Can you stop buying a series?

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by lestatar

@CWatkinsNash: Indeed, I have the Mayfair books as well lying around someplace. I do regret a bit at having fallen out of love with Rice's later works - I did enjoy Mayfair 1 and 2 and also the Talamasca Group intrigue. Perhaps, like you, I will pick up the Rice stuff again sometime - Amazon and Kindle makes for a dangerous combination

I loved the 3 Mayfair books. In addition to the Talamasca, the Taltos history/mythology was, in my opinion, done very well. Also, some of the Mayfair characters that ultimately did the worse deeds were truly tragic and fallible, unlike some of the Vampire characters where I thought, "You're just a ass and I can't feel sorry for you." I literally cried for Lasher more than once, despite how screwed up the whole situation was.

Ooh, now I'm wanting to read those three again. And soon.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

A good example of this would be the Xanth series by Piers Anthony -- if I may be rather simplistic, I thought the first 1-10 books were great, the next 11-20 books were rather so-so, books 21-30 spiraled down into serious "meh" if not outright annoyance and frustration, and despite the fact that I KNOW I've utterly lost interest in the series, I still picked up book #31 at Half Price about a year ago.

I loved the Xanth series. But although I bought the first nine in ebook form, I feel no urge to go out and get the rest.

I can give up on a series. But I think Xanth might be the only one where I've made a deliberate decision to do so. For others it's just that I haven't bothered keeping informed about new books in the series.

[OtterBooks]

I steer clear of One Giant Book style series and all-you-can-eat buffets. My experience working at a bookstore tells me that fans of the first are often fans of the second.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I loved the Xanth series. But although I bought the first nine in ebook form, I feel no urge to go out and get the rest.

My basic problem is that I loath puns.

[Nyssa]

I chose option #1. It would not surprise me if I really did have OCD.

[ATDrake]

Yes, but then I'm fortunate enough to live in an area with generally well-stocked libraries which often continue to get the other books in the series so that I don't have to.

And occasionally I do give up reading a series entirely if the books become rather bad/no longer interesting. Although I sometimes re-visit the later novels out of morbid curiosity if they happen to be on the library bookshelf while I'm browsing.

[Nyssa]

I forgot to add, that I did give up on the Mayfair Witches, and the Blood Lily Chronicles by Julie Kenner (although I really enjoy her Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom series).

[birdbrainbb]

A couple of times I've read a book in a series and didn't really love it, but I also didn't hate it enough to completely give up on the series itself. Then I buy the next book and stare at it on my shelf for about a year or two before either reading it or giving up and getting rid of it. So.

Luckily I haven't run into too many series that got crappier and crappier as the books went on. Mostly I think that's because I either have forgotten to continue reading the series altogether (which happens more often than not, actually) and so I miss out on the crappy.

Lately I've been trying to NOT buy the next book in a series if I wasn't wowed with the last, and that's actually been working out pretty well. I just keep reminding myself that if I can think about the series and don't feel an urge to read the next book, then it's okay if I don't force myself to do so. I have too many other good books to read to waste time on a crappy series! And that seems to work. Sort of.

[fjtorres]

For me, it's really all of the above, on a case by case basis.
Some series, the author loses sight of what made the books interesting for me or starts focusing on what they think their audience wants or they start believing their own PR, or worst of all, starts rehashing the same old same old.
Some authors I'll stick with even after their work has devolved into formula writing, others I'll just stop cold turkey without a twinge of regret.
Some that I've stuck with have rebounded.
(Xanth comes to mind; I loved the original trilogy, was less than thrilled with some of the latter volumes---*cough*NIGHT MARE--- but stuck through for a while and enjoyed the Dolph and Ivy arc, especially MAN FROM MUNDANIA. Shortly after that I just stopped reading, as the "adult-friendly" aspects of the series got overwhelmed by the fan-friendly stuff. I'm glad it's done well for him but I don't think his target audience includes me anymore.)
Others...

Bottom line: when I enjoy a book, the author earns a bit of "credit" with me that he adds to or draws upon with follow-up efforts (series or not) depending on how he delivers. But if the account runs dry, I'm gone. I might return if a *lot* of reviews make me reconsider but it'll take time.
And it's never quite the same afterwards.
(I never did quite "forgive" Heinlein for NUMBER OF THE BEAST.)

[ardeegee]

My first reaction was to say that I have to have the whole series if I have any of them, being a completest collector at heart. But then I started thinking about what I actually read-- your Xanth mention, for example-- I read the first 3 or 4, then quit. And more recently, gave up on Anita Blake after 7 books. Could hardly stand to finish the first of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. Plenty of other examples of series I started, then stopped reading even though there are some (or freaking lots) of books left.

As for my downloading habits-- those are still completest. I download every copy I can find of a series if I've downloaded one of them-- even if it is a series I haven't started reading yet so, don't know if I'll like it. Even if it is a series I know that I don't like, just in case some day, for some reason, I might have some use for them. So I have more than 30 Xanth epubs here somewhere that I'll likely never read. I have 20 Anita Blake books here that I'm 99.999% likely to never read. I have a few series here extending past 10 books that I've never even read a word of yet....

[orlok]

For those of us that are/have been Anne Rice fans, was anyone else disappointed that there was only one Mummy book? I thought that was certain to have a sequel or two, but it never transpired, and I for one was sad about that.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by orlok

For those of us that are/have been Anne Rice fans, was anyone else disappointed that there was only one Mummy book? I thought that was certain to have a sequel or two, but it never transpired, and I for one was sad about that.

I made the mistake of buying a recent Anne Rice book. ("Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim".) It was dreadful.

[RainingLemur]

There's been a couple series that I've started and never finished. I don't find it hard to drop one.

[Rumpelteazer]

There are series I quit after reading the first book, mostly when I don't like the writing style (e.g. James Patterson). If I think the first book is just okay I might get the next one or two books in the series before I decide. There are a few series I stopped reading when it felt more like a chore to read them than something enjoyable. This includes the Kay Scarpetta series and the Vampire Chronicles. But also the Anita Black series, the first 4 or 5 books or so were entertaining but then it started going downhill for me with all the (unnecessary IMHO) sex.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by orlok

For those of us that are/have been Anne Rice fans, was anyone else disappointed that there was only one Mummy book? I thought that was certain to have a sequel or two, but it never transpired, and I for one was sad about that.

I have it, but I haven't read it yet. I've heard others say the same thing, though.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I made the mistake of buying a recent Anne Rice book. ("Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim".) It was dreadful.

I have not bought, borrowed nor even ogled anything she wrote after she started the great "Church as a publicity stunt" thing. I'm not religious, but I found the whole thing to be offensive. Not. Cool. At. All. By saying some of the things she said when it started, she totally crapped on a lot of her long-time fans. Then when her "new" audience didn't pan out, she basically threw the Church under the bus. I refuse to reward that behavior. If I ever get the VC/MW books in e-format, I guarantee it won't be an aboveboard acquisition. (Besides, I've already bought several of them more than once.)

I still love the Vampires and Mayfairs, but as far as I'm concerned, she's not the same person who wrote those books.