posted
Mr. Card, I have enjoyed your books for years and recommended them. Please quite fiddling and write Rasputin already. Robert Jordan died without finishing The Wheel of Time. Doc Smith died without finishing the last Lensman book. Don't be that guy.
It doesn't matter if you have problems with the story. It's too late now for us to enjoy it anyway. We'll buy and read it because we're hooked. I didn't care much about the last Harry Potter book (hated book 5, it soured me on the series) but I bought it anyway. I'll buy Rasputin and Mayflower part III, just to find out what happens.
It's been 14 years, man! It could be the Wyld Stallyns of novels, able to cure cancel and clean up the atmosphere, and it wouldn't matter. We couldn't enjoy it. We just need some closure. So it doesn't matter if it isn't up to your standards. I still went and saw Revenge of the Sith. You've got a sure thing, just take what you've got, give it a polish, and send it out the door.
OR, actually devote some time and do it right. Maybe it's been so long, I have no expectations left, so I'll really enjoy it.
Either way, I want that book. You promised us. Doesn't that mean something? Part One, you said. Of a Trilogy, you said. 14 years, dude. What if you get sick? What if you check out early? Don't think you've got decades left. Don't have your legacy be a wikipedia entry with a heading for "books he said he promised to write but reneged on."
Tell you what. You e-mail me what you have so far, and I'll tell you if it's any good. I won't share, I promise. I don't even share mp3s.
While I've got you here, did you ever read The Ascent of Rum Doodle, by W.E. Bowman? It's one of the funniest books I've ever read. The sequel is good too. I've spoken to his son, Ghee, and there's a 3rd book that's never been published. (He wouldn't e-mail it to me either. Such untrusting people.)
Tell you what. If you contact him and use your Industry Might to get that published instead, I'll let this whole Rasputin thing go for another, say, six years. How's that?
Posts: 454 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I loved Lovelock. I thought it was one of the most original novels I had read. A monkey for the main character? Brilliant!
I was excited when I found out it was planned as a trilogy. I expect since the book was written with someone else as well (I believe it was Katherine Kidd if I am not mistaken?) it would take some time to collaborate.
While I loved Lovelock, I think I would much rather have definitive closure to the Ender/Bean series and especiall the Alvin Maker series.
On a side note, wasn't Pastwatch also planned as a trilogy? Every time I watch the movie Deja Vu I can't help but think of Pastwatch.
Posts: 45 | Registered: Oct 2008
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posted
I had the impression that OSC would love to write it, but there are legal issues with the rights to the characters.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Lovelock was published in 1994... that takes precedence over continuing or concluding series started after that date. I have so ruled.
Posts: 454 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
My wife would be thrilled with the conclusion of the lovelock series. You don't even have to make it a trillogy, just give us one slim book finishing the story, if necessary. Make it an ebook, if you think it won't sell enough.
Posts: 105 | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I'll clarify. The Alvin Maker series was begun first, however, it has only been 5 years since the last book was published. The Mayflower series has yet to get the promised 2nd volume, in 14 years. Rasputin first, then Master Alvin, and so forth by seniority.
Posts: 454 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
In the afterword for Ender in Exile, OSC mentions Kathryn H. Kidd and references the fact that it is his fault that Rasputin is still not finished.
It's great to own up to one's mistakes, but that is only the first step. David said "I have sinned" but then he actually tried to make restitution.
Write Rasputin, Mr. Card, and henceforth sin no more.
Posts: 454 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I think the problem is that he's doing too much non-fiction writing. Columns, reviews, and that manner of creature.
I find that I only have a certain amount of energy for creating. Which is why I have a job that doesn't sap any of it -- leaving me plenty to make music with.
Maybe I'm unique in that way, though.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I know I am drudging up an old topic, but...
I was warned I would love Lovelock. I knew that I was going to be left hanging.
But, I read it anyway. I just read it the other day and couldn't put it down. Now I await Rasputin. Ugh.
Posts: 13 | Registered: Oct 2014
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posted
The man who wrote that no longer exists. Lovelock will always be an unfinished thought, even if the current incarnation of OSC finishes it...which I'm not holding my breath about.
Posts: 6683 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
I really don't know about that. Qualifier, it's been quite awhile since I read Lovelock, but I don't recall it being rife with the sort of social and political issues that, in my opinion, Card lends himself to preaching and silliness.
I say this as someone who really strongly disagrees with much of what he has to say socially and politically: I would still be interested in seeing what he wrote for a sci-fi story that was not blatantly political.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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I'm afraid I am not. Part of what I loved so much about the pre judgemental OSC works that they are very human, very understanding, no pulp villains, no too clean cut hero...empathetic.
I guess I just don't have an intest in hearing his voice anymore. Makes me too sad at what has been lost.
Card was my hero. Not one of them...MY hero. He saved me from isolation and made me want to connect with other people. And before EG i wasnt a reader, so I also credit him with opening up a whole new world for me.
Although the breaking of that idol was a valuable, if painful lesson.
Posts: 6683 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
Pre and post judgmental Cards are artificial constructs. In Card's writing, they don't exist. However, pre and post judgmental Card readers are plentiful. You color your views of Card based on the discovery of social and political positions of his that exist outside his fictional worlds and even in that realm are overstated and misunderstood.
Posts: 134 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Well how bout before his columns were bonkers, he wasn't openly promoting bigotry & I liked his writing? Sounds mire dramatic your way, I admit.
Posts: 6683 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I've been awaiting the sequels to Lovelock and the Women of Genesis for an indecently long amount of time now. I mean to march in the streets, but I can't seem to get news coverage for my outrage.
Posts: 407 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I learned a long time ago, not to read the first book of a series - especially a trilogy, until the last volume was not only published, but in my sweaty hands. The last time I accidentally broke this rule it took me 15 years to find copies of the out-of-print 2nd and 3rd volumes.
So the books mentioned here are all still on my "Waiting to Read" list.
Posts: 19 | Registered: Aug 2010
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posted
OSC has probably become less judgmental over the years, if anything. As with most people, we tend to become more nuanced and experienced in our thinking, and soften on things in general. Of course we can become more jaded as well. I think both has happened to him, in that perhaps he has become more defensive due to what he would perceive as harsh treatment toward him and toward others similar to him, while at the same time being less black and white in his thinking on social issues.
Posts: 83 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Hah, I was surprised to see this post... I wrote that 6 1/2 years ago.
I'm totally resigned now to never getting the Lovelock sequel... I've made peace with it.
In good news, I actually did manage to wangle a copy of the unpublished 3rd Binder book by the great W.E. Bowman! I can die happy now.
Posts: 454 | Registered: Mar 2005
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OSC has a life. He knows that we all want more books from him. He's writing as fast as he can write while still having a life. Honestly I'm a bit amazed at how prolific he manages to be.
But, he's not fitting together parts in a factory line, he's making stories. Sometimes it's going to go fast and work really well, and sometimes it's going to have to sit on the backburner for years until he can figure it out.
Either way, nothing he publishes-- even if it's part of a series-- is an obligation to us to publish more of it.
Posts: 115 | Registered: May 2011
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