The WIP Series

[cimorene]

You know how sometimes you read an entire fic, possibly having followed it with steadily increasing impatience, and then when it's finally over the plot isn't actually resolved? But you didn't actually know that first, or even know that it was going to have a sequel, until you got to the end? SURPRISE!WIP. :|

I was following a WIP last summer with bated breath to the last chapter, only to discover that she didn't resolve the romance plot and in fact cliffhung it. So I vowed not to read the sequel until it was actually FINISHED. Six months later I checked and it finally was! So I read it yesterday. AND SHE FAILED TO RESOLVE THE ROMANCE PLOT AGAIN.

So now there's apparently a third novel. OR WHO KNOWS HOW MANY.

This is why it's actually kind of nice to be given information like "PART 1 OF THE __ TRILOGY" or "1/120". That's always better than 1/? or the much worse story that says it's complete but is LYING.

My mom was burned so badly by Roger Zelazny ending the 3rd book of the first Amber Trilogy (both of the Amber trilogies are actually 5 books long, thanks a lot, Zelazny) in a cliffhanger that she boycotted him forever (after finding out how Amber ended) and also started reading the last page, or last chapter, of most books before the middle.

Comments

Its a good story

[fredericka_dragontea]

... but actually I read everything I could find by him until about the end of the 2nd "trilogy." Still re-read Doorways in the Sand and Lord of Light and Roadmarks occasionally.

Hate lack of resolution at the end, and sometimes refuse to read the rest of the trilogy because I like where it stopped with my favorite character, who does not deserve more torment.
I am currently reading Limit by Frank Scha(umlaut)tzing -- it starts interesting but slow, then suddenly is a torrent without a stopping place for several hundred pages. David says that its last 600 pages are one torrent without stopping places. (Cannot remember what he actually said except the 600 page part.)

WIP

[fredericka_dragontea]

Being an Old Person, and not a reader of fanfic with a few exceptions, I often speculate about acronyms. West in Peace? What Insults Pigs? Which Igloo Please? I tend to go with the first of these.

Re: WIP

[krait]

Work In Progress, i.e. unfinished/incomplete works. :D But I think from now on I'm going to go with "What Insults Pigs"; it might even be factual, since I've never asked a pig what it feels about incomplete fiction! :D

[krait]

Lois Bujold did this to me with The Sharing Knife series! The romance is resolved in book two, but all of the background questions brought up are NOT resolved... and at the time I read it, only two books had been published, so I was very much afraid that this was a permanent cliffhanger.

Thankfully, two more books happened eventually, and the wider plot was concluded, but boy was I worried for a while.

Even more interestingly, I later found an interview transcript or something wherein she talked about TSK as being her first romance novel (in the conventional sense) and much of what she said sounded, well. Rather like my own reactions, i.e. she found she had trouble balancing the romantic plot with the span of the series.

[cimorene]

Interesting!

As soon as I look at it from the writer POV I do feel a bit more sympathy. Z. probably didn't plan to make it more than 3 books long either, even if romance wasn't the problem.

Re: Its a good story

[cimorene]

Haha, okay, then... you didn't boycott him, you just held a really long grudge while continuing to read. Fair enough, especially if you don't have anything else waiting that you'd rather read right then. I have to make that kind of choice often. Usually with TV, though, fortunately. I rarely have trouble finding things to read.

Re: Its a good story

[cimorene]

I know I have read Doorways in the Sand but I don't remember it. OTOH I don't think I've ever even read the back of Roadmarks?

Re: Its a good story

[cimorene]

(On the other hand)