The faceless others Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 "Save the best for last" People often say this, but why is it that a lot of series are having very disappointing endings? The Night Angel trilogy's last book, Beyond the Shadows is an example, the first two books are just going fine, then there's a sudden decline in plot quality? Another one is the Malazan The Book of the Fallen's The Crippled God, seems like the author rushed, and crammed the ending. What makes authors bungle their endings, is it pressure, or is the drive that kept them going just disappeared?Discuss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Can I add Pern? Does multiple books past a certain point count? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukelavee Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Naw, that's jumping the shark kinda stuff.Hmmm. i need to think on this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grack21 Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Well, I disagree with both of the series mentioned in the OT. God of Clocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Ok. Godless world - I loved the first one, but not the second, never got to the third.Kitty series(Carrie Vaughn)- May fall in to jumping the shark, but kinda fell off in quality after the first few.edit: Was about to start Night Angel. Hope I disagree with you, picked up all three cheep at the used store. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman Hobbes Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. High Lord's fury wasn't as good as Captain's or Princep's imho. Actually I think it was the weakest book in the series. Mistborn is another example. Hero of Ages is my least favorite of the three. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman Hobbes Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Oh and Twilight obviously. I can't believe she didn't end up with the werewolf**Dune would like to assure everyone that he hasn't read twilight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 "Save the best for last" People often say this, but why is it that a lot of series are having very disappointing endings? The Night Angel trilogy's last book, Beyond the Shadows is an example, the first two books are just going fine, then there's a sudden decline in plot quality? Another one is the Malazan The Book of the Fallen's The Crippled God, seems like the author rushed, and crammed the ending. What makes authors bungle their endings, is it pressure, or is the drive that kept them going just disappeared?Discuss.Really? Night Angel.. those books weren't all that great from the get go.Well, here's my list of repeat offenders.As much as i love here, Robin Hobb can't seem to tie up a series with out it feeling hollow and rushed.Up until recently Peter F. Hamilton didn't really know how to finish off a series without an ultimate let down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fitheach Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 The Kushiel Series by Jaqueline Carey (mostly the Imriel trilogy). I thought she'd get edgier, but she just lost steam.. Didn't even bother with two Naamah (going on three?) novels. Didn't enjoy Robin Hobb's Sodiers Son Trilogy- Nevarre was annoying and the ending was flat.. But I liked her other novels.I hate when a story has a nice pace, and the BAM- it ends. :shocked: Really annoying! It makes you wonder if they just couldn't wrap up the story, so they threw it together... Although, I do think some authors are pushed to finish- and it shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teng Ai Hui Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Mockingjay, the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy, fits perfectly into this category. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Mockingjay, the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy, fits perfectly into this category.So true.Second wasn't great either.Trr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max the Mostly Mediocre Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Mockingjay, the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy, fits perfectly into this category.It was substantially better than the second. Though, sure, not as good as the first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procrastimancer Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Kingdom of Thorn and Bone by Greg Keyes. The first two books were pretty good, the quality dropped significantly in the third, and I only made it halfway through the last. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emberling Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 What makes authors bungle their endings, is it pressure, or is the drive that kept them going just disappeared?Considering that writers with poor endings tend to be repeat offenders, these postulates don't make much sense.Rather, tying threads together in a way that satisfies is a skill, just as characterization, or prose style, or hooks that keep you turning pages. Some are better at it than others.ETA: If it's just an overall drop in quality, and not the FINAL book - specifically the later parts of the final book - then it's a different animal: either loss of drive or the shark-jump (which is when the idea well is running dry, so the stories themselves are [just not as good of a story; see Kitty || good stories but kind of wrong for the characters and shoe-horned in; see Speaker for the Dead || repetitions; see Catching Fire]) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mack Kilimaro Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.Or at least, I found it pretty disappointing. So much of it is spent on the effects of the horcrux that's basically a ripoff of The One Ring. And then there's the whole fanfiction epilogue thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 masters of rome, end of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gertrude Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 The Warrior Queen trilogy I think it is. The first book is The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling. The first book had such an interesting premise, I really liked it, and then the second book is pretty good too, but the ending is predictable. I had high hopes that she would finish strong, but it just felt like tying up lose endings. It's a shame. I loooooved the first book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaedragGaidin Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 I agree with those who have said the Masters of Rome (thought The October Horse just didn't compare with the previous volumes...I didn't even know there was a seventh book until I looked it up now and obviously I haven't read it) and Peter F. Hamilton (didn't think the Night's Dawn or Void trilogies ended well), to which I would add Weis & Hickman's Death Gate Cycle and Darksword Trilogy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max the Mostly Mediocre Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 The Warrior Queen trilogy I think it is. The first book is The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling. The first book had such an interesting premise, I really liked it, and then the second book is pretty good too, but the ending is predictable. I had high hopes that she would finish strong, but it just felt like tying up lose endings. It's a shame. I loooooved the first book.Oh, holy shit, yes. I'd completely forgotten. Drastic tonal shift in the third book, for the worse. Everything wrapped up with a neat little bow and a rainbow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Valkyrie Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Oh, holy shit, yes. I'd completely forgotten. Drastic tonal shift in the third book, for the worse. Everything wrapped up with a neat little bow and a rainbow.The Tamir Triad, I think is the formal name. Add me to the list of the disappointed. There was so much interesting creepy stuff and genuine conflict, what with the main character going through such a major identity shift...and then it all went into a boring "recover the kingdom" story, with some bonus gender essentialism that was disappointing given the whole premise. I think she wrote herself into a box by thinking that she had to directly set up everything that leads into the Nightrunner series, which follows it chronologically. But prequels are often better when they don't explain every little thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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