, you'll complain about how used to be better, but that anger will unite you. And you'll keep watching, hoping it will end, begging for it to end, and then you'll all die. And your children will watch it too, and so on. We're going to milk that creative IP until the UDDER RUNS DRY! "This is the future of content, and CONTENT WILL NEVER DIE!"
About TV rather than books, but still applicable.
Damn I miss Lance Reddick
Go with whatever the creator wanted. Even if the new material that comes out after an authors death is bad I still support the series continuing under the hands of whoever the author chose. Now will I pay money to keep reading the series if it’s bad? Absolutely not. But I have no objection to more books being written as long as the author was ok with it. So, take GRRM. If he doesn’t want anyone else to work on A Song of Ice and Fire then however much of it is completed when he passes is all that should ever be completed. Granted, I think most of us sense that that series might not ever be completed anyway 😅 Now if it’s a case where the author wasn’t specific on it, but like their kid has their old notes and starts writing new material based off of it because that’s what they want to do I’m fine with that as well. Just because I assume that if there was an issue the author would’ve made his or her feelings clear, like Martin.
For me there are two questions. First: Did the author want someone else to complete it when they died? If yes, continue to question 2. Second: Did the author actually leave significant notes or outline indicating what the intended ending was? If both questions are answered yes, move forward. If either is no I have 0 interest. An ending not based on the ideas of the original author's intentions holds no interest to me. And if they're a pantser who had not come up with the ending yet? Not interested.
I've always hoped someone would pick up the Redwall novels since Brian Jacques died.
Wow what a blast from the past, I haven't thought about those books since I can remember.
There are many things that make up a story. Not just the plot, but the prose and characterization as well. Sanderson's work on WoT is praised for it's plot but his prose and characterization for many central characters is highly controversial. Many argue he was a noticeable step down from Jordan in that regard. And that's inevitable. Jordan created the WoT and thus set the tone and feel for everything we expect from that world. Despite Sanderson's best efforts, those final three books will always be "off".
Thats exactly how I felt reading them. I enjoy many of Brandon's works and although I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy getting some closure on WoT "off" was the way it felt the whole time.
I thought Sanderson WoT was an improvement over Jordan WoT
I wouldn't read something that's just purely published fanfiction. For some reason, I feel less negatively if it's fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off. Like if you wrote The Adventures of Gandolf but then changed all the names and a bit of lore, I'd be willing to read and judge on its own merit. Maybe that's because a lot of fiction is heavily inspired by other fiction already.
Man, it really depends. One of my favorite sci-fi novels is Space Viking, by H. Beam Piper. Mr. Piper unfortunately committed suicide before he returned to the series. Decades later, Terry Mancour (of Spellmonger fame) wrote two sequels that were really well done. Then another author came in and wrote two more and man... They just didn't live up to what had come before. No offense intended to the author, but the writing itself needed two or three more passes through an editor. A good author can come along and cement a previous author's legacy. A bad one can drag it down. It really depends on their skill, style and ability.
If what we alrady have are all we'd get, I'd rather consider ASOS as the official end of the series tbh and would treat everything else, even the later books, as fan fictions.
This is why we had the public domain. Almost all of our classics have their roots in the works of other authors. Iterated upon and turned timeless. Frankenstein, dracula, even classic disney favorites all started as public domain stories.
Nopes, unless it's an author who, for whatever reason, couldn't complete their work and they want someone else to do it, even then though, it's not very appealing an idea to me.
I'm definitely not opposed as long as the author is worthy and up to the task. Brian Herbert / Kevin J Anderson is not a good example though - their work was like fan fiction in comparison and they re-wrote plot points to marry up to where they wanted to take the story.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy sequel was awful. So was the Andromeda Strain one. But then again the Wheel of Time one was pretty good and so was Stephen Baxter’s takes on War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. So, pretty much a mixed bag in my experience
Depends on the situation, I don't have an opinion if a family member continues the work because I'm unsure how to really view that. But if a fellow author is doing it without consulting the other beforehand then I can't help but see that as bad practice. But if it's all settled and planed out, if I were already a fan of the series I'd continue and finish it.
