ETA: 13 May: Please note, this comment thread is so amazing and interesting, but because we’re talking about series and when readers stopped reading and why (or why not), it can and does get spoiler-y. Proceed at your own risk, be ye warned, herein be spoilers, yarr.
On Tuesday at the Bosoms booksigning at the Clifton Commons Barnes & Noble, I got into a thought-provoking discussion with Sydney, Marisa, Kiersten, and the other ladies who came (who told me they lurk and never comment – I didn’t want to embarrass them but hi, folks!) about what makes us break up with a series. I realized later that I read and talked about the Bosoms for only a very small percentage of the time. Most of the hour was spent talking about romances we loved and doing that thing where romance fans get together and vacillate between, ‘OMG WIN’ and ‘OMG NO’ when talking about books. Since so many new series books have come out of late, that was a very lively topic, particularly as Jaiku pointed out at DearAuthor when you are flush with the feeling of wanting to quit, and and you just can’t do so.
The discussion spanned across a ton of series, including the latest J.R. Ward book, Lover Avenged, and Kenyon’s latest, Acheron, as well as the Anita Blake series (note: what in the name of epic ass is up with that website? I can barely read the text), Feehan’s Carpathians, the Sookie Stackhouse series, and Stephanie Plum. All of us had different points at which we did – or did not – break up with these different series.
A few people said they’d stopped reading Kenyon awhile before Acheron came out, but had to read Acheron just to find out what happened to him. One woman mentioned she loved the Sookie series unconditionally, and another couldn’t stop reading Ward, even though she wanted to. I said that I think the signal for me to stop reading the Anita Blake books came when Anita stopped being such a terrible dresser and somehow became a sexpot badass with an unending amount of personal lubrication. When she put away the fanny pack with the matching socks and polo shirt, it was time for me to stop reading.
When I asked why they’d break up with a series, the answers weren’t so far from mine. A few mentioned the “sameness” of the books, the feeling that they’d just read one of the earlier books with different character names, or the habit of reading subsequent books just to keep track of ancillary characters who would reappear in each new installment.
As I listened to the folks talking about when they broke up with a much-loved series, I think I figured out what their breakup point had in common: all of the stories we were discussing based their foundation on a lot of world building. Whether it was Trenton or an entire otherworld, the world in which the books took place played as much of a role in the early books as the characters themselves, and certainly that was part of the attraction.
But when the books became more about the characters, and less about the world, or when reader knowledge of the world was presumed by the text and therefore not built at all in later books, most of the women there, including me, started to lose interest. The world has to be as much a character that grows and evolves as the characters do, and when one is sacrificed for the other, or neither the world nor the characters evolve, the series is a lot easier to break up with and leave behind.
For example, I’m still way invested in Kresley Cole’s series because there is a larger plot facing the otherworld that develops in each book, as if that world of the Immortals is its own character. But I have stopped reading the Plum series back when it was still in the single digits because there wasn’t any evolution to the characters that I enjoyed – and what changes there were I didn’t like at all. I haven’t followed the Ward series past The Nomming of Butch By Vishous because, while often crackalicious, I didn’t care so much about the characters any longer, nor did I give a powdery ass about the Lessers, and on the whole felt that the world of the Brotherhood hadn’t changed much. I preferred to read Dark Lover again (and try to figure out WHY they can be so crack-luscious) than read any of the newer installments of the series. A few folks argued that Ward’s series was one they could not leave behind (no pun intended) because they loved the world within it so much, even as they didn’t love all the installments of the series.
Even when the author breaks the rules of that world, and breaks them hard, some of the readers I spoke with were still yearning to revisit it, either by reading older books or continuing to read the new ones. And while there was some agreement that one or two series had totally jumped the shark and kept on flying into the horizon, all of us had different breakup points with different series, especially those that seem as if they have no end in sight.
So what’s your break-up point with a series you love? Is it based on the world or the characters or a disappointment so great you’ll never get over it?
I think the question of why people continue to read books or series that they aren’t enjoying is one thing and asking why anyone reads a particular book is another. The first seems to me to be a legitimate question about how people relate to stories. The second seems to imply a judgment about other people’s taste, which is rather unfair.
