# When do you stop following a book series?



## Guest (Feb 5, 2013)

I've followed several book series over the years, including the Earth's Children saga. Thinking about The Land of Painted Caves, I swore blind I would not buy another book in the series. Then I remembered I'd sworn the same thing the book before it...

There have been a few others I've dropped completely, when the author lost interest but was still under contract, changed (Dune), the series quality disappeared, or when continuity vanished - Black Trillium and its contradictory sequels.

So, thinking about book series, when do you stop following one?


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## backslidr (Nov 23, 2012)

I don't even start following them until I know that the series has ended. For me, trying to read a series of books a few months or a year apart ruins it. I can't remember enough of the previous books to keep my interest. So, I have to wait and read them all at once. The two things that irritate me the most are when the author doesn't identify a book as the beginning of a series and when they've seen some success with what they've done and decide to continue on with it after it was supposed to be over.


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

Usually when the "Been Here, Done This" feeling gets stronger than my interest in whatever variations the writer's brought in for the newer books in the series.  Doesn't necessarily mean the series has gone bad, but it's just not for me any more even though I may not hesitate to recommend it to someone else looking for a good set of reads.

These days I don't even want to start a series, though there are a couple I'll still follow; I'm a bit behind on Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch books, and any time Lawrence Block wants to put out another Matt Scudder novel I'm there.


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## thedavebright (Sep 8, 2012)

Sometimes I get the feeling of a series dragging on too long or introducing elements that stray from the original tone and message. I kind of feel like some series lose what they started as an end as something different (in a bad way) That's when I stop reading, although this is rare.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

When I feel like every book is the same.  Sometimes that's 2 books in.  Sometimes it's 20 books in.  Sometimes it never happens.

If I'm reading them at a sprint -- one right after the other, I'm more likely to get overloaded and stop with it entirely.  So I've learned to space out the books.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> When I feel like every book is the same. Sometimes that's 2 books in. Sometimes it's 20 books in. Sometimes it never happens.
> 
> If I'm reading them at a sprint -- one right after the other, I'm more likely to get overloaded and stop with it entirely. So I've learned to space out the books.


The above are pretty accurate for me. I abandoned several of Harry Turtledove's alternate history series that I had been thoroughly enjoying, but got tired of. Now I seldom even check out his new novels, even though he used to be one of my Go-To authors. For the Honor Harrington series, I was a huge fan till I tried rereading all of them in fairly shore period of time. Probably a mistake. I stopped about halfway through the 8th or 9th book, and have never opened one again. About the same time I stopped, I had bought the just-released new book in the series, and I never have touched it, and I have no clue or interest now about the status of the series. So when I do get turned off, I tend to completely divorce from an author, not just the individual series.


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

I used to read the latest book in a series - but then a friend introduced me to stopyourekillingme.com - which lists all the books by an author in order.  Now I find myself "catching up" - to read my favorite author's earlier books..  

I would stop reading  if I stop enjoying them - but so far that hasn't happened.. except maybe when James Patterson stopped writing his own books...  the change was really noticeable and I didn't like the new authors' style.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I stopped reading Stephanie Plum when the price skyrocketed. The same with the Miss Julia series, although I do reread both every once in a while.

I lost interest in the _Outlander _series when it started becoming the same old, same old. Every time the action lagged, someone got kidnapped, for example. I still love Jamie and Claire and I'll probably read the next one which is supposed to be the last, but I doubt if I'll enjoy it much.

I read a lot of the Kinsey Milhone series before I realized that I didn't really like it very much. Don't know why I kept on.

I guess I stop when I'm no longer invested in the characters or the story stoops to sensationalism to keep it going.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

I have quit reading a couple of series when it has seemed the author's writing style completely changed to the point the characters did not even seem like the same people I had come to know.  

Two series I can think of where that happened are Patricia Cornwall's Kay Scarpetta medical examiner series and Robert Tannebaum's Butch Karp crime/thriller novels.  At some point in both series, they just went off the rails and felt like they had been written by someone else. 

With the Cornwall books it happened in a single book, Black Notice.  I hated it.  I have tried at least one other book since that one and they are just not the same.  With the Tannebaum books, I have continued to read them, but the later books are not as believable as the early books (like Gertie said, they stoop to sensationalism).  When you start rolling your eyes while you are reading and just skimming pages to get to the end, it's probably time to let them go.

It must be difficult to keep writing about the same characters, let them grow, find fresh yet still interesting scenarios in which to involve them, but many authors do it successfully.  A few, not so well.


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

crebel said:


> With the Cornwall books it happened in a single book, Black Notice.


Was that the one about the Werewolf? It was so "out there" - I agree. I haven't read a lot of Cornwall - but Black Notice did nothing to make me want to.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

bordercollielady said:


> Was that the one about the Werewolf? It was so "out there" - I agree. I haven't read a lot of Cornwall - but Black Notice did nothing to make me want to.


Yes, the "loup-garou". Her books always had graphic violence, not unexpected for forensic mysteries, but that one was so dark it was more like a horror novel and she seems to have remained in that vein.


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## Avis Black (Jun 12, 2012)

When it's plain the author has lost the inspiration.  I'll sometimes skim-read the later books in the series.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

T.L. Haddix said:


> I stopped reading Janet Evanovich because they're all the same, and I refuse to read another until she has Stephanie pick Ranger. Okay, I'd probably read them if she picked Morelli, just to see how the whole thing ended, but still.


