Ashspren Posted October 12, 2023 Report Share Posted October 12, 2023 Does anyone have examples of books/series that have never been completed? This could include examples such as Game of Thrones, The Name of the Wind, etc. Also, if anyone knows stats on how many books get cancelled before the series is finished, or any other relevant information on this topic, that would be great. Working on a research project about writing and the publishing world. Thank you so much! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treamayne Posted October 13, 2023 Report Share Posted October 13, 2023 (edited) On 10/12/2023 at 7:58 PM, Ashspren said: Does anyone have examples of books/series that have never been completed? This could include examples such as Game of Thrones, The Name of the Wind, etc. Also, if anyone knows stats on how many books get cancelled before the series is finished, or any other relevant information on this topic, that would be great. Working on a research project about writing and the publishing world. Thank you so much! Is this only for abandoned series, or also including perpetual series without a definitive end? For example: Sue Grafton's Alphabet series (A is for Alibi) will never be completed as she died after Y is for Yesterday (either after submitting to the publisher or after release - not sure which) and before starting work on Z is for Zero Her daughter announced that they would not pursue a new author to write the final book J. D. Robb's (Nora Roberts pen name) In Death Series has no defined ending and is at book 57 and counting (book 58 releases Feb 2024) The Author has stated that when she decides to end the series, it will end with Eve Dallas' pregnancy - but should something happen to Ms. Roberts before that happens, it will just become an "unfinished" series Just read a post about Peter Clines' Ex-Heroes series having been cancelled. Book five (Ex-Isle) came out in 2016, and I've been hoping for more for a while now. I was afraid it was cancelled, and found an older post on TV Tropes that psuedo confirmes it (from Author Charles Phipps): Spoiler Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines Superheroes versus zombies is an inherently wonderful concept. It's like pirates versus ninjas. In this case, the superheroes of the world are a lower-level than normal so they're unable to stop the zombie apocalypse. They are, however, able to save a small group of people in Los Angeles. The series was abruptly cancelled but got a number of really good books out. Notably, I was really impressed with how the author addressed a lot of criticisms of the original book in-universe. Edited October 14, 2023 by Treamayne 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesbondsmith He/him Posted December 27, 2023 Report Share Posted December 27, 2023 (edited) The Dinosaur Lords series will probably be unfinished, as the author died partway through and I haven't seen anything about anyone taking it over. I've bought the first book but haven't read it yet as my TBR is piling higher and higher. Possibly best summed up by this quote from this review: Dinosaur Lords has medieval knights riding dinosaurs into battle. Your decision to read the book will inevitably be based not on this or any other review but on precisely how excited you feel by the phrase “medieval knights ride dinosaurs into battle.” As for research, there's a lot of people (admittedly anecdotal) who claim that ASOIAF or Kingkiller are the reason they don't start an unfinished series, which would obviously affect newer authors trying to get series published. Are you doing qualitative or quantitative research? For the latter I can't help as I have no idea where you'd find stats for this sort of thing outside of interviewing publishers. If you're doing qualitative research could you spin the project as focusing on audience reception? I did my honours thesis on the Hunger Games and I could use memes and news articles about fans recreating elements of the games because that section focused on audience reception and whether the audience paid attention to the messages (spoiler alert: it's really hard to tell when the whole point of media analysis is how to interpret the text). Edit: this link is obviously pretty biased (but depending on your focus if you acknowledge that fact then it may still be a primary source) but this talks about how the Kingkiller Chronicles issue has affected others Spoiler While We're All Dragging Rothfuss, I Wanted to Argue That His crem dung has Actually Had a Real and Negative Impact On Others (Long Ramble and Links Within) : r/isbook3outyet (reddit.com) Edited December 27, 2023 by jamesbondsmith Added info 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyalBeeMage he/him Posted January 14 Report Share Posted January 14 (edited) On 10/13/2023 at 7:58 AM, Ashspren said: Does anyone have examples of books/series that have never been completed? This could include examples such as Game of Thrones, The Name of the Wind, etc. Also, if anyone knows stats on how many books get cancelled before the series is finished, or any other relevant information on this topic, that would be great. Working on a research project about writing and the publishing world. Thank you so much! the doors of stone. a lot of people proberbly already know this one though. Edited January 14 by RoyalBeeMage 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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