And I’m not Faellie, but I’ll chime in on the Reacher books because that’s one of the series that I still read. IMO the books have not all been great, but there has been no consistent decline. I didn’t like the last one that much, but I’m still looking forward to the next one. I won’t start to think about bailing unless Child puts out 2 or 3 duds in a row. IME a pattern of decline is the sign that a series is coming to the end of the road, but the occasional less than fabulous book isn’t.
Just wanted to chime in again with total agreement on the Dresden Files series: it gets good with the fourth book.
While I read the first of the BDB I was too appalled by the, oh so awkward, word choices she used. I also had a major problem believing that men who wear “shit kickers” have an easy time falling in love with women like this.
I don’t know if any one has seen this but, JR Ward published an Insider’s Guide to the BDB.
http://www.jrward.com/books-ig-1.html
I’m a little miffed about this. I feel like if I need a manual to be able to understand all the pieces of a book or series, then maybe I should be playing Dungeons and Dragons instead of reading a romance novel. Not only that but, is she really that popular to need it?
Not only that but the excerpt she has written, makes me shudder, such as this part:
“What follows below is the last interview of Tohr and Wellsie together which I conducted it during the short time span between LOVER ETERNAL and LOVER AWAKENED. I’m reproducing it below in Wellsie’s memory…”
Read it, its worth the LULZ.
I am a true read-a-holic, it takes a lot for me to walk away from a book much less a series. For me I think when the author does not seem to have a clear end game in mind you can see it in the story. The plot line does not develop, there is no flow from one story to the next, the charters become stale. For example…
Janet Evanovich’s Plum series lost me after the characters acted as if events that happened in previous books had little too no bearing on the new book. There was no growth, no change. When the books took off in popularity and the book contract was expanded, I do not think Janet put any thought into how the series would end. She just kept spitting out a Ranger book, then a Joe book…rinse and repeat.
JR Ward’s Brothers book are not a total loss for me yet but I am not running out to buy her newest book. When it come available at the library I’ll read it but she used to be a must buy author for me. In my opinion when she shifted in focus from PNR to UF, she got lost in where she wanted to story to go. I enjoy both genres but it seemed like she was just tossing a book or two out while she redefined her storyline.
I also think when you have an ongoing story having an update to date website and author interaction is essential. For example, I love Keri Arthur’s Riley Jenson series but after book 5 I was left feeling a bit blah about the series after checking out her website I could see that she had plan for Riley. I have loved the last two books and I am dying for the newest release this fall. I follow a lot of series so having the author keep their website or blogs updated with current information makes the waiting in between book a bit easier.
I find I’m becoming blah about series in general – it seems that too many of my favorite authors are entering into never ending series, I want closure for some of them already. I gave up on the Brotherhood series after Phury’s because his was the one I was most looking forward to and then I didn’t like a single character in the book – after liking them in others! It was weird.
I’m not sure if a spoiler warning is necessary, but just in case, spoilers ahead:
A major disappointment for me was Jacquelyn Frank’s Nightwalkers series, which was supposed to be five books (now, I’m told, there will be sixth, but forget it, I can’t stand the character it’s about). Loved the first two, enjoyed the third, felt the fourth was back and forth and the fifth was a major WTH? for me. All series, there’d been a ‘big bad’ that they were against and she’s not even in the fifth book!! She’s barely mentioned towards the end! Instead, the book just seemed to harp over and over on how the ‘heroine’ couldn’t have children. I honestly could not figure out how it got published – why wouldn’t the publisher say “hey, why aren’t you wrapping up the storyline here?” It didn’t feel like a romance at all, it was depressing to read. Such a downfall for me because the first three were great – the characters, the world, everything. The fifth book didn’t seem like it was written by the same author, let alone part of the same series.
Feehan’s a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed the uber-alpha Dark series even through the repatition until the one where it was decided that the women could go chant and heal the earth instead of fighting vamps and other evils because having them in fights distracted the men. Really?!?! I mean, really?!? You’re so kick ass that the little woman can’t fight beside you? That was it for me. I couldn’t get into the Ghost Walker series, but kept trying. I think it was book five when there was the heroine who had been raped by her ‘friend’ as part of some experimental breeding program and that was it for me. I really felt that all of the rape stuff was glossed over, which is not ok in my book.
