Getting annoyed at longwinded series

[Chel]

Warning: This may become a bit of a rant!

Imagine going to the bookstore, eager to pick up something new to read. Imagine buying a trilogy by an author new to you, rushing home and making yourself comfortable, digging into the new world, making new friends of the characters and in general just enjoying yourself.

Sounds good so far?

Well, what if, by the time you get halfway through the third book, you start realising that the story is far from told, and that there's no way the author will be able to finish it within the remaining 200-300 pages? And all this time, throughout the 2½ books you've already read, the author's been wasting your time on trivialities that add nothing to the plot, filling the pages with needless fluff?

If I come across as being annoyed at this, you're right, I am. I'm the kind of person who is reluctant to leave a book unfinished. If I've started reading something, it takes a lot for me to put the book away before I reach the end - that is, if it's not bad enough to make me put it away before it starts properly. That doesn't mean I read a lot and all the time though, I actually only read in bed before going to sleep, and usually fall asleep with the book still open in my hand.

The main gripe I have with these neverending books is that, apart from a few masters at the art such as G.R.R Martin, there is no need for them to go on and on and on. Where Martin's books make me wish they would never end, many others keep me reading out of pure pig-headedness - I do, after all, want to know how the story ends.

Maybe it's just that I should be more careful and remember to check the last page of each book - will there be a continuation, should I wait with starting the book until I have that last, still unwritten part in my hands? Should I start doing more research before even going to the bookshop, to make sure I don't by mistake pick something up that looks like a trilogy but will continue for the next twenty years?

Undoubtedly there's a big market for these enormous series, and some of them are, admittedly, very good. Personally though, I steer away from them (if I notice it in time!) because so many are filled with endless descriptions and pointless scenes. I just want to know how the story ends! By the time the next book comes out, chances are I've forgotten all about the first three books, possibly I've even forgotten I ever read them - and if I remember having read them, and I now face re-reading something I know I didn't think was all that good to start with, I might as well not buy the fourth, fifth or tenth book in the series at all.


It did become quite the rant, but I think I'm done for the moment.

 

[biodroid]

I think the most annoying thing about a long series is that it takes long to write as most chrons here know, they are still waiting for ADWD by GRRM for years now. I would rather maybe wait for the series to be completed but maybe read the first book just to get a glimpse of is the series worth the wait or just to leave it alone. Then again I am a slow reader so by the time the series is complete I will most likely be half through the series anyway Please excuse my poor English control today not sure what's up with that, maybe lack of sleep

 

[The Procrastinator]

Name names, Chel! Let your experience serve as a warning for those who, like you, get caught assuming something is a trilogy only to find its been sumo-sized - a heptology with extra padding it didn't need.

Yes that is annoying. I'll tell you what else is annoying is buying a book that appears to be a one-off but is actually part of a series. I will name names here, I bought The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell as a Christmas present for a friend, and nowhere on it did it say "Book 2 of the blah blah series" - thats implied on the fine print inside. Stupid me. Having said that it was a great read and he loved it, but now I've had to buy him the others in the series as well for a birthday present. My poor purse.

Some of those enormous series are very good, but there is a lot of over-padded tripe out there too. Gone are the days of sparse and careful prose, I guess.

 

[Chel]

Biodroid - I think waiting would be a good idea too, but what with those books you don't even realise will continue?

As an example, I recently read books 1, 2 and 3 of The Twilight Reign-series by Tom Lloyd - a nice enough read in many aspects, but by the time I was half through the third book, I realised it couldn't be a trilogy as I thought, as the story was nowhere near to getting wrapped up and finished. So now I have to wait for parts 4 and 5 to be written, I have to remember ever having read the first three books and I have to keep my eyes open for the next two, which may take years to be printed. ...and that's because I want to know how the story ends, something which, in my opinion, could very well have been achieved already.


Edit: As per request, another series I thought was a trilogy is Ian Irvine's The Well of Echoes-series. I got the first three books, realised it wasn't a trilogy, made my mother (who had also read the first three books) buy the fourth one, which I still haven't read as I don't want to re-read the first three books.

 

[Fried Egg]

I avoid them all, even the so called "good" ones. When all is said and done, these are essentially fantasy soap operas. When they are successful, they're good cash cows for the authors. Good luck to them I say. Not my thing though...

 

[J Riff]

I, too, avoid them on principle. Been complaining about this for awhile. No-one listens. If you stack up the series it's like one book thicker than the chesterfield is tall. And it's still not over ?

 

[Rodders]

i don't mind the long windedness so much, for me i can't stand the fact that i have mostly forgotten the other books in the series that i've already read. Some have a small prologue explaining the story so far, but it's not the same.

 

[biodroid]

Fried Egg - What would you normally read then if I may inquire? I also feel they can be extremely long-winded but I do not mind the trilogies as long as they stay trilogies and do not get extended.

 

[Fried Egg]

Fried Egg - What would you normally read then if I may inquire? I also feel they can be extremely long-winded but I do not mind the trilogies as long as they stay trilogies and do not get extended.

Do you mean in terms of fantasy?

Well, I tend to read a lot of older fantasy that is usually shorter anyway. But even in modern fantasy there are good stand alone novels out there. For instance, "Last Dragon" by J.M. McDermott and "Perdido Street Station" by China Mievielle are two modern stand alone fantasy stories I have read recently.