Morelli, cupcake.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

T.L. Haddix said:


> Nooooooh! He only wants her because he can't have her and he knows it. As soon as that ring is on her finger, he'll be cheating with the first skank who lifts her skirt. Can you say skank on KB? Guess I'll find out when I hit "post."


Ha! Morelli is all grown up now. He doesn't do that sort of thing anymore. Besides Grandma Bella would put a curse on him and Grandma Mazur would shoot him with her 45.

Ranger is just a mystery man who only wants Steph's body and then only as exercise. He's way too cool around her.


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## RJMcDonnell (Jan 29, 2011)

I was a fan of Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar Series until I read Drop Shot. In order to hang with the author around a significant twist you have to buy into the notion that everyone from a particular race looks alike to the average cop,reporter, and bystander. I realize that it's just the 2nd novel in the series, and authors often improve over time. But, had I opted to read them in order I never would have made it past this one.


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## rjspears (Sep 25, 2011)

There are a couple multi-book series I was dedicated to for years, but there are times when I feel a series has run its course.  

I was devoted to the Dune series but after all the different variations, I had to give up following it book-after-book.  Now, that said, I did pick-up a trilogy of Dune books and read them one summer.  So, maybe I can never say never, but ....

--
R.J. Spears


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

I recently stopped following 2 different cozy mystery series when IMO the price for the new releases exceeded the value of the couple hours of entertainment.

Other than that, I usually stop when the newest releases no longer live up to what attracted me to the series in the first place.


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## Anotherdreamer (Jan 21, 2013)

I had to stop reading Dune too. I can't remember which one i stopped at, it was a while ago. I thought that he died and his son started ghost writing and that's why the writing went south. I might be wrong. 
I dropped the Sookie Stackhouse too. I was never a huge fan of her writing style though. 
I think when it becomes a chore, it's time to cut your losses.


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## Lyndl (Apr 2, 2010)

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series -  Laurell K Hamilton.  I loved the first few. I thought Anita was great, until she slept with the vampire and then became a nympho having sex with 3 or 4 people at once.  The books then became about how many sex partners she could have and who was watching, with almost non- existent story.  After reading 3 or 4 in a row I noticed whole passages copied word for word from one book to the next.  Very annoying.  Nothing could induce me to continue reading them now. 

The Southern Vampire Mysteries  ( Sookie Stackhouse)  I thoroughly enjoyed the first few, then kept reading past the point of real enjoyment.  Now, I prefer the alternative storyline in True Blood and watch instead of read.


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## Guest (Feb 13, 2013)

Anotherdreamer said:


> I had to stop reading Dune too. I can't remember which one i stopped at, it was a while ago. I thought that he died and his son started ghost writing and that's why the writing went south. I might be wrong.


 You're not. Frank Herbert wrote the first five, then his son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson picked up about twenty years later to write more sequels.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I stop when it's no longer worth the time and money to me to keep going. Since I have no real problem abandoning a single book in the middle if it's just not working for me, I have no problem stopping in the middle of a series, either. If it's a series I was really liking, I might give the author one Mulligan, but not two in a row.


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## Lisa J. Yarde (Jul 15, 2010)

When the writing becomes trite and boring, or the POV characters become meaningless. Examples? The Sookie Stackhouse novels dropped after the seventh because the characters just don't seem true to themselves in later books. GRMM's Ice & Fire series has great characters who've been dumbed down or sent on meaningless journeys; I feel like the authors bored with their wanderings so I get bored too.


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## Ann Chambers (Apr 24, 2011)

I tend to downgrade the series from "gotta have it as soon as it comes out" to buying paperback or waiting for the ebook price to drop, and then finally dropping the series entirely.

Usually I lose interest when the story quality fails or when the books start being too similar. 

Gave up on Patterson a few years ago, skipped quite a few Cornwells (the last couple have been better but still not as good as the early ones), dropped Evanovich/Plum a couple of books back. 

It makes me sad when I have to drop a series because I loved the first books...


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## dalton_wolf (Sep 11, 2012)

I generally stop reading when the quality falls or it seems like it is a different writer and the story can't hold me anymore. But I _always_ stop when the main protagonist is killed off or when the focus is shifted permanently from the main group, to another group of people (beings) in a series. I feel that I've invested a lot of time and emotion (and money) in a character or group of characters and expect to keep reading about their exploits, not some new group. A lot of authors, and their defenders, say that they're just being realistic when they kill off a character or move on with another group. 'That's life," they say. "So get over it". But I say if I want realism, why in the Nucleus am I reading a fiction book? People die every day in life. People who have been in your life for decades move away and you lose touch. If I want 'realism', I can read non-fiction or, hey, maybe I'll just go live my own sorry life. 
I read for escapism, not for realism, to go places I can't go in real life, to dream of doing wondrous things and encountering people and beings I have no hope of meeting in the 'real world'. Reading fiction is all about the imagination, about taking a trip within your own mind, a trip you get to share with the author and your fellow readers and I want to hold onto those characters and those worlds until I fall asleep at night and know that they will be there the next morning to comfort me and take me on another journey the next day, and the day after that and for many days after.