I still like Kenyon, though I prefer the actual books about the Dark-Hunters, not the Dream Hunters or others, and I do feel like the romance has been missing in the last few. I only buy in HB if I’m going to a signing though.
I don’t read Brockmann anymore. I really liked Jules’s story, but I can’t remember much about any of her other books anymore, so I don’t pick up the new ones.
For new series, I wait until a bunch are out. If the series has a pre-set number of stories (such as Moning’s Fae series) I’m waiting until the last one is out. Though I will probably skip hers because of the rape scene.
I am a repeat burn victim of series. seriously, lillith saintcrow’s dante series… dante should have died. really. TSTL. ugh. i just deleted 2 paragraphs of rant.
Harry Potter is really the only one I have read through completion that I was satisfied with (that and patrick obrian’s aubrey and maturin series, not too much romance but plenty of swashbuckling)
Someone mentioned the Wheel of Time and that cracks me up because my sister and i went through the whole high fantasy epic phase and were committed to that series for years… I would see a new one come out seriously 12 years later and couldn’t IMAGINE what he was still writing about.
Ilona Andrews’ Magic series I love- but I am so scared when I recently read that there are to be 7 in the series. as far as i can tell she could wrap up every plot point in the next book and it would be oh so satisfying. I know she’ll screw it up. they always do.
Also, can someone recommend a nice book written in the third person? I havent seen one of those in a while.
Response57- i tried but i couldn’t make that dirty.
I hate series that appear in collections – Feehan & Kenyon do it a lot – I haven’t read the series, don’t know the world building, and there’s not enough space in the novella/short story to develop it. That alone has put me off bothering to read them in the first place.
In general – once a series gets past book 5, I think seriously about it. I, too, bemoan the lack of stand-alone books. I have to read a series in order and I HATE coming across a book, start reading it, and realise that there’s other, earlier, books in the series. It’s not always that obvious from the cover.
Seriously, series books are taking over the world. I’m a judge for a competition for an unpublished children’s manuscript in New Zealand – and some of those are book one in a series. For God’s sake! You’re not even published yet!!! You are NOT JK Rowling! They’re either fantasy or horse stories. Ick!
I own most of the Pern novels. But didn’t read the last one, written by Anne’s son Todd. Oh, and The tower & the hive… and Doona… and Freedom and the first in the Powers that be – eek for the next set, with the children.
David Eddings – some – Elenium, Tamuli and the stand-alone Redemption of Athalus.
Betsy: I think I managed only one-and-a-half books before I was tempted to throw her across the room. The only worthy thing out of the series? The saying rat bastard. That’s it. And she keeps popping up everywhere! The mermaid book – less than half of it. Undead and please stay that way.
BDB: I’m new to the series, so read them all in a row, and am waiting for the latest.
Anita – I think I got to book 3. Merry – I’m still ok with.
I work in a library, so get all my books there. They have to seriously rock my world for me to buy them. I have more important things to spend my money on (and new bookshelves aren’t on the list).
Nalini Singh – I’d even think about buying these.
Oh, yeah, and Harry – all of them. No to Princess Diaries (bk 2, I think).
number39 – please, God, let the series stop before then…
Like everyone else:
(a) quit Anita Blake once I gave up hope on the books ever having a plot again rather than sexin. Merry Gentry was given up on after book 3, ditto.
(b) quit Queen Betsy after “the book that changes everything” didn’t. Also, the whining got old and the funny got lost.
(c) Stephanie Plum is designed to be a static universe and there is no point.
(d) Morganville Vampires because Claire is TSTL. I love the other characters and hate Claire, but she is the lead and I can’t get around her stupid.
(e) Outlander: When Roger got damaged so badly, Claire got raped, Jamie had a near-death experience for no reason at all… too much, depressing, ugh, done. It felt like she was upping the shock value for no reason somehow.
(f) Weather Wardens books made me feel physically exhausted after reading the never-ending changes and drama. I am not even invested in Joanne and David after all of that.
