Steig Larsson's Partner To Finish 4th Book

aruna · Jan 15, 2011

gothicangel said:
I think the book should be left unfinished.

I used to devour Richard Laymon's books. When he died, the publisher 'discovered' trunked manuscripts. I read several, but they were nowhere near his regular standard. More books have been published since, but I have no interest in reading them, never mind paying for them. As a writer, he dropped in by estimation because of these actions.

His partner is playing a risky game with his reputation.

I agree. It seems to me she's just trying to save or get hold of what she can; but if she was really his writing partner and is good enough a writer then she should write her own original books, not try to continue the series. She will find a publisher and market just based on who she is alone. She has built in publicity and readership.

gothicangel · Jan 15, 2011

aruna said:
I agree. It seems to me she's just trying to save or get hold of what she can; but if she was really his writing partner and is good enough a writer then she should write her own original books, not try to continue the series. She will find a publisher and market just based on who she is alone. She has built in publicity and readership.

Agreed.

Terie · Jan 15, 2011

I disagree that she 'shouldn't' continue the series. If an agreement between the parties can be reached, I for one would love to read more about those characters. Maybe I will love her own work, too, but if she really is part-creator, I don't see why she shouldn't continue writing in that world.

Seriously, it's like any other licensed property. James Bond. Nancy Drew. Foundation. (Do you have any idea how coveted the contracts to write more Foundation books were amongst SF authors?) Gone with the Wind. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. And lots more licensed properties. As long as readers want to read more, and again, assuming the legalities can be sorted out, there's no reason whatsoever not to publish more Millenium books. If his surviving partner gets to write some or all of them, more power to her.

But to each their own.

aruna · Jan 15, 2011

You're right, it's not for us to decide what she "should" do. I'm just thinking that with all the conflict involved between her and the family and the surely complicated legalities involved as a result, a fresh start is surely less complicated. I couldn't imagine following in the footsteps of another writer amid so much emotional upheaval, distress and animosity... I need a clear head, but that's just me!

Jamesaritchie · Jan 15, 2011

She should do whatever she wishes, and whatever she has the legal right to do. It harms no one. It's a book, not the Ten Commandments chiseled in stone. No one has to buy it, no one has to read it, and it isn't harming any other writer out there. It isn't harming any of his family, either.

gothicangel · Jan 15, 2011

Jamesaritchie said:
It isn't harming any of his family, either.

We don't know that though.

Terie · Jan 15, 2011

Jamesaritchie said:
She should do whatever she wishes, and whatever she has the legal right to do. It harms no one. It's a book, not the Ten Commandments chiseled in stone. No one has to buy it, no one has to read it, and it isn't harming any other writer out there. It isn't harming any of his family, either.

(bolding mine)

gothicangel said:
We don't know that though.

Oh, c'mon. In this hypothetical discussion, we're saying 'assuming the legalities are sorted'. Naturally, if the legal owners of the IP never licence it, no more Millenium books will be published. Full stop. Period.

Do we have to say 'if the legalities are sorted' in every sentence? Or can we just say it once in a given post an assume that it applies to the rest of the post?

blacbird · Jan 15, 2011

gothicangel said:
We don't know that though.

Yeah, we do, pretty much. I'm confident his estate retains all the necessary legal rights, and the publishers, who are hardly a fly-by-night outfit, know how to facilitate the necessary arrangements. Nobody here is going to be interested in cheating anybody else. Larsson's books are huge moneymakers for everybody, and his family would be complete imbeciles not to permit a proper and undoubtedly lucrative agreement to take place.

The only question will be: How good are the subsequent books? If they fail to live up to whatever attracted millions of readers to the original Larsson novels, then readers will complain by not buying. But I'd bet my second-best cat that the first new "Larsson" penned by someone else will sell like Tickle-Me-Elmo.

Ingvanye · Jan 15, 2011

Steig was brought up by his grandmother, they lived near my cousins. He never had much to do with his father and brother, because they were not very nice and were trouble-makers.

Eva stuck by him since she was a teenager and she loved him dearly, falling apart when he died. The father and brother only turned up to get their hands on his computer.

My in-laws are the same kind of people. Horrible.

