Unnecessary Sequels

I may have written about this before, but it bears another look, and that's sequels that had no business being written.  I get it - books that make a decent amount of money will have people clamoring over them for another payday, and many authors will give in(because hey, who doesn't like money?).  Audiences also liked the first book - usually - and a sequel allows them to go back into a fun and familiar universe.  Unfortunately, some books just weren't meant for sequels.

Bad sequels usually come from forced publication.  The first story was good, but it ran its course.  The author write a stand-alone novel and never meant for it to continue.  Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee comes to mind - Atticus Finch was done in To Kill A Mockingbird, but people kept after Lee for years to write another story in Atticus' universe, so she obliged, with poor results.  The Lost Symbol was a sequel the story of The DaVinci Code that the original book didn't set up or create a need for(outside of making tons of money) since the first one wrapped up the story pretty well.  And has anyone heard of Gump & Company?  Probably not given how shitty it did.

Such sequels are forced, and it shows in the quality.  The writer is obviously flying by the seat of his or her pants, and half the time it's like they found themselves writing something they never meant to write.  Audiences end up souring on the whole series based on terrible books and stories that make the original bad just through association(much like the Star Wars sequels under Disney, Rogue One being the sole exception).  It makes me wonder how many of these bad and unnecessary sequels were written badly by accident, or if the author did it to shut up fans that wouldn't leave them alone.

Some stories stand alone, and we need to be able to accept that.  It's hard, because we so enjoyed the first, but it's that thirdt for just a bit more that makes a book good.  Otherwise we end up with hyponatremia.