Do you start on a trilogy knowing the last book is not out!

[thinkpad]

How do you relate to reading books that comes in a trilogy, do you wait for all the books to be published or do you start right away?

I tend to want to wait before all books is out and then start to read.

I guess this is not how the author would want it, but for me this is what works best.
This is especially true if the first book doesn't give any form of closure and you know it's a long time before the next one will be out.

[mjhudston]

I get them as and when they came out, rather than all together.

[stargazertony]

Yes, I have, however, don't think I will do that again since I've gotten a bad taste for unfinished or delayed trilogies. Dean Koontz took about 4 years to get his third Frankenstein book out after his second. I stopped reading him for that entire period. Some younger readers I know are really fed up with Christopher Paloini because it's been years since his fourth (and maybe fifth) book was promised but never came. When authors do that, I move on and am not likely to go back to them as before.

[kcmay]

I have, and for the most part, I'm not disappointed by long delays. However, GRRM comes to mind. lol I haven't started reading A Feast for Crows yet because a friend told me the ending is wholly unsatisfying. She suggested I wait until A Dance with Dragons is out before starting AFFC. That was 3 years ago, and there's no word on when ADWD will be done.

[gtriever]

And the winner of World's Worst Unfinished Series goes to... George RR Martin, for A Song of Ice and Fire. That alone swore me off buying unfinished trilogies, as well as George.

(OOPS!) Seems like kcmay beat me to the post!

[EowynCarter]

I'm patient. I just go reading someting else.

guess the "worse" was when reading eragon book 3, thinking it was the final book, to see the "to be continued" words. I had missed the info about the 3 book becoming 4.

[abookreader]

does he beat Jean Auel?

Plains of Passage - 1990
Shelters of Stone - 2002
Painted Caves - 2011

and now she's hinting that she might have "more to say." Good Grief. And the Cubs might win the World Series too but I won't be holding my breath in hope, bless her heart.

[adrian1944]

Surely the worst is Melanie Rawn's Exiles Series

Books one and two 1994 and 1997

Still no sign of book 3 'The Captal's Tower

[jbcohen]

There is some benefit to waiting for the end of the trilogy. Some publishers will give a discount on the box set of the whole trilogy.

[GERGE]

If there is only one book left, I usualy wait; if it is a new trilogy, I buy it.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by adrian1944

Surely the worst is Melanie Rawn's Exiles Series

Books one and two 1994 and 1997

Still no sign of book 3 'The Captal's Tower

Think about it for a second. How could the worst possibly be one from as late as the 90s?

[GERGE]

Gene W0lfe - The Soldier series
Soldier of the Mist (1986)
Soldier of Arete (1989)
Soldier of Sidon (2006)

[Worldwalker]

I start them when I find them, even if they're not finished, and then I hate myself for doing it. So I console myself by starting another series. Often unfinished. No, that doesn't make any sense to me either. On the plus side, my reading speed is above average, so if it takes 10 years for the next book to appear, I can re-read the previous ones quite quickly in the event I forgot what they were like.

[DiapDealer]

I used to gobble up the various books of a series as they were published, but I don't anymore. Partly because I absolutely HATE cliffhangers -- it's the most overused marketing technique that requires the least amount of literary talent to employ -- and partly because I no longer enjoy long, sprawling, never ending series in the speculative genre. "THE SERIES" has become a crutch for readers, authors and publishers alike. I like a Beginning, a Middle, and an End to take place between two "covers"... then I like to move on to something new. Unfortunately, most readers and authors in my favorite genre don't share my views.

Stand-alone seems to be a curse word in the SciFi/Fantasy genre anymore. Thank god for the likes of Guy Gavriel Kay, Tim Powers, Michael Stackpole, Dan Simmons (later works), Charles de Lint and the like!

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by abookreader

does he beat Jean Auel?

Plains of Passage - 1990
Shelters of Stone - 2002
Painted Caves - 2011

and now she's hinting that she might have "more to say." Good Grief. And the Cubs might win the World Series too but I won't be holding my breath in hope, bless her heart.

Auel is no kid. She really needs to wrap it up before she ups and dies as others have done.

What really bites my ample asset (besides tall dogs) are authors who promise a sequel, then die before delivering, especially if they milk the time between books. At least Michael Jordon's Wheel of Time series is being finished by a ghost writer (although he and Jordon's widow are still milking the cash cow). Louis L'Amour promised a sequel, and hinted at a third book, to follow The Walking Drum, wrote several other books after that, then up and died before delivering on his promise. J. R. R. Tolkien barely scratched the surface of his Middle Earth stories before he died (granted, it was a rather massive undertaking). At least his son, Christopher, has done a surprisingly good job of editing the unfinished books and fleshing out others based on his father's outlines and notes.