John Marsden’s excellent series that started with Tomorrow When the War Began came to a true-to-itself ending with The Other Side of Dawn. I realize there have been more books about the heroine, but I consider them a separate series.

Lord of the Rings also has a great ending because it fulfills both the plot resolution and one of the overarching thematic concerns of the series.

Harry Potter and the Malazan Book of the Fallen both pulled back slightly at their ends, because you got the feeling the authors were too fond of too many of their characters to have the final body count be what you might have expected.

Looking at the above comments, it appears I value an ending that is consistent with what came before–what being not only the development of the plot and character arcs, but also the “tone” and the themes that the author is treating as important. That still allows for an element of surprise in how it all gets brought back home. But in the end, the author definitely should bring it all back home.

I thought it interesting that we both listed the Skaith books by Leigh Brackett. While Brackett is one of my very favorite writers, I always felt like the third book read more like a novel of contractual obligation. It just didn’t seem to have the fire and passion of the first two. But then, that was also the last novel she wrote, and she might have been pretty ill at the time.

Howard Andrew Jones

The ending to the Phedre Trilogy, to pick up Veronica’s answer, was gut wrenching and very difficult and dark. Powerful and effective, but difficult and dark.