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Originally Posted by DiapDealer
I'm always willing to hear other's examples where they thought it worked out well, though.  |
I generally agree that it is best for authors to leave their early visions alone. A project that is ended is generally best left alone. (DUNE comes to mind. As far as I'm concerned the series should have ended with the first volume.) Sequels and spinoffs don't often match the tone and appeal of their precursors.
But there are exceptions, of a sort.
Marion Zimmer Bradley revisited/recast the entire back end of the Darkover saga when she decided to revisit SWORD OF ALDONES and ended up with HERITAGE OF HASTUR and SHARRA'S EXILE, easily the best two volumes of the series. (Although I have a soft spot for SPELL SWORD myself.)
For a straight much-delayed extension, I'd offer up the FOUNDATION Series. Asimov went back to the "finished" Trilogy-that-wasn't and took up the challenge of the critics that argued that the implied victory of the Second Foundation was "the bad guys winning" and ended up folding almost all his SF books into a unified timeline running from END OF ETERNITY to ROBOTS AND EMPIRE and beyond. And it mostly works in you ignore the occassional inconsistency.