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, 20:40:45 UTC 6 years ago
I am used to duologies / trilogies that are really one book. I prefer when these end on rest notes rather than cliffhangers, but if the work's good enough, I've got no problem with this. If the work isn't good enough, well, I have a different problem with it.
In the case of the Newsflesh trilogy, I already knew there'd be a cliffhanger. I've not read it, and no one has spoiled it for me except to answer my direct question about whether there'd be a cliffhanger. See, my problem isn't to buy or not to buy. It isn't even when to buy -- I have the book on top of the to read pile, and only one book I am obligated to read first.
My dilemma is whether to read Deadline now or wait a year, and well... we all know I'm not going to be able to wait.
Things that currently annoy me about books (which I not seen in any of yours):
-- Nothing really happens. Oh, it seems like stuff is happening, but afterwards, I realized that I read through a whole lot of nothing. If this is a book in a series, it's either badly written or marking time.
-- The status quo is reset at the end of the book, because we can't actually have anything change or resolve, now, can we? I'm not talking about "The character solves another mystery" -- that's legit, especially if we're talking about a series where a character solves mysteries. I have no beef with Sherlock Holmes. I'm talking about "The character solves a mystery, but nothing is actually resolved on account of it."
-- The Wrong Sort of Thing Happens. This is a really tricky call, because it's subjective. I'm talking about when the author's changed everything in ways that just don't feel right. Or maybe the author is always changing everything so that nothing is stable, which means that there's no solid ground for me to enjoy -- a character's personality will be rewritten on a dime to enable the latest plot the author has in mind. (Fifth season Buffy Troll episode, I am thinking of you.)
I am starting to get tired of the idea of a series that's like a soap opera, where there's some chunk or other for sale every X months. This is... not necessarily bad, but very much not to my taste.
It is also very much not the Newsflesh trilogy.
June 13 2011, 20:50:04 UTC 6 years ago