Beginnings and Endings

When it comes to the end of a series I’m always of two minds.  There is my reader mind that is happy and sad at the same time.  Happy, because the story is wrapping up, and the characters are usually ending up in some form of happily ever after.  I’m sad, because for however long I’ve been a part of these character’s lives, I don’t really want that to end. 

Then there is the writer side of things.  I ask, will this plot be satisfactorily resolved?  Does this feel like an appropriate ending?  I analyze the heck out of the thing.  This occasionally ruins the end of a book, but that’s the price I pay.

The reason I’m addressing this point is simple; people have asked me if Hero Unit will have an end.  I’m not really sure.  If I was to follow the trend of a lot of the crime novels out there, a series doesn’t really end, at least not for ten or fifteen books.  It’s not like crimes stop happening.  Evil will still exist, so Ace will always have something to do.  The question then becomes, will Ace eventually get tired of having to fight crime?

Each time I write a volume of Hero Unit or come up with ideas for a volume, as is the case for volumes 4 and 5, I have to ask myself that question.  Is this the one where Ace finally has had enough?  Right now, that answer is still no.  She’s going to be a EED Hero for at least five or six books, possibly more.  That’s the kind of character I’ve written. 

Oddly, all of the fantasy series/books I’ve started have a definite ending to them.  The Seven Swords series will have an end.  How many books it will be is still in flux, but I know what the ending point is.  I know what the ending point for Bard’s Story is. 

That seems to be the way of fantasy, though.  We expect fantasy series to end.  It’s always struck me as odd, that once a story arch is finished, in a fantasy setting at least, we expect that series to be done.  Even in large worlds, like Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar, we have three book arcs that start and end an event.  There is an overarching theme, but no one group of characters that have been present from beginning to end.

Even massive, epic fantasy, like the Wheel of Time, the Stormlight Archive, or The Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) there is an end.  It might take longer to get there, but there is an end.  I’ve often wondered why, why do we expect endings when it comes to fantasy series?

Sci-fi also fits into this idea as well. 

There is one genre that seems to get away with both, and that’s urban fantasy.  The Dresden Files comes to mind, and while I get the feeling there is a potential end, I also don’t see it coming for a few more books, at least. 

It’s a question I don’t really have an answer to.  I find it odd that these are the assumptions that we all make as readers/writers.  I imagine that often in fantasy there is a villain that must be defeated, or all is lost!  Even then it isn’t as if these character’s lives end once the villain is gone, well not always at least.

I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.