Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
Both Linwood Barclay and Harlan Coben have written books that have been set in the same fictional milieu and/or have re-used some secondary characters. I would still call them stand-alone books.
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But why? Especially when Self-Contained is equally accurate (and happily accounts for the shared millieu). If the books have tendrils that connect them, then the author considers them pieces of a greater whole. If not, they wouldn't have reused some of the fictional components.
I'm not saying true stand-alone books are better, or anything like that. I'm merely saying that I need there to be a distinction. If stand-alone gets to be used for multiple books by the same author that share fictional components, then what term do I get to use to ask for recommendations for books that
don't contain fictional characters and/or settings that are used in multiple books?