Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
Trust me. I complain enough for the both of us 
Again... it's not really the series that is the problem. It's the format of the series (and the dearth of the "complete story-arc" ) that I take issue with. One long story chopped into serial (cliffhanger'ed, chapter-like) installments = teh suck (IMO). Series where each individual installment offers a full "book" experience (beginning, middle and end) are just fine with me.
The Cliffhanger at the end of a series installment is a marketing tool, not a literary one. It takes no literary talent to write a cliffhanger ending... just put the pen down somewhere in the middle of the action near the 430 page mark... and voila!
There's a few respected authors out there who have been publishing books for many years that still haven't written (ok, published) an ending yet! Just a beginning and a never ending middle. That's silly. How can I make an informed decision about whether to continue reading an author's (whose writing intrigues me) work, when I have no idea if they have the ability to end a story in a satisfying (satisfying relative to me) manner?
"Stay tuned next week|year|decade for the thrilling next cliffhanger'ed non-concluding installment"
It's like one of those hanging sneezes that just won't happen.  |
I would be OK with the "serial " approach if the books were written as well... serials, with short installments coming out every few months-the way it was done in the SF magazines of old. What I don't like is if you have to wait 3-5 years between installments. The issue in these cases is not just whether the author WILL end in the story in a satisfying manner: the issue now becomes wherther the author will SURVIVE to end the story is a satisfying manner !
The classic example of that is the WOT series, but I fear that ASOIAF may suffer in that way as well.