Quote:
Originally Posted by hobnail
One of the things I didn't understand about the books until several years after I'd finished them is that the model she was using was very similar to the standard mystery series where you can pick up any book in the series and enjoy it without having read the prior ones. Of course with both you'd have enjoyed it more if you had read them in order but it's not like Lord of the Rings where reading them in order is crucial.
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Any book in a series that has any character development that carries over to any other book and any reference to anything that happened in a past book is not a stand alone book. So in most series, most books are not standalone. They either have some sort of character development or something is referenced from another book in the series. Just because a book has a fresh start and a definite ending does not make it standalone. All it takes is one sentence and a book is not standalone.