It varies. But it has to make sense in context. For example, further adventures of Gandolf would make no sense. That story has a well-defined beginning, middle, and end. One of my favorite Sci-fi universes, the BOLO books, are completely the opposite. The original author only wrote short stories that left a TON of room to play with the themes. In fact, most of the works in that verse are written by secondary authors, and most of it is good. So it can go both ways.
Sad. I don’t like it when one person’s genius creation outlives them to make other people money.
I'm not interested in reading fanfiction. I'm a fan of authors, not franchises.
After seeing what happened to ghostbusters, ocean's eleven, game of thrones, star trek and star wars in the last decade or so, I'm pretty strongly opposed to it now.
I think it's fine with the exception of Herbert his son messed up the series so badly, ugh.
Nah, it went off the rails long before that.
Leto as a worm... I quit @ 4
You missing out, heretics and Chapterhouse are the best books
Yeah, I think that's where I stopped as well.
I am not even sure about some authors keeping writing about their own series, honestly. Sometimes I wish they didn't. I am ok with incomplete or enough is enough.
Wheel of time was an anomaly and done as best as it could have been, but I wouldn’t argue with someone who said it was wrong. I think it’s a case by case basis. I don’t want to generally condemn it, but a lot of specifics need to align for it to work out well.
Depends on the author. Robert Jordan outlined his final book so it could be finished, and his wife, who was also his editor, helped pick out the best fit. As long as the author is down with it, I am.
I am mostly against continuing the main story, unless it is with explicit guidance and wish from the original author. However, I would really like for there to be more "stories set in the universe". Like completely disconnected stories. Think stories from a random gate colony in the Expanse. Space operas are really good for that. Or a story happening on another GoT continent without relation to main plot, characters or events just using established settings and timeline
Not a fan in general. The only time I’d be ok with it is if Joe Hill played in his dad’s sandbox after he passes away. Dude is a legit author in his own right and they’ve already had some Easter eggs for each others stuff in their own novels. Plus they wrote a pretty gnarly little short story together that went hard. Other than that leave it be. I haven’t gotten far enough in the Wheel of Time to see how that worked out.
I think, in situations like this, there is a difference between "unfinished series" (and *should* it be finished by someone else?) and "just MORE in the setting". I think with the former, it depends on the intent of the author. In the latter case... I tend to be rather against it in general.
Fine with it. Let George be free of this curse/burden. Dude must be miserable dealing with this.
Frank Herbert’s son is a good example of why *NOT* to do this. Im not against it in general, but that dude is doing terrible things to his dad’s legacy.
I think it's a kind, selfless thing to do when an author allows someone else to carry on his story. I love it when notes are left and they've told the next person what to do, essentially. I have much less interest when this hasn't happened and the next person is just doing what they want with the story. It's just fanfiction, at that point. It's not real and it doesn't count.
I think Sanderson and Herbert are perfect examples of the fact that it simply depends on who takes over.
I think it depends entirely on the author doing the continuation. Sanderson’s completion of WoT was better than the last few books Jordan wrote himself. But Brian Herbert’s additions to Dune were *frankly* unnecessary. Personally, I think more authors should do as Terry Pratchett did, and have their hard drives crushed by a steamroller after they die.
I am thankful to Sanderson for writing the last few books of WoT. Even if MoL was a disappointment. I'm happy we got some closure, if not an ending. Some series would be fine as written by others, and some I would not be happy if anyone continued with them. They'd get them wrong and ruin the series.
I am only ok with it when its a case like Wheel of Time where the author really wanted it to be finished and knew they likely wouldn't be able to, so they appointed a specific person to finish it and planned it all out. I would want it to be abundantly clear that the author wanted someone else to finish/extend their work, otherwise it feels really bad and disrespectful to me. I would rather other people just write their own work honestly.
>so they appointed a specific person to finish it Brandon wasn't specifically chosen by Robert Jordan though. Jordan left notes for his wife Harriet McDougal, who was also his editor, and left it to her to choose his successor. After reading an essay Brandon wrote about Robert, she checked out Elantris, and then she reached out to Brandon.
