Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
That's precisely why I prefer series' that only run to 3 or 4 books at the most (the one-story-spanning-multiple-volumes type of series, anyway). Beyond that, they typically start contradicting, or flat-out ruining (with sequel or prequel), the gaps that I had already filled in with my own imagination (or chose to leave empty). Believe it or not, I often don't want every question definitively answered.
|
I agree that three or four books should be the natural limit of any series. In addition to the discontinuities which become legion, the authors tend IMO to start spinning wheels in a long middle; the story doesn't advance and worse they can keep expanding their universe and lose control of it to the extent that it can never be wrapped up satisfactorily.
With series, they can get better at first but eventually they all go downhill which seems a pity. I'm experiencing that now (wait for it, I'm
not going to cite Sharpe) with the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian (well, it's still the Napoleonic Wars). I'll stick with them to the end, but it's undeniable that the last several are not of the quality of the early books.