overripe fruit

[psocoptera]

So apparently Gaiman is writing a new Sandman story. Is this actually good news? I feel like creators going back to their most well-known early universes rarely produces anything up to the quality of their early works - in fact, I can't offhand think of an exception to this. Anyone?

Here are some of the cases I've already thought about:
Orson Scott Card's "Shadow" books revisiting the Ender universe
Asimov's later Foundation books vs the original trilogy
Vinge's recent Tines book
David Brin's later Uplift trilogy vs Startide Rising and Uplift War
George Lucas's Star Wars prequels
Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull

The only counterexample I've come up with so far, after more thinking, is Jo's Boys, which was published fifteen years after Little Men. And I guess one could count the Lord of the Rings vs the Hobbit, although honestly, though it borders on blasphemy, I think a certain amount of Tolkien's later History of Middle-Earth work fits the pattern of "bloated and unnecessary".

Comments

[q10.livejournal.com]

does either of the first two 24th-century Star Trek series count? both were uneven, but taken as a whole i think either is pretty competitive with the original series (which, to be fair, was also pretty uneven).

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Hrm. It's been awhile since I gave any thought to the who's who of Trek - I feel like once upon a time I was quite interested in who was producing and writing and directing and all that, but that was, um, more than half my life ago now - but my impression is that TNG was much more about a new influx of talent into the Trek universe, rather than Roddenberry personally having a resurgence of Trek ideas. I think new people reigniting a shared universe is a different thing. (Although sometimes a related thing - I haven't read any of the non-Asimov Foundation novels, nor the non-Herbert Dune novels, but I doubt they'd exist if Asimov and Herbert hadn't been extending those universes past their original main works.)

[q10.livejournal.com]

my understanding is that TNG starting to get good and Gene Roddenberry agreeing to take a less active role in the creative work of the show went hand in hand, so, yeah, fair enough.