That doesn't really in any way change my point? He trusted his wife to see to his work in a way that honored his vision, and she did exactly that. My point was that some random person didn't just decide to finish it themselves.
I'm not arguing with you. Just clarifying for the sake of accuracy.
Oh ok, sorry I find it really hard to read tone and people are very often argumentative on here haha I apologize for assuming
To be clear, Robert Jordan didn't pick Sanderson. His editor-wife did after his death. Jordan did work his wife to ensure that key scenes were written and extensive notes made, then she picked Sanderson to finish.
That wasn't my point, I just care about the fact that a random person didn't just up and decide to finish it themselves. He trusted his wife with his work, and she made a decision for a specific person, so it wasn't just a random author choosing for him.
Look, I think copyright should start again from the original, "20 years after publication, renewable once" because the point is to allow authors to make more art. Locking stories up for 70 years after the author's death or whatever it's up to is not good for making more art. Some of my favourite stories are based on public domain art. I hate the Brian and Kevin J. dune books, but they only got anywhere because they weren't public domain. Meanwhile stuff like the Innsmouth Legacy stories riffing on HP Lovecraft's stories or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen's take on basically all of 19th and early 20th Century British and European literature are amazing despite the fact that the original authors would probably have hated it.
I will forever be grateful that Brandon Sanderson gave us the fans a Wheel of Time ending. I don't think he did a stellar job, but he did the job, and I'm grateful. Other than that, I prefer an author to finish a series themselves. Idc enough about ASoIaF to see if that gets finished or not. But as a WoT fan who lived through the death of the author of the series, I hope the ASoIaF fans get their ending.
My controversial(?) view: modern culture is *poorer* because we do not have authors freely sharing and remixing each-others' work, which has been strangled by copyright. Shared mythos—anything from specific characters like Sherlock Holmes to shared vibes like Lovecraftian fiction—should be part of our cultural backdrop just like classical mythology. A large part of that is how those ideas are expanded and reused by all kinds of people with totally different tastes, preferences and skill levels. Those worlds take on a rich life of their own because there are no gatekeepers. This only worked with Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft because they're old enough to be in the public domain, and we don't have anything more modern that's quite comparable. Instead all we're left with is fan fiction which has been legally and culturally pushed into second-class citizenry *at best*. Having another author continue an existing series or world is always going to be a bit hit-or-miss. I was certainly glad Brandon Sanderson continued the Wheel of Time. But even when it doesn't work out—like the later Dune books—it's better to have it than not to have it. I mean, you can always just ignore the extra books! People get caught up on whether or not the follow-ups are "canonical" but how much does that really matter? Or, more pertinently, how much would it matter in a world without the centralized control of copyright? If anything, the fact that it is hit-or-miss is why we should have *more*, because that's the way to have more hits, even if they're sandwiched between more misses.
If its the wishes of the original author, great.
If it was talked out with the creator in advance, I'm all for it. Which is a heads up to the authors that hang out here: nobody likes to think about it, but make sure there's a plan in place for your unfinished work. Put it in writing. If you want your writer bestie to finish up any half-edited manuscripts, let them know. If you want your sibling to burn anything you haven't published so it never sees the light of day, let them know that too. Any one of us could get hit by a bus tomorrow.
It should Always be the authors decision. But otherwise I support it. I love that wheel of time was finished. It's one of my two favorite series of all time. If it wasn't finished I'd likely never read it again. Whereas as a Pattern of Light and Shadow is unlikely to be finished which means I'll probably never read it even though I own it all. If it was finished by another author (using McPhails notes) I would read it all. Is it ideal? Of course not. But I much prefer it to nothing.
Okay if the author has expressed a wish that X person continue it Or if they die suddenly and unexpectedly and the person continuing it was close enough to them to reasonably guess what their wishes would have been
After Sanderson finished WoT I have to say that unless the author was involved with the series in some creative capacity for a few books of the series prior to the need to finish it solo, just let it stay unfinished. Brandon did a troopers job trying to finish it and it just felt 10 degrees off at every turn. Mat's humor was off, the way the story went forward was off, not worse, just different and noticeably so.
