best/worst endings

[kyektulu]

Originally Posted by lazygun

Like my stories to come to an end in general.Don't like buying/reading series if the next one has not been written

I have to agree with that, I have just finished the second book in a saga and am waiting for the final installment, I am quite impatient in general so this wait is killing me!

[lazygun]

Presently waiting for Eric Flint and David Drake to release The Dance of Time.

A recent series I've learnt to wait for,if reluctantly.

[asdar]

I liked The Hobbit ending a lot. It was a good young adult, or children's story with a good ending, and I thought all tied up.

I disliked the Lord of the rings ending. It seemed to me to drag and drag anti-climatically. I felt the same watching the movie.

The best, or at least most shocking ending ever had to be the Grapes of Wrath. If you've never read the end to that you're missing an ending, but I won't spoil it.

I know a close friend that broke his window throwing the book away from him. He thought it was the worst and most disgusting ending ever. I kind of liked it.

[dwndrgn]

I get very frustrated when at least a few threads aren't tied up and the story just plain ends right in the middle as if the book was chopped in half and then published as two books. I had one like that recently and I threw it down on the table with a disgusted "hmph!" Startled the rest of the people in the room too!

[asdar]

I don't mind a little ambiguity, I don't need to hear the "...and they lived happily ever after," but I like to see the resolution, and at least have some information on whether the main characters will be alright or not.

As I get older I'm starting to hate the neat and tidy endings more than the loose thread ones. I hate when overwhelming magic comes in and saves the day.

[littlemissattitude]

As others have said, I do appreciate a book with an ending. I don't necessarily need to have all the little threads tied up in a neat little bow, but even in a series I know is continuing, I like a sense of completion at the end of a volume. The volumes of Kage Baker's "Company" series are good at this; they are all self contained, even though they are a series. What I don't like, to use an example from film, are endings like that of The Empire Strikes Back, which is so obviously a tease for the next film rather than a real ending.

Also, I don't necessarily need for the ending to be "happy". Although if I can sense an unhappy ending coming up, I'll sometimes avoid getting there for as long as I can. I did that with the end of the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. I knew what was going to happen, and I did not want it to. On the other hand, I sometimes subscribe to a friend of mine's description of a play he wrote: "It's a happy ending. Everyone dies in the end." I guess what it comes down to is that I don't appreciate a writer juggling what is obviously an unhappy ending coming up, just to make sure all the good guys live "happily ever after".

[stirdgit]

For me it varies greatly. There are some happy endings that are really well written that I love, sad endings that are written well that I love also. It depends. After going through a book or movie, you tend to pick up on those true and honest moments that somehow just seem to fit. As long as the ending works - for whatever reason, whatever the outcome - I'm happy with it.
2001 is one of my favorite movies of all time... but I think anyone who has ever seen it can agree it is very ambiguous, but I absolutely love it. Star Wars Ep. IV, another favorite, has a clear cut ending where the good guy blows up the big, bad guy hang out and everyone gets a medal. Neat, tidy... just a touch of ambiguity (Vader Lives) but a definite ending. I love it as well.
As for 'sad' endings, or 'bad guy winning' endings; it seems to me these days, these endings are becoming commonplace. I am starting to miss the edgy, bold, 'good guy winning', happy endings. They seem to be on the down swing these days.
If I had to pick a favorite... I'd go with ambiguous. I like to fill in the blanks and spend months wondering about what happened and what could have happened. I feel more like a participant in the story that way.

[Teir]

Originally Posted by kyektulu

I have to agree with that, I have just finished the second book in a saga and am waiting for the final installment, I am quite impatient in general so this wait is killing me!

it becomes pathetic when the gap between installments is several years


For some reason i hated the ending to Feist's Shards of a Broken Crown. The whole saga was emotionally exhausting, what with some of the books being separated with gap of decades- Characters seemed to live and die with such little consequence. For me, it was a showcase of time passing and mortality. i needed something at the ended that....i don't know.........it just seemed more like the beginning of new saga rather then the end of the tremendous events which had preceded it. It just wasnt what i needed it to be

[nixie]

Reading through this thread, made me realise just how many incomplete series I'm reading.How do we manage to keep up with it all,specially when there's large gaps between insallments...Do you reread the others or just start reading the latest installment hoping you've remembered enough of the previous books to pick up the threads.I used to always re-read but now find my self doing this less and less.It's surprising how easy it is to pick up the series from where you left off.There will always be books I re-read but it won't be to refresh my memory..It will be for the pleasure of re-visiting old friends

[dragula_66]

Originally Posted by Culhwch

Really don't like the 'bad guy's dead, everyone gathers to pat each other on the back and explain how it all came together, sidekick makes a quip, the curtain comes down' kind of endings. The Feist kind of ending....

Umm... from my memory, not very many of feist's bad guys die at the end of a book, well at least not untill an entire saga is done, and after something like that why should they not die. Although right now im thinkin of people like Sidi, servant of the nameless one (who i know very little of at this point, to my great agitation), and kasper of oslako suddenly became a good guy, dunno bout the rest of you but i never saw that coming.

And what about Leso Varen? he didnt die, he created a means of escape in case his physical body was destroyed (i know his soul bottle thingie was found by (um.. it was caleb wasnt it?) but i am pretty sure i remember that he wasnt destroyed permenantly.

anyway, my point is, R.E. Feist's baddies dont simply die when beaten. They seem to come back now and then. and there is usually more mourning for fallen comrades, aquantences, or loved ones than there is back patting, or sidekick quip making from what i can remember.

Please, ppl, dispute my points. I havnt had a decent debate in ages...

[Cobolt]

I like unusual endings, ones where there is a thread of hope or despair, where the unobvious happens.

Dont care if its a series or not, but if I am reading a series then I prefer some threads tied up and completed but the overall story arc to remain open until the very end.

The Bladerunner series of books are a fine example.

Tad Williams is another whose books leave the reader satisfied enough to wait for the next book. (Otherland series).

My own book I am writing (Fantasy/Horror) is a planned series and that has an overall story arc that will not complete until the end but has threads that are started and completed by the end of each book.

[Alurny]

I like ending's that leave things for the reader to perceive. Like Holes by Louis Sachar if anyone has read it? The end to that is fantastic.

[SteveR]

I love endings that tie up the main characters stories but leaves bigger, much more mysterious events unexplained. The sort of ending that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

Finishes the story but leaves something ominous hanging.

I think this is what you just said Alurny!

[Alurny]

Originally Posted by SteveR

I love endings that tie up the main characters stories but leaves bigger, much more mysterious events unexplained. The sort of ending that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

Finishes the story but leaves something ominous hanging.

I think this is what you just said Alurny!

yeah so the charcter's future is in the reader's interpretation of the events? If you get me! lol..

[Tau Zero]

I like a resolution and an explanation. I don't mind if it is open ended, as long as there is enough information make up your own ending. For example, the ending of Blade Runner is open, but (IMHO) i think they got away and lived hapily ever after. It's definitely arguable, but there are clues either way. That's OK.

What i don't like is a lot of Arthur C. Clark's books because of the "Clark mysticism." Rendevous With Rama ended with no idea where the ship was going and where it came from. While this may be a realistic scenario, i found it extremely annoying.