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## Kristine McKinley (Aug 26, 2012)

I find it very difficult to stop reading a series when I've put in a lot of time with it. However there have been a couple that I've dropped or downgraded. I only made it to book 4 in the Stephanie Plum series and when I realized that she wasn't going to pick a man any time soon I stopped reading. Somewhere around the 7th book I downgraded The Southern Vampire Mysteries to checking out from the library. I don't know what happened but the quality of that series dropped dramatically, I kind of blame the TV show on that one.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

I quit George Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series and The Wheel of Time series because they were huge books where not a lot actually happened and huge time periods between book releases usually means I felt I needed to go back and re-read before reading the newest book and I just didn't have the time


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Sometimes I don't exactly know why I quit reading a series. Lee Child's _Jack Reacher_ novels fit into that category. A few books back, a new one came out and I just yawned.

Most of the time, I quit because a series gets (subjectively) repetitive. This happened with J.D. Robb's _In Death_ series, as well as David Weber's _Honor Harrington_ series.

Curiously, this does not seem to happen with mystery series (as opposed to crime series). I even re-read the 40+ volumes or Rex Stout's _Nero Wolfe_ series, J.D. Carr's _Merrivale_ and _Dr. Fell_ series, the 30+ volumes of _Ellery Queen_, etc. I have little tolerance for an extended series (more than four or five volumes) of SF or Fantasy work (there are exceptions, but a vanishingly small number).

Just from reading the threads around here over the last several years, it's apparent that I like stand-alone novels far more than most here. Some of my favorite authors didn't write anything that would qualify as a true series at all.

Mike


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## tensen (May 17, 2011)

Lyndl said:


> Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series - Laurell K Hamilton. I loved the first few. I thought Anita was great, until she slept with the vampire and then became a nympho having sex with 3 or 4 people at once.


Absolutely. I really liked the first two or three. The original concept for the series was good.


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## Carrie Rubin (Nov 19, 2012)

When I stop caring about the characters. This happened to me with Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series, just as others have pointed out before me. Plus, the writing styles of these novels changed. It became more about the technical issues than story telling and characterization.


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> When I feel like every book is the same. Sometimes that's 2 books in. Sometimes it's 20 books in. Sometimes it never happens.


This is pretty close to what I think, but I'd say the sameness will creep into every series eventually. No author is immune. As a rule of thumb, books four and five are the red hot danger zone were most start to fail. I did read nine books in George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman Papers, but that is about as far as I have ever gotten in a series.

Episodic series where the reader can read the books in any order, by their very nature, must rely heavily on sameness. It's just plugging in formulas. Unless the events of the story fundamentally change the character, there is no way to escape this outcome.


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## RosanneRivers (Jan 21, 2013)

I stop reading when I feel like I'm being strung along. So when the end of the book doesn't wrap up what it set out/promised to do at the start just so you'll buy the next one! I love series which concludes everything it set out to at the start of the novel, but the writing was so good that you want to read the next one anyway!

Is anyone else like this?


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

I tend to stop when the author has changed and it shows in the writing. There was a very popular (still is) mystery writer who started out with the most spine tingling, page turning books I had ever read, about ordinary people who found themselves thrust into extraordinary events, who struck it rich and suddenly started populating her books with "the jet set" crowd and kept name dropping places from her elite world all through her books. Success just doesn't work for some people, as they seem to lose the spark of inspiration and creativity that made them popular in the first place. Out of kindness I won't name who it is, but it's a shame that the quality of her books suffered from her fame. Because she truly was a great writer in the beginning. I still read her old books, but no longer buy the new ones.


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## maryjf45 (Apr 24, 2011)

I dislike it when characters become stuck in a rut, not progressing, becoming less real and interesting. It's kind of depressing, like having a friend with Alzheimers, they slowly dwindle away.  A cozy mystery series called Her Royal Spyness has become like that. Writers sometimes lose their passion for a story but keep going for other reasons. I detest the Sookie Stackhouse series, but I liked Charlaine Harris' older Aurora Teagarden series, which I thought progressed nicely and had a good ending. Her Grave Sight books also. Another series that I've liked is the Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois Bujold. All of her books are good, actually. Game of Thrones I dropped before finishing the first book, because there were too many story lines and too few characters that I liked. I will still read the next Gabaldon book, but she has so many strands going as well. So much happens to Jaime and Claire that it seems unreal at times. Maybe she should let them semi-retire in peace and continue with the next generation. I have also enjoyed The Change series by S.M. Stirling which starts with Dies the Fire. It's not finished yet, and sometimes drags, but it's characters and action are worth it.


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

I cannot recommend enough the late Ross MacDonald's series of Lew Archer detective novels. There are a good number of them and, going by the blurbs, they might all appear to be quite similar, but they are not. Each new tale is fresh, engrossing, and wonderfully well written. It's one series I can't get enough of.


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## 67499 (Feb 4, 2013)

When the main character ceases to grow.


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## Verbena (Sep 1, 2011)

When books become boring，the writer lost his meaning.


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## Adrian Howell (Feb 24, 2013)

When I feel the "been there, done that," that's where I stop reading. A book series is great when you fall in love with the characters, but it can't read like an episode out of a weekly TV series. The plot, the characters... everything has to evolve. If the series isn't moving forward, then neither am I.


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## Nope (Jun 25, 2012)

.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Chad Winters said:


> I quit George Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series and The Wheel of Time series because they were huge books where not a lot actually happened and huge time periods between book releases usually means I felt I needed to go back and re-read before reading the newest book and I just didn't have the time


I quit The Wheel of Time series for the same reason. I followed the books for ten years but the wait time between releases was so long I kept having to go back and reread from book one, so I'd understand what was going on. After I read through all the existing books twice (some of them three times), I gave up. Which is a shame because I was only one book away from the last one. Hubby keeps trying to get me to pick it up again and part of me does want to know how it ends. But I'd have to read books 1-13 again and I just can't summon the interest.