I am still in it with Sookie, though I started having issues midseries when I counted her having six love interests. Thank the gods CH weeded them out to a reasonable number, because I did not want to read Anita Blake Round Two. (Whether or not they still pine doesn’t matter so much as Sookie not wanting to date Calvin or Quinn. And not going there with her boss, thanks.) No complaints about Harry Dresden or Miles Vorkosigan or Discworld. Still read Troubleshooters (sporadically), though they’re a casual read and not a must-buy all the time. Otherworld books I have liked, but I just cannot get into “Living With The Dead” and the third person narration of it compared to the other stories. I hope that doesn’t kill the series for me. Katie MacAlister is circling the drain with the TSTL and I don’t know why I have stayed in so far.
I am now worrying about my favorite series now (Cal and Niko, Kitty Norville, Hollows, etc.) that are starting to go over the four book mark. I really don’t want them to start sucking! I am worried about the new Glass trilogy by Maria V. Snyder because the main character of it had an Idiot Ball moment that just pissed me off. I know it’s hard to live up to the original premise, but…argh.
thing64: Anita’s boinked that many series by now.
@ KeriM There are still things to learn about Reacher that I’m interested in. I agree Nothing to Lose was a bit predictable, but I liked Gone Tomorrow. One Shot, which you mention, is good, and is about No. 10 in the series. Some of the earlier ones, like Persuader, I think are heartstopping even when re-reading.
OK, not a Lee Child thread, so shutting up now.
@ Faellie, Oh I admit it I am not willing to give up on that 6’4 of hunky alpha manhood just yet, I just wanted to see your take on the series.
🙂
Also an agreement with an earlier shout out for the next Julia Spencer-Fleming, but One Was A Soldier won’t be out until the fall of 09 or winter of ‘10, that is too *&^$#@ long!
I want to read series when the author has done with them. I’m talking about Melanie Rawn who hasn’t yet (!) come out with the 3rd book of the Exiles series. I’m leery of starting George R R Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series coz he hasn’t come out with Book 5 when it was supposed to come out since last year. (And then there’s book 6 and 7 to wait for)
I think an author should stop at book 3 for a series. From book 4 onward, the books that I’ve read started to get wierd. Like recently, I’ve been reading Susan Wiggs’ Lakeshore Chronicles. Books 1 to 3 are still okay, since they talk about the Bellamy family. But Book 4 is…um… let’s just say I wanted to throw the book across the room. But since it’s not mine, I restrained myself. When I read the blurb for books 5 and 6, well, let’s just say I’m not interested.
I love this thread. So interesting. But please note: if you’re going to include spoilers, tag them as such.
SPOILER AHEAD!
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Then people can skip the part here because Kristin shot J.R., Richard is Angela’s son, Bart is gay, and it was all a dream.
I will try to find a quick stylesheet solution that will make it uber easy but expression engine, it taunts me. And it taunts me again.
As you were. Thx.
Sarah, on a forum I moderate, we have a “hide” button like your html buttons above the post window. It puts the post in brackets and when it goes on the board, all you see is a little box with the word “Hide” in it. That way, people can post away and when they want to post any kind of spoiler, they put it in those brackets.
Nice way to help people who would rather not read them. They just don’t have to click on it.
However…there are some who look at that button the way a kid drools over a chocolate bar at the store…
If I’m not entertained and loving the books, I break up. Clean, harsh, cold. I just leave. I’m never mad or irritated- after all ‘dem early books hooked me and will still be enjoyed! I just walk away.
If they still work for me (Plum comes to mind) then yep- I stay in. If they’re loosing hold (Sookie) then I wait for the paperbacks or wait a book or two and see if it comes back to a good place…
@colleenlaughs: Oh yeah, Dante. After book two, it was a struggle to read. I made it through the first half of book five. I’m super bummed about it, because the worldbuilding and premise are oustanding; I mean, really really good. But Dante…oh TSTL is an understatement. I just want to slap her up side the head. Now you’ve gotten me all riled up….
I broke up with one long running series because I feel that the author violated my trust and commitment as a reader by randomly changing the rules of the world and legend she’d built and not staying true to what we knew of characters before they got their own books. The legend and world drew me into the series. She introduced characters in earlier books in the series and our anticipation grew until we couldn’t wait for the hero to get his book. Then, when the book arrived, the hero acted completely out of character. Total disappointment. I gave the series one more shot after that, only to find additional rule and character changes. So, no more for me.
I stopped reading another series because it felt like the author got lazy with her writing and not only repeated character types but repeated phrases, metaphors and descriptions book after book after book.
