Another frustration lately is book series that just seem to peter out, without coming to any sort of end. Maddening as it can be to wait, I can live with it when it’s just that the writing process takes that long. For instance, Jeanne Birdsall, author of the Penderwicks books (3 so far, 5 planned) just seems to write slowly; I might grit my teeth to nubs while waiting, but that’s OK as long as I eventually get a book (and a dentist).
Rick Riordan was a reader’s dream for a while there, putting out a book a year in two series, one in spring and one in fall. He seems to have slowed to one a year – maybe through exhaustion? I was surprised when the Kane Chronicles ended after only three books, but it made sense in the storyline; now there’s just the one final Olympians book to go, due out next October, then hopefully he’ll bring out a new series with the same speed. Alan Bradley, author of the Flavia de Luce myseteries, is also holding more or less to a one-a-year pace.
It sucks especially when the choice to end a series is the publisher’s rather than the authors. Fortunately Barbara Hambly found a new publisher who let her get back to writing Ben January books, after a lull for a few years. It was disappointing to hear the Sherwood Smith doesn’t get to publish any more Dobrenica books, but the blow is much softer because Revenant Eve provides a satisfying end.
This is where author blogs come in handy; at least I know that, if Flora Fyrdraaca’s story feel’s unfinished, Ysabeau Wilce will probably fill it in more in the book she’s writing about Hardhands, in the same world. But worst of all is when the blog just goes moribund and there’s no more information about whether there will ever be another book. What happens to Erec Rex, and where is the rest of his promised series? And what about Theodosia Throckmrton, whose next book was rumored to be coming out in 2012? Has RL Lafevers abandoned her for assassin nuns? Nothing against teenaged assassin nuns, but I want to know what happened to Theodosia and her friends!
Maybe that’s better than the opposite model, where the author keeps writing on and on until series has jumped the shark and the audience falls away out of boredom. Books I’m not buying include any McCaffrey after the White Dragon, any Amelia Peabody books after Ramses and Nefret finally hook up, any Aunt Dimity books after the God-knows-how-manyth time Lori nearly cheats on her husband but doesn’t… I will be getting the newest Discworld book once it’s out on Kindle, though. If any of Pratchett’s characters jumped a shark, it would probably be a wildly mutated one out of the Ankh river. Or possible Death of Sharks, though I don’t know how a shark would hold on to a scythe.
I second your frustration. Author blogs can be frustrating, too, as in the case of Patrick Rothfuss. I know he’s raising a lot of money for Heifer International, but I would really like to see him do less of that and more writing of his third book.