Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
What makes these different to fan-fiction? I don't know the history with the "Miss Seeton" books, but in my other examples here the new works are published with at least the permission, and often the blessing, of the original author or his estate. In theory this gives the reader some comfort in the idea that the book is consistent with what the original author intended - and if the original author is still about, that this new book is not going to conflict with anything further that they decide to write.
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Look at the "Pern" books that Anne McCaffrey's son Tod has turned out. While his mother might think her son's stories are awesome, her fans shake their heads in disbelief and wonder what on Earth he's trying to do there. The stories give a bare nod to Pern canon and retcon things that have been part of it since the days of
Weyr Search. Approval by the original author does not, apparently, guarantee quality. I've read better Pern fanfic. A lot better Pern fanfic.
Or ... beware, I'm going to say it ... I dread the thought, but I must ...
The Phantom Menace. A series of commercials for toys tied together by Jar-Jar Binks. A disaster on film. I don't think there's
anyone who considers it within an order of magnitude of the quality of the original, or even the original trilogy. As bad as many of the
Star Wars novelizations have been (though Timothy Zahn has done some good ones), that official, Lucas-written, Lucas-directed, Lucas-produced disaster called
The Phantom Menace went beyond awful and well into "OMG can we just forget it exists?"
I think in the case of fanfic, it's more a matter of knowing your authors. You quickly come to recognize that some people are obsessively true to canon (and some try to make canon and reality coincide even when they don't), while others fly off in all directions to various degrees. You pick the author who shares your point of view. If you happen to like Todd McCaffrey's writing, there are fanfic writers who do stories like that about just about everything; if you want total consistency with canon, there are people who dissect it word-for-word (I've seen an argument go on for two years about the location of a place which doesn't actually exist!) in order to get everything just right. And there are writers everywhere in between. In other words, very much like authorized sequels, continuations, and expansions, except fanfic writers do it without the approval of the rights owners.
As far as the people who say "oh, I tried to read a couple of fanfic stories, and saw they were all crap" ... well, how often have we as ebook readers had to defend
our hobby from people who read some half-baked piece of dreck their cousin's friend's sister wrote and conned them into reading, or some random abomination found on Smashwords? Rather often, I would say, but we don't decide that all indie writing is terrible because we know better. The same is true of fanfic. As with any unmoderated writing, finding authors whose works you like, seeking moderated groups, and finding the gems among the pebbles make all the difference in the world.