Can you think of any sequels better than the original...?

[First Speaker]

...most sequels have obvious problems, really too obvious to enumerate. For one to really work, you have to both grow as an artist, and just uproot and rethink the original completely. Even Shakespeare wasn't able to avoid the sequel trap, as seen by *The Merry Wives of Windsor*, or even "Henry the Fourth, Part Two*. I can only think of two sequels that unmistakably improve on the originals: Joyce's *Ulysses*, sequel to *Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man*; and *The Lord of the Rings*, sequel to *The Hobbit*. Both books, though, are overwhelmingly more ambitious than their predecessors. The same might be said for Heinlein's *Time Enough For Love*, in which his *Methuselah's Children* is updated--by 2,000 years! Can anyone think of some others?

[Walleye]

1. Movie "The Gods Must be Crazy II"

[Jeebo]

2. All of Asimov's Foundation novels.

Every single one of them was great. First Speaker Preem Palver knows that, I am sure.

I've read through the whole Foundation series (just the ones written by Asimov before he died) several times. Every time he wrote another one, I read through all the ones to date another time just to refresh my memory before reading the new one. I must have read the original Foundation Trilogy in its entirety about a dozen times. And I'm still not tired of it.

-- Ron

[First Speaker]

4. I kinda regard the original "trilogy" as one distinctive "work"...

...and the later ones--well, maybe yes, maybe no. "Foundation's Edge" is a lot of fun, though I'm not sure the concept of Gaia helps the Asimovian universe any. And to be frank, I got a little tired of Seldon and Trantor towards the end--I wanted to be out in the Foundation galaxy...

[Jeebo]

6. Blissenobiarella and R. Daneel Olivaw are unforgettable characters.

But Asimov himself admitted that he could not make his later novels completely consistent with the original trilogy, because he didn't start out intending for all of his novels to be part of the same universe.

One thing about Asimov that stands out: Of all the authors I've ever heard talking about writing in general, they all talk about how hard it is. My father was a poet and he always said that writing is "one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." I attended a science fiction convention in 1988 at which Larry Niven was one of the guests of honor. He said he "sweats blood" when he writes. I've heard others say things like this, always about what hard work it is.

Except Asimov. He was the only one I've ever heard say that "writing is easy" for him. And when you consider how many books he wrote, how many stories, essays, I tend to believe him.

-- Ron

[First Speaker]

12. I remember once reading about the last story in the "trilogy"...

…"Search by the Foundation", called "...And Now You Don't" in its original Astounding appearance. Asimov said that for that one, at least, he had to strain for it to work, that he found writing it difficult, unusual for him, as you indicated. That was also--the November, 1949 Astounding--the famous "trick" issue. In November, 1948's letter's page, a fan wrote a mock appreciation of the November, *1949* issue. "...And Now You Don't" was one of the stories--along with Heinlein's "Gulf", incidentally. Campbell got to work and had the stories in November, 1949, match the "predicted" contents page. Maybe that's why Asimov sweated--he was working to specs, so to speak, instead of according to his own internal clock. Even so, it's one of my favorite Asimov stories--obviously...

[Laffy Kat]

3. "Aliens"

The first one was damn good, the second one was even better. Every one after that sucked, IMO.

[Bayard]

10. First one I thought of....

[tblue37]

5. Terminator 2. nt

[sfstaxprep]

7. The Empire Strikes Back nt

[Control-Z]

8. Yes!

MIB 3.

[AleksS]

9. Empire Strikes Back is widely acknowledged superior to ANH

That’s the first one that comes to mind.

As far as books go, let me get back to you in a couple days. I’m reorganizing the library and I’m sure I’ll think of some.

[Jeebo]

11. "Dragon's Egg" and "Starquake" by Robert L. Forward

The two hardest-to-put-down novels I've ever read.

No, I take that back, those two novels were not hard to put down, they were IMPOSSIBLE to put down. I didn't get any sleep for a couple of nights.

The novels were about these little guys called the Cheela who lived on a neutron star. Their bodies were made of neutron star material. They lived by neutron-star processes instead of our much slower chemical processes, so that they lived at a much faster rate than humans, so that the humans who were observing them and interacting with them were witnessing dozens of Cheela generations in just a few minutes time. It was very positive, noble, uplifting, because of the way the humans helped the Cheela, and the Cheela helped the humans. I get so tired of the violent conflicts in fiction, everybody schemes and manipulates and mistrusts and suspects and fights with each other, but these novels are not like that. They're about a beautiful friendship and collaboration and mutual assistance between two civilizations. That was a theme in Forward's novels, in fact.

-- Ron

[First Speaker]

13. Thanks. I've heard of those books, but never read them...

...since we all have plenty of time, maybe I'll get around to them...

[fantase56]

14. Shrek II........

Much funnier

[nocoincidences]

15. Predator 2

So much better than 1!

[muntrv]

16. Meet The Fockers. Funnier than Meet The Parents.

[mr_lebowski]

21. I cannot concur on this one ... (nt)

[GeorgeGist]

17. Godfather II

[jmowreader]

18. The Road Warrior

[mr_lebowski]

20. Agreed ... it's way bigger budget though ... not that this always makes a better movie of course nt

[mr_lebowski]

19. Well ... Elfstones of Shannara was better than Sword of Shannara ...

Wrath of Khan and Search For Spock were WAAAAY the fuck better than Star Trek the Movie.

Lots of the Batman movies were much better than the original.

Terminator 2 as mentioned above for sure.

Dunno about Aliens over Alien though. Been awhile since I watched either. Aliens is probably more entertaining but Alien was a legit phenomenon and a classic, great horror flick. Aliens is more an action movie as I recall it.

[flotsam]

22. Gotta quibble

I thought the humor shown in Star Trek IV-The Voyage Home was the best of the franchise and could easily stand on it's own without prior knowledge of the series.

[mr_lebowski]

24. Oh, I won't argue that ...

A number of Star Trek movies were better than STTM, including IV.

I just kinda think of IV as a different 'storyline' more or less so I didn't include it.

[malthaussen]

23. Well, I just finished the Millennium Trilogy...

... by Stieg Larsen. IMO, the books get better as the series goes on. There are a number of genre fiction series in which later books of the series are better than the earlier. It often happens that an author is "discovered" because of a blockbuster written several volumes into a series. Sometimes, going back to the earlier, "unknown" volumes uncovers gems, sometimes not so much.

If you consider The Baroque Cycle (Neal Stephenson) to be the "sequel" of Cryptonomicon, then I'd argue it is "better" than the original, although Cryptonomicon might arguably be better than any single volume of the trilogy.

-- Mal