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## Grace Elliot (Mar 14, 2011)

This is such a good question! 
For me it's if I can do withou knowing the conclusion because I just don't care about the characters any more, or feel there is nothing left to discover about them.
This question set me thinking about soap operas and why I continue to watch Coronation Street, but can turn off Eastenders. It's down to caring, cliffhangers and the characters not acting 'out-of-character'.


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## markarayner (Mar 14, 2011)

Dara England said:


> I quit The Wheel of Time series for the same reason. I followed the books for ten years but the wait time between releases was so long I kept having to go back and reread from book one, so I'd understand what was going on. After I read through all the existing books twice (some of them three times), I gave up. Which is a shame because I was only one book away from the last one. Hubby keeps trying to get me to pick it up again and part of me does want to know how it ends. But I'd have to read books 1-13 again and I just can't summon the interest.


Wow, you have way more patience than I did. I quite at about book 7 or so, when it was clear that the story was wildly out of control and in need of serious editorial help. That is usually when I give up on a series, unless I just get bored with the characters. I became sensitive to this when I was a kid -- I was a huge fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs and I was working my way through his entire ouvre, when about mid-way through the Pellucidar series I realized: "hey, this is just the same story, over and over." (I still finished the series, but I moved on to other writers at that point.)


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## Grace Elliot (Mar 14, 2011)

I'm wondering if there is a series that you've never got tired of.

As a child I soaked up each and every one of Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons" series - they are thick books and there are a lot of them, but hey when I was little TV was black and white, and there was no internet.


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## Simone (Feb 28, 2013)

VH Folland said:


> You're not. Frank Herbert wrote the first five, then his son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson picked up about twenty years later to write more sequels.


Guess that explains it for me too, then. I loved the first 5, though I found the politics extremely complex and difficult to follow at times, but the story just seems to ramble on after that with no real direction.


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

Grace Elliot said:


> I'm wondering if there is a series that you've never got tired of.


I about to start reading the latest "Mitch Rapp" book by Vince Flynn and I am not tired of reading this series. Mitch is such a complex protagonist and Flynn keeps putting him in different situations. I have been avoiding reading his latest since I hate knowing I have no more to read...


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## Grace Elliot (Mar 14, 2011)

bordercollielady said:


> I have been avoiding reading his latest since I hate knowing I have no more to read...


Ditto. I've been reading the Maiden Lane series by Elizabeth Hoyt and kept the last book unread, just so that I knew there was another. Huge sigh of relief when she released another so I allowed myself to read 
and now I'm keeping 
as a treat for later.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

I'll stop reading a series when I either start feeling like the author is just cranking out the books to make a buck or if the series feels like it lost it's way. for example, Orson Scott Card used to be one of my favorite authors but he's been in a rut this past decade writing book after book in the _Ender_ series ... and I've given up on him ...  ....


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

Geoffrey said:


> I'll stop reading a series when I either start feeling like the author is just cranking out the books to make a buck or if the series feels like it lost it's way. for example, Orson Scott Card used to be one of my favorite authors but he's been in a rut this past decade writing book after book in the _Ender_ series ... and I've given up on him ...  ....


Agreed, they kept getting more and more pointless too


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## Nope (Jun 25, 2012)

.


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## Ben Finn (Mar 4, 2013)

Difficult to answer. I have found many books to sort of run out of ideas as it goes on, then others is like red-wine, just getting better as time passes. I guess when you get bored or when its no longer entertaining...


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## LinaG (Jun 18, 2012)

I give up on a series when the author seems to lose interest as in the once wonderful Stephanie Plum novels. I haven't read the last two or three. It's just too sad. If you compare them to the first 3 or 4 you'd think someone else was writing them. Maybe the Amazon rumors are true and dear Janet Evanovich can no longer write and her daughter has taken over...

I also stop when I, for whatever reason just can't take anymore of the story line. I read a lot of P. Cornwall back to back when I first discovered her. But eventually there was one fingernail scraping too many and I just had this overwhelming sense of "ick," and stopped. No werewolves necessary.

I still count Jim Butcher as one of my favorite authors, but I've read the last couple of Harry Dresdens because I love Butcher's voice and sense of humor, not because anything Harry is doing interests me. I was kind of lost in the one Dresden novel where there was a battle in fairly land. He really got his Tolken on for that one (book 4?). I couldn't remember which fey was riding what unicorn in some magical place above Chicago. I have read others since but it is a struggle to remember what has happened.

Li


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

Like the OP, I loved the Earth's Children's Series until the last couple of books. I read the fifth book and thought it was okay, but kind of a letdown after the build up of going back to Jondalar's home. I still looked forward to the last book and bought it on my Kindle. I think I read the first few chapters and it felt so stilted, I stopped reading. I still re-read the earlier books, but doubt I'll ever finish Land of the Painted Caves. 

About four years ago, I discovered Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet Series. I am not normally a sci-fi fan, but kind of stumbled on the series due to Amazon's also boughts. I devoured the first five books, I think it was, it about 8 days. I would have finished even sooner, but I couldn't find some of the earlier books at the bookstore and didn't want to wait for Amazon to ship them. (back before I had 2-day Prime). My friend found them at her library for me as my local library didn't have them. 

