History AbortedArc / Literature

* ''Literature/JurassicPark'' ends with the revelation that some dinosaurs have escaped to the Costa Rican mainland. Once Site B is introduced, no mention is made of them. This is briefly discussed in the second book, where a character mentions that they tried to look for them and found nothing, but the jungles of Costa Rica are dense enough that they could easily remain hidden there. It should also be noted that Creator/MichaelCrichton hated sequels, and that ''Literature/TheLostWorld1995'' was only written at the insistence of Creator/StevenSpielberg so that he could make a 2nd movie. Thus many parts had to be retconned and threads that were meant to be left open to illustrate the unleashed dangers were ignored. Made worse by the fact Spielberg used very little of the 2nd book for the sequel movie(s).

** There's also Harry's mind-blocking Occlumency training in ''Order of the Pheonix''. The goal was for Harry to learn Occlumency from Snape in order for him to block out the visions that he's been receiving from Voldemort. However, the Occlumency classes end up being dropped before Harry completes the training, so the visions continue anyway. In addition, Harry being partially taught in Occlumency never comes into play at any time afterwards.

** There's also Harry's mind-blocking Occlumency training in ''Order of the Pheonix''. The goal was for Harry to learn Occlumency from Snape in order for him to block out the visions that he's been receiving from Voldemort. However, the Occlumency classes end up being dropped before Harry completes the training, so the visions continue anyway.

** There's also Harry's mind-blocking Occlumency training in ''Order of the Pheonix''. The goal was for Harry to learn Occlumency in order for him to block out the visions that he's been receiving from Voldemort. However, the Occlumency classes ends up being dropped before Harry completes the training, so the visions continue anyway.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has Florean Fortescue, an ice-cream maker who was noted a few books. In ''Prisoner of Azkaban'', he's mentioned helping Harry with his History of Magic homework, ''Order of the Phoenix'' namedropped a former Hogwarts Headmaster named Dexter Fortescue, and ''Half-Blood Prince'' mentioned him vanishing, likely dragged off by Death Eaters. Creator/JKRowling was planning to foreshadow him being the one who explained the various historical magical artifacts to turn up in ''Deathly Hallows'', but she eventually decided that the subplot wasn't going anywhere, and handed the explanations to other characters, with Fortescue's disappearance never being revisited.

* ''Literature/TowerAndTheHive'': At the climax of the third book, ''Damia's Children'', Zara makes a mental connection to the captive Hiver queen, thus can tell that the temperature in her enclosure is set too low. Zara lets the authorities (who had failed in every attempt to communicate with the queen and couldn't figure out why she seemed to be going dormant). This saves the queen's life and seemed to be a breakthrough in communicating with, thus understanding, the Hivers. This plot point is ignored in the next book, ''Lyon's Pride''. And when it is mentioned again, it's in the context of "We don't know how Zara did it, neither does she, and we haven't been able to do it again" and ignored, past the implication that Zara's refusal to take part in operations against Hiver ships was due to her mental connection. She's eventually PutOnABus to Earth to study medicine and is never mentioned again after that.

* ''Literature/{{Ward}}'': In one interlude, we're shown Teacher's faction laying the groundwork for some kind of plan on Earth Cheit, by using Mama Mathers' power to plant the seeds for manipulating the minds of their world leaders. Nothing ever comes of this, and Earth Cheit is seemingly entirely forgotten about for the rest of the story, despite political tensions with them suggesting a conflict would happen at some point.

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline'', the second volume brings up how Karen "LLENN" Kohiruimaki is taking great pains to keep her Gun Gale Online playing a secret from her family, who disapproves of VRMMO games after [[LightNovel/SwordArtOnline roughly 4,000 people died playing Sword Art Online]]. As Karen begins putting even more hours into GGO to prepare for the second Squad Jam, her sister becomes concerned about her not answering the phone, and Karen can't say why. Volume 4 skips ahead to months after the second Squad Jam, during which time Karen barely played at all, so this plotline has presumably been forgotten about.

** The novel ''Queen of Slayers'', capped off with Buffy becoming psychically pregnant with an embryo that was the composite daughter of both Spike and Angel -- Buffy's most popular love interests over the course of the series. It's ignored by later authors for obvious reasons, though Spike and Angel being told about it would probably be hilarious. It's also one of the many [[SpinOff spin-offs]] and {{fanfic}}s that were {{retcon}}ned [[CanonContinuity out of existence]] by the S8 comic's revelations about what was really going on in Italy.

** The novel ''Queen of Slayers'', capped off with Buffy becoming psychically pregnant with an embryo that was the composite daughter of both Spike and Angel -- Buffy's most popular love interests over the course of the series. It's ignored by later authors for obvious reasons, though Spike and Angel being told about it would probably be hilarious. It's also one of the many [[SpinOff spin-offs]] and {{fanfic}}s that were {{retcon}}ned [[NegativeContinuity out of existence]] by the S8 comic's revelations about what was really going on in Italy.

* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', there's significant friction between Jerin and his older sister Corelle. She wants him to be a proper male, with smooth soft hands and [[BeAWhoreToGetYourMan tight showy clothing]]; she also wants to trade him for the Brindle brother, while he wants to marry into a smaller and less violent family. When their mothers and elder sisters are away, she takes the middle sisters to visit the Brindles, leaving Jerin and the youngest children undefended by anyone above twelve. Eldest Whistler punishes her by confiscating her possessions and distributing them to her sisters. Corelle is defiant and irresponsible throughout. But when Eldest takes Jerin to court, Mother Eldest assigns Corelle to come with them with the idea that she needs to see more of the world, and one mistake shouldn't mean permanent blacklisting. Corelle is then well-behaved and careful for the rest of the book. Sure, she's under Eldest's eye, but it's odd that she doesn't so much as snipe at her brother.

