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I like the series like James Rollin's Sigma Force. The characters are the same, but on different adventures. There are definite advantages to reading them in order - you know the background of the characters. I suppose you could read them out of order. They'd still be good, just not AS good. But I actually prefer Rollin's stand alone books. Subterranean, Ice Hunt, Amazonia - wow. I may be an unsophisticated reader, but I know what I like. Sigma Force can tend to get a little bit same-old, same-old after a while. Good, but predictable. That's true of many series.
Some series are just too long - they seem intimidating. I've got some books from these type of series, but haven't started them yet because they might tie me up for decades. Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt and Terry Brook's Shannara come to mind. I've got many/most of these books, they're queued up for reading, but I just can't seem to commit myself for the next two decades (I don't have that much time left to live).
Some series fizzle for me. Earth's Children (Clan of the Cave Bear) is one example. I did struggle a little getting through the tediousness of Clan. There must be ten bazillion different plants on our planet, and Auel describes them all. But then I flew through Valley of Horses. Really liked that one. Mammoth Hunters was a bit slower, but was riding on the coat tails of Valley so I went through it pretty fast. Then came Plains of Passage. Complete stall for me about 1/4 way through. By this time I could be a practicing Medicine Woman myself (although I'm male), I fully understand that Ayla invented everything on Earth, and that Jondolar has a big you-know-what. Let's move on to something else please. Preferably not taking a century to do so.
So I would have to say that each series is different. Some are good, others should have remained standalone books. Others, I'll probably never know, because I put off starting them (overwhelmed).
Recently, I've been searching for other authors similar to what I like best (that being James Rollins stand-alones). I've come up with Matthew Reilly, Jeremy Robinson, Steve Berry, David L. Golemon, and a few others. So I start researching their works, and find that each of THESE guys has a crap-ton of long series as well. Dang, I wish I were a teenager again so I'd have the time to get through all I want to try. I sure wish each author would have a handful of (highly rated) stand-alones so I could sample them. It seems like mostly, it is their long series that are higher rated.
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