Mystery series where the same character is the star of every book can be tricky. I still love reading the Stephanie Plum books perhaps because I have different expectations. All I want is a good laugh, a crazy series of events, and healthy doses of Ranger and Morelli hotness. I don’t care whether Stephanie has an epiphany that helps her grow as a person or whether she takes classes to improve her bounty hunter skills, or whether she learns to carry a fire extinguisher in her car so she can save one of them from burning. I’m in it for the slapstick entertainment and the books deliver that for me.
Mary Stella, above, has made the important point that there are different kinds of series. Some of the classic detective stories belong to the category in which each book is a separate, self-contained story, but always with the same protagonist – a different case for Holmes, Poirot, Roderick Alleyn or Guido Brunetti, for example. Even though there is an overall chronological timeline, the issue of the central character’s personal development is not directly relevant: each book is totally free-standing, and they certainly do not have to be read in order.
Then there are those that have a background world or setting and characters, but each book is, again, a separate story featuring different central characters. Some of the best romance sub-genre series obviously fall into that class, like Jayne Ann Krentz’s various linked books. Again, the books do not have to be read in sequence – each is independent, though they have places and characters in common.
The problems, as I see it, tend most often to arise in the type of series in which a single hero/heroine is featured within what amounts to an ongoing story arc, and it is important to read the books in chronological order. These are really multi-volume single novels. This is why readers, reasonably enough, expect the heroine, the Stephanie Plum or idiot Betsy, to change and grow, and if she doesn’t, or if she grows in unwanted directions, they are likely to be disappointed sooner or later.
Finally, there is the soap-opera type of series (I don’t know if there is a literary term for them) in which no single book has an overarching story arc, but rather, a series of interconnected everyday events and little sub-plots. The apotheosis of this form of fiction is Alexander McCall Smith’s No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books, now up to book no.9. He is an exquisite, deceptively simple, writer, with the skill to draw one into the world of his characters, a real Jane Austen de nos jours. I find it so gratifying that this outstanding writer of fiction is by training and experience an academic. As long as he goes on writing about Mma Ramotswe and her life, I’ll go on reading. I can’t imagine that I could ever tire of the stories, because the characters (which include the country, Botswana) become friends whose doings are always of interest.
Dante is an idiot. If I hadn’t been in Japan for a summer with a set amount of books (::ahem:: a lot of books but still a set amount) I would have never passed the first one. I don’t understand how wings can look like a coat. A cape, maybe, but not a coat. And she was obnoxious. Like Rachel Vincent’s main character, who is violent and psychotic—if she was male, she would have been a major villain.
@jessica- funny you should say that. One of things I like best about Faythe is that she is often more of an anti-hero. lol
Kim Harrison: WWBC took me awhile to get through because there wasn’t a very interesting plot. I don’t think I can take any more angst with her and Ivy. I bought it in hard copy I won’t make that mistake again.
J.R Ward: I enjoy all the different characters. I like following them from book to book. These books are so silly but I’m so addicted.
Sookie: I still love this series but every guy falling for her gets on my nerves. A love sixangle.
Jim Butcher: Great series but some books I’ve liked more than others.
The only series I can say I’m 100% happy with at this point is Ilona Andrews. Magic Strikes was great. She’s only 3 books in though and I hear she has planned 7 in the series so I’m sure my pleasure won’t last long.
It seems these series start off strong but continue way past their prime. Perhaps authors need to set a cut off date.
I’m not much for finishing series. Mostly I get distracted by something else. Things that will stop me from finishing however (this goes for books not just series):
1. characters acting out of character
1a. Rampant Mary or Marty Sue-ism
1b. Historicals where people don’t act like they would during that time period.
2. Disappearance of plot and good sense
3. Breaking of world rules without reason or at least consequence
3a. Major Historical Inaccuracies.
4. Prolonged angst of a main character (longer then two books)
5. Out grown the series or grown bored with it
6. The author undermining the story by making the story about the message not about the characters or by making it all delusions of crazy.
7. “Sorry if you liked the first trilogy where they saved the world because it gets destroyed -I mean completely and total gone- at the end of the second” (sorry little bitter about that one).
