Every now and then i look to see if sequels are in progress

So, I’ve mentioned Rosemary Kirstein’s Steerswoman several times recently as a series that is (a) fantastic, but (b) unfinished. Of course this is not the only example of this unfortunate phenomenon. Every now and then, one hears good news about something like this. On occasion, I go looking for good news. Or any news. So:

1) Steerswoman. No news. I haven’t given up hope. A few years ago, I met Kirstein at a convention and asked directly about this series. She still planned, or at least hoped, to finish it at that time. I’m not exactly optimistic that we will ever see the rest of this series, but I’m not deeply pessimistic either.

2) I save deep pessimism for the second half of Robin McKinley’s Pegasus. I’m morally certain we will never see the sequel. I have grave doubts that we’ll ever see another book of any kind from McKinley. From time to time, there are fragments of news that McKinley is working on something — a sequel to Sunshine called Albion (she said she was working on that in 2008). Or a new book featuring a Deinonychus. Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll ever see any of these books. I believe McKinley is suffering from a chronic illness and also has had trouble working on anything since her husband became ill and passed away. If anyone has seen anything about McKinley in the last year or so, it would be nice to know if she is okay, whether or not she is working on anything.

Meanwhile, I am very optimistic about —

3) The second installment of Hild by Nicola Griffith. Griffith has been pretty good about providing updates about what’s going on with her life and what she’s working on. You probably recall Griffith has MS and paused to write an autobiographical novel about that, interrupting work on the Hild series. However, this past November, this post came out declaring that the sequel to Hild, Menewood, is finished. If this book is being traditionally published, I expect it will probably come out in 2022 or 2023, depending on how fast revisions go and where there’s space in the publisher’s calendar. That will give us a pause of roughly ten years between the first book and the second. And the series won’t be finished, even though each book is a monster. I won’t wait for this series to be completed. Hild was probably my favorite book of the year when I read it. It is just an amazing work. Griffith is stunning as a stylist and equally stunning as a historical author. One of these days I should do a top ten list of my all-time, absolute favorite books ever. Hild will be on that list.

In the meantime, I see that Griffith has a new short novel, an Arthurian story, coming out next spring. Anything by Griffith is always good news, so that’s nice to see. I bet it was a nice, easy story compared to the Hild series, as anything would be.

What’s a sequel you would particularly like to see? With a bonus gold star if you also have any kind of news about when and if that sequel might appear.

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