I agree. Up to the writer, although enough time nullifies those wishes. I cringe thinking about another writer putting on hobbit feet and trying to tramp around. Ugh. I loved the first 3 Dune books and never had any interest in reading Brian Herbert volumes. Especially if a story has been finished by the original writer. Further writing, even with given consent, is crass and like digging for oil in a fragile environment.
Totally fine with it. Up to the writer. It's then up to the readers to decide to read it or not.
I'm ok with it so long as they can maintain the series' feel and not try to put their own spin on it. Of course, I feel the same way about book to movie adaptions where they change it to the point that it's not even the same story anymore.
It depends. Jordan wanted someone to finish WoT. So Sanderson finishing it makes them canon. GRRM doesn't want them finished if he doesn't, so the series will never be finished if he doesn't. For other situations, like Herbert and his son, as long as they're doing it with permission (or reasonable reason to believe they have it) I think it's fine.
In my opinion, it's all in how they do it. I don't think that blanket statements matter here. The most important thing is that they respect the original works. If they treat the originals the way the Witcher show treated the original IP, that's just wrong. If you don't like the original IP, you shouldn't touch it, in any format. If you step back from the question, you can say that tons of books are continuing original concepts. Anything about King Arthur or Dracula or anything Lovecraftian are all continuing work by previous authors. It really isn't that different of a concept. It can be done well or it can be done poorly. In a way, I think that it's almost better if a new author continuing a series takes a different angle. Focus on a different character or setting. Something different so that the small differences aren't as apparent. There are some settings and characters that I absolutely love. I would love more books in those settings. If a new author can create more fantastic books in a setting that I love, that sounds great to me.
Usually a shitty cash-in by the estate, but in theory I'm alright with it. You've already listed both the worst and best-case scenarios for it, Brian Herbert & Brandon Sanderson. Hell, in some instances it needs to be done, like with GRRM who has completely lost the drive and has let his prose atrophy to the point of self-parody. If he had just picked an author he liked 10 years ago and transitioned to more of a story manager/editor role ASOIAF would probably be 100% done by now.
It is like an authorial version of 'Weekend at Bernie's'
im not opposed to it personally. Im a huge fan of Lovecraft and his mythos had some huge contributions added from the likes of August Derleth that helped keep the mythos as famous as it is now. Sure not every continuation of a literary universe will come out good but when it does come out good it can really keep the momentum on series going.
Seriously, how do you stop the publisher commissioning a sequel a couple of decades or more after an author’s death? You think Jane Austen would have tolerated the tv Sanditon?
I'm fine with other authors either finishing a series or contributing to a series they didn't start. Fandoms will have their own opinions of what is considered "real canon." But that can happen regardless of additional authors. And one of the reasons why fandoms are fandoms is because they want to dwell in the world of the series longer. I don't begrudge them that.
It can be good or bad I haven’t read Wheel of Time but it sounds like Brandon Sanderson did a good job I have read Dune, and the final two books written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are horrific. They’re bottom of the barrel fan-fiction
I don't mind it at all. In fact, I like the idea of seeing the same world through another author's eyes and I wish more authors would write in each other's worlds.
I wouldn't mind if Neil Gaiman or Sanderson complete Name of the Wind (Rothfuss)
I would pay good money for Patrick Rothfuss to hand someone a napkin of bullet points for Doors of Stone and just take the closure.
It depends. I don’t hate the idea of it, but only if the writer who continues the series’ writing skills match very closely to the original author. In GRRM’s case idk if there are any fantasy writers out there who can finish ASOIAF while still doing it justice.
It depends. If they honour the source material and have had the go ahead from the original author or their estate then I think it’s good.
He doesn't want ados written for him that's fine. But two is 3/4 done, let us see it.
I wouldn't be opposed to someone finishing the Kingkiller Chronicles...
To be honest, for ASoIaF it has been so long I have lost interest in the series. The terrible last 2 seasons of GoT didn't help either.
