Series that are better/worse than the sum of the books in them?

[metalprof]

Bless Terry Goodkind for actually finishing his series! I've been going along with this series for a long time. My favorites had been the 4th-5th books, Temple of Winds and Soul of the Fire, and I felt it had been going downhill. In fact, I thought Chainfire was so bad that I gave up. But once the final book in The Sword of Truth series, Confessor, came out, I decided what-the-hell and read the final two books. Phantom and Confessor were certainly better than Chainfire and in the last book, Goodkind does a pretty darn good job of weaving in lots of parts of earlier books that seemed forgotten - even if at times it seemed artificial.

Now looking back over the entire series, I see it as missed opportunity. Goodkind had a lot of really cool elements in the series, and I like how he *attempted* to establish a little more of the theory behind the magic. But the fun elements were coupled by bad dialog, cartoonish characters, too much preachiness, too much repetition, and clumsy handling of the plot elements he was bringing in. So all in all, I'd have to say that even though only a few of the books were what I'd call plain *bad*, the series overall is not as good as the sum of its parts.

Now the other fantasy mission I've been on lately is to read a lot of Terry Brooks' Shannara books. I really enjoyed his modern-day Word and the Void trilogy when I read it last year, it is the best work he's done. So when I heard he was going to write a series (Genesis of Shannara) to bridge that series with Shannara, I was intrigued. I've been keeping up with the recent books, like the High Druid trilogy. I noticed a throw-away reference to "the Word" in one of the recent High Druid books, and I said, "A-ha! He's planting more links!"

But I've also decided to re-read the early Shannara books, since it has been almost 20 years since I read them before, and I've forgotten it all. The Elfstones of Shannara is my favorite Shannara book now, and Wishsong was OK. I found even in Wishsong, written in the 80's, another casual reference to "the Word". And here's what I've learned about the many Shannara books: no one book is spectacular. Some get a bit tiring, with very linear point-A-to-point-B plotting, no real surprises, etc. But taken as a whole, they tell a really good story of the Shannara world. If Brooks really had deliberately planted the seeds of one day telling about how that world evolved from "ours" a long time ago in the early books, knowing that the link would revolve around "the Word", then he has gone about that task with remarkable patience and lack of grandstanding, and that's pretty cool.

So here are two authors whose beginnings were both marred by accusations of them being copycats - Brooks copycatting Tolkien in The Sword of Shannara, and Goodkind channeling Robert Jordan (get it? channeling?? Ha!) in the second Sword of Truth book. From those iffy starts, Goodkind wrote a series that had some high points, but as a whole does not live up to the peaks in the series. Brooks, on the other hand, has a body of work that doesn't have very many standout entries, but as a whole is consistent, well drawn out, and displays a nice sense of patience in the development of everything that is just now getting tied together.

Bravo to Goodkind for actually drawing his series to a close (attention George Martin), and bravo to Brooks for a series that (at least in hindsight) is holding up very well.

Does anyone else have any favorite series that are either better or worse than the sum of their parts??

Ken

[Ruthven]

Originally Posted by metalprof

Does anyone else have any favorite series that are either better or worse than the sum of their parts??

That's my complaint with a lot of fantasy/horror fiction I've read recently; too many "series." I like revisiting the same characters, but it feels like I have been reading TV series and not novels. I don't mind a few books that have ongoing plotlines, but I would like to read more self-contained stories.

[Magius]

The first four Goodkind books were some of the best fantasy written. The middel of that series was lackluster at best, and one of the books (Pillars of Creation) didn't even need to be written at all. The last three were better but needed to be four. Chainfire and Phantom continued to complicate the story to the point that all the issues couldn't be adequately addressed in Confessor. While he did tie up most of the loose ends much of it was glossed over in about two paragraphs. Examples include what happened to the creatures of magic like Gars and Dragons, and the end of Six (one of the greatest threats in the series) was pathetic. In the end Confessor was more about a glorified combat rugby game than a real effort to close the series.

I'd recommend the original "Runelords" series by David Farland. The series is action packed and an exciting read to the end. However, in keeping with the theme of this thread Farland needed to stop at number four, which completely and adequately wrapped up the story. Instead he has forged ahead with a "next generation" that so far fails to measure up to the original.

[Jim LotFP]

Originally Posted by Magius

The first four Goodkind books were some of the best fantasy written.

[metalprof]

Originally Posted by Magius

one of the books (Pillars of Creation) didn't even need to be written at all.

What, you mean the saga of Betty the Goat didn't enthrall you? I was pleased that in the last 10 pages of Confessor, when he's wrapping up all the work he'd done in 11 books, Goodkind made time to let us know that Betty was comfortable in her new home. That was important to me

the end of Six (one of the greatest threats in the series) was pathetic.

Eh, I thought the whole Six thing was misplaced. The 10th book of an 11 book series is not the place to just now be introducing a new heavy antagonist. He could have done well enough with all the players already in place.

I'd recommend the original "Runelords" series by David Farland.

I hate to be a Negative Nellie, but I tried two times to get into the first book of that series and failed to make it past page 100 both times.

On another board, I just recommended Greg Keyes' Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, so I'll do that here, too!

Ken

[Yippee38]

Originally Posted by metalprof

Bless Terry Goodkind for actually finishing his series!

I think I only got past book 2. To each his own I guess.

[Meteornotes]

Yeah, I read the first two Goodkind books before I gave up. Good that he finished the series, though. Some writers seem to have no interest in finishing what they've started (David Gerrold, George RR Martin).

dt

[Pellaz]

I think I gave up on Goodkind's series after Book 4 or 5. Now I'm not sure I want to read the rest.

As for Brooks......I read the first Shannara book, decided it was a completely shameless pastiche of Tolkien, and wrote the series off completely. I may have made a mistake there, but boy howdy, was I steamed at the time!

Another writer who really steamed me was Glen Cook. I've heard his Black Company books are great, and he is a nice guy in person (he was a longtime bookseller at ChattaCon), but I made the mistake of reading his novel Swordbearer first....and it was such a ripoff of Mike Moorcock's Elric and Stormbringer that I was turned off immediately.....that, plus the book has at least one awful analogy that's so shockingly out of place in a fantasy novel, it immediately drops you out of your suspension of disbelief....err, it breaks the mood completely. Blech.

[Meteornotes]

^Never read Swordbearer, but The Black Company books are amazing.

dt

[Pellaz]

Yeah, yeah....someday I'll get 'em all. Glen was a really nice guy, and I could always count on him to have the very latest Discworld import straight from the UK, so I'd always be caught up on Pratchett after ChattaCon.