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Originally Posted by wayrad
Piers Anthony isn't the only one who runs a series into the ground. I eventually gave up on Stasheff's Warlock books, Aprin's Myth series, and Dickson's Dragon books. The first book was delightful in all three cases, and then they started going downhill. Seems like the exploration of a new fantasy world and, in some cases, the hero's exploration of his magical talents, will carry one book, but after that there was a tendency for all three authors to get bogged down in political/business maneuvering, Life Lessons, and "how to win friends and influence people" type lecturing.
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I liked the first Stasheff book immensely, thought the second was much less effective, and never bothered with the rest. I never got into Asprin's Myth series at all, and vastly preferred other of Dickson's works to the Dragon books.
Authors keep writing them because editors ask for them, and it pays the bills. Editors ask for them because they continue to sell. I get tired of a lot of these series rather quickly, but I suspect I'm atypical.
I do wonder how many series like this weren't intended to be series, and suffer because the author never asked "If this book does well, the editor will want more. Am I comfortable writing a series in this setting? Do I have more to say beyond what I'm putting into the first book?"
And some books take the author by surprise. Roger Zelazny, for example, never expected the Amber books to be his magnum opus, and the second series shows signs of Roger doing it because the editor wanted more Amber books rather than because he wanted to write them.
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Dennis