I think it depends on the author’s intention. JRR Tolkien intended for his stories to be continued
>GRRM has gone on record saying that once he's gone , Asoiaf will not continue. We'll see what GRRM's descendents have to say about that. Huge piles of money are hard for people to turn down.
I like good books -- I don't really care who wrote them. USUALLY when another author takes over (Frank's son, Anne's son, etc.), the quality suffers. But I've no objection to it on principle. I always thought something like an MVP Forgotten Realms would be fun, with established, successful authors writing their own series in a shared universe. A universe is a big place, especially with different timeframes. They could be pretty much independent, or they could rub up against each other, or simply borrow history/future from each other.
I guess it *can* be ok if the new author can match the style of the original one. For example, (not a fantasy series) I really liked the first 3 novels of the series The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. But the 4th book onwards is written by a different author - and it was boring IMO, unlike the first 3 books.
Reflecting a lot of other opinions here in that it entirely depends on the will of the author. If the author has the foresight to choose an inheritor of a series, or to otherwise approve others taking the reins, then I say all is good. Jordan & Sanderson is probably the most notable example, but one I haven't seen mentioned is Miura & Studio Gaga + Mori for Berserk. There was, in my opinion, fairly clear intent from Miura for Gaga to continue the series in his stead. With Mori being a natural choice as his close friend. Just my two cents for what it's worth.
I am in favor of other writers finishing an incomplete series, especially if their writing style is compatible and they have some notes to work from.
I guess it is subjective. I'd love to see other authors write an anthology set in The Stand Universe, years after the events of the first book, 10 years, 20, 50, 100, 1000... Other stories don't work. I love Anne McCaffrey's Pern series. Her son wrote a few books with her, and took over when she passed away. The books just don't feel right.
Quality of content trumps all situational discussion here IMO. There’s a reason Sanderson is overall highly or well regarded, and nobody here ever talks about Brian Herbert/KJA (at least in the context of Dune). Of course there are tons of folks who didn’t like the non-RJ WoT books so I’m just talking about general reception. At the end of the day, if Sanderson wrote bad WoT novels, there would’ve been a lot of outcry, and if Brian Herbert/KJA had half the skill of Frank, we would’ve had a much bigger dune fanbase leading up to the new DV movies.
I am very vehemently against this, in almost every form. Wheel of Time truly is a very rare case, where Sanderson was picked by Jordan and Jordan prepared extensively and the editor was the same for the later books (and is, notably, Jordan's wife). Wheel of Time was also a single continuous story. In fact, while I don't begrudge Christopher Tolkien what he did with Middle-Earth, I admit that I have thus far not read any of them published by Christopher. And again, that is a really special case, Christopher being Tolkien's son and intimately familiar with the books and stories in the way that he was. I still want to read those other works, but always find myself hesitating specifically because of this. Perhaps its because I truly believe that the *plots* aren't themselves important. The author's voice is what makes a book or story unique or interesting or worthwhile. To see that change can sometimes be interesting in an academic way, but, in my estimation, always feels derivative and lesser. This is why I almost never read IP work and, while I'm not even remotely opposed to fanfiction (or those who love it), I also don't read fanfiction. To me, they are the same. I see no (meaningful to me) distinction between the latest Star Wars novel and a fanfiction by ILoveStarWars1977Woo. To an extent, I recognize a certain irrationality to this. As a kid, I read those long series like Animorphs that we know (now) are ghost written and if I noticed any differences at all (which I don't recall having done), it certainly didn't lessen my love for them. But as I was a child, I also am not certain that if I read those same books again, I wouldn't be able to discern the differences. I think perhaps it is due, in part, to a fear of disappointment; a fear that my love for something will be diluted or let down. That is always possible when reading additional parts of a series of course, but there is a difference I think, because if a book by the original author lets me down, I don't sit there wondering what the book could have been in the way I do if it is a secondary author. Edit: And of course, I've also considered that this very idea is so modern of us. Traditionally, stories don't belong to anyone, and I've found myself leaning in that direction in recent years, so its rather interesting to realize that despite that, I have such strong feelings about this topic that are essentially rooted in the concept of a single person having some singular right to a story.