So, a few years ago, the sixth one came out. It was kind of expensive for an ebook, so I waited. I eventually bought it, but I still haven't finished it. I guess I lost the momentum.


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## JPGrider (Mar 2, 2013)

If a series stays interesting and relevant, I continue until the end of the series. If it strays and there's no "I gotta see what happens next" factor, I stop reading - even if it is in the middle of one of the books.


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## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

I recently tried a cozy and enjoyed it. Could not say the same about the next release and (poorly written) so I cut it after the one book. Generally, I don't read series. I find them less enjoyable than standalones.


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## Ann Chambers (Apr 24, 2011)

One of my favorite series from recent years is currently on the fence for me. Jefferson Bass books have been focused on the UT Body Farm's chief with mysteries stemming from his work/students, etc. Generally really interesting and well researched (IMO). 

So any JB book has been an auto-buy for me, but the latest book "The Inquisitor's Key" takes him to Europe on a mystery and there is soooo much history - architectural and art - that the mystery part of the book is suffering badly. 

I put it down about a week ago, half read, and don't know if I will finish it. Sigh.


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## Mark Young (Dec 13, 2010)

When the author seems to rehash old plots and put a new face on it to keep the series going.


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## RM Prioleau (Mar 18, 2011)

This is a really interesting thread that really got me thinking. I was browsing in Barnes & Noble a while back and noticed nearly every fiction book on the shelves was part of a series. Is this the norm? Are standalone books a thing of the past? I can understand some books that need to be stretched out into multiple series, especially in the fantasy and sci-fi genre, because there is so much world-building. I would certainly not expect to see Game of Thrones be written in 1 self-contained book, for example. But many of the non-fantasy books I saw didn't seem like they needed to be stretched into 3+ books. I mean, come on. How many times have we picked up a book and read endless pages of fluff that had nothing to do with the story?

I found this article online today about book series, and the author echoes a lot about what I feel. I do like book series, but only when the book actually NEEDS to be a series and not 3 books worth of fluff. The article was written 3 years ago, but I think it still holds true even today: http://www.readingteen.net/2010/09/new-epidemic-is-sweeping-globe.html

Does it just come down to money as to why publishers favor series over standalones? If so, then I would like to see more indie authors publish standalones and start a new trend.


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## Sean Cunningham (Jan 11, 2011)

Chad Winters said:


> I quit George Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series and The Wheel of Time series because they were huge books where not a lot actually happened and huge time periods between book releases usually means I felt I needed to go back and re-read before reading the newest book and I just didn't have the time


This has also kept me from trying to finish Steven Erikson's Malazan series, with the added complication that I have the feeling he writes them to as to be deliberately puzzling. I've forgotten everything I don't know, let alone everything I do.

I drop a series when I no longer care how it ends, or no longer care about the fates of any of the characters. In one particular case, I dropped a series when the only character I did care about died. The next book opened with two hundred pages of a bunch of characters I didn't care about walking through an utterly featureless landscape and I asked myself why the devil I was even bothering.

I devoured Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, but by the end of book 6 it felt done. I'm glad it ended there.


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## 123nancy (Dec 22, 2012)

There are three things that make me stop reading a series:

The author is phoning it in
The price gets out of hand
The series ends


I read a wonderful first book in a series was completely riveted and when I finished the book went straight to Amazon and couldn't bring myself to pay $12 for an ebook. It wasn't a compilation, it was one 300 page book. The series is just a little too rich for my blood.


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## TaraMcTiernan (Mar 18, 2013)

Two reasons: the first book is so far superior to the following books that you feel that the writer has lost interest but is being forced to continue for some reason (which always makes me a little sad - how was that love lost?). The other reason is when I feel manipulated. Case in point: the Hunger Games series. The first book was so well plotted and I was very caught up in the story, but the end felt as if it was left where it was simply to force the reader to buy the next book in the series. This angered me as I paid for a complete story - not a serial with a cliffhanger at the end. Stopped right there and didn't read any of the sequels.

There have been many book series that I've loved, however, so it's a rare one that disappoints


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## L M May (Mar 14, 2013)

VH Folland said:


> I've followed several book series over the years, including the Earth's Children saga. Thinking about The Land of Painted Caves, I swore blind I would not buy another book in the series. Then I remembered I'd sworn the same thing the book before it...
> 
> There have been a few others I've dropped completely, when the author lost interest but was still under contract, changed (Dune), the series quality disappeared, or when continuity vanished - Black Trillium and its contradictory sequels.
> 
> So, thinking about book series, when do you stop following one?


I love book series, but I love them even more when each story can stand on its own. I don't mind loose ends that make me want the next book. I am pretty much over cliffhangers - or 'part 1's' that are essentially a few chapters parading as a story, if that makes sense. Especially when you would pay a lot more to buy the series than you would to buy a book by one of your favourite authors. Lately I have been checking reviews to see if a 'cliffhanger' lies in wait.


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## Chris Barraclough (Jan 25, 2011)

Might be completely illogical as they're clearly earning good cash from their art, but I do feel sorry for some best-selling authors who are tied into publishing contracts that demand new entries in a series every year, perhaps two or three a year. You can clearly see the interest and passion drain away with each subsequent book almost every time.