* The ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' novel ''Queen of Slayers'', capped off with Buffy becoming psychically pregnant with an embryo that was the composite daughter of both Spike and Angel -- Buffy's most popular love interests over the course of the series. It's ignored by later authors for obvious reasons, though Spike and Angel being told about it would probably be hilarious. It's also one of the many [[SpinOff spin-offs]] and {{fanfic}}s that were {{retcon}}ned [[NegativeContinuity out of existence]] by the S8 comic's revelations about what was really going on in Italy.
** A couple of the earlier tie in novels seem to have gotten aborted too. Books like 'The Journal of Rupert Giles' , 'The Cordelia Collection' and Angel's "The Longest Night" clearly had Vol.1 on their covers, but no more were ever made.

* The ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' once encountered a new type of Controller called the Garatron, which was incredibly hard to defeat given that it could run ridiculously fast. After finally managing to defeat one after a book they comment there's a good chance they'll be fighting more of them soon. They never do.

* ''Literature/TowerAndTheHive'': At the climax of the third book, ''Damia's Children'', Zara makes a mental connection to the captive Hiver queen, thus can tell that the temperature in her enclosure is set too low. Zara lets the authorities (who had failed in every attempt to communicate with the queen and couldn't figure out why she seemed to be going dormant). This saves the queen's life and seemed to be a breakthrough in communicating with, thus understanding, the Hivers. This plot point is ignored in the next book, ''Lyon's Pride''. And when it is mentioned again, it's pretty much in the context of "We don't know how Zara did it, neither does she, and we haven't been able to do it again" and ignored, past the implication that Zara's refusal to take part in operations against Hiver ships was due to her mental connection. She's eventually PutOnABus to Earth to study medicine and is never mentioned again after that.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has Florean Fortescue, an ice-cream maker who was noted a few books. In ''Prisoner of Azkaban'', he's mentioned helping Harry with his History of Magic homework, ''Order of the Phoenix'' namedropped a former Hogwarts Headmaster named Dexter Fortescue, and ''Half-Blood Prince'' mentioned him vanishing, likely dragged off by Death Eaters. Rowling was planning to foreshadow him being the one who explained the various historical magical artifacts to turn up in ''Deathly Hallows'', but she eventually decided that the subplot wasn't going anywhere, and handed the explanations to other characters.

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' ends with the Patrician taking control of a network of dwarf tunnels under the city, many of which have rails laid down, and also a dwarfish power source with infinite torque. ''Literature/MakingMoney'' and ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'' go into further detail about "The Grand Undertaking", which the Patrician has planned for these tunnels. Oddly, this goes unmentioned in ''Literature/RaisingSteam'', which introduces actual steam trains, and AuthorExistenceFailure means that we will never see the completed underground system, unless it appears in ''The Watch'' TV series.

* ''Literature/TowerAndTheHive'': At the climax of the third book, ''Damia's Children'', Zara makes a mental connection to the captive Hiver queen, thus can tell that the temperature in her enclosure is set too low. Zara lets the authorities (who had failed in every attempt to communicate with the queen and couldn't figure out why see seemed to be going dormant). This saves the queen's life and seemed to be a breakthrough in communicating with, thus understanding, the Hivers. This plot point is ignored in the next book, ''Lyon's Pride''. And when it is mentioned again, it's pretty much in the context of "We don't know how Zara did it, neither does she, and we haven't been able to do it again" and ignored, past the implication that Zara's refusal to take part in operations against Hiver ships was due to her mental connection. She's eventually PutOnABus to Earth to study medicine and is never mentioned again after that.

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'' ends with the Patrician taking control of a network of dwarf tunnels under the city, many of which have rails laid down, and also a dwarfish power source with infinite torque. ''Discworld/MakingMoney'' and ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'' go into further detail about "The Grand Undertaking", which the Patrician has planned for these tunnels. Oddly, this goes unmentioned in ''Discworld/RaisingSteam'', which introduces actual steam trains, and AuthorExistenceFailure means that we will never see the completed underground system, unless it appears in ''The Watch'' TV series.

** Book 41, "The Familiar" centers on a BadFuture where the Yeerks have conquered Earth—Marco is Visser Two's host and is in charge of Earth, Cassie is a jaded terrorist and member of a resistance lead by Tobias, using the morph as Ax and looking like Elfangor, Ax is a Yeerk general that conquered the Andalite homeworld, and Rachel is crippled. The only free member is Jake, who tries to figure out what's going on. Even in-universe the world doesn't make sense though, such as how Cassie at one point uses thought-speak while human and Tobias stating that Jake is supposed to be dead, and it's revealed to be AllJustADream. As Jake awakens he hears an entity speaking that humans require "more study", implying it was a vision from the entity. Nothing in the book ever comes into play in the rest of the series and the mysterious entity is never mentioned, though it is known that it isn't the Ellimist or Crayak.

* K.A. Applegate's series ''Literature/{{Remnants}}'' suffered major [[TheChrisCarterEffect Chris Carter Effect]], meaning many arcs were left undone--most egregiously, what the "Ancient Enemy" was and how both the Troika and Billy related to it.

* In ''Literature/{{Eragon}}'', Eragon and Brom prepare a plan to infiltrate the Dras-Leona cathedral which houses their enemies while disguised as slaves – only for the plan to crumble apart when Eragon randomly bumps into the enemies and has to flee the city.

* In ''Literature/Eragon'', Eragon and Brom prepare a plan to infiltrate the Dras-Leona cathedral which houses their enemies while disguised as slaves – only for the plan to crumble apart when Eragon randomly bumps into the enemies and has to flee the city.