[SpiderMatt]

Originally Posted by stustaff

I dont get why you feel like that? Lots of series have had multiple authors and been great.

This isn't a series with multiple authors. This is a series that was finished when its author died and now another author was tapped to write a new novel to be marketed as a new novel in the series merely to turn a profit. It's not unreasonable to assume that Pratchett was asked to take the helm, nor is it unreasonable to think that he turned the project down on ethical grounds. Am I really one of the few who is upset by this? Douglas Adams is one of my favorite authors and I wish to god that people would just leave his work alone. The movie was bad and completely worthless to anyone who has never read the books. Before that, Salmon of Doubt was put out, which was great for compiling a ton of articles and short works by Adams I hadn't read before. However, publishing his unfinished Dirk Gently novel was extremely disappointing because it was not up to par and Adams knew it. He hadn't published a new novel in years for a reason. Why can't people just respect that and let it be?

I was starting to feel a little insane when I hopped over to Neil Gaiman's blog, sure that he would have said something on the subject. He had this to say:

In regard to the above, did they ask you to do it, and would you have accepted if they had?

Nobody asked me to do it, but then, when Douglas asked me if I'd like to adapt Life, The Universe and Everything for radio I said no, and that was with Douglas alive and asking. (Dirk Maggs did it, and did an excellent job.) It seemed a thankless task.

I like Eoin very much, and wish him well with the book. He'll probably write a sixth Hitchhiker's book with more enthusiasm, and certainly faster, than Douglas would have done. But it won't be a Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's book.

For the record, if I don't get around to writing a sequel to something while I'm alive, I'd very much rather that nobody else does it once I'm dead. It should exist in your head or in Lucien's library, or in fanfic. But that's me, and not every author feels the same way.

I feel a little vindicated knowing a published author who was friends with Adams feels a similar way as I do. People, publishers, and widows should just let sleeping dogs lie.