Thursday, September 20, 2007

Series

The blog has been quiet (very!) this week, but it should return to regularly scheduled blogging soon.

Today, I wanted to talk about series. I love a good series, especially those by Libba Bray, Stephenie Meyer and (from my childhood) the Thoroughbred series by Joanna Campbell.

Series give such a rare chance to follow and bond with a character instead of leaving him/her behind after one book. For some, one book is all that's needed to tell a compelling story. There are several books that I've read recently where I loved the ending so much, I was glad there wasn't a sequel. Others seemed to leave me hanging and begged for a follow up. Imagine if JK Rowling stopped with the first HP! Okay, that's not even imaginable.

What are some of your favorite series? Why? Did a sequel ever let you down? Or has a sequel ever been better than the first book?

8 comments:

Emily Marshall said...

I usually only like series books that are more action oriented and the plot's in each can sustain a series and could be stand-alone books. I'm a fan of Meg Cabot's series: The Mediator, 1-800-Where-R-You, and the Size 12 is Not Fat series, since the books are usually about solving something specifically.

I also like most mystery books with the same characters, since each book could stand alone. But I have yet to find a YA mystery series that I love (aside from Nancy Drew and the Boxcar Children when I was little.)

But then again, I love Sweet Valley High when I was younger and that didn't have much "solving" in each book. It just had a good "topic" for each book, so I guess that worked too. I guess series just work better if they have "specialized" characters that are unique enough that you want to keep learning more about them.

There were a few second books I didn't find as enjoyable as the first, but I won't name titles. And none of them that were really bad stick out in my mind. Because if I like one book featuring a character, I'll usually like the second one (even if I didn't like it as well as the first).

Okay...long answer. Sorry.

Jessica Burkhart said...

You know, I've never read The Mediator or 1-800. I really should!

Oooh, I gobbled up Nancy and Boxcar when I was a kid. SVH was another one of my favs. Sure, they were formulaic, but I loved 'em! :)

I really loved The Baby-sitter's Club, too.

angelarene said...

Anne Rice's The Witching Hour is one of my favorite series about the Mayfair Witches. Also The Giver, Gathering Blue and The Messenger by Lois Lowry. Looking forward to the 10/07 release of Hallowmere, which will be a series. When I was younger I loved VC Andrew's Flowers in the Attic, not great in a literary sense but the series went on forever. I have to say though, it's sad when a series ends. Especially when it's so hard to find good ones.

Bri Meets Books said...

The Baby-Sitters Club will always be my favorite series. Forever and ever.

I also really like a Scholastic retelling of "A Little Princess" by Gabrielle Charbonnet.

Jessica Burkhart said...

Bri, we've got our own BSC fan club here! LOL :)

Sara Hantz said...

Recent series, I loved The Sisterhood of the Traavelling Pants. Adult books the Shopaholic series.

Ghost Girl (aka, Mary Ann) said...

Like Angela, I loved THE WITCHING HOUR, but I though the last one ran out of steam for me. Now, when I was younger, Alfred Hitchcock had a series of Three Investigators books. I'm a sucker for mysteries. And of course Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. But nothing has touched HP! A classic through and through.

As a grown up, I love Deborah Crombies series of Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mysteries.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Hallowmere is in bookstores now, Angela, so you should be able to find it!

Counting down to Saddlehill Academy!

  Hii, friends! I'm so very thrilled to remind everyone that NEXT MONTH (!!!) is the release of my first novel in eight years! Ahhhhh!!...

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