Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
There are some where more is better. The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett is one such series.
|
Totally agree there. The odd book in the series, was a somewhat lesser work, but generally I felt he kept refining and improving.
I find it is too easy for some, to discount later works, especially when done by other authors. Sure there is a large bunch of badly done continuations, but there are plenty of good ones as well, and really it is down to what each reader wants. An author may deliver for one reader but not the next. So much is tied up in expectations and desires and past experience and even some bias. Some authors keep writing for the wrong reasons.
But nothing is ever as simple as it may seem. Take Burrough's Tarzan books. He was coerced into writing many of them, and it shows. But some of the later books in the series, where he seems to be self-motivated again, are great. It would be a sad loss if we never had them.
A few good examples of continuations done by other authors, can be found in Hugh Howey's Wool (Silo) saga. He let others write in his world, and some of them are brilliant, have a magic all their own. Many are meh, and some crap, but that's what happens.
Brandon Sanderson did a brilliant job of fleshing out the finale to The Wheel Of Time series.
Unlike how George R. R. Martin has stated and seems to feel, not every great author has great world building skills, and should be forced to do that. Many are just great story tellers. Whether they use an existing world, perhaps built by another author, or just a period on Earth, at the end of the day, it is the overall story that counts. It is a bit like having to continually re-invent the wheel ... no need really. Sure it means one author is riding on the back of another, but most (maybe all) do that to some degree, in various ways. They are never half as unique as they think they are.