08-09-2011, 10:10 PM | #1 |
Pirosopher
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Book series that never end
This is my pet peeve. If you can't tell a story in five books maybe you need to rethink the story. I'll give a pass to books written in serial that have completely different story lines; mysteries and such. But, (and I'm looking at you authors of epic fantasy,) these recycled series of books that never conclude really annoy me.
For example, my favorite science fiction series, the Deathstalker books by Simon R Green was perfect. Five great books, and it ended. A satisfying conclusion to a great epic story arc. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere the series starts up again. Now I understand the reasons for it, I just hate it. A story has a beginning, a middle and an end. Stop it already. Thank you. |
08-09-2011, 10:22 PM | #2 |
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Rendevous with Rama by Arthur c Clarke (I think). It was a good small book. Then a huge sequel came out, followed by another, and another even bigger, and the story got thin, wavery and unsure of itself. It petered out eventually, but why spoil the small, perfect gem of the original?
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08-09-2011, 11:43 PM | #3 |
Are you gonna eat that?
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amen. it's one of the reasons why i never got into comics.
i need a beginning,middle and end. i need an element of "danger" that the character could die at the end of the series or something. when you start hitting 7,8 and 9+ novels, you've become a novelized comic book or friday the 13th film. it becomes a job to keep up, not a joy. no story is THAT epic that its story should take 10 novels to tell. to me all it does is scream filler filler filler. it looks like authors/publishers have gotten so embarrassed by the practice that they don't even bother numbering the books anymore. |
08-10-2011, 03:27 AM | #4 | |
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08-10-2011, 04:01 AM | #5 |
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@JSWolf - isn't that interesting? Rendevous with Rama is one of my alltime favourites!
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08-10-2011, 08:19 AM | #6 |
Wizard
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I think the Sookie Stackhouse books should have ended about four books ago. The introduction of the grandfather and the whole backstory with him just totally changed the series and the books have not been the same since. It's a shame she felt the need to 'explain' Sookie's psychic abilities. I would have rather it had just been one of those things. I have not cared for the most recent books at all.
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08-10-2011, 04:41 PM | #7 |
Retired
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If the series is good, I'll read every single one the author publishes.
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08-10-2011, 07:34 PM | #8 |
Now what?
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Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series ran out of plots a long while ago .... now they're just kinda weird ...
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08-11-2011, 01:41 AM | #9 | |
Pirosopher
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In novels its just inexcusable. Can you imagine if Tolkien (or his great nephew or whoever) was still writing Lord of the Rings stories? Sure there are a lot of great stories to be told in Middle Earth but... Uggh, just uggh. There comes a time to just let it go and move on to something new and stretch the old writing chops a little. |
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08-11-2011, 01:59 AM | #10 | |
Are you gonna eat that?
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*cough Dune cough* theres 6 main novels and 10+ prequels,sequels and "in between" novels. when you're writing novels that take place in between the events of other novels it's time to let it the bleep go. no offense to brian herbert and his pub but they should just "weekend at bernie's" his dads corpse at this point, they cant possibly disrespect his memory any more. based on the pee-poor reviews of her last dozen books, laurell k hamilton should have her computer taken away. authors need to let it go and realize when their series has jumped the shark. i'd rather be left wanting more than force fed it until i puke. Last edited by xg4bx; 08-11-2011 at 02:03 AM. |
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08-11-2011, 10:53 AM | #11 |
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08-11-2011, 10:54 AM | #12 |
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Darkover, the 'this is not a series' series
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08-11-2011, 01:13 PM | #13 |
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But the Darkover novels were pretty much complete stories in themselves and usually had a different main character. They were just set on the same planet
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08-11-2011, 03:34 PM | #14 |
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I'm on the fifth book of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, and am afraid of the end of it, as it's the last one available. And yes, if there is another, I suspect I will have lost interest before it's published.
Of course I could just read the history of the War of the Roses. |
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