And Another Thing

J

JAMESBJOHNSON

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I posted comments about HOP SCOTCH by Brian Garfield. While I never reveal the endings of books I'm unhappy with how HOP SCOTCH ended. That is, the suspense built thru the whole book and the ending fizzled.

It was worse even than the hero saving his ass by flying away from trouble when he suddenly remembered how he had learned to fly at summer camp when he was 12. The rest of the book was plausible and clever, you never think NO WAY! As Mark Twain complained of Cooper, WHEN ABSOLUTE SILENCE IS WORTH TEN DOLLARS A SECOND HIS MAN IS MAKING ENOUGH NOISE TO STARTLE EVERY INDIAN IN THE COUNTY....and all seem deaf.

I contemplate these things before I write.
 
F. Paul Wilson wrote a series of novels that he ended up cleverly tying together to form "The Adversary Cycle"

The last two books, which brought all the characters from the stand alone books together were damn good and the Villain the baddest mofo I'd ever come across.

They went through great lengths to explain how he got his power and what made him stronger.

The last book was fantastic until the last few pages. The ending was nothing more than "the good guys win cause they are the good guys" totally unrealistic not to mention rushed and it really seemed Wilson sat back and said "uh-oh, by rights there is no way this guy loses, but...."

I guess with something like that you just stick with the enjoyment the rest of the book(or books) brought you
 
F. Paul Wilson wrote a series of novels that he ended up cleverly tying together to form "The Adversary Cycle"

The last two books, which brought all the characters from the stand alone books together were damn good and the Villain the baddest mofo I'd ever come across.

They went through great lengths to explain how he got his power and what made him stronger.

The last book was fantastic until the last few pages. The ending was nothing more than "the good guys win cause they are the good guys" totally unrealistic not to mention rushed and it really seemed Wilson sat back and said "uh-oh, by rights there is no way this guy loses, but...."

I guess with something like that you just stick with the enjoyment the rest of the book(or books) brought you

Its fraud is what it is.
 
I'm not so sure its fraud. To me fraud denotes a deliberate effort to cheat.

I've always seen it as the author writing himself into a box, or even coming up with such a damn good build up they now can't truly deliver a fitting finale.

Straub's Floating Dragon was similar. For 500 pages one of the best horor novels I've read, then the end.. Pffftttttt
 
Fuck me drunk Jimmy, you are tempting me here.

Nope nope. I'm going to button my lip until the cheques come in and then still until they actually clear.

However, on THIS present subject of yours - best, absolute best ending in a movie I have ever seen was in the, now extraordinarily difficult to get, Peter Lawford/Robert Wagner/Jill St. John classic 'How I Spent My Summer Vacation.'

The set-up is brilliant. The ending superb.
 
Fuck me drunk Jimmy, you are tempting me here.

Nope nope. I'm going to button my lip until the cheques come in and then still until they actually clear.

However, on THIS present subject of yours - best, absolute best ending in a movie I have ever seen was in the, now extraordinarily difficult to get, Peter Lawford/Robert Wagner/Jill St. John classic 'How I Spent My Summer Vacation.'

The set-up is brilliant. The ending superb.

I hate FUCK ME! endings. I'll check out your recommendation.
 
Looks like it was never released in the USA. Mel Gibson did a remake a while back.
 
Aw not Mel Gibson!!! Whinge!!!!!!!! No way could he do even a half good version.

Nothing - NOTHING - can beat Lawford's version, which was also partly his own script and screenplay btw. It's amazingly sophisticated, pacey, modern.

It is around but very scarce and I don't have a copy although I have heard reliably that it is still around the place. At one point there was a copied-off-european-tv vhs tape version selling at a hundred bucks a pop.

(Had to just delete a bit here! Maybe later... Maybe.)
 
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I can't remember specific book names, but it just seems as if there are too many of the books I've read recently - mostly ebooks on kindle - that start out fine, work well, then the last few chapters and the ending sound like the author just ran out of time and rushed the ending.
 
David Wingrove wrote a series of novels in the 90s called "Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom." The first volume was incredible, volumes 2-7 were uneven but mostly well done, but then his publisher backed out and forced him to finish prematurely. He tried to wrap up the story in book 8, but it was a cluster fuck. It completely negated everything that came before it. Fans hated it, and even the author was unsatisfied.
 
I can't remember specific book names, but it just seems as if there are too many of the books I've read recently - mostly ebooks on kindle - that start out fine, work well, then the last few chapters and the ending sound like the author just ran out of time and rushed the ending.

Many writers start with a killer ending.
 
I can't remember specific book names, but it just seems as if there are too many of the books I've read recently - mostly ebooks on kindle - that start out fine, work well, then the last few chapters and the ending sound like the author just ran out of time and rushed the ending.

You should buy some of mine.

I promise that the beginning is just as bad as the end.
 
However, on THIS present subject of yours - best, absolute best ending in a movie I have ever seen was in the, now extraordinarily difficult to get, Peter Lawford/Robert Wagner/Jill St. John classic 'How I Spent My Summer Vacation.'

The set-up is brilliant. The ending superb.

If we are going to include movies, my vote would have to go to 'Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry' from 1974.

One hour and thirty-two minutes of getting you to fall in love with and cheer for the bad guys, and then from out of nowhere kill them in the last sixty seconds of the film. It was aggravating...but brilliantly done.
 
David Wingrove wrote a series of novels in the 90s called "Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom." The first volume was incredible, volumes 2-7 were uneven but mostly well done, but then his publisher backed out and forced him to finish prematurely. He tried to wrap up the story in book 8, but it was a cluster fuck. It completely negated everything that came before it. Fans hated it, and even the author was unsatisfied.

Thanks for the rundown on that. I was reading that series and then went overseas, couldn't find new segments, and lost contact. Glad I didn't lose out much by not sticking to the end with it.
 
As far as books are concerned I tend to get a bit lost past about page 145 in most popular novels. James Hadley Chase and Edgar Wallace and Alistair Maclean often have me literally sweating - I have actually done that(!) at about pages 145 plus a bit and then I can't take it and can't even follow what they are saying. This happens, then that happens, the guy gets tied and twisted even more, choked, run over, et cetera et cetera, shot, killed brought back to life and on and on and on, and then on even some more...

'God.

'Please end it all so that I can chuck this book' - I think.

Len Deighton, the original stuff, not so much. He was careful, a meticulous planner of his stories.
 
As far as books are concerned I tend to get a bit lost past about page 145 in most popular novels. James Hadley Chase and Edgar Wallace and Alistair Maclean often have me literally sweating - I have actually done that(!) at about pages 145 plus a bit and then I can't take it and can't even follow what they are saying. This happens, then that happens, the guy gets tied and twisted even more, choked, run over, et cetera et cetera, shot, killed brought back to life and on and on and on, and then on even some more...

'God.

'Please end it all so that I can chuck this book' - I think.

Len Deighton, the original stuff, not so much. He was careful, a meticulous planner of his stories.

Most hard crime books stopped after 135 pages, 60 years ago. Maybe 145 is a magic number.
 
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