Based on this thread, I started thinking about some book series that actually take a turn for the better.
I started reading the Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries by Reginald Hill in the middle of the series and enjoyed the one book (Pictures of Perfection) very much! I liked it so much that I decided to go back to the beginning of the series and read them all in order–the first book, A Clubable Woman, was dreadful. The series began in the 70’s and the first book is so cliched and formulaic that it was ridiculous (it looked like it was part of the series of mysteries that Harlequin used to publish.) But I decided to plow through them all anyway because I had nothing else to read at the time, and I found that they started getting better and better. Now I can’t wait till his next one comes out in January of 2004 so I can order it from Amazon in the UK and read it right away. So, if you like British police procedurals, I highly recommend these.
Another author who may be starting to turn things around for her series is Anne Rice. I stopped reading the Vampire Chronicles when she started cranking out the individual stories–it just seemed too much of a retelling of the first books (which I thought were great.) But I was still tempted to flip through them when I saw them on the shelf at the library. I really enjoyed the Mayfair Witches series, too, and was hoping she’d do more with them. Then Blackwood Farm came out and it brings together the two series and I really enjoyed it. She seems to be recapturing that cool, gothic feel of her earlier books.
So, Dopers, have you read any series that show a real change for the good as they progress?