I hadn't really "given up hoping" for the Uplift series, though; I had more or less considered it done with the first three. The one I had been most afraid would never be completed (and technically hasn't been, yet) was Rosemary Kirstein's "Steerswoman" series, to which papersky alluded. It may have been less time between The Outskirter's Secret and The Lost Steersmanthan it has been since the last actually new volume in the "Doors" series, but at least Diane Duane continued/continues to write other stuff; as far as I could tell for most of that time, Rosemary Kirstein had ceased to write altogether. The Lost Steersman I at first didn't like as well as the first two, most likely because of what papersky said about Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains. I had been re-reading the first two in the intervening years and it didn't go any of the directions I had predicted. The next one, however, ( The Language of Power ) was a complete joy, mitigated only by the fact that she said in an interview that there are intended to be seven volumes in the completed series, plus a prequel -- which means I have to go back to waiting. On the plus side, that means that there will be more to love, yet, unlike what seems to be the case with so many authors these days, there is supposed to be an actual ending. Robert Jordan isn't one of the authors I read, but from things that I have heard from numerous sources, I suspect that closure is not really something one can reasonably expect from his books, for example.
From reading some of your replies to other comments, I suspect that one of the differences between those in the "jump in" camp versus those in the "hold back because it might suck" one may be in the way we remember books. With respect to not liking even stylist revisions, you said you have a very intense visualmemory for text, whereas I've often bemoaned the fact that with my terrible memory I can rarely quote anything accurately without having to look it up. If a book, once read, will be more or less engraved upon your memory, I can understand your reluctance to commit to something that may dash your high hopes. One of the few benefits of a poor memory like mine, however, is that unless an unsatisfying book is spectacularly bad (or ticks me off like "Temptation" did), I can merely consign it to the compost heap of my mind and not be bothered by it any more. The other benefit is that, if I leave a beloved series alone for ten years, it is almost like reading it again for the first time -- which may be another reason I haven't held back from reading a "last" book, because I know if it is good I can read it again and again.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Continued
Date: 2004-11-21 10:19 am (UTC)From reading some of your replies to other comments, I suspect that one of the differences between those in the "jump in" camp versus those in the "hold back because it might suck" one may be in the way we remember books. With respect to not liking even stylist revisions, you said you have a very intense visualmemory for text, whereas I've often bemoaned the fact that with my terrible memory I can rarely quote anything accurately without having to look it up. If a book, once read, will be more or less engraved upon your memory, I can understand your reluctance to commit to something that may dash your high hopes. One of the few benefits of a poor memory like mine, however, is that unless an unsatisfying book is spectacularly bad (or ticks me off like "Temptation" did), I can merely consign it to the compost heap of my mind and not be bothered by it any more. The other benefit is that, if I leave a beloved series alone for ten years, it is almost like reading it again for the first time -- which may be another reason I haven't held back from reading a "last" book, because I know if it is good I can read it again and again.