The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[ownedbycats]

Finding a cozy mystery series I actually like (a rarity!) only to find it ends after book two

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Finding a cozy mystery series I actually like (a rarity!) only to find it ends after book two

I always check how many books there are before I start a series, so I know what to expect.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I always check how many books there are before I start a series, so I know what to expect.

Only relevant if the author writes the number of books expected. I've read series which have ended unexpectedly when the author moved on to newer and likely more profitable works and others where the authors have extended a series well past it's original end. c.f. from the cover of Mostly Harmless: The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Only relevant if the author writes the number of books expected. I've read series which have ended unexpectedly when the author moved on to newer and likely more profitable works and others where the authors have extended a series well past it's original end. c.f. from the cover of Mostly Harmless: The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy.

I meant how many there currently are, not how many are planned. The latter is never certain, of course, no matter what's predicted. So I rarely even look it up.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I meant how many there currently are, not how many are planned. The latter is never certain, of course, no matter what's predicted. So I rarely even look it up.

That would seem to require waiting until a series is complete before reading it.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

That would seem to require waiting until a series is complete before reading it.

No. Why? Many series are never finished, or I'll grow bored with it after a few books. And for the kind of series where each book contains its own story (like murder mysteries) it doesn't even matter all that much. But I do like to know if there are 2 or 20 books published before I start.

[DNSB]

We seem to be talking at cross purposes. What I thought you were meaning is the people who do not start reading a series until it is complete. This is rather different from knowing whether a series has 1 or 72 books in it before starting to read the series.

One friend of my spouse is still waiting to start J. D. Robb's In Death series which is currently up to 76 books—counting the main books, the short stories and the short story collections. After watching the TV series of A Game of Thrones, she was very disappointed to find that The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring had not yet been written never mind published.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

We seem to be talking at cross purposes. What I thought you were meaning is the people who do not start reading a series until it is complete. This is rather different from knowing whether a series has 1 or 72 books in it before starting to read the series.

Yeah, I meant the latter.

I'm not the type to wait until a series is complete, I'm too impatient for that. Besides, while naturally I might be somewhat disappointed by never-finished series, it's not a dealbreaker or a crushing blow for me. I get over it and find other books to enjoy. There are more than one series I liked that were cut short by the author's death/illness/writer's block, by the publisher's decision and so on. I don't usually regret reading them.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I'm not the type to wait until a series is complete, I'm too impatient for that.

There’s also the catch-22 aspect; if everyone waited for a series to be completed, no series would be completed.

Besides, while naturally I might be somewhat disappointed by never-finished series, it's not a dealbreaker or a crushing blow for me. I get over it and find other books to enjoy. There are more than one series I liked that were cut short by the author's death/illness/writer's block, by the publisher's decision and so on. I don't usually regret reading them.

Yup. If you had your enjoyment at the time of reading, a series owes you nothing, IMO.

Anyway, the best of most series comes early on. Does anyone think that a book six of ASOIAF could provide the heart-stopping excitement of books one through three? Have they forgotten the endless slog of the next two books? With most series my interest runs out before the series does.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by issybird

Anyway, the best of most series comes early on. Does anyone think that a book six of ASOIAF could provide the heart-stopping excitement of books one through three? Have they forgotten the endless slog of the next two books? With most series my interest runs out before the series does.

I must admit that I haven't even read the last two books and likely never will. I did enjoy the first three, but by the time the fourth came out, I had lost much of my interest in the series. So I waited for the cheap mass market paperback to be released, and while I did buy it, all the negative reviews had quenched what enthusiasm I had left by then. So the last two are still gathering dust, unread.

I did watch the TV series and loved the first 4 seasons (based on the first 3 books). After that it, too, started to go downhill.

[DNSB]

There are some series that I still read over 20 books in and others which I stopped reading after the 3rd or 4th book when the author seemed to run out of new ideas (ASOIAF was one of those). I got enough of the endless supply of bigger and better opponents back when I read E. E. (Doc) Smith's stories as a child.

[andyh2000]

Originally Posted by DNSB

There are some series that I still read over 20 books in and others which I stopped reading after the 3rd or 4th book when the author seemed to run out of new ideas (ASOIAF was one of those). I got enough of the endless supply of bigger and better opponents back when I read E. E. (Doc) Smith's stories as a child.

Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom was like that. Just when you thought John Carter had got to the bottom of things it turned out there was an even more hidden and wilier race manipulating things behind the scenes.

[DrNefario]

ASOIAF is a serial. It should have, but does not have, a conclusion, and the the story so far has been building towards that. (Or towards a corner that the writer can't get out of, but theoretically towards a conclusion.) It's quite frustrating to read an incomplete serial, but it happens, if the real world intervenes, or if the series gets dropped by its publisher, or whatever. It might also just go off the rails and have a poor ending.

A series, however, doesn't work like that. Each story is essentially standalone: a crime gets committed and solved; a couple get together; etc. It will probably have some character development - people will join and leave - but it's rare that there is a distant conclusion in mind. You can stop at any time without feeling that you've been left hanging.

If you're reading the latter type of series, and enjoying it, it can be nice to know that there's some depth to get into; that your detective has solved more than, say, five cases. Or at least that the author is still producing new books in the series regularly. Which is pretty much what the original post was saying before we went off into the weeds.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

There are some series that I still read over 20 books in and others which I stopped reading after the 3rd or 4th book when the author seemed to run out of new ideas (ASOIAF was one of those). I got enough of the endless supply of bigger and better opponents back when I read E. E. (Doc) Smith's stories as a child.

Discworld is another long series that should be read in full.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Discworld is another long series that should be read in full.

I have read it in full, but there books that could be skipped, and if you are re-reading some sub-series in it work well and better than widely separated, like all the Witches books including Wee Free Men and the other Tiffany Aching books.
Or all the books with Death/Susan/Susan's Parents (Starting with Mort).

Some are very much standalone.

I bought most of it on paper as it was released after the first few. I've repurchased some on ebook that were reduced and on my "list to re-read".


I have all of "Wheel of Time" and was increasingly fed-up with it and never read the last few. I now don't care how it ends. Ditto with all of the Thomas Covenant trilogies and Shanara.