At least being an agent-less, publisher-free writer gives you the freedom to write what you like, even if you barely earn enough to eat beans on toast seven days a week


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I only read the first book in the Game of Thrones series.  It was good enough.  But I just wasn't engaged enough with ALL of the various story threads to bother to stay with it.  Some I found fairly interesting but then I'd get to the end of the section and suddenly the story shifted to some other group of characters that maybe I didn't like so much.  I'd practically skim those sections.  

At the end of the day -- or, should I say, "at the end of the book"  -- I decided I didn't like the more-interesting-to-me parts well enough to continue having to read the less interesting parts.  I realized those parts were important over all, but just wasn't in the mood to force myself to get caught up in it all.  

And that's when I stopped following THAT series.


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## SidneyW (Aug 6, 2010)

I tend to stop when I find I've "built up an immunity" to an author. That is, I realize I'm too familiar with all of the author's nuances and the kind of storytelling decisions the author is making. 

Sometimes, when that happens, I switch over to audiobooks and continue a series that way.


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## Guest (Mar 26, 2013)

I tend to finish with a series where it was originally meant to stop....for instance Cassandra Clare's 'mortal instruments' series. I loved the first three, and they wrapped up neatly and nicely to a conclusion...and then she went and wrote more of them. Which just seemed  to extend the characters problems and turned it into a bit of a soapie. I had the same experience with the 'tomorrow' series, all my friends advised me to not read the 'Ellie Chronicles'. I think they were right.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Lyndl said:


> Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series - Laurell K Hamilton. I loved the first few. I thought Anita was great, until she slept with the vampire and then became a nympho having sex with 3 or 4 people at once. The books then became about how many sex partners she could have and who was watching, with almost non- existent story. After reading 3 or 4 in a row I noticed whole passages copied word for word from one book to the next. Very annoying. Nothing could induce me to continue reading them now.
> 
> The Southern Vampire Mysteries ( Sookie Stackhouse) I thoroughly enjoyed the first few, then kept reading past the point of real enjoyment. Now, I prefer the alternative storyline in True Blood and watch instead of read.


I was going to say almost the same thing about the Anita Blake series. I stopped reading when she was in the middle of an unrealistic and totally unsafe sex scene.
I am trying to figure out how some of her books were sold at places like Walmart. I mean if the title was Anita does anyone, it would have been only allowed to sell in certain places.


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## Duane Gundrum (Apr 5, 2011)

The only time I ever really stop following a series is when the main author dies and someone else takes over for him.


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## brianjanuary (Oct 18, 2011)

I've stopped reading a couple of authors whom I felt had start to pander to the reader instead of writing to entertain (big difference) and staying true to the essential cores of the main characters.


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## jeffaaronmiller (Jul 17, 2012)

If a series loses forward momentum, my interest starts to wane. I found the Wheel of Time series harder and harder after The Shadow Rising and gave up around book seven. It just felt like the urgency of the first four books was gone. I am a little worried about this with Song of Ice and Fire after A Dance with Dragons. So many subplots, so little forward momentum.

However, now that Wheel of Time is done, I will probably go back and complete it at some point.


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## Aya Ling (Nov 21, 2012)

I recently quit on the Stephanie Plum series--read the first 10 in about a week, they were that addictive. But the plot became too repetitive, the humor no longer fresh, and I got tired of the heroine's inability to grow up. So I skipped ahead and read the reviews of the following books, hoping they'd be better, but it seemed they got worse...so I decided to say sayonara


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## CarlSinclair (Apr 7, 2013)

I now tend to wait for the trilogy or series to be finished before starting.

This was mainly due to the fact I started Wheel of Time in 1990 and A Song of Fire and Ice in 1996? I only just got done with WoT this year, and who knows when G.R.R Martin will finish his series. I don't want that kind of commitment with my books anymore. 

That is why I have been enjoying a lot of indie series lately, mainly because they get pumped out quickly. I just don't want to wait years anymore. 

Saying that, I foolishly read Brandon Sanderson's, A Way of Kings. I loved it but later found out it's book one of ten.... ouch.


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## Zackery Arbela (Jan 31, 2011)

Usually when the overall story loses focus and starts to meander aimlessly. A good example would be the Wheel of Time series. I pretty much stopped paying attention after the fifth or sixth book when it became clear that the overall plot was going to be resolved anytime soon. It felt like Jordan was basically phoning it in for the money.

I have to admit, A Song of Ice and Fire is starting to feel that way as well. The last book didn't really resolve ANYTHING and the massive delays in publication were quite exasperating.


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## rjspears (Sep 25, 2011)

There are some authors that I may never give up on, but others I have.  Like many other responses, I tend to drop a series when the author starts re-hashing plot lines.  I have also dropped a series simply because I felt that author was getting lazy.  

The last reason I've dropped a series is when it becomes to daunting to keep up.  As a teen, I read Dune.  I loved it.  I pour through the series and then more books kept coming.  And coming.  As a adult with limited free time, I just couldn't keep up  Sad, but true.

--
R.J. Spears


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## 67499 (Feb 4, 2013)

I just set aside the most recent of L.C. Tyler's comic tea-cosy mysteries in his Ethelred and Elsie series, which starts with the terrific "The Herring-Seller's Apprentice." Too often series don't measure up to that first grand outing for the protagonist, and this series fails, too. The two lead characters just can't seem to carry the series. Too bad, too, because Tyler stuffs a lot of funny asides in his stories which are almost worth the price of continuing to read.


