thoughtfulBecause Deadline doesn't have a proper ending, and they don't want to encourage this behavior from publishers.
Okay. Look: if your definition of "proper ending" is "the story is over, and I can walk away satisfied and never need to read another volume," then no, Deadline doesn't have a proper ending. I have often said that the only time it's appropriate to end on a cliffhanger is in the second book of a trilogy, and Deadline ends on a pretty major cliffhanger. I can't apologize for that. It's the nature of the trilogy structure that part two will often end on a cliffhanger, and is allowed to do so. I don't end series books on cliffhangers; the Toby books, and the InCryptid books, all have solid, closed endings. I try to make sure there's always more story, but you can still walk away if you need to. This book is not those books.
Let me be clear: Deadline has an ending. There is a point where it ceases to be Deadline, and becomes Blackout, and that point is where the book ends. The Newsflesh trilogy is three books long, and those books are intrinsically linked, but each of them begins, and ends, at a certain place. The thrust and mood and structure of each volume is different, and when you pick up Blackout, you'll be reading a very different book, even if Deadline ended with some pretty major questions unanswered. I didn't pick that end point arbitrarily. I picked it because that was where the story of Deadline ended, and the story of Blackout began.
I completely understand and appreciate frustration over unanswered questions, unfinished measures, and endings that don't appear to end. And I also understand why some people have chosen to buy Deadline and put it on the shelf to wait for Blackout. I wrote back to the person who emailed me and said that I was sorry, I hadn't done it to increase sales or because my publisher made me; I ended the story where I did because that was where the story ended. And I stand by that.
Deadline may not have a "proper" ending.
But it has the right one.
Careful: LJ is eating my spoiler code.
June 13 2011, 20:16:56 UTC 6 years ago
But the basic plot of Kelly showing up at Shaun's apartment with information and people trying to kill her and trying to figure out what it all meant and who was at fault was answered in Deadline, which also answered some of Feed's questions as well. The business with Dr. Wynne being the one who set Kelly up to get Shaun and co. and the revels about what reservoir conditions and the variants of KA really meant, and the confrontation in Nashville seemed to provide an adequate climax and conclusion to the plot. It may be that the reveal that a tropical storm bringing in a new form of insect-transmissible active KA, and George having a clone introduces the plot of Blackout, but again -- I'll allow that far more in a middle book. Especially if the final book gets printed, which seems likely, short of the Rising, since you have an existing draft and a contract.
Now, it may be that Deadline and Blackout could be combined, but given the amount of plot in Deadline and the amount of set-up for Blackout, I suspect this won't be the case. Deadline seems like a complete series book, even if it is intimately linked with Feed and Blackout.
(I'm sorry, I appear to have Thoughts on series books.)