8. Incest (DO NOT WANT)
1-3 only if it gets annoying or near constant. 4 if there is no sign of improvement in the near future or I don’t really like that book all that much anyway. 5 I might finish the book I’m on, but I won’t bother getting the next (I might look up synopsis online). 6 – 8 pretty much automatic deal breakers.
My overall opinion is that people stop reading series, books, whatever because of a betrayal of expectations based on what the author has supplied in the past and our own conceptions as to what makes a series/book good. Sometimes the author is doing everything right, but the reader thinks the book was going to be different then it is, so they don’t bother reading the next book. Sometimes the books just suck.
I just think she’s just a spoiled brat to the Nth degree. I still like the series, weirdly enough. However, I wish Marc would dump her permanently and get on with life. She really doesn’t deserve him.
The one I dropped cold, and took the books to the local used bookstore: Anita Blake. I like plot in my novels, thank you. Mind you, if she wrote a “And Edward came back and killed all of them” novel I’d read that one! Never even tried the Merry Gentry ones – they didn’t look like my cup of tea from the outset.
Have not dropped Stephanie Laurens per se, just am not always quick to get them these days.
I am still enjoying the Temeraire novels, and Stephen Saylor’s Roma Sub Rosa books (though the most recent one I read had a WTF ending). Also like the Maisie Dobbs books.
My father has been steady-dating Robert B. Parker’s Spenser books since, oh, 1978. And is still buying them in hardback. Though we joke about Susan nibbling herself to death.
Well she’s up to book 3, so four more books where she gathers up enough strength and enough people to kill her bad guy father doesn’t sound like a stretch.
I think it has to do more with the authors getting famous and their editors/book publishers will allow any drivel as long as it becomes a major bestseller. LKH, David Weber and Robert Jordan are perfect examples. Heck, RJ is DEAD and the ghostwriter can’t finish the last book on time! They are breaking it up into 3 parts!
I forgot about Anne Rice. I made it through tale of the Body Thief and couldn’t be bothered.
Also, I broke up with Louis L’Amour after Jubal Sackett.
(with exceptions for The Day breakers, Orlando and The Sackett Brand, because I actually listened to them first)
Only the Love Interest, out of the several female characters, had a name. None of the women had a personality.
The Rampant Plot Device (no spoiler) was the last straw.
normal95. Yes please. “Plot Devices” have no place in westerns
Ditto most of the comments about LKH. I was a *rabid* fan until she took a character I loved, even with her flaws, and turned her into, well, what she is now.
And honestly? The sex scenes? LKH writes the exact same sex scene every time. It’s just the names on the other end of the dicks that change. So basically, you’re reading the same sex scene multiple times across multiple books, for hundreds of pages. Horrible.
I love Kim Harrison but thought this last book weak, and also thought Kelly Armstrong’s last book was weak. I’m willing to give an author an occasional “less than spectacular” if they come back with a solid followup though.
Still love Patricia Briggs. Loved the first two Fae books by Moning but Faefever, so not. And if the trope is what I think it may be, (i.e., think Bobby Ewing from Dallas) I’ll be severely pissed.
I tend to quit authors rather than specific series. Took me a long time, but I finally quit Amanda Quick/Jayne Anne Krentz because she just kept writing the exact same book and inserting slightly different characters in them. Lazy and boring.
I second, third, and fourth the Janet Evanovich comments. It’s really sad, because the last few books have been written completely slapdash. It seems to me she’s spending as little time writing them as possible and instead devoting all her time to pushing them just so she can make more money.
The author who is brilliant at very long series books is Terry Pratchett (as I know at least one other person has already mentioned). I think he keeps his series fresh by a) being an incredible writer, and b) switching around his world and using different characters as the main protagonist. So we have several books starring Sam Vimes, and several with Rincewind, several with DEATH, Moist von Lipwig, and some one-offs too.
The series I’ve loved best this year is probably Sarah Monette’s Labyrinth series, and I guess the publishers didn’t renew her contract, which is a huge bummer because I find myeslf not yet ready to let Felix and Mildmay go.
Carol! OMG! I thought I was the only one who read and loved the Exiles series. I wish there was a third one, but she seems to have abandoned it entirely (and apparently gets really angry with fans who ask whether it will ever come out). It kills me, because that’s my fave of her series.