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## MineBook (May 31, 2013)

I stop when the next book of series 
had failed with my personal expectations.


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## tahliaN (Nov 6, 2011)

When it's obvious that they're just churning out more books because the series is popular, not because there is actually more story to tell. Or when they do something stupid to a character like turn him into a whiner (as the author did to my favourite character in the mortal instruments series book 4.) Books should get better in a series, not worse and once the story is finished, they should finish!


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## the quiet one (Aug 13, 2012)

Two reasons for me:
(1) The series becomes so long and formulaic that it loses its sense of originality. For me, the iconic example is Anthony's _Xanth_ series, which I thought was outstanding for the first 8 or 9 books, reasonably enjoyable for the next 3-4 volumes, and then very uninteresting for the next...well, I don't know how much farther in the series I got, but there are 30+ volumes out and I know I've not come close to reading all of them. It just lost its appeal after a while.

(2) I've found it more difficult to really absorb myself in reading longer works of late, which saddens me because I've had to abandon series that I really enjoy and want to continue reading. I *will* get back to Martin's _A Song of Ice and Fire_ and Weber's _Safehold_ at some point, but at least for now they are, sadly, on hold.


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## Dina (May 24, 2013)

That's a good question and I have no answer. From my own experience, here's what I notice:

I stuck with Sookie, just to find out what happened in the end, and because I was tired of hearing readers bash her the author for her writing choices. So I stayed out of loyalty to the author and her right to create. Did I love the ending? Doesn't matter.

I've long given up on eagerly waiting for the next Outlander or Song of Ice and Fire because I could die waiting, yet when one comes out, I read it eventually and am always happy when I do, Red Weddings and all.

The Anita Blake series I stopped reading by the third book because I just did not care enough about the character. And I LOVED the Dead Witch Walking series but stopped reading a couple of books after Kisten's resolution because my heart was broken, and while I trusted the author to remedy all in  the end, it was too many books to wait. 

I like to pretend The Witching Hour series ended at Taltos and I will re-read that series but I never go beyond.

Narnia - never gave up. Susan Cooper's series - never gave up. Harry Potter - never gave up. There were some books that bored me in each of those series but I stuck with them. 

I wish I knew. I think it depends on the reader's mood as much as anything.


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## Y. K. Greene (Jan 26, 2011)

I've only ever consciously stopped reading a series once - and that would be the Anita Blake novels.

Seems I stuck with her longer that most. I didn't mind the increasingly detailed amount of sex in each novel or the increase in partners or justifications for them. I didn't mind the fact that Anita, the monster hating vampire hunter then became more than a little bit of a monster slut. In all honesty as a fan of the villains - I was enjoying her complete and total fall.

However there came a point, in a book who's title I can't even be bothered to remember, in which Anita was so busy fucking around - that she _*forgot to solve the case*_. That was it. I'd signed on for a petite mostly mortal woman who knows necromancy and is occasionally contracted to kill vampires when it can be proved by the letter of the law that they are breaking those laws. By that time she'd long since forgotten about her *need *to raise the dead regularly but that was ok because her necromancy was having some tantalizing new effects on vampires; she'd become far more than human, but that was ok because it facilitated more wild and raunchy monster sex; but when she *forgot to solve the crime* - I was done.

The author's rant on her right to write whatever the frell she wanted, didn't help either. To me, she'd completely and utterly betrayed the character to satisfy her own agenda (an agenda that was already being ably served by the Meredith Gentry series I might add) and that, *can not* be forgiven.


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## KevinH (Jun 29, 2013)

I'd probably say that I stop when the writing makes it clear that the author is no longer interested, or when the series seems to lose it's way. Still, I'm big on loyalty, so if the first book really hooks me I tend to stay the course, even when I shouldn't.

For instance, a long time ago I started reading a sci-fi series called _Mutans Amok_. The first book was great, but the series started to flounder right off with the second book, but I stayed the course and read all 4 or 5 in the series, although it felt like punishment. With the _Wildcard_ series - edited by George R.R. Martin - the first couple of books were fine, but somewhere in the middle the storylines just became kind of muddled and crazy in my opinion. Still, I read all 15 or so books in the fiirst iteration (There's a brand new Wildcard series out now I believe, but I haven't paid it much attention.) My final example is Piers Anthony's _Xanth_ novels: it seems like he wrote 50 of them, but I only read the first three and then I stopped - even though I had a bunch of the others. the books just ceased to be interesting (or maybe they just couldn't measure up to the first in the series).

The worst part about all of this was that I read these in the days before Amazon, so I had to hunt all over creation just to find the books and get my hands on the complete series (except for Xanth - there were just too many books)!


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## ElisaBlaisdell (Jun 3, 2012)

Starting out with a couple of 'me toos'.

I stopped reading _The Wheel of Time_ about book 6 or so, when I decided that I saw no forward momentum whatsoever. (Lock me in a room for a week with nothing but Books 1 through whatever to read, and I'll settle down and read them in order. Somehow, I don't think anyone will do that to me.)

Xanth series: I stopped when I realized that my reaction on looking at the bookstore shelf had changed from: "Oh, goodie," to: "Egads! He's written _another _one!"

And, in another genre, I dropped two series by an author I enjoyed, (although not one of my very favorites,) when I learned of the author's personal involvement in a nasty murder. I usually take the attitude that I don't care what writers do when they aren't writing, but there's always an exception to the rule.


