Would you EVER start a fantasy series in the middle?

[direstraits]

Hahahaha, I kill me!

ds

 

[IninAdh]

This discussion took a bit of a different turn to what I intended. My main intent was to ask if anyone else had the same obsession as I of going back to the *very* first book, no matter whether the books can stand alone or not. But it's still turned out to be a very interesting discussion!

I usually do, though sometimes it depends on the genre. With science fiction or fantasy, almost always, but not so much horror or mysteries.

One of the problems I had with getting into Terry Pratchett and Dragonlance was that there seemed to be no order to most of the books. This frustrated me no end! I was always afraid I was missing out on something.

PS: Alf is cool!

As an avowed Pratchett fan (One of my goals is to own a copy of everything he has ever written) please let me say that you are missing out if you don't read his works! As for order, I would just recommend the order he wrote them in and not worry about the order of the individual series. Even Pratchett himself admits there is no real continuity from beginning to end and he will change things as the story dictates.

 

[Sar]

I think there's a lot to be said for series writing. As much as it grates on me to have to wait for the next book, there's also a sense of anticipation when you want to find out 'what happens next'.

What does it matter if the story comes in separate dust jackets? A series is just that - it's sequential! In my opinion you're failing the author if you're judging his work without the full story.

Bear in mind that another reason for books to come out in a series is that for a very long tale there is publishing pressure to break a book up. Publishing one very long book is a big risk if it's a flop, and there are marketting reasons also. So often times authors have no choice but to publish in parts.

I whole heartedly agree with this argument, sometimes an author has such a huge & elaborate plot/world that they wish to convey, that simply squashing it all into one book would never do justice.

If the author has already carefully planned the plot for the whole series & how much is to be revealed when, then reading books out of sequence thwarts this and can lead to confusion. For example, the first book is normally about establishing the character and partially describing their environment, it is a chance for the reader to discover what motivates a character & therefore sheds great light on later actions/ decisions & adds so much more weight to watching this character evlolve & the trials they face.

 

[Ainulindale]

I whole heartedly agree with this argument, sometimes an author has such a huge & elaborate plot/world that they wish to convey, that simply squashing it all into one book would never do justice.

I'm not directing my comments to the authors of the quoted paragraph but to all. Yes of course this is true, however, among the 100's perhaps 1000's of mulit book-sagas, that require you to buy them to get one whole story particularly those that surpass trilogy length how many are actually good or even less considered superior reads? Even those that are being done now that are terrific reads (Martin, Erikson etc) have a ways to go and none can say if the quality will not deteriate history is simply not on the side when it comes to examining the quality of long series. For every one simply good one I can name, I can name 20 that are just utterly dire.

When The Wheel of Time was released even I woudl admit the first 3 intallments were quite grand for the time, and it has since (although still bestselling, which means nothing IMHO regarding quality) turning into a joke amongst most read fans of fantasy.

O also fail to see in most multibooks series this huge plot idea some think of. There is simply more worthwhile content within the pages of Susanna Clarke's first book, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, than there is in the majority of multi-book sagas. There is simply more imagination within the pages of China Mieville's Perdido Street Station than there is in every book Terry Brooks has ever written combined.

I don't mind long series, however to find one of quality is a rarity indeed.