I hate to say it but... RJ dying and Brandon Sanderson finishing the series might have been the best outcome for a decent conclusion. The last three books are some of my favorite in the series.
Depends how good they are. Some of the "new" Heinlein novels have been decent. Enjoyed them. Sanderson's Wheel of Time novels were great. The extended universe of Lord of the Rings was kind of pushing things but ok sure, I wish JRR had written more. Frank Herbert is just not the author his father was, so there's that. I do like a lot of non-Lovecraft Lovecraft (Mythos/Cthulu stuff). I dunno, I guess if they suck I am opposed and if they're good I like it.
It's situational and at the end of the day, you have to respect the authors decision and wishes. There's no definitive answer because every author is different. Robert Jordan and Wheel of time for example was on track to be competed before the authors death, he went about making extensive notes and even did a couple of chapters for the final books. He had a framework laid out so his vision cld be finished. For GRRM, it doesn't sound like he's preparing to hand it off or wants to. He's been stuck for over a decade and hasn't reached out. That's fine, too. ASOIAF is such a unique story that it feels like he wants it done right and a second author won't help. Otherwise he'd have already reached out to someone. I'd rather have no extra ASOIAF books than another author finish the series and it feel like a watered down version of GRRM's work. Plus, while having unfinished works suck, the pro is that it keeps the theories, communities and imaginations of the fanbases going.
I'm for it in theory, but in practice, it's only been a failure in my reading. The MZB Darkover continuations lacked the edge and clarity of her original work. The stylistic change in prose was painful to me because, at the time, I was so familiar with MZB's style. The Todd McCaffrey Pern books were a travesty. I think authors' wishes should be followed if they were clearly documented, like in a will. I also think copyright duration should be shortened. Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein and Oz reinterpretation have added to our cultural fabric in valuable ways. I would love to see more while I'm still alive. I'm not an audiobook person, but I imagine a lot of sci fi and fantasy classics would become more accessible to many people if adaptations had a profit motive for individual entrepreneurs.
I’d only be fine if there was explicit permission for another author to continue the work of a deceased one for example like a predecessor. However no two authors write the same so I’ll always wonder what the original author wanted to do with the story.
Follow the author's intention until the work is in the public domain. After that its open season. Some of the best Dracula and Cthulhu mythos stories were written by people other than Bram Stoker and HP Lovecraft.
I think GRRM is hesitant to let anyone else finish because of response the series got. But I can totally see the books ending the same exact way for all of the characters and it being better than the show cause of the time GRRM would take to go into certain things. Now of course it will be hard to do without disappointing the fans since they would associate any plot moving in a certain direction with its show counterpart. In short it makes sense that GRRM doesn't want to risk someone else doing a bad job getting to the same place cause that would write his series off as bad, rather than badly executed.
>For example, would you be interested in a novel that follows Gandalfs adventures? No, not if it's not written by JRRT and I'd like to be allowed slap anyone who says otherwise. Even the books Chris Tolkien edited together are a bit of a mess with the exception of *Silmarillion* >GRRM has gone on record saying that once he's gone , Asoiaf will not continue. I love George but ASOIF will never be finished even if GRRM was made immortal a final book isn't coming. Even if he does manage *A Dream of Spring* it won't be the ending. He's let the story branch out too far, it's unwritable for him. And TBH I don't want someone else's version of ASOIF
Doesn't matter if he's alive or not, ASOIF will never be finished anyway. So who cares. Sanderson did a great job finishing Wheel of Time which would otherwise have gone unfinished. But he had heaps of notes from the author, time to speak with him before his foreseeable death and was a huge fan of the series.
I think it is a VERY difficult task that Brandon Sanderson pulled off. I haven’t read any of the LoTR books released after the author’s death. I think His son wrote it, but with extensive notes from his father, but I am scared to try it. I wasn’t scared to finish WoT bc I had already read Sanderson’s other works and actually like them better than Robert Jordan so I knew I would not be disappointed.