I am currently finishing reading “Perdido Street Station” and finding it to be one of the most engrossing sci-fi/fantasy books I’ve read in a long long time. Which naturally brings me to ponder whether to read the sequels. My first inclination would be “sure, I love the first book…lets get some more of the same!” But then I think back to series’ like Dune and the Ender books. I am inevitably let down by sequels and find them to be almost universally inferior to the original.
That being said, I thought more about this, and think I’ve come to the conclusion that MOST authors have one or two really solid ideas and have probably said anything truly unique in the first book or two. Now of course some like Vonnegut, Hemingway, etc have defied the norm and written many classics worth reading. There was a time when I would read all the books crapped out by Stephen King or whoever just as a matter of course. My question for the fine and well read folks here is twofold:
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What is your opinion on the general quality of sequels in general, and especially of continuously revisited series like Ender, or Dresden Files, etc? Do they diminish the original in your opinion, or do you disregard them completely, or something else entirely?
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Are the followups to “Perdido Street Station” worth reading?
I liked The Scar slightly better then Perdido Street Station, there are some really good characters in there, and it’s not so much worldbuilding. It felt more like a story to me, if that makes any sense. Perdido was a little …unorganized there, The Scar is more straightforward, IIRC. It’s been some time, though.
Iron Council didn’t really work for me, the world was awesome, it was even stranger then Perdido Street Station, the landscapes are weird and scary and cool, and I really should have liked it, but it was just …okay. Not bad. But… 
Generally - I don’t know, I never made it far in the Dune series, but who did. Most of the time, if the story is planned to go over a couple of books, it’s fine - there’s enough plot left. If it’s just added later, it’s more likely to disspoint me, or at least that seems to be my perception. Though I liked 2010, 2061, 3001, the later Hitchhikers, so … I don’t know. Movies really tend to go downhill, books - I’m not so sure.
In general, I hate sequels that are seperate story arcs. I will refuse to read about the unaticipsted return of Hero Guy Character- becuase I am afraid I’ll be disappointed- unless I have reason to believe it’s real good.
If it’s an open-ended series, I’ll be cautious, but willing to see where it goes.
As for China Meiville, I wouldn’t consider his books sequels as such. They take place in the same world, and some of them have the same characters, but really they’re each their own tales. If you’ve liked Perdido Street Station, I’d reccomend reading the rest.
I’d like to say that I liked "The Scar’, but enjoyed “Perdido Street Station” far more. I liked the more chaotic… world building let’s say. And the story line really rocked. “The Scar” was alright, but nothing mind blowing.
As for sequels in general, as with most things, it depends ;). A handful of sequels can work really well, but even if the sequels go on and on and on… well, the original can still stand alone.
I, too, liked “The Scar” better than “Perdido Street Station”, but found “Iron Council” to be somewhat lackluster.
I liked “God-Emperor of Dune” more than “Dune”. I generally find sequel quality hit-or-miss.
However, I find extended series decline in quality swiftly as the author revisits and revisits… primarily because of financial motivation, not because he or she actually has anything new to say. Some series occasionally toss out a new gem – Pratchett, although not my favorite, has a few later-series gems.
But most of 'em suffer from what a friend and I refer to as “doppelganger degeneration” – photocopy the photocopy of a photocopy enough times and the image is lost and you’re just left with a blurry mess. Even when I was a young and uncritical reader, Piers Anthony fairly well exemplified this for me. Amusingly, my 6yo nephew confided to me that the later “Boxcar Children” books (his new favorites) aren’t as good as the earlier ones.
But the Scar had Uther Doul!
Thanks for reminding me of the books… I will re-read one, now, but which one? Hm.
I greatly preferred Children of Dune to the original as well, though I did not like Dune Messiah…much.
What’s so good about God Emperor? I stopped at Children.
A Doppelganger is an exact copy. Why not just call if photocopy degeneration?
I agree though. I find that many sequels that “work” (subjective as it is) are ones that keep the core style, universe, characters etc. but realize the sequel’s limitations and take it into a slightly different direction. Example: Aliens, the sequel to Alien.
The character of Leto II. He is at once both inhuman and humane, and is oddly sympathetic for deliberately behaving like, well, a jerk for thousands and thousands of years.
The plot and action of the book is completely different than the earlier Dune books. It’s less action than even the occasionally slow earlier books, and much is presented in the forms of ages-later histories and Leto’s rediscovered diaries. In them Leto can be oblique and evasive, but by reading between the lines you learn what was really going on.
It was not an exciting book, but I found it rewarding because of the ideas it presented. And, of course, I always thought that Paul Atreides was a whiny jerk, whereas Leto turned out to be an admirable magnificent bastard.
I assume it was a reference that came from an in-joke that we’ve long, long since forgotten.
Because doppelganger is a fun word? That’s enough reason for me. And also alliteration.
Well, I admire your perseverance then.
It was long ago, though, maybe I should give it a try again… The only thing I won’t read again are the books written by Herbert’s son. Butler’s Djihad was always something in the history of Dune that fascinated me, but the book was…
I’m a big fan of C. J. Cherryh’s Foreigner, but having just discovered that a tenth volume in that series is planned, I just may give it a pass. Enough is enough already. Maybe this feeling was brought on because I just finished her latest Cyteen installment, Regenesis, and all her azi security seem interchangeable with the Assassin’s Guild atevi. (Seriously. I could not distinguish a difference between the atevi Banichi and Jago & azi Florian and Catlin.)
But I just finished the fifth book of Kage Baker’s Company series, and I didn’t find a drop-off in quality. Probably because it covers such a long period of time and has a core group of interesting characters (to me, at least), I’ll stick this one out until the end.
Jim Butcher’s Dresden books sequels aren’t dropping off in quality either.