Have you ever burned out on a book series?
Last week on Friday Coffee Chat we talked about books that you thought were so bad, you couldn’t pass it on to anyone else. It generated good discussion and people were, shall I say, VERY forthcoming about the books they abhorred.
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This week, I want to talk about those books you love and are part of a series, but somehow seemed to drag on for so long that the story has become stale and you just can’t wait for it to end.
Jennifer from Girls Gone Reading is talking about a similar topic this week in her portion of Friday Coffee Chat. She wants to know if a book can still be interesting when there is very little action and the characters don’t seem to do anything. Head over to her blog to post your thoughts!
I’m going to admit it. I love a good series. I get so connected with the characters that they end up feeling like family to me. I love it when and author makes their story and characters so rich and full of life that I sit away and pine for more while they work on their next book. Anne McCaffrey did this with her Pern series. Masterharper Robinton became like a father to me and Menolly was my best friend for many years. I dreamed of having a fire lizard as a pet, a dragon as a companion, and life on a planet that while unfriendly at times (I mean, spores that ate anything organic did fall from the sky) was so wonderful that I just wanted to move there. Not every series does this for me. There are some that I love but now just feel like I’m in it for the long haul or I’ve just decided that I’m tired of feeling like the author is trying to milk their series for every last penny. You know…there are the books that seemingly have an end, but then you find out there’s a prequel. Or a prequel to that prequel. Or better yet, a few hundred years have passed and now you’re reading about the characters’ great, great, great grandchildren.
Terry Brooks’ Shannara series is kind of like this for me. Oh make no mistake…I’m in it for the long haul. I didn’t even like the first book in the series, but it was a trilogy so I reluctantly read the second book, The Elfstones of Shannara and ended up really liking it. I devoured just about all the books in the series and thought I was through, but no, I found out there was a prequel. I read the prequel and liked it, but then I found out that there were books that took place in the future and…well, you get the point. I’m finally toward the “end” of the series, but I just found out that he just released a new Shanarra book, Bearers of the Black Staff, in an apparently new series called Legends of Shanarra. Sometime along the way, the books just stopped being super fun and now I feel like I’m watching an episode of ER. I’m so connected to the world that I HAVE to finish the series, but the story has kind of fizzled and the characters don’t have the draw that they used to. The cover of the book even features the series name larger than the title of the book. I just can’t help but feel like Terry Brooks is wringing that pile o’ cash out to see if a few more pennies will fall out. That being said, despite my lamenting that this series has gone on too long, I’ll most likely be at the bookstore picking up a copy of Bearers of the Black Staff at some point in the future!
I’ve also heard people say similar things about Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s series, and Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. I’ll even begrudgingly admit that I’ve felt that way about my beloved Pern. Anne McCaffrey passed the series on to her son after the books came to a good and satisfying conclusion (the last book I might add, sat on my shelf for 3 years before I read it because I was SO sad that the series was ending). Granted, there is history on Pern that Todd McCaffrey is now writing about, but the first book was kind of rough. They’ve since gotten better and of course I won’t give up my Pern but I would also be completely ok if they decided to let Pern only live on in the heads of its fans.
I have to give props to writers like J.K. Rowling who had a story in her head, wrote it all out on paper, and ended the series once her story was told (although don’t get me started on the Epilogue to Harry Potter). Why don’t some authors realize that all the compelling storytelling has passed when the conflict in the story has been resolved? Why do I keep buying books for series that should have ended long ago? A part of me feels like a sucker.
My questions for you this week are:
- What series’ do you wish would just end so that life can go on as normal?
- Do you think authors still have stories to tell in their series, or do you think that publishers are trying to ride a wave of success and they push the author to write more?
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leeswammes 78p · 757 weeks ago
I LOVED the first in the series but after that, it went downhill for me. I think I liked the world that Brooks had created but once I'd read a whole book about that world, things started to get a bit the same in the next books. I mean, I liked the IDEA of that world, but since we had found out all about that in the first book, the second and subsequent books could only add to that world. They were not whole new ideas in themselves.
Oh, not sure if that's clear at all. Anyway, I also had that a bit with the Hunger Games, where the first book was fantastic, and the second book was really nice, but it could never bring back that initial feeling of exploring a new world.
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Jessica · 757 weeks ago
Turned into a rant there LOL
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Yvette · 757 weeks ago
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scrabblequeen 40p · 757 weeks ago
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Sarah · 757 weeks ago
Anyway, I think fantasy and sci fi, with really long series and very few stand alones, suffer from this problem quite often. I usually think its wise when an author keeps themselves to a trilogy, which generally keeps them from toeing the "this series is WAY too long" line.
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@ratsinabag · 757 weeks ago
What irritates me most though about milkers is milkers with fat bricky books. Shorter books tend to be better I find or at least bearable if one of them isn't so good.
