Eoin Colfer
I haven't read any of the author's work (although it does seem to be well regarded), but I have no interest in anyone else picking up Douglas' torch.

I'm hesitant for anyone to follow up on Douglas Adams, it just won't be the same.

Eoin Colfer's kids books are pretty good, with the exception of his last one (Airman) which I found tedious.

This quote is interesting, as it sums up my reaction:

quote:

"My first reaction was semi-outrage that anyone should be allowed to tamper with this incredible series," he said.

"But on reflection I realised that this is a wonderful opportunity to work with characters I have loved since childhood and give them something of my own voice while holding on to the spirit of Douglas Adams.

I don't think it will satisfy Hitchhiker fans, but it might draw in a new generation.

urgle. haven't yet read the news bit, but... I'd say to him, Go with your instincts.

NONONONONOOOOOOOO! I like Colfer too, haven't read the latest Artemis Fowl, but... he's nothing like Douglas Adams. And honestly, why do we need more? Isn't five books in the trilogy more than enough?? It was Dirk Gently that was left undone and I can live with just the two books that exist.

I'm... interested, I think. I loved Douglas Adams madly, really madly, but I think that his ideas and concepts were actually better than his writing. So I'm not too upset by the idea of someone taking his ideas and seeing what else can be made out of them. It's like film adaptations: well, if they stink, we always have the original books. Nothing can hurt them.

(DA had such excellent ideas. I was explaining the "Monks of Cool" concept to a friend just a few days ago.)

no no no no no no no !

it has to be said that i haven't read the article yet, but that's certainly my gut reaction

i have no problem with people writing in a similar style to adams, (jasper fforde imo does it very well), or writing tributes to adams. or stating that adams was their inspiration.

but i don't want anyone else writing his books!!

and i've not been a fan of the colfer i've read. i find it childish. which adams never was.

right.

now that's out of the way i'm going to calm down, read the article, read other's posts and then reply in a more measured fashion :-p

forgive me

ok, i like the way colfin has presented himself in that article. although it does make me feel a little as though this is a self-indulgance for him. fanfic by someone who just happens to be a 'proved writer'

i still have huge reservations, however. i don't find their writing styles similar enough for this to really work.

but on the other hand, purist hitchhiker fans wouldn't like this regardless of who was writing it. (echoing what hive said about the film adaptations). although this isn't an adaptation. this is all-new material.

weeble, i'm not sure that it will draw in a new generation or that that would necessarily be a good thing.

because if the new generation like the new book, it's not the same as them liking hitchhikers.

plus as far as i know new generations are always being drawn to hitchhikers - it's remained as popular as it ever was (correct me if i'm wrong)


maeve - douglas always said he didn't like how he left hitchhikers. he was intending to write another book, and i think a lot of the ideas in the unfinished salmon of doubt would have ended up there - he states at one point that they were more 'hitchhikers' than anything else.

but i don't think that the fact he was going to write another one = the necessity for one to exist. hitchhikers has never had any clear beginnings or endings, and so i don't think there are any real 'loose ends' to tie up.

the final thing i've got at the moment (there may be more!) is that it would be nice if the royalties from the book went to one of douglas' charities. otherwise i must confess to being a bit puzzled as to why jane has sanctioned this now - it's not marking a significant anniversary or anything.

anyhow, that's my (slightly more measured) lot.

Hitchhiker's is a five novel trilogy. A SIX novel trilogy is just asking me to suspend my disbelief a bit too much. I am not that imaginative.

It's a bit like Star Wars, isn't it? I think nothing is going to measure up to how wonderful and funny the Guide was first time I read it.

I don't have any feirce objections to it (and the guy was asked to do it, he didn't just jump in there)- if I don't want to read it I won't, but the fact that it exists in the world doesn't offend me.

I heard about it on the news, and was mainly just puzzled as to why it had occoured to anyone to do, given that it's not as if there was a half-finished book that needed completing. But hearing what Fion said I think there is a case for it. I wasn't happy with how he left it either!

Hmm - if he does it I'll read it - but it won't be the same. Sob.

so... if 40 years in the future when sadly we lost Terry Pratchett after he's fed Rincewind to the Dungeon Dimension Demons (again) and some reasonably good author is given the job of resurrecting Rincewind - that'd be OK - because we didn't like how the author had left things?

It's one thing if an author knows he or she is ill and hands off the reigns to other authors - I can live with that, at the very least those authors hand-picked their successors. And fan-fiction is ..well... some of it can be interesting.

But I don't like the precedent this might set.

I don't...really see the problem with it, though. What do you mean, Maeve?

I mean, I might not want to read it myself, but as long as no copyrights are being broken, it's free to everyone to write more or less good sequels to original pieces. I am assuming the originals if they were any good to begin with will stand the test of that.

Wasn't there a meh sequel to Gone With The Wind, too?

I just honestly wouldn't have a problem with the Partachett example either. I can't see the point of it, but I don't have a problem with it.

I won't bother reading any new Hitchhikers, but if you don't want to read it there's no point getting upset, just don't.

Also, as Noodles said, it's hardly going to set a precedent - off the top of my head, Peter Pan, James Bond, some Jane Austin or other, and Enid Blyton books all have sequals written by other authors.

It will always be so, characters and places that have any resonance will always show back up in other peoples writing, it doesn't matter if it is good or bad it happens. I myself was not interested when a new Chronicles of Amber story was written after Zelazny's death, i knew it couldn't match the style I loved but it did give those characters a chance to live again, if not for me but for others.

I most likely will not be interested in reading new Hitchhiker material, Mr. Adams may not have liked his work but I did and again it won't have the same feel but it will allow those characters to live again. Condidering how he left them in the last novel, we are talking literal ressurection, from his interviews and notes he did seem to regret leaving his characters that way, he was going through a dark time when he wrote Mostly Harmless and it reflected in the work, so even if I don't read the new works at least I will be happy that the characters have a chance of existing again.

for me, i'm not a big fan of Colfer. i read the first couple of Artemis Fowl books and, well, meh. they were ok. the third one, i put down after a couple of chapters and never picked up again. i'm entirely indifferent to the idea of this, to be honest, because i'll never bother reading them, i expect.

My first instinct is also NO! But that was also what I thought when I heard Adams himself had written the 5th one. So I guess I'm not really one to judge.

I guess I wouldn't mind so much if it were a book - having nothing to do with the original story line(s) (whatever they were/are) - that takes place in the Hitchhiker's universe. I just don't like the idea of some other author presuming to know what a dead author would do with his characters.

At least an author who has been dead less than 100 years.

I read Artemis Fowl a long time ago. It was entertaining, but not entoxicatingly so. I read maybe the first third or maybe half of the third book (name escapes me), but I wasn't impressed enough to keep on reading. No idea why I never tried the second. Reading things out of order is a bad habit for me, I guess. I remember really liking the beginning of The Supernaturals, but I never went past a few chapters.