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## Clark Magnan (May 23, 2013)

As many others have said: _Dune_

I love the original and I think I like the Franker Herbert sequels better than most, but when his son took over, the series dived, _fast_.


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## senserial (Jan 29, 2013)

I stop following a series when:
1) the story is dragging too much with no sense
2) the new book doesn't contribute to the original story, doesn't bring anything new
3) when the main characters do not develop

In short: when the series is getting like a soap opera.


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## a_g (Aug 9, 2013)

Dune. I got as far as Chapterhouse before I gave up. This was way back in the day, long before his son got involved, I believe. Didn't he die right after that?



brianjanuary said:


> I've stopped reading a couple of authors whom I felt had start to pander to the reader instead of writing to entertain (big difference) and staying true to the essential cores of the main characters.


Yep. This is the Nightrunner Series for me. I loved the first three books and would have been content for it to end there. Then the fourth book came out and I read reviews and talked with folks who'd read it and read anyway against my better judgment. Something straight out of fanfiction tropes. I felt then she had bowed to her fans and the series jumped the shark.* **

The Anita Blake series. Somewhere after book three. In fact, I'm not sure I made it through book three.

Anne Rice and the end of Queen of the Damned. After that, I really didn't give much of a care for it.



senserial said:


> In short: when the series is getting like a soap opera.


Oh yeah. When I find myself anxious like when I watch soap operas, it's not a good anxious either. Not an anticipation, not an 'omg how are they gonna'. It's that sick anxiousness because I realize that I'm being manipulated and not enticed and all the writer is doing is creating drama because drama creation is expected. The flow of the drama doesn't follow organically from the plot.

Funny. It appears that I usually stop after three books. Except Dune and when I got to book five I realized I _should_ have stopped at book three.

*I've been given to understand that books five and six manage to redeem the series but frankly, after the disappointing fourth, I really have no desire to keep going.

**I won't go into the short stories she released that really did read like slash fanfiction, written slap-dash to appease the fandom. That was a major disappointment because it felt like she was bowing to the whims of her ardent slash fanfiction fans.[/size][/size]


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## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

Dune for me as well. I also gave up on Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books partway through the second trilogy. The negativity just wore me out. 

It's actually rare that I start a series and don't follow through. In fact, C.J. Cherryh's "Foreigner" series has turned into a long term relationship!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Dune: I found the first book interesting, but each subsequent one got more and more dull -- too much politics and such.

Thomas Covenant: I liked the first two trilogies -- there were enough positive people to counter balance TC, I thought. I've read the first book of the third trilogy -- features Linden Avery -- but it's all so different because of the time dilation between the two worlds. It wasn't that enthralling. I actually _have_ the second book, but haven't read it yet -- got it in paper in late 2007 -- and switched to kindle in 2008 so it's just not been on my radar.


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## Daniel Harvell (Jun 21, 2013)

The trouble with an ongoing series (like Stephanie Plum novels, among many others) is that the writer has to walk a very fine line - they have to keep the characters, situations, etc. similar enough to the early stories so they don't scare away their audience with drastic changes (character deaths, long-term romantic changes, etc.) but keep things new and fresh so the same audience doesn't get bored. Perhaps these writers (and their readers) would be better served if they made their series finite with an end game in mind (Harry Potter series is the greatest example of this).


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

If you're talking a 'romantic' series, I'd agree. There's only so long the 'will they or won't they' vibe can stay interesting. So you either have to just let them get together or split them up. Which will annoy half the readership either way.

What can work indefinitely, I think, are mystery series. If you make the MC someone who it is not surprising to continually find dealing with murders (a detective, lawyer, other law enforcement officer, etc.) you can build a good cast around them and make each new MYSTERY fresh while keeping the characters mostly familiar. The key is to keep the peripheral story arcs extremely peripheral! I think Linda Fairstein does this well with her Alex Cooper series.

A lot of TV shows have problems with this nowadays. Used to be you'd watch _Magnum PI_, _Matlock_, _Columbo_ or _Murder She Wrote_ (though trouble certainly followed that ol' gal and Cabot Cove must have the highest _per capita_ murder rate in the country.  ) and you'd know you'd see the same cast of characters each week with a new baddie or group to take down. You could actually watch them in any order -- so if you miss this week, you'd see it in re-runs in the summer and not miss a thing.

But now, most of them have these over-riding story arcs that, if you miss one episode you can be partially lost. And some are absolutely serials to where you shouldn't even expect any sort of resolution to ANYTHING until the very end -- and missing one episode means you're _totally_ lost!  That's fine, if that's what you signed up for, but annoying if you just want to sit down and, say, watch an episode of something that happens to be showing in syndication. I'm guessing it's because so many people have digital recorders nowadays, so the assumption is that people will record and watch in order. But I find I really lose interest when the 'mystery of the week' becomes so obviously secondary to whatever bigger story they think they're trying to tell. Especially if the characters are not particularly endearing. I've pretty much given up on both _Suits_ and _Covert Affairs_ for that reason, and if it wasn't the last season of _Burn Notice_ I'd have given up on it as well.


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## emeralda (Aug 23, 2013)

If it's a great series like Harry Potter, then when the last book in the series is out. If it's not such a great series then I stop at the book I'm at in the series.


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## Mark Young (Dec 13, 2010)

When I start seeing the same kind of plot with just a slightly different twist. I assume the writer is running out of new ideas.


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