Why does a book need to be THAT long? Is there a reason that it has to be 1000 pages, can it not be edited into 500 pages because if book five is a load of rubbish, I'm not going to bother with the rest of the series because I'm not dragging myself through thousands of pages only to be disappointed. There's a lot of investment and commitment so if they have to be 1000 pages they better ALL be exceptionally good and I don't really think you can achieve that if each and every one of them is a brick.
It's all about quality over quantity in the end. Once something has come to an end, the author or the publisher should accept it. Better to leave the audience wanting more then becoming so fed up of it it completely ruins their lasting memory of the series anyway. It's the same with some TV shows... some long lasting series and soaps have just turned absolutely rubbish - stupidly rubbish. What is the point? I guess though, that there will always be enough people who will love it just because.
Anyway... if I know a series goes on and on I'm less likely to start it unless each book is a separate story in it's own right - like crime stories - not part of a big ongoing thing like Jordan's Wheel of Time series.
I hate it when you get to a part of the book and you start stepping back and going "oh really?" or when a brickish book starts getting repetitive and the story doesn't move - to me that feels like it's just trying to milk the reader. When you pick up a brick it means that it should be a pretty substantial book - should be pretty absorbing, really good to give me reason to read all those pages. The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly is a bit like that - though I still did enjoy it in a way. She could have quiet the constant whining and pity-me and turned it into a much more succinct and interesting book. I hate it when you're reading and you feel like an editor. Not right!
So I'm hoping that I enjoy my current brick series and that it doesn't suddenly suck by book 3 because that would seriously piss me the heck off.
Joanna · 757 weeks ago
My most disappointing end to a series was (don't laugh!!!!) Breaking Dawn!! I think Stephanie Meyer lost her mind when she wrote that book, and just decided to get it ober with in the most outlandish way possible.
As far as Sookie goes...I do the same thing!! They shoulda stopped at 6, but I keep reading even though I know I will hate it! I think its because I dd love the characters, especially Eric and Pam. Maybe thats why we stick with a series sometimes, maybe its the characters that we don't want to give up on???
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@ratsinabag · 757 weeks ago
I had heard that Gabaldon was rushed by her publishers for the 5th book so didn't get to edit it as much as she'd have liked, but in the end she's still writing the damned series and they're all getting longer with each progressive book. It's a shame as you might love the first 4.
I am well and truly fed up with vampires. I haven't read any vampire book beyond Interview with a Vampire and from what I remember that series started to turn crap as well so there's another one. The whole Sookie thing.... it just sounds ugh to me. The whole vampire fad has been sucked to death (pardon the pun) and I hope it dies soon because I have had it with the stacks and stacks of vampire books where every other book out there is being overlooked because of bloody vampires.
The publishers sure do milk these fads - first with fantasy since Harry Potter and then vampires with Twilight.... bored bored BORED.
Rikki 49p · 757 weeks ago
I'm not a big series reader, other than detective novels and so far I haven't grown tired of any of those.
The only series I followed for quite a while (and I don't even know why since I hated the heroine from the first page) is the Anita Blake series. I read it for the other characters because I really liked all the men in there. However, when it turned to be bad erotica (from being without any sex whatsoever at first) I turned away. The series totally switched tone which I found very surprising.
As for Sookie Stackhouse. I haven't read the last couple of books, because I hated the fact that she was still so undecided to what she wants. After about 8 books the heroine should come to a decision as to what man to choose. Especially since the proper choice is so obvious.
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chachic 47p · 757 weeks ago
I read all of the books in the Unfortunate Series of Events series but I only liked the first couple of ones, the rest were boring. I just wanted to finish the entire thing to know what happened. With the Artemis Fowl series, I just gave up after the first four books. I didn't feel like reading the rest.
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Justpeachy36 · 757 weeks ago
Terry Brooks on the other hand gets a little old for me. I had a hard time with the first book just like you, the second was better.... but then it just keep going and going... he must have the energizer bunny captured for this series...
I agree that sometimes a writer just needs to leave well enough alone. I don't necessarily think it's always for the money though... sometimes there are just more stories to tell about characters you love, but you still have to know when to quit.
bokunosekai 49p · 757 weeks ago
However, I have one experience with a series book that end up making me hate it. You've mentioned Harry Potter above...and that is one series that dissapoint me so bad. book 6 and 7 are pushing too hard and J.K is trying to put things together in a boring way and forcing it too end nicely.
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Trish · 757 weeks ago
Now on to the topic. I actually try not to read series--exceptions being Harry Potter, Twilight, and eventually Hunger Games (have all 3 but have only read 1). I appreciate authors who have a story that they need to split up into multiple stories and do so...but don't go on forever. Do we really need 16 Stephanie Plum books? And I'm guessing Ms. Evanovich isn't done yet. I admit that I started collecting these books back when there was only 10, now I'm totally overwhelmed and almost turned off.
I do like reading multiple books by the same authors, but I'm glad that they're singular rather than connected. Series are just wayyyyyy too much commitment! :)
Katy · 757 weeks ago
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