Canon Discontinuity in literature.
Examples:
- The book of 2001: A Space Odyssey was written in parallel with Arthur C. Clarke's work on the film script rather than being simply a book of the film, and contains many major differences. The sequels take almost all the film as canon and never mention any of the glaring contradictions, such as the main action having taken place at a completely different planet (Jupiter in the film, Saturn in the book). The main exception is the ending, which is taken entirely from the book and ignores the film. Somewhat ironically, 2010: The Year We Make Contact actually was a film of the book and so follows the same canon as the second book 2010: Odyssey Two, following on from the ending of the book 2001 rather than the film.
- Animorphs has some Early-Installment Weirdness, particularly with the rules of thought-speak. Thus, for the record: morphed Tobias hearing Jake's thoughts when Jake wasn't in morph? Didn't happen. Ax claiming that he can't use thought-speak when he's in human morph? Yes he can. Also, any sapient species can hear it, even if they can't use it themselves.
- Brian's Saga: The first book, Hatchet, ended with Brian getting rescued, and the first sequel, The River continues from that ending. Brian's Winter however discards both that sequel and the ending of Hatchet for an alternate continuity where Brian is not rescued, and the two books afterwards also follow that continuity.
- The Chronicles of Amber disregards the prequels by another author, something Zelazny had established he did NOT want.
- When finishing The Dark Tower series, Stephen King himself stated right before the very end that fans could just stop reading here if they so wished, and simply be happy with the fact that Roland reached the Dark Tower and finally entered it. What follows is rather cruel, after all. Previously, Roland had stated that the book Insomnia felt 'tricksy and full of lies' and did not read it. A character from the book shows up, but his actions and fate are contrary to how he acts in the Dark Tower.
- In the updated 2003 version of The Gunslinger, King added a line that claims Marten Broadcloak/Randall Flagg is "known in some quarters as Farson, the good man," implying the two characters are one and the same. The forward to the fifth book, Wolves of the Calla, states this as well. This is inconsistent with everything released before and since however. In story, Roland always differentiates between Farson and Flagg's many aliases, as does Flagg himself, stating definitively in the final book (in his own POV, mind you) that he served John Farson, meaning he could not possibly have been him. King himself eventually stated that they were indeed separate characters.
- The issue of Lord Soth from the Dragonlance novels, represents perhaps the unholy lovechild of Canon Discontinuity and Executive Meddling. In the novel Knight of the Black Rose, TSR took the famous Dragonlance character into Ravenloft, where he became a Dark Lord. This did not sit well with one of the original authors of the Dragonlance series, Mr. Tracy Hickman who, according to rumor, demanded that TSR/Wizards of the Coast Retcon Soth's trip to Ravenloft, and killed off the character for good measure. And before dying, he repents of his crimes, regains his honor, and swears an oath to pursue redemption in his afterlife. This is a giant flaming Take That! against ever putting him in Ravenloft, as one of its conceits is that some people are simply so evil that they're beyond redemption - and its Dark Lords are those people (although TSR averted the discontinuity by publishing Spectre of the Black Rose which reconciles both viewpoints).
- The Dune Encyclopedia, the official companion book to the Dune series, endorsed by Frank Herbert was/is considered canonical or quasi-canonical by some fans. However, Frank's son Brian, having started writing his own prequel novels has made an attempt to officially de-canonize the encyclopedia. On the other hand, Frank himself stopped short of declaring the encyclopedia canon and even contradicted a part of it in Chapterhouse: Dune.
- The first Ellery Queen novel, The Roman Hat Mystery, supposedly describes an event that happened some time in the past and mentions that Ellery now lives in Italy with his wife and daughter. The wife, daughter, and retirement to Italy are never mentioned in any of the subsequent books, which establish that Ellery is a bachelor who lives with his father in New York (apart from a brief period of living in Hollywood).
- Quite a few in the Fairy Oak series:
- In The Dark Enchantment, Flox, Vanilla and Grisam can talk while transformed into animals, which is described as impossible (by Grisam, nonetheless) in The Power of Light. Then, the members of the band can talk thile transformed in the 4 Mysteries.
- In The Power of Light, Francis Rye is said to be a Wizard of the Dark. In the 4 Mysteries, all the Rye brothers are Wizards of the Light.
- In the Trilogy, Acanti Bugle is shown having a little sister named Cloudy. Him being an only child is a relevant plot point of the 4 Mysteries, and Cloudy is relegated to being a cousin.
- In Shirley's Enchanting Days, Telli mentions that Shirley has a looong life. She is narrating in a point of time where Shirley is just 15 years old.
- In Flox Smiles in Autumn, Fragaria Fress and Ivy Dhella are well and living amongst the townspeople. This shouldn't be possible, as they were both kidnapped by the Terrible 21st in his first attack. Mrs. Dhella joined his army and should've disappeared with it in The Power of Light, and Mrs. Fress, had she not met that same fate, should be stone in the Rock of Arrochar.
- Despite Telli describing Jim as having dark eyes (like a fawn) and the offical art showing him as having black hair and eyes, Vanilla says he has golden eyes and brown hair in Farewell to Fairy Oak.
- The short stories in the Horatio Hornblower saga were considered to be less canonical than the novels by C.S. Forester and he discouraged the reprinting of Hand of Destiny, Bad Samaritan, and Hornblower and His Majesty (although they are available if you look). Destiny in particular contributes to the Continuity Snarl of the Castille and Hornblower's powder burns.
