# Would you start reading this series? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975 "2012-10-26T22:03:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/1 "2012-10-26T22:03:32Z")
This isn’t so much about the specific series as it is about series in general that aren’t written. I just picked up a book by Melanie Rawn. It’s the first book in a trilogy, and was written in 1997. I was assuming the whole trilogy was done, but no. The third book has had multiple false release dates but has never been released. There’s no evidence it was ever even written. Would you read the first two books, put it on a shelf for the time it may eventually be a complete series, give it away to a band of roving literati, or something else? I know a lot of dopers have been burned with long-awaited series in the past and I’ve managed to avoid those snares so far. Do you have a policy? Should you? ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/2 "2012-10-26T22:09:37Z")
Although I have read things that have ended up as a series I am put off by anything that up front claims to be, say, “Book 1 of the Somewhereorotherland Series.” Under those circumstances I don’t start reading it at all. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/3 "2012-10-26T23:19:06Z")
What kind of trilogy is it? Is it, like LOTR, supposed to be a single long story published in three volumes? Or is it, like more traditional trilogies, supposed to be three novels that are complete in themselves but related in some fundamental way. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/4 "2012-10-26T23:24:22Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > What kind of trilogy is it? Is it, like LOTR, supposed to be a single long story published in three volumes? Or is it, like more traditional trilogies, supposed to be three novels that are complete in themselves but related in some fundamental way. Not sure. I didn’t want to read too much in the way of descriptions in order to avoid spoiling it if I do decide to read it. I was just curious if many people have been burned too often in the past to pick up a series like this now. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/5 "2012-10-26T23:27:44Z")
David Gerrold’s Chtorr series is notorious for this reason. It’s supposed to be a seven volume series. The first four books were published in 1983, 1985, 1989, and 1993 - a reasonable schedule. But Gerrold is supposedly still working on the fifth book. As recently as 2007, he was telling people it was almost done. And he says he’s going to complete all seven books and has published some excerpts of the future books as short stories. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/6 "2012-10-26T23:30:51Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > David Gerrold’s Chtorr series is notorious for this reason. It’s supposed to be a seven volume series. The first four books were published in 1983, 1985, 1989, and 1993 - a reasonable schedule. But Gerrold is supposedly still working on the fifth book. As recently as 2007, he was telling people it was almost done. And he says he’s going to complete all seven books and has published some excerpts of the future books as short stories. 19 years is a wee bit of a gap. 😃 It’s sad that if I had truth serum, I’d start interrogating some of these authors. “Tell me, have you really even started writing book 5? HAVE YOU?” ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/7 "2012-10-27T00:09:44Z")
If you wait until an entire series has been written before you start reading it, you’re going to spend a long time waiting. Just as fans of Richard Jordan (not it). However, I wouldn’t buy it new; from what I recall, her books tend to be of the larger variety and I’d just check it out of the library. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/8 "2012-10-27T03:21:10Z")
Hey, Stephen King finally delivered on the Dark Tower… and I didn’t much like it. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/9 "2012-10-27T04:12:48Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Hey, Stephen King finally delivered on the Dark Tower… and I didn’t much like it. It makes me wonder if there’s anything like this that people have had to wait years or decades for that has been worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/10 "2012-10-27T04:36:15Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Hey, Stephen King finally delivered on the Dark Tower… and I didn’t much like it. I came in to say the same damn thing. I stopped reading King after that debacle. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/11 "2012-10-27T10:48:56Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > It makes me wonder if there’s anything like this that people have had to wait years or decades for that has been worth it. There was a 12 year gap in the publication of **Jack Vance** ’s _Demon Princes_ quintet. The first three came out from 1964 - 67 but the 4th didn’t appear until 1979, with the final volume a couple of years later. As I recall, DAW were re-issuing a lot of his books and wanted some new titles as well, so he decided to finish the series. The final two are usually considered a cut above the earlier ones, enjoyable though they are. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/12 "2012-10-27T11:20:18Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Not sure. I didn’t want to read too much in the way of descriptions in order to avoid spoiling it if I do decide to read it. I found it on Amazon. According to the customer reviews, (1) the second book ends in a cliff-hanger, and (2) the author currently has no intention of writing the third book. So no, I would not start reading the series. Diana Wynne Jones’s _Dalemark Quartet_ had a gap of about 14 years between books 3 and 4; but each book was relatively self-contained. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/13 "2012-10-27T16:15:54Z")
I was burned by a couple of those when I was younger. If it’s something that’s presented as a longrunning series - like Dresden Files or Dexter or those A is for… things, then yeah, whatever. Most of the individual volumes of those are pretty self-contained. If it’s a trilogy, the middle book often ends on a big climactic cliffhanger or plot twist, and then if the last book never happens (or happens 10 or so years later) then that gets really annoying. Likewise for sets of 5 or 6 or whatever - it often gets through the first “trilogy” or “duology” and then sales are so low that the publisher won’t approve further books to answer all the loose threads and plot hooks the author left dangling for later books to get into. That is less annoying, but still not the best situation. ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-start-reading-this-series/638975/14 "2012-10-27T19:21:19Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > It makes me wonder if there’s anything like this that people have had to wait years or decades for that has been worth it. Not exactly a series, but, Arthur Conan Doyle’s [The Return of Sherlock Holmes](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_Sherlock_Holmes#section_1).