The Sword and Laser discussion

So does anyone have some suggestions for books written in established universes, but not by the original authors? I'm sort of looking for suggestions for authors who have perhaps taken something that is in the public domain and built upon the universe. For example has anyone written a great story about Peter Pan and Neverland? Perhaps the Wizard of Oz or some other universe?

Hugh Howey supports people writing in the Silo/Wool universe. He often leaves reviews!

John Scalzi (Fuzzy Nation) retold the Fuzzy story by H. Beam Piper (Little Fuzzy).

There are some really good Star Wars and Star Trek books out there, but I don't think that is the type of thing you are looking for. While I can't think of any I have read, I know authors sometimes do anthologies set in worlds they created, like GRRM and the Wild Card series.

Oh, for public domain charcters there is The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1 written by Allan More and drawn by Kevin O'Neill that is a very good graphic novel series that has several charcters from the 19'th century interacting. Later in the series they even get some big 20'th century charcters involved.

The Three B's (Benford, Bear, and Brin) wrote a Second Foundation Trilogy. But, I wouldn't necessarily call them good books.

—Foundation's Fear
—Foundation and Chaos
—Foundation's Triumph

And, Mickey Zucker Reichert just completed a trilogy about a young Susan Calvin from Asimov's I, Robot, with varying success.

—I, Robot: To Protect
—I, Robot: To Obey
—I, Robot: To Preserve

Matthew wrote: "So does anyone have some suggestions for books written in established universes, but not by the original authors?"

Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos is the archetypal example here. From the get-go back in the 1920s he encouraged people to use his creations. Robert Howard jumped on that immediately. And then killed himself. Probably unrelated.

Recently Cherie Priest has utilized it superbly with Maplecroft and Chapelwood, mashing up Cthulhu and Lizzie Borden.

Matthew wrote: "For example has anyone written a great story about Peter Pan and Neverland? Perhaps the Wizard of Oz or some other universe? "

That Maguire dude has made millions riffing on Oz. He's practically an industry unto himself.

There's an entire subculture devoted to reimagining Peter Pan or looking at the other characters. Tiger Lily, Wendy, Capt. Hook, Peter Panzerfaust, Vol. 1: The Great Escape, etc.

Leesa mentioned Fuzzy Nation. I quite like what Scalzi did with Piper's books.

Niven opened up Known Space for the series of The Man-Kzin Wars collections, with stories of varying quality.

Do books like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies count?

I just finished a great novella that redoes a classic Lovecraft tale. The Lovecraft story, The Horror At Red Hook, is highly xenophobic. Victor LaValle uses it to tell a similar story but with a very different spin in The Ballad of Black Tom.

Ian C. Esslemont writes in Steven Erikson's Malazan universe.

I'm not sure if this qualifies, but what about the last three book of The Wheel of Time saga? The books were written by Brandon Sanderson at Robert Jordan's request, when Jordan discovered that his chronic medical condition would most likely result in his death before he could complete the series.

John (Nevets) wrote: "Oh, for public domain charcters there is The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1 written by Allan More and drawn by Kevin O'Neill that is a very good graphic novel series that has several charcters from the 19'th century interacting. Later in the series they even get some big 20'th century charcters involved."

Philip Jose Farmer is probably the ballsiest author to do this. He mashed up a bunch of characters that were still under copyright. Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Mowgli, Doc Savage,

A million years ago I read Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula. I don't recall if it was that good, I was just a kid, but it was a great concept and I think there was lots of action. Might have been more in a series?

I think it was this one. Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula

There's an entire series of stories written in Oz in a collection called "Oz Reimagined." I read one of them (which I bought standalone) by Tad Williams where one of the Otherland worlds is Oz.

Matthew wrote: "So does anyone have some suggestions for books written in established universes, but not by the original authors? I'm sort of looking for suggestions for authors who have perhaps taken something th..."

I really, really liked this one: Toto's Tale and True Chronicle of Oz

Thane wrote: "A million years ago I read Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula. I don't recall if it was that good, I was just a kid, but it was a great concept and I think there was lots of action. Might have been more i..."

Fred Saberhagen did a couple of Holmes and Dracula mashups.

An Old Friend of the Family was the first one.

@Sky, Ian is actually close friends with Erikson. I believe they both co-created the Malazan universe through their RPG group they play in.

Matthew wrote: "For example has anyone written a great story about Peter Pan and Neverland?"

To address your specific example, Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson co-wrote a bestselling series of books about Peter Pan. The first one is Peter and the Starcatchers

I haven't read them myself, so I can't speak to their quality. But both authors are fairly well-respected.

Leesa wrote: "Hugh Howey supports people writing in the Silo/Wool universe. He often leaves reviews!"

Where might these be found?

If you are a fan of David Weber's Honorverse series, check out the sub-series of books written by Eric Flint. These books deal with secondary characters involved with espionage. The prequels written by Timothy Zahn are also very good.