STKlingaman · Jan 15, 2011

From Wikipedia;

Larsson left about three quarters of a fourth novel on a notebook computer, now possessed by his partner, Eva Gabrielsson; synopses or manuscripts of the fifth and sixth in the series, which he intended to contain an eventual total of ten books, may also exist.

ajkjd01 · Jan 15, 2011

This reminds me of a blog post Neil Gaiman put up a few years ago. It still applies. And he explains it so much better than many people could.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/10/important-and-pass-it-on.html

Most of this applies in the US. If you're in the US, remember that every state has its own rules for wills, so you'll want to make sure you've talked to an attorney about your state's regulations. If you're outside of the US, it's worth bringing this to your attorney's attention and asking what you should do.

Honestly, I'm not published, and I'm single (at the moment). Both of those factors could change. I know that I need to do some estate planning for myself now that I've bought a house (and I'm an attorney myself, just not that kind of attorney). I do not plan to do my own, but I plan to print out this blog entry and take it to my attorney when I do get this done.

aruna · Jan 15, 2011

Ingvanye said:
My in-laws are the same kind of people. Horrible.

Mine too. My husband's parens disinherited him when he moved in with me, and then his adult kids conspired to get their hands on the rest of his inheritance (he still had a right to half). They got it too, leaving him with nothing.

ajkjd01 said:
This reminds me of a blog post Neil Gaiman put up a few years ago. It still applies. And he explains it so much better than many people could.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/10/important-and-pass-it-on.html

.

There's a thread on this on AW.
I made this will, leaving everything to my kids, cutting out my husband for the reason explained above.

rebmacrath · Jan 16, 2011

Ingvanye said:
Steig was brought up by his grandmother, they lived near my cousins. He never had much to do with his father and brother, because they were not very nice and were trouble-makers.

Eva stuck by him since she was a teenager and she loved him dearly, falling apart when he died. The father and brother only turned up to get their hands on his computer.

My in-laws are the same kind of people. Horrible.

This bolsters my impression that when Big Daddy was alive the two good men must have regarded him as a total loser. Goodness, how they love him now.

Willowmound · Jan 18, 2011

Soccer Mom said:
Typo in the title is corrected.

Don't know what that typo was, but you might want to correct his misspelled first name too.

dgaughran · Jan 18, 2011

Phaeal said:
I can't stand these book fishers.

That said, we're supposed to be surprised? The sound of the cash register is compelling.

The big message to take away from this article is: IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO AVAIL YOURSELF OF THE PROTECTIONS SUPPLIED BY MARRIAGE, DON'T LET YOUR PARTNER DIE INTESTATE. Get that will. And durable power of attorney. And healthcare power of attorney. At which point, you know, it's cheaper to get married. Plus you might get some presents.

I'm living in Sweden now, and from what I can gather, they had very good reasons for not marrying - he was living under constant fear of his life, and if they married, their address would have been in the public domain.

Also, as far as I understand, being unmarried, under Swedish law, they could not draw up a will making her the beneficiary of his estate.

I am happy to correct any of the above, if shown to be false, but that is my understanding based on a wide variety of media reports.

Eddyz Aquila · Jan 18, 2011

I'll probably read only the fourth book (or is it the fifth?) because he wrote almost all of it. Otherwise, the future ones, I'll skip, because I prefer Larsson's writing style and surely it's different from his partner.

Still, I wish good luck to her.

Terie · Jan 18, 2011

Eddyz Aquila said:
I'll probably read only the fourth book (or is it the fifth?) because he wrote almost all of it. Otherwise, the future ones, I'll skip, because I prefer Larsson's writing style and surely it's different from his partner.

Still, I wish good luck to her.

1) How can you possibly know you prefer her writing style over his if you've never read hers? What if it turns out hers is better? You still wouldn't read it?

2) How do you know you've never read hers? From some of the scuttlebutt I've heard here and there, there's a possibility that she did some of the writing in the other books or at least some crucial editing.

Momento Mori · Jan 18, 2011

Eddyz Aquila:
I'll probably read only the fourth book (or is it the fifth?) because he wrote almost all of it. Otherwise, the future ones, I'll skip, because I prefer Larsson's writing style and surely it's different from his partner.