BDB hit a nadir for me with Butch’s book, but picked up with V and Phury’s books. Probably won’t buy this one in hardback, though.
Anita Blake, man. I have the same problem everyone else does. She’s just accrued so many abilities that nothing can possibly harm her. And then there’s the sexin’. And the psychopath-ness.
On the other end of the spectrum, I was doggedly reading through Susan Kearney’s SF HEA series, because the first two books had the seeds of really good novels in them, and she’s really hit her stride with the third. I’m looking forward to the fourth.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Marjorie Liu’s “Dirk & Steele” books. I like them an awful lot, and they’re a series I won’t give up anytime soon.
I can’t say that I’ve ever read a lot of the series everyone keeps talking about, however,I’ve broken up with quite a few to start another one. Okay, so I’m a series slut!
Anyway….I usually break up with a series when:
1. Another comes out that looks more interesting.
2. The hero is a total angst-ridden wimp and can have sex with our plucky but troubled heroine, but can’t have a “relationship” with her because of his past, but….he can control her impetuosity and protect her so she doesn’t hurt herself. Of course, the adrenaline rush of all that protecting and controlling her pluckiness makes him hot and he just has to have sex with her!
3. When the heroine is so WTF crazy that I feel the need to throw the book in the trash to save someone else’s time and money
4. When the heroine is intrepid. I really, really can’t stand an intrepid cow who insists on getting out of the car and running her crazy butt into a dark building even when she’s told that there is a mass murderer in there. (This usually happens when our heroine is a reporter, social worker or a worried big sister, mother, daughter, etc out to find the person who killed her little sister, daughter, mother, etc. )
5. When its any of the Lora Leigh Breeds series.
6. When an author creates a world that changes from book to book. I have a hard enough time trying to figure out the world I’m in!
7. When a secondary character that I like gets his/her own book and turns into either a complete ass or a idiot.
Okay, this list is not even close to done, but I need to stop. I’m still on the clock! :0)
I started reading romances in my teens, and lets just say that was when Madonna was prancing around in a wedding dress…I kept quite a few of those books and if my memory is correct the first series I read was Diana Palmer’s Long Tall Texans. Remember those!? Was there ever a stringer-on! I think if it was possible a story would have been written about the farm animals!
There are certain sick attractions into series, you get sucked in and sometimes it’s hard to get out, no matter how predictable each subsequent page and chapter becomes. But if you are lucky, once in a while you do claw your way out! Ones I was able to remove the shackles from were:
– Linda Lael Miller – another long series queen…she herself got bored and took a detour to writing suspense, when that wasn’t successful she went back Romances with Montana Creeds – I was able to avoid being sucked back in, thank goodness!
– Christine Feehan – I don’t give a rat’s ass about that darn Carpathian male finding his HOE and if I have to suffer through another claiming and the cheesy declaration I am going to hurl blood voluntarily.
– Amanda Quick – same bad boy, same stubborn girl, same maniac bad dude, I am wasting away with boredom.
– MaryJanice Davidson – Betsy should have just gone on an extended shopping trip and never returned, the only way I will read it again if her roommates turn on her and kill her for good.
– Karen Marie Moning – I quit reading her after the first Fever book came out! Stone cold sober!
Ones I still am addicted to for no reason but I am hanging on for something different to happen are Kenyon’s DHs and her pseudo historical half McGregor’s BoS, Ward’s BDBs and Cole’s IADs – for however long, depends on how much they piss me off for wasting my precious free time reading them!
At least now I buy ebooks so it’s cheaper than hardcovers and easier to store!
I just read the first of the Dirk & Steele series (Margaret Liu); I’m reserving judgment. I picked it up because I realllllly liked two short pieces of Liu’s I read in collections—the tone was great, the way she handled the relationships was great. But a lot of cliches and melodrama show up in the Tiger Eye. I’ll keep going with the series, at least for a book or two to see if the books get better, craftwise. I can stand only so much of the “she suddenly trusted him after knowing him, like, only two hours because he was the first man who truly…” kind of stuff.
Along the same lines, I liked Catherine Coulter’s The Cove, but found her second book in the series, The Maze, so poorly written I ended up skimming it (because even in the worst books, I want to find out what happened). There are so many good books, there’s no point in spending time reading bad ones. Since the books did manage to get published, I end up bidding a series goodbye with a sort of “it’s not you, it’s me” feeling.
