best/worst endings

[Princess Ivy]

how do you like a novel to end? as part of a series? All loose ends tied up? questions left unanswered? some ambiguity, like blade runner, of what actually happened. Or a classic summing up of basic plot elements ala agatha christie? Or maybe, a it was all a dream, maybe? i must say, i like to know what happened, especially in my fantasy. i love to know that the good guys won. but by the same token, i also sometimes like a little mistique, to have to work things out for myself, and even to know that sometimes the badguys do get away with somethings. as in pitchblack.

[FelineEyes]

Generally, I'm a sucker for happy endings, but I don't mind the occasional tragic end or the bittersweet one. I liked the way Pitch Black ended and the way V for Vendetta ended. I didn't really like the of The Godfather ending, but I sort of saw it coming, so it wasn't so bad. And I really liked the endings of The Brother's Grimm, Hamlet, Richard III, Medea, and Friday.
The only endings that really hated are The Cat Who Walks Through Walls and Butterfly and Hellflower.
So I guess it depend on the story.

[Leto]

Originally Posted by FelineEyes

The only endings that really hated are The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

Why ?

[kyektulu]

I really dont like a novel to end where it was all a dream or the evil person didnt really die (expesh after an entire saga being centered around destroying him) and he/she will live to reign terror another day, that is a bit lame.
It is hard to explain what I like as an ending, the happy ever after are ok but a bit cliche.
I do like as a rule for all the threads to be wrapped up or I will spend months dwelling on what could of happened.

[nixie]

I agree with Princess it's great to see the good guys win, but a little bit of mystery goes down well.A lot people complain about the ending of Kings Dark Tower but I thought was great.

[Eradius Lore]

i like a novel where the vilan wins or at the least the anti-hero i hate in novels when its a happy ending all the time, although i dont mind it if theres a big twist in the plot where the villans not as dead as they might think and stuff like that.

this might not be from a book but a good anti-hero is Ash williams from Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 and Evil Dead: Army of Darkness

[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.

....lack of patience on my part.


Shop smart,shop S-MART!......

[Rane Longfox]

A lot of books' endings I find unsatisfactory. It takes a very good ending to really finish off a book properly, especially if its the last in a series. Most of them just don't work for me. Some do, but most don't. The ending I dislike the most is China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. Still love the rest of the book, but the ending I thought was terrible

[Princess Ivy]

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.

....lack of patience on my part.


Shop smart,shop S-MART!......

oh, you just wanna get me started here! i keep getting recomended books that are part of series that haven't been finished. which is so hugely annoying. because even if i don't like one, i feel obligated to know how it ends! and so i'm stuck with several series that i know i won't read properly (i skim things like that) but i have to find out how they end. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[Taltos]

For me there are 2 main things that ruin the book ending:
1) deus-ex-machina - when the author has to resort to some "divine" intervention to fix the mess he/she has written.
2) too predictable ending - if it can be clearly seen where given story is going half way to the end. This is just sooooo boring.

[Culhwch]

I like threads to be tied up to some extent, but I also don't mind a bit of ambiguity, where you more or less picture what comes next. I like, well, not a surprise, but not a cliche, either. It doesn't have to be a twist, but it has to be fresh, I feel. I found a lot of people disliked the end of Neil Gaiman's Stardust, where it sort of ends happily ever after, and then keeps going to a bittersweet finish, but it's one of my faves. 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....

[LadyFel]

Depends...sometimes I like all loose ends tied up nicely, sometimes I like to have some aspect left up to the imagination...

[Treikayan]

I was angry about the way "Dune: Messiah" was unfolding, especially for Paul. And I ended up crying my eyes out at the end. It was the only book I cried to.

In the "Return of the King" I was "poed" how the Mouth of Sauron taunted Aragorn and Gandalf with the mithril shirt. I didn't know if Frodo was dead or alive. I threw the book!

[Thunderchild]

I like any ending as long as it isn't a cliche.OMG the tall Blonde guy with a tan is living hapily ever after with a woman he just met 400 pages ago (it was so woth the read )

I prefer something origonal or at least unexpected.

[Rosemary]

A poorly written ending is bad enough...

It's the ones I grab off the library shelf, read hundreds of pages then find the last few pages are not there

I only did that once, certainly learnt my lesson there!