That's open to debate. There's been suggestions that Eva was heavily involved in the first two books from an editing perspective as Stieg had a reputation of not actually being a great writer.

Whatever the truth, we'll probably never know.

Personally, if Eva wants to put a fourth book out and she's legally entitled to then good luck to her. I won't be reading it only because I didn't enjoy the original trilogy (especially the third one which needed to lose about a third of the pages) but no doubt there are thousands who will.

MM

Eddyz Aquila · Jan 18, 2011

Terie said:
1) How can you possibly know you prefer her writing style over his if you've never read hers? What if it turns out hers is better? You still wouldn't read it?

Because it's HIS story.

I'm not sure if you get my point over here but I prefer to read the original author, regardless of whether his writing is not on par with his partner's. It is his own book and there's a certain "lack of matching" when it comes to reading the same story by a different author. Hope it's clear enough.

2) How do you know you've never read hers? From some of the scuttlebutt I've heard here and there, there's a possibility that she did some of the writing in the other books or at least some crucial editing.

Read my point above. It's a bit complicated but I would definitely prefer his own writing. If her writing is good, I might try it out so my bad over there for not expressing my point correctly.

Terie · Jan 19, 2011

Eddyz Aquila said:
Because it's HIS story.
I'm not sure if you get my point over here but I prefer to read the original author, regardless of whether his writing is not on par with his partner's. It is his own book and there's a certain "lack of matching" when it comes to reading the same story by a different author. Hope it's clear enough.

Read my point above. It's a bit complicated but I would definitely prefer his own writing. If her writing is good, I might try it out so my bad over there for not expressing my point correctly.

You seem to have missed what two of us pointed out: the series was very likely a cooperative effort. Some of his journalist colleagues have said that the writing of the books is better than his writing, which is an indication that they were probably co-written to some (unknown) extent.

I'm not saying you 'should' read any other books that might come out. That would be silly.

I'm saying that the original reasons you gave for not wanting to do so don't make sense. If his partner did, let's say for the sake of discussion, half the plotting and one-quarter of the writing, and three-quarters of the editing, then you HAVE read her writing and you HAVE read her version of the story, too. (To clarify, I'm not saying she did....I'm being hypothetical. We really don't know how much of her work is in the books.)

What if you found out the he did the plotting and she did all the character development? What if you found out that he wrote in synopsis fashion and she turned it into narrative prose? (Again, not saying this is the case. Just being hypothetical.)

If you don't want to read any more (hypothetical) Millenium books, that's grand. You have every right to choose what you do and don't want to read. But in this particular case, suggesting that it's for some reason of 'purity of Larsson's vision' is kind of silly: it's pretty well established that the books were to some degree collaborative.

Ingvanye · Jan 21, 2011

I agree Terie, they were together over 30 years, her essence is most probably intertwined all through the books. I also have heard that he wasn't quite the most gifted writer, so there's a fair chance Eva's work is heavily on display.

To say they were his books alone, would be an unfair assumption. They may be, but then, they also may not be.

If one has read the published books, then in all fairness, one should also have a go at any future ones authored by Eva before making such assumptions.

whimsical rabbit · Jan 22, 2011

The only thing I'd like to add to this discussion is that, if I ever die leaving my work unfinished (and with the pace I'm writing, this is the most probable thing to happen

) I'd just LOVE it if my husband, with whom I share the best and the worst, and is a mirror of myself, and would never step on my name for money and for that much I am sure, would continue my novel because he simply knows how much it means to me, both to complete it and get it published.

He would do it to honour me. In my memory.

So I'm with her. Losing your partner of years is one of the worst things that can happen to someone, and for that reason I stand with her and support her wholeheartedly.

Steig Larsson's Partner To Finish 4th Book

On a wing and a prayer

Toughen up.

Writer is as Writer does

On a wing and a prayer

Toughen up.

Writer is as Writer does

Somebody moved the goal posts...

Followed the Red Brick Road

I just have to be faster.

On a wing and a prayer

Lightly salted

Noob Writers United

Writer is as Writer does

Tired and Disillusioned

Noob Writers United

Writer is as Writer does

Somebody moved the goal posts...

Bunned