Just a small point. I am rather bothered by the blunt accusations of ‘laziness’ that some people make against writers whose work they perceive as failing to evolve. I think that all the professional writers here will agree that it is pretty difficult to complete a whole book at all – good, bad or indifferent – if you are lazy, because the process of writing is actually hard work.
What is happening is the writer and reader drifting apart: the writer moves on to something different, but the reader wants more of the same, or the writer provides more of the same, and the reader moves on, wanting a change. It is about the fit between creator and consumer. Accusations of laziness seem, at the very least, discourteous.
@Lois Baron: The Dirk & Steele books definitely get better!
Just a thought, how about Joe and Ranger decide they prefer each other and leave our Steph in the lurch. That would make me read and I gave up on Ms Plum a long time ago.
word: found55, found 55 reasons not to read LKH!
Now THAT would be HOT.
This is not really a comment but a thank you.
I’m working on my first series for Sourcebooks. I was offered a four book deal but had my agent negotiate it down to three. That may sound bizarre, and it wouldn’t be the first time I was accused of oddness, but I was unsure about my ability to make a fourth book relevant. As it turns out, three won’t break the contract, but if a fourth (or 5th) comes out of me, it’ll be a nice bonus. I wish all publishers were that flexible.
It’s really good to see what readers have to say about the long series. What I don’t like in any book or series is a predictable pattern. If I know what’s going to happen from chapter one, why should I read the book? To me, surprises are important to hold my interest.
Therefore, I’ve vowed not to become that “serial killer” whose books sound so much alike, the fun fades.
Right now, I’m plotting book two with an eye to what I did in book one—and doing it differently. (So, Ashlyn, your last heroine changed her goal. I guess this one should hang onto it until the bitter end. And your last hero didn’t have a dark side. Let’s give this one a very dark side. And just for fun, let’s disillusion your heroine and make her question whether or not human nature can ever be redeemed.
Now I have stuff I can work with and it’s simply by saying, “Okay, I already did that, so I can do anything but that now.
One of the reasons I was put off a certain NY publisher for a while (no need to name names and ruin my future) was the predictability of each book. Even different authors were beginning to sound alike.
I understand the idea that if it was successful once, it will be again…but IMO there’s an expiration date on successful formulas.
I really love stuff that’s fresh and original. It seems as if I’m not alone! So, thank you for sharing your thoughts here. I feel vindicated somehow.
Ash *who loves her world, but knows there are always more worlds to create and love too.
P.S. Hi Sarah! It was great to meet you at RT and I’m thrilled by the success of your book!
@ Lois Baron: I’m right there with you with Liu. I really liked the Crimson City series and I think Liu had two books in that, so I went out and got Tiger Eye. I’ve only made it through 1/2 the book and I’ve been “reading” it for several months, now. Chris said they get better so I’ll push my way through Tiger Eye-but I don’t expect it to be much fun…;)
comes39: amazing, but also exhausting.
@Randi, @Lois Baron: read book 2, Shadow Touch. I haven’t read Tiger Eye, so I can’t speak to it, but after I got through the first, ooo, 20 pages or so of Shadow Touch, I could not put the book down and stayed up until 2:30am to finish it. Something I liked about both that and Soul Song is that the characters wind up with really solid reasons to trust each other. (Also, I really like that, in many of her books, either the hero or the heroine is a person of color.)
CAPTCHA: moving39…I guess this means we’re buying a house next year!
I would buy that book in hardcover—and I gave up on the series several books ago.
@rednikki: I’m guessing, then, that one does not need to read Tiger Eye to read the rest of the series (because, here be an, ‘I MUST read the series from the beginning’ person.)?
woman25: hell, that was a decade ago!
@Randi – I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’ve been picking them up at the used bookstore, and they’re standalones enough that reading them out of order has been no problem. I first read #5, then #2, and now I’m reading what I think is #7 (which, conveniently, features a character introduced in book 2 as the main character). I don’t think I’m missing out on a darn thing not having read Tiger Eye. Perhaps someday I will go back and read it just for completeness’ sake, but it’s not like the BDB stuff (which my brain keeps translating as “Big Damn Brotherhood).