[DiapDealer]

I'm not a believer in the idea that bad sequels can "tarnish" earlier great works. Good is good. Similar to how I don't understand people who say a movie adaptation "ruined" their favorite book. A later failure cannot go back in time and spoil your original/initial enjoyment of something.

You can't unring the bell. Dune's (the original) quality is the same whether someone read it before there were sequels or after.

I'm never disappointed that I read something I really enjoyed--even if it runs off the rails later or never gets finished (and I don't continue reading things I'm not really enjoying).

I prefer that a series I'm enjoying come to a logical conclusion before it gets stale (and I'm not likely to start a series by an unknown author who hasn't proven they're capable of finishing a story and publishing installments in a timely manner), but I don't stress overly about it. I'll still take a great--but unfinished--start to a series over a mediocre standalone (or a finished, but bad, series) any day of the week.

But I do look for standalones, or completed series', too. I've many different reading moods.