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.
June 13 2011, 20:15:05 UTC 6 years ago
But really, there has never been any secret that Newsflesh is a trilogy, and that basically means a story in three parts. Unlike a series which can be picked up in the middle (and often that's the only way the reader can find it, if the earlier parts are OOP), a trilogy is expected to be not quite standalone books. Oh, there are some wher it has obviously just been chopped for length (not quite in the middle of a sentence, but just at the end of a chapter with no type of closing), and I've got annoyed about that, but Deadline doesn't do that. I was -- OK, not quite 'happy' at stopping at the end -- comfortable with where it ended, just as I was with Feed. I certainly wanted more, I'm greedy, but it wasn't necessary. I didn't even continue with the 'teaser' for Blackout, since I reasoned that it was less likely to end in a satisfactory place (because the planned ending places were obviously at the publication points).
Hmm, that's an interesting point. There's the 'teaser' for Blackout, which isn't finished yet. Does that mean that the 'teaser' is in the way of being a draft, and so may change drastically in the actual book, or is that now set in stone and you have to start Blackout that way?
June 13 2011, 20:42:39 UTC 6 years ago