Nokomis.FL wrote: "Leesa wrote: "Hugh Howey supports people writing in the Silo/Wool universe. He often leaves reviews!"

Where might these be found?"

Amazon, apparently. Other ebook retailers, as well, I presume.

http://www.hughhowey.com/a-new-wool-b...

The Borderlands series is a shared universe where different authors have written books set in that universe. The books tend to be hit or miss. Finder is the one I liked the most.

Thane wrote: "A million years ago I read Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula. I don't recall if it was that good, I was just a kid, but it was a great concept and I think there was lots of action. Might have been more i..."

Thane's post reminded me of another example. Fred Saberhagen wrote a series of books told from the viewpoint of Dracula that were very good. The first book is The Dracula Tape.

link to series listing

There's quite a few Man\Kzin Wars books from different authors, off Niven's original Known Space works. Quality varies, but if you can get them cheap they could be fun.

Similar with the "of Worlds" series, Fleet of Worlds and its followups. Niven is listed as co author, but it's largely written by Ed Lerner off cocktail napkins from Niven. Fair to middling. If you love Known Space and can deal with a mechanical writing style, it is a fun nostalgia run with some new and fairly interesting elements.

I tried a couple of those Lerner books. They were so dull. They have the same problem the prequels do (you know the ones), where filling in the backstory is completely uninteresting.

^Yeah, and I didn't love the Ringworld followup either. It all depends on how much you're jonesing for Known Space. I read them all, acknowledging they were inferior to the originals but found them worthwhile enough to continue.

Louie wrote: "The Three B's (Benford, Bear, and Brin) wrote a Second Foundation Trilogy. But, I wouldn't necessarily call them good books.

—[book:Foundation's Fear|..."

There was also a series of Robot mystery novels written by, I think, a couple of different authors, including Alexander Irvine's Have Robot, Will Travel. I enjoyed these greatly and felt they fit in with the Asimov's established universe - as opposed to those Susan Calvin novels...

SporadicReviews.com wrote: "There was also a series of Robot mystery novels written by, I think, a couple of different authors, including Alexander Irvine...

There have been a lot of writings in Asimov's universe. I particularly remember the Robot City series, starting with this: Odyssey

Since almost every book is written by a different author, it's rather uneven as a series, but at least the first couple books were pretty good, relying heavily on the esteemed Laws of Robotics.

SporadicReviews.com wrote: "There was also a series of Robot mystery novels written by, I think, a couple of different authors, including Alexander Irvine's Have Robot, Will Travel. I enjoyed these greatly and felt they fit in with the Asimov's established universe - as opposed to those Susan Calvin novels"

Hm, I will have to check those out. I loved the mystery/detective aspect of those robot novels. I hope there will be an R. Daneel Olivaw appearance in at least one of them.

Geir wrote: "SporadicReviews.com wrote: "There was also a series of Robot mystery novels written by, I think, a couple of different authors, including Alexander Irvine...

There have been a lot of writings in Asimov's universe. I particularly remember the Robot City series, starting with this: Odyssey.."

I read the first Robot City series ages ago. If I'm not mistaken, those new Robot Mystery novels I mentioned star the main character from the Robot City novels. Oh, and I wikipedia'd the series: It's a trilogy by Mark W. Tiedmann. The title I mentioned was a fourth, I believe, with the same characters.

I forgot about the Caliban series (or Inferno) by Roger MacBride Allen. I enjoyed that one too. It's another series of Robot novels set in Asimov's universe.

Donald Kingsbury's Psychohistorical Crisis is a fascinating sequel to the Asimov Foundation trilogy.

A darker take of the Peter Pan tale by Brom. The Child Thief

I second the silo series by hugh howey. There are loads of absolutely excellent stories set in his world. There is a trilogy that he even reviews as better written than his original. I think the first one is called the runner. They are excellent.

I recently went back and read all of scalzis work again and fuzzy nation is a truly excellent version.

I was also going to recommend the Borderland series...

also, there is The Time Ships, which is a sequel to The Time Machine.

The OP mentions Peter Pan, have you read Peter Pan in Scarlet?

Also there is the final Gormenghast book - Titus Awakes - which was written by the original author's wife.

Speaking of Eric Flint, the 1632 series is a coordinated by Flint but not always written by him. (1632

And the The Mongoliad: Book One was a similar project.

The various D&D universes (Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, etc) and their novels were usually started by one or two people (who would write the core) and expanded on by many others.

Also, it has been common on recent years to reinterpret (modernize, prequel, or perspective changes) on old fairy tales. Books like Wicked or the Looking Glass Wars series.

Jasper Fforde has the Thursday Next series which features a lot of literary references and characters from a lot of other books, though I only got some of the references to classic novels. I personally enjoyed his Nursery Crimes series more, which is a mash-up world of nursery rhymes characters living together in one universe.

Also Wide Sargasso Sea in relation to Jane Eyre?