Then again, I will still read trilogies, quartets or even quintets from time to time if they are good. For instance, I read the "Winter of the World" trilogy by Michael Scott Rohan, "The Book of the New Sun" quartet by Gene Wolf and "The Amber Chronicles" quintet by Roger Zelazny not so long ago and they were all very good.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I don't mind long series, as long as the author has a good idea about where his story will go and how (and when) it will end.

WoT is a series that clearly lost the plot for a good portion of it's series. I remember reading somewhere (can't remember where) that Jordan had initially planned it to be a shorter series (maybe 5 or 6), but then revised the predicted length, and the then revised again, until finally saying it would be twelve books. Of course, we now know that it will finally end at #14.

Another example is A Song of Ice and Fire. Though I haven't read the series, and hear only good things about it, it was originally planned as a trilogy, and was then decided that it would consist of seven novels. Perhaps this revised length is one of the reasons GRRM hasn't finished the fifth book in several years.

For series that were meant to be a certain length, however, it works. Harry Potter was seven volumes long, but it worked because everyone knew going in that it would be seven books. I've also read Stephen King's The Dark Tower, also seven books, though I read the whole series only a couple of years ago. I'm sure it wasn't fun for those who'd been waiting decades for the damn thing to finish.

 

[biodroid]

Do you mean in terms of fantasy?

Well, I tend to read a lot of older fantasy that is usually shorter anyway. But even in modern fantasy there are good stand alone novels out there. For instance, "Last Dragon" by J.M. McDermott and "Perdido Street Station" by China Mievielle are two modern stand alone fantasy stories I have read recently.

Then again, I will still read trilogies, quartets or even quintets from time to time if they are good. For instance, I read the "Winter of the World" trilogy by Michael Scott Rohan, "The Book of the New Sun" quartet by Gene Wolf and "The Amber Chronicles" quintet by Roger Zelazny not so long ago and they were all very good.

Yes, fantasy is what I meant. I would really like to get my hands on the Winter of the World trilogy but looks like it's out of print every where.

 

[GOLLUM]

A reason I like Erikson's magnificent Malazan series so much. He's been outputting since 2000 and is not far off releasing Book 10 of a 10 book series. Of course there are more spin offs etc. to now follow but for a lengthy first up series I like the way he's produced at an impressive rate and maintained a very high level of quality. No surprise then that he plans a sightly less punishing rate for future novels.

I've got all of Ian Irvine's books set in the Three World Universe. They are not masterworks but they are both page turners and highly enjoyable romps.

Jordan RI.P and Martin are probably the two I've become/became most frustrated with, albeit they are not arguably beholden to the fans to finish by a certain deadline.

 

[GOLLUM]

Yes, fantasy is what I meant. I would really like to get my hands on the Winter of the World trilogy but looks like it's out of print every where.

Yours truly has a copy but that's probably not a big surprise..... The original Winter of the World Trilogy (there was a second but not as good) was one of the most wonderful examples of a trilogy that I've ever had the good fortune to read. The description of Ice as a malevolent presence is, to my knowledge and experience, the best description ever put down on paper in World Literature (incl. only English translations here of course). Certainly worth a read IMHO.

When you say they are out of print it is true they are tough to find but you can always source them second hand.

Good luck....

 

[Fried Egg]

Yes, fantasy is what I meant. I would really like to get my hands on the Winter of the World trilogy but looks like it's out of print every where.

You can get them all quite cheaply second hand on Abe Books.

 

[Urien]

Great series, best thing Rohan ever did. Always odd to me that it's not more popular. It is, I guess pretty grim, but very atmospheric.

 

[Lord Soth]

Hmm, slightly derailing here but what I really hate is when I goto my local second-hand book market stall and see all the trilogies (and quads+more) on his shelves where someone has come along and bought just the first one and left the others!!!

I'm hardly about to buy book 2 of a series, and the people that have bought book 1 never seem to come back and buy the rest! Very annoying, I keep telling the owner he should sell them as sets only, maybe one day he'll listen to me!

 

[GOLLUM]

Off-topic: Indeed......however I often notice that booksellers will only sell a trilogy as a set and not individually. From my experience, this especially applies to second hand dealers as opposed to a franchisee or conglomerate bookstore chain.

 

[Fried Egg]

Hmm, slightly derailing here but what I really hate is when I goto my local second-hand book market stall and see all the trilogies (and quads+more) on his shelves where someone has come along and bought just the first one and left the others!!!

I'm hardly about to buy book 2 of a series, and the people that have bought book 1 never seem to come back and buy the rest! Very annoying, I keep telling the owner he should sell them as sets only, maybe one day he'll listen to me!

Well, while I can appreciate that it might be annoying, I can also understand why people may not want to buy an entire series in one go. They may just want to try it to see if they like it. Indeed, that's precisely what I did with the "Winter of the World" trilogy funilly enough. I read the first volume then later went back for the others when I found out that I liked it.

Also, second hand dealers may aquire books individually and not always the full set. This may explain why the full set is not available.

 

[The Procrastinator]

I, too, love Winter of the World and recommend getting it second hand - whatever it takes - just get it. And I hate it when the "book ones" are missing, too! Though I can't get too het up about it because I'm pretty sure I've been a culprit in my time.

I also hate when you buy books online and they quote all the rave reviews from the back cover and the actual book turns out to be almost the opposite in quality. This catches me every time because sometimes the reviews are right and sometimes they are damned lies! Why can they not install a review BS-ometer on the back of books.

 

[biodroid]

Or just not have reviews by critics who only read thrillers and romance novels.