5 series, then (also Death and Moist). Each series individually counts.
So, made it more historically accurate, then?
I do completely agree, and mention Temeraire as it fits the brief and I enjoyed them. The standalone folklore books, Uprooted and Spinning Silver, where she takes inspiration from a traditional European folktale to create a modern feminist fantasy (much like Angela Carter was doing in the 70s/80s) are, as you say, truly brilliant. I loved the Scholomance trilogy too, but there are a few glaring Americanisms that a Welsh teenager would never use, I think particularly in the first book, that would occasionally niggle. This may not be Novik’s fault, however, as a British editor should have picked these up, and I have a feeling early ebook editions may often be the international (ie. US) editions. I found the same in the first couple of Jacka’s Verus novels, which should be British through and through. Anyway, that’s a tangent not for here.
OB
And while this may be heresy - there’s a novel length piece of Vorkosigan fanfic written as the ‘other side of the story’ that is every bit as good.
Different strokes I guess. I found the Hornblower novels almost YA in tone - the battle scenes were well written, but the rest of it was trite and forgettable. The only book that was remotely interesting was the one where they have the paranoid captain who may or may not have been pushed down a ladder by HH.
I’ll check it out.
Outlander series definitely. Not mentioned by anyone else: The series by Jonathan Kellerman, and also another series by his wife, Faye Kellerman. Have been re-reading both series and enjoying them tremendously.
him and Hiassen
Rex Stout;s Nero Wolfe series, always makes you hungry
100%. Early Bosch is a must read. The latter work is good as well, but with many authors, there is a peak and gradual decline.
Years ago my gf requested for a suggestion for what to read. I suggested Robert Crais novels featuring Elvis Cole & Joe Pike. I had them all on my kindle, so for the next few years (she’s a slow reader) I kept feeding her the next novel in the series. Eventually she’d read them all and I suggest Crais’ other works (Carol Starkey, etc).
She just recently finished everything Crais has published and was a bit sad about it.
Side note on these: I had gotten one of these years ago and found it interesting enough that I wanted to read more. So the next time I was in Borders (yes, this was that long ago) I went to the Mystery section to look for them. No books by Walter Mosley to be found. Considering the number of them that had been listed in the book I read, I thought this was odd, so I went to one of the book-search kiosks. Yep, plenty of Walter Mosley books, but they weren’t kept in the Mystery section; they were in the Black Literature (or something like that) section. Apparently somebody thought they would only be of interest to people looking for books by Black authors.
Another good mystery series with a Black protagonist is the Benjamin January series by Barbara Hambly, set in 1830s-1840s New Orleans. I read all the ones that my local library had a couple of years ago (up to Lady of Perdition, which hadn’t come out yet). One good thing about the lockdown is that I learned how to use the inter-library loan system, so I’ve recently started re-reading the whole series from the beginning.
That somebody might have been his publisher.
I worked for B Dalton for less than a year before I launched into my current career. I remember that the book placement was a big deal, both in the ‘special section’ and in the ‘home section.’ With ‘home’ being where the book would normally be found.
For ‘seams’ books, like war history that could be found under war or under American history for example, we’d take a cue from the publisher and go from there. I obviously have no idea how Mosley’s books landed where they did, and they could have been in different places in different stores. But his publisher had a voice, whether it carried the day or not I don’t know.
I adore James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series. basically all the novels are the same, but so poetic. He writes a few other different series, which I haven’t read - I wonder if he just writes 18 hours a day or has some assistance.
Elvis started out kind of a joker; he and Pike have ‘grown’ so much over the years. I love books set in Los Angeles, Jonathan Kellerman does the same with Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis.
I have to mention Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct cop series, set in a fictionalized NYC. He must have written over 50, and I’ve followed his characters over the years as the cases got more violent. (The Deaf Man is a brilliant psychopath villain, making chumps of the cops time after time.) Impossible for me to watch any tv police procedurals, especially NYPD Blue, without thinking of Ed McBain’s work.
So many recommendations I agree with. Surprised Matt Scudder only gets a single brief mention.
One I don’t think has been mentioned yet is Thomas Perry’s Butcher’s Boy series. if you like Parker, you’ll like these.
I like to see the recommendations of series I like - with other series I have not read. They give me possibilities for future reading.
With several of the series mentioned, I liked them greatly at first, but as they went on, they seemed to have jumped the shark or something. The Reacher novels are the best example. Or IMO Bosch. Another problem is when they just get formulaic. Like the Jane Whitfield series. I love the idea of “disappearing.” But you knew with 20 pages or so left, they’d go crashing to a confrontation… And if you read too much Ludlum in a row, you may end up thinking he just read a couple of books over and over. My third issue is when they cover ground that is excessively perverse. A few of you mentioned Lucas Davenport/Virgil Flowers. I wanted to like them, but the level of depravity turned me off. I think even the Scudder books declined a tad near the end.
So - if it is not too much of a hijack, which series do you think maintained the highest quality for the most books. I suggest Travis McGee and Parker.
I finally read the first Reacher novel, and liked it well enough, but it’s the first time something was so grisly and horrific that I could only laugh at how over the top it was. I rarely have that reaction to that sort of thing - usually I’m intensely disturbed. Maybe my laughter was a defense mechanism.
Makes me wonder what the future books are like. Do they get better?
It sounds like you’re saying they get worse, but do they get better before they get worse?
I feel like every series must jump the shark at some point. Has any series ever not?
Hmmm. I think the problem is that for any long running series (not just books of course) you want to keep the existing fans happy by keeping to the formula or main characters, draw in new readers (although that’s less of an issue as the series grows), and ideally try new things or take the characters in a new direction. The last often directly conflicts with the first though - and a writers got to eat as well, so the longer a series goes, IMHO, the less chances they take.
The Jhereg series I mentioned goes in a LOT of different directions, and as such, it doesn’t exactly jump the shark, but the turns often lose some of the audience along the way. It has been reported that a lot of the twists comes from the author’s life, including his breakup with his wife, or from his fascination with different topics over his life (the series has been ongoing for 40 years now [ first book was published 1983] ).
Still, while there are better and worse books in the series (and the author plays around a LOT with different POV characters and sub stories) I think it’s been consistently fun because of the growth of the world and the character. YMMV of course.
Let’s not forget another entertaining series by Lawrence Block: Keller, the stamp collecting hitman.