A sad tale of innocence lost
Feb. 6th, 2008 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrLet us go back in time to 1994.
A young 14 year old girl is exploring the library during a free period after German. On a whim she borrows a few interesting looking books with intriguing covers. These books are "Enders Game", "The Ship Who Sang" and "Scatterlings", and together they set the girl on the road to becoming a confirmed science fiction geek, leaving behind her brief Trekkie phase like a discarded skin. That same year she is introduced to this new thing called "The Internet", and uses it to look up all her favourite authors. She is very disappointed to find very little on Isobelle Carmody, but cheers herself up by compiling a dictionary of Quenyan (with some Sindarin).
She looks up other books by Isobelle Carmody, including the at that point 2 book "Obernewtyn" series, which she adores. As a tale of unloved mutants called "misfits" fighting against unjust adults it's perfectly pitched for a nerdy teenage girl.
A year later the next book, "Ashling" comes out, and it's great! The girl waits patiently for the next Obernewtyn book to come out.
She graduates highschool and goes to uni, and joins a university sff club.
She gets the internet at home, and right away joins an Isobelle Carmody mailing list. A friend persuades her to make a homepage and the very first thing she puts on it is an Isobelle Carmody fanpage, which she updates as often as possible, carefully choosing the right colour of rainbow text for each book title. She gets impatient waiting for the next book.
The girl apologises to all the people who keep telling her to read this "Wheel of Time" series, but she's decided she's not starting any more unfinished series.
Isobelle Carmody starts a new series "Darkfall". The girl does not read it.
The fourth book comes out! She's getting a little old for the series now, but she still enjoys it.
The girl graduates with her first degree.
New members of the mailing list start wondering when the next "Darkfall" book is coming out. The girl laughs.
The girl gets hate mail from unobservant fans who think she is Isobelle Carmody based on her fanpage.
The mailing list dies as everyone on it gets too old for YA fiction, and mailing lists go out of fashion.
The girl starts a Phd.
Isobelle Carmody starts another series, and the girl adds this to the fanpage. She doesn't read it.
The girls is told that the new book will be out "some time in 2005" and updates the webpage accordingly. She hasn't looked at the page in over a year. In a flash of inspiration she changes the email link from "Contact me" to "contact webmaster" and never gets another email meant for Isobelle Carmody again.
Isobelle Carmody starts another series. The girl doesn't bother adding it to the page.
The girl finishes her Phd.
The girl gets married.
The girl is now twice the age she was when she first discovered Isobelle Carmody, and isn't really a girl any more. In this time Orson Scott Card and Anne Maccaffery (authors of the other two books) have started and finished something like 10 series between them and J K Rowling managed to start and finish the complete Harry Potter series. None of Isobelle Carmody's three series are finished. An entire generation of science fiction fans have been born and raised and gotten impatient waiting for the Obernewtyn series to end. (She knows, because some of them sent her hatemail)
The girl checks her livejournal and sees that the fifth Obernewtyrn book has come out...
...and she doesn't care.
The End.
A young 14 year old girl is exploring the library during a free period after German. On a whim she borrows a few interesting looking books with intriguing covers. These books are "Enders Game", "The Ship Who Sang" and "Scatterlings", and together they set the girl on the road to becoming a confirmed science fiction geek, leaving behind her brief Trekkie phase like a discarded skin. That same year she is introduced to this new thing called "The Internet", and uses it to look up all her favourite authors. She is very disappointed to find very little on Isobelle Carmody, but cheers herself up by compiling a dictionary of Quenyan (with some Sindarin).
She looks up other books by Isobelle Carmody, including the at that point 2 book "Obernewtyn" series, which she adores. As a tale of unloved mutants called "misfits" fighting against unjust adults it's perfectly pitched for a nerdy teenage girl.
A year later the next book, "Ashling" comes out, and it's great! The girl waits patiently for the next Obernewtyn book to come out.
She graduates highschool and goes to uni, and joins a university sff club.
She gets the internet at home, and right away joins an Isobelle Carmody mailing list. A friend persuades her to make a homepage and the very first thing she puts on it is an Isobelle Carmody fanpage, which she updates as often as possible, carefully choosing the right colour of rainbow text for each book title. She gets impatient waiting for the next book.
The girl apologises to all the people who keep telling her to read this "Wheel of Time" series, but she's decided she's not starting any more unfinished series.
Isobelle Carmody starts a new series "Darkfall". The girl does not read it.
The fourth book comes out! She's getting a little old for the series now, but she still enjoys it.
The girl graduates with her first degree.
New members of the mailing list start wondering when the next "Darkfall" book is coming out. The girl laughs.
The girl gets hate mail from unobservant fans who think she is Isobelle Carmody based on her fanpage.
The mailing list dies as everyone on it gets too old for YA fiction, and mailing lists go out of fashion.
The girl starts a Phd.
Isobelle Carmody starts another series, and the girl adds this to the fanpage. She doesn't read it.
The girls is told that the new book will be out "some time in 2005" and updates the webpage accordingly. She hasn't looked at the page in over a year. In a flash of inspiration she changes the email link from "Contact me" to "contact webmaster" and never gets another email meant for Isobelle Carmody again.
Isobelle Carmody starts another series. The girl doesn't bother adding it to the page.
The girl finishes her Phd.
The girl gets married.
The girl is now twice the age she was when she first discovered Isobelle Carmody, and isn't really a girl any more. In this time Orson Scott Card and Anne Maccaffery (authors of the other two books) have started and finished something like 10 series between them and J K Rowling managed to start and finish the complete Harry Potter series. None of Isobelle Carmody's three series are finished. An entire generation of science fiction fans have been born and raised and gotten impatient waiting for the Obernewtyn series to end. (She knows, because some of them sent her hatemail)
The girl checks her livejournal and sees that the fifth Obernewtyrn book has come out...
...and she doesn't care.
The End.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 01:31 pm (UTC)That is a sad story.
I also don't recall being a colour of the rainbow. :P
no subject
Date: 2008-02-07 12:03 am (UTC)I also don't recall grey being a colour of the rainbow
It is when you're a teenager :)
no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-07 12:12 am (UTC)But yes, I was burned by a few series before I decided on my "No more unfinished series" rule, and have since being smug at the other people I've seen be burned (ie by "The Wheel of Time")
no subject
Date: 2008-02-07 12:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-08 02:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 02:02 pm (UTC)The idea that I might lose interest in a series that I'm so engrossed in now is deeply unsettling for me. It'd be like losing a close friend. I don't think I could do it!
no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 10:19 pm (UTC)Who are you may I ask?
no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 02:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 10:21 pm (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stone_Key
no subject
Date: 2008-02-06 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-07 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-07 01:30 am (UTC)Incidentally I just noticed the book at fantastic planet on monday.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-07 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-07 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-08 03:05 am (UTC)But I do wonder about her internal decision making: One unfinished series I can understand, but when it gets to three it might be worth considering not starting any more...(especially with YA fiction, since your market will very quickly get too old to appreciate any new books)