- The 1970s Imaro story "Slaves of the Giant-Kings" features Fantasy Counterpart Culture versions of the Tutsis and Hutus, ending with the Hutu stand-ins staging a gory revolution against the Tutsi stand-ins who had enslaved them in a gold mine. After the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, creator Charles Saunders was so sickened by the parallels
that he refused to print it ever again and wrote a new adventure, "The Afua", to replace it - Highly literary British author Martin Amis was putting together his first big hit, Money, and was running short of cash. So he dashed off Invasion of the Space Invaders: An Addict’s Guide to Battle Tactics, Big Scores and the Best Machines - a guide to early arcade games... a distinctly odd guide to early arcade games. The book is mentioned nowhere in his biography and he doesn't talk about it. Ever.
- James Bond:
- Ian Fleming's The Spy Who Loved Me was so widely despised - including by Fleming himself - that later novels directly contradict it, and Fleming made it a condition on selling the movie rights to the James Bond books that the producers could only use the title of the novel, not the story.
- The unpublished stories The Heart of Erzulie and Per Fine Ounce are considered non-canonical by the publisher. Some stories are considered parody or pastiche and do not count: Bond Strikes Camp, Holmes Meets 007, License to Hug, Some Are Born Great, Toadstool, and Your Deal, Mr. Bond. James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 establishes James Bond as German and is likely an Alternate Continuity. Comics and novelizations of James Bond Jr. are not considered canonical.
- The Legacy of the Aldenata novel The Hero, by Michael Z. Williamson and John Ringo, was declared non-canonical after the publishing of Tom Kratman and John Ringo's Watch on the Rhine and later of Eye of the Storm.
- Magic: The Gathering novels and comics published before The Brothers' War are "prerevisionist"; any details contradicted by later material is non-canonical.
- Mass Effect: Deception was infamous for its many Continuity Snarls, poor writing, and the scene where The Dragon Kai Leng steals Admiral Anderson's breakfast cereal after breaking into his apartment. Bioware promised to rewrite the whole thing, but it never came to be.
- Man-Kzin Wars short story "A Darker Geometry" was declared non-canonical shortly after it was published.
- The monstrous way the Wizard came to power according to The Marvelous Land of Oz was met with such fan outcry that later books, although they don't explicitly contradict it, never mention it again, and the Wizard has to be told a number of things - in part by Ozma herself - he should have known were it true. But in a sneaky way, what was met with massive outcry when it was published has become an establishing trait in Darker and Edgier modern retellings like Oz the Great and Powerful and Wicked where Mr. Diggs ranges from Anti-Hero to villain. Ruth Plumly Thompson also restored this Wizard's history in The Lost King of Oz when Pastora was found and returned to Oz. At least once, Thompson mentions the Wizard's embarrassment at his history regarding the king.
- From the Patternist series, Octavia Butler disowned the interquel Survivor and never allowed it to be reprinted, explaining that it relies on offensive Mighty Whitey clichés. Omnibus editions of the series leave it out entirely.
- The Red Dwarf book series starts with two novels, Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers and Better Than Life, written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor (working collaboratively under the pen name "Grant Naylor"). After that, Naylor wrote the novel Last Human and Grant wrote the novel Backwards — both of these act as the third novel in the series, in Canon Discontinuity with each other. This could equally fall under Continuity Snarl, as Last Human very briefly hand waves the events of Backwards and then goes off into its own Alternate Continuity.
- Plato in The Republic, when discussing censoring stories, starts with the necessity of censoring out all myths that attribute evil behavior to the gods.
- None of the Star Trek Novelverse are considered canonical by Paramount. Despite this, when Star Trek: Voyager was still airing on television, the official website stated that Jeri Taylor's novels Mosaic and Pathways were canonical as they featured background information on the characters of that series. In 2006 (by which point Voyager had finished airing), the entry was amended to state that they "used" to be considered canonical. Also, despite one crossover series, Day of Honor, leading to the Voyager ep of the same name, they aren't considered canonical, either.
- In the Warrior Cats series, Secrets of the Clans was the earliest guidebook. Five years after its release, several other books had come out, contradicting some of the things it said. Vicky Holmes stated: "I'm afraid Secrets of the Clans is a bit of an anomaly, in that it strayed off the path of rightness in several areas. Please take the Super Editions, and other Special Editions, as canonical!"
- Early in his career, Ian Rankin of Rebus fame wrote a sci-fi conspiracy thriller, Westwind, which was canon discontinuity for many years, partly because by his own admission he was writing on a subject he didn't know a lot about, and also because it lacked his usual dark humour since his editors made him take all the jokes out. He eventually came around to it and allowed it to be reprinted (with a few revisions) in 2019.
- The sequel to Who Censored Roger Rabbit? follows the film's continuity (with Censored being declared All Just a Dream).
- The author of Worm pulled a chapter that he was dissatisfied with a few hours after posting it because it didn't make sense within the context of the story.
- Orson Scott Card's The Worthing Saga has multiple levels. The actual "canon" consists primarily of the full-length novel. The stories included in the back of a later edition came first, but Card didn't have them on hand when writing the novel, so a lot of the details differ, and he essentially made them an Alternate Universe. The stories not included are all so awful that he wouldn't even discuss them.
- In spades for the Irish novel Yeats Is Dead. Written by 15 different Irish authors who clearly didn't consult each other the book ends up near the end with some form of discontinuity or retcon happening every new chapter. Characters disappear for entire chapters before reappearing with entirely different personalities or motives, pieces of the titular James Joyce manuscript constantly keep switching hands with no explaination, the facts of who killed someone changes between chapters even though earlier in the novel we are shown explicitly who shot the victim, from their own perspective and the entire matter of whether the manuscript is authentic changes throughout the novel with experts saying contradictory things.
- Zorro: at the end of The Curse of Capistrano, the main villain was dead, and Zorro publicly unmasked, revealing his identity to everyone. By the third book, neither of those events had ever happened.
