SF/fantasy books that turned into series, and shouldn't have

[JSWolf]

The Mission Earth series by L. Ron Hubbard should have died a still birth before even book 1 was written. It's 10 horrible books that nobody should ever read.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

... Clarke, no sequels to 2001 or ...

Seconded. Especially since the book was based on the movie, which in turn was inspired by one of his short stories ("The Sentinel"). As a movie and as a book, 2001: A Space Odyssey was a perfect package, a wonderful self-contained universe.

Frank Capra could have made a sequel to It's a Wonderful Life. Walt Disney (Opps! I mean) Charles Dickens could have written a follow-up to A Christmas Carol. How much more enriched we all are because they didn't.

[sabredog]

My wife would agree on the Anne Rice series. She asked me to put some Keri Arthur Riley Jenson Guardian seires novels on her PDA as they were far more interesting reads.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Badandy

Dr. Drib: I saw "Slan" is in Kindle format. It's really worth reading, eh?

Yes, as long as you understand what you are getting.

A. E. Van Vogt was one of the "Golden Age" writers that emerged under the editorship of John W. Campbell in Astounding magazine. He once stated in an article that his writing technique was to toss in something new and change direction every 800 words. This required him to be astonishingly inventive, which he could be, but also led to complicated clockwork plots that could collapse into incoherence under their own complexity.

Slan is one of his more straight-forward tales. Jommy Cross is a Slan. Slans are a mutant offshoot of humanity, feared and distrusted by normals, and killed on sight when found. They are stronger, faster, smarter, and telepathic. Popular belief has them originally created by machine, through the efforts of a scientist called Samuel Lann, and a contraction of his name gives Slans their name.

Jommy's father was a scientist, rumored to have made a great invention that might tip the balance in favor of the Slans, and Jommy's mother warns him he might someday have to kill Kier Gray, the dictator of humanity. Jommy's mother is killed, leaving him an orphan struggling to survive and fulfill his destiny.

This being a Van Vogt novel, there are wheels within wheels, and Jommy winds up confronting not only normal humans, but another breed of Slans on his way to achieving his goal.

Van Vogt was enormously popular in the 50's and 60's, and while his work is not always coherent, it has sense of wonder in full measure. Start with Slan. If you like that, the Weapon Shops stories, the Empire of the Aton stories, and the Null-A stories are others to look at.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The Mission Earth series by L. Ron Hubbard should have died a still birth before even book 1 was written. It's 10 horrible books that nobody should ever read.

You can always spend a few hours arguing over which ones Hubbard actually wrote, since he died partway through the series. The best I heard had A. E. Van Vogt (mentioned up thread) as the ghost writer for the last five or so. It would make sense, as Van Vogt was a contemporary of Hubbard's, and an early associate in the Dianetics movement.
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Dennis

[calvin-c]

William Keith's Heritage trilogy was OK, but it should have stopped there IMO. (Written as Ian Douglas, BTW.) I read the sequel trilogies, but I'm not sure why-the last in particular I found very hard to follow.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I'll concur, but have a question: would you consider Dune Messiah and Children of Dune part of Dune, and stop after those? Or would you have just stopped after the original Dune?

(Herbert wrote the first three as one long book, split in three for publications, which is why I ask.)
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Dennis

Went to hell after that.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Slite

Oh goodie!

Another thread I can say Wheel of Time in

He really, REALLY should have made that one book only and then gone on and done something else!

Hee-Hee. BTW How have I've missed this entire thread til now