Anyone else wait for a series to end.

[strahd99]

I have been told by several people in the past that I am an atypical sci-fiction/fantasy reader. I do not start a series until the series is completed. I do not like waiting upwards of a year between books. I prefer to read an entire series from beginning to end with no other fiction books. Perhaps from time to time a novel from a whole other genre but never two fantasy series at the same time. This was brought to my attention as not being the norm when sitting in group of friends at a local hangout and discussing books they were all eagerly awaiting a Robert Jordan book that they were unsure of the street date for. I have never read Wheel of Time because it is not complete and for the same reason I have stayed away from Song and Ice.


Anyone else a patient and complete reader or do most people do thier fantasy reading piecemail?

 

[Tolen Mar]

I'm the same way. Authors seem to have this knack for leaving for good with work unfinished.

However, there are a few series that I am waiting for episodically. It usually ends up that I thought it was a pair of books (or a trilogy, or quadrilogy, or...you get the picture). Then I find out about halfway through the second book that there's more to come, they just aren't done writing it yet.

Currently, I'm reading Harry Dresden books, Harry Potter (yes, I've pre-ordered! ), and the Saga of Seven Suns by Kevin J. Anderson. Every one of which I thought was finished when I started picking up the first ones.

Yes. Every one. I don't watch much news.

 

[Croesus]

Anyone else a patient and complete reader or do most people do thier fantasy reading piecemail?

It depends on the author and the type of stories being written. For instance, I read the first nine Myth books by Robert Asprin when they first came out. But each book, while building on those before it, was usually self-contained. He rarely left the reader with a cliffhanger.

I'll sometimes pick up the first book in a series and give it a try. If I like it, I'll wait for the rest of the series, re-read the first one, then finish the rest. This doesn't work with series that exceed three or four books, however, so I usually never finish those (especially since they almost always grow stale at some point anyway). And some get me so hooked (Harry Potter) that I don't bother waiting.

 

[Croesus]

Currently, I'm reading Harry Dresden books, Harry Potter (yes, I've pre-ordered! ), and the Saga of Seven Suns by Kevin J. Anderson. Every one of which I thought was finished when I started picking up the first ones.

You're not alone - I thought Seven Suns was finished after the third book, picked up all three, then found out there was more. Of course, Anderson is one of those authors who can stretch a 200 page story into 700+ pages (that's not a compliment). That series is one reason why I now read just the first book before picking up an entire series - I was so disappointed with it that I just skimmed the next two and haven't read anything else he's written since (I also hated the Dune Butlerian Jihad books he co-wrote with Herbert, though I liked the Dune House books - go figure.)

 

[drothgery]

Hmm... I try not to get hooked on incomplete series, but it's been difficult to avoid them. And it's really not problematic if it's proper series rather than a multi-volume story (in the first case, each book tells its own story, leaving no major cliffhangers). The problem is that other than Bujold's Vorkosigan saga and Brust's Dragaera novels, I haven't found too many proper series.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Anyone else a patient and complete reader or do most people do thier fantasy reading piecemail?

It depends on the series and the author.

 

[Particle_Man]

I am waiting for Robert Jordan to end his series before I begin "The Wheel of Time". Although I have heard that I could just skip some of the book in the middle part as the plot does not significantly advance. Kind of like Metzler's run on JLA.

 

[Tolen Mar]

You're not alone - I thought Seven Suns was finished after the third book, picked up all three, then found out there was more. Of course, Anderson is one of those authors who can stretch a 200 page story into 700+ pages (that's not a compliment). That series is one reason why I now read just the first book before picking up an entire series - I was so disappointed with it that I just skimmed the next two and haven't read anything else he's written since (I also hated the Dune Butlerian Jihad books he co-wrote with Herbert, though I liked the Dune House books - go figure.)

Meh, to each his own, I guess. I for one have been enjoying the saga. But then again, I found the first Dune book so dry and difficult to get through that I never had any reason to pick up any others, even if they were written by someone else.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I'm right there with you, most of the time. If it's a series of largely stand-alone books, I'll read them as they come out, but if it's a continuing saga, I won't pick it up until it's complete.

The strangest thing is, I've had people get offended at me when I say that, as if my unwillingness to wait in suspense for a year between books was somehow a reflection on them.

 

[GSHamster]

I'm often unwilling to try a new author until I can read the entire series at one time.

However, if it's an author I like, I try and read the novels as they come out.

For example, when I first read Robin Hobb, I read the entire <i>Assassin's Apprentice</i> series at once. However, I've read each of her latest series when they were published.

Though lately, the trend seems to be not finishing series. I had high hopes for Naomi Novik <i>Teremaire</i> novels and Jim Butcher's <i>Aleran Codex</i>, but both turned out to not be trilogies.