Prequels, Sequels and Stand-Alones

When it comes to movies you almost always hear, "The sequel wasn't nearly as good." That's true as far back as Dirty Harry and The Godfather -- which are the first movies I can recall with sequels. Sure, there are outstanding exceptions, such as the Starwars films, but for the most part, if there's a II, III ... VII after a movie title I tend to say, "No thanks." I'm perfectly content to let my imagination figure out what happens to the characters after "The End." Mind you, I'm not talking about an epic such as The Lord of the Rings, which had to be three movies in order to be true to Tolkien's triolgy. I'm talking about a script that's thrown together to ride the coattails of success of what was meant to be a stand-alone movie.
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Yet producers continue to pour tons of money into one sequel after another on the chance that movie goers will be drawn in by a popular title. There's even the fairly recent phenomenon of the movie prequel, which sets out to show how the story began ... which seems to me to be the purpose of the original movie -- but what do I know?

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That begs the questions, does the same hold true for books? Are sequels and series worth the money publishers put into them? We all know the phenomenal success of the Left Behind series -- and we can debate the merit of that all day -- as well as the success of the Mitford series, which is much easier to understand from a craft perspective. But I believe their success is the exception to the rule. I'm currently reading the second book in a trilogy, the first of which I thoroughly enjoyed, but this second one ... not so much. Maybe because I'm not as engaged with the POV character this time around, or maybe because the writing and the story are not on the same par as the first book. I have to say I'm really disappointed. I wanted this and the next book to be as good as the first. But once again, it didn't happen.

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Still, publishers seem to like sequels and series, so they must be profitable. But do readers buy books 2, 3, 4, etc., in the hope they'll be as good as the first, much as movie goers buy admission tickets with the same hope, only to be disappointed on both fronts?
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In Charles Dickens' day "serialization" was a popular way to present a novel, publishing a chapter at a time in monthly periodicals (which I wouldn't like one bit). But sequels and series in fiction, as in movies, are a fairly new practice. I mean, can you imagine The Grapes of Wrath: The California Years, or Moby Dick: Let's Have Another Go? What would that even look like?

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As an author I've yet to entertain the idea of writing a sequel or a series, though I've been asked many times if I were planning a sequel to either Every Good & Perfect Gift or Lying on Sunday. Sure, it's bittersweet to say goodbye to my characters at the end of a book; still I'm always ready to move on to another story and another set of characters.

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As readers, are you attracted to sequels and series? If so, how often are you satisfied/ disappointed?

From Prequel to Sequel

I loved Sharon's last post because it brought to mind all the wonderful fictional worlds in which I have been privileged to spend time with fascinating characters. It's a wonderful thing for an author to create something so real that people want to linger there long after the story is over. Sort of like picking at the bones of a Thanksgiving dinner, sitting with glazed eyes nursing a cup of coffee, relishing the sense of connectedness. Taking time to appreciate all the hard work and preparation that went into the planning and the purchasing and the mixing and the baking of it. It's so much more gratifying to a writer when, instead of inhaling the story and moving on, readers comment about how much they enjoyed spending time with the characters and didn't want to let them go.

We're all familiar with book and movie sequels and how rare it is for a sequel to surpass the original in quality. Sequels often lack the punch and surprise of meeting the characters for the first time and journeying down unknown roads alongside them. But for die-hard fans, any sequel is better than none because it allows them to return to the world they love and stay awhile. In response to Sharon's last post, I commented that Anne Shirley's world at Green Gables was memorable and as rich and diverse as any fantasy world. People couldn't get enough, so a TV series aired with stories about orphan Sarah Stanley's adventures which involved characters from the Green Gables books. It was a weekly fix for fans, and even though Anne wasn't featured, it was still her story world. Now a prequel is out, titled Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson, which offers fans a chance to reconnect with favorite characters and a familiar setting.

I checked out other prequels and wasn't at all surprised to find that a majority were connected to science fiction, such as Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov, and the Dune and Star Wars books. Star Trek took us to strange new worlds, but the latest movie is a prequel to the show where it all began. Also well represented were fantasy worlds such as Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon and Narnia in The Magician's Nephew. I had forgotten that C.S. Lewis's book was a prequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Wardrobe was written first, but it was necessary to write Nephew to explain a few things, such as why there was a lampost in Narnia, and other pertinent info that would tie things up in the end. And before we assume that an author's intentions for writing a prequel or sequel were entirely mercenary, we should consider that they might simply be missing some very old and dear friends.

Do you have a favorite story that you wish had a prequel or sequel so that you could revisit the characters and the setting? Share it with us and you'll be entering a chance to win Bonnie Grove's new release, Talking to the Dead.