The Series Series: Part 1
My blog friend, Melissa at Bookmark Dragon, created The Series Series nine years ago. It consisted of three major discussions all about book series. Unfortunately, she’s no longer blogging and her blog domain has expired. I’ve decided to post something similar to The Series Series because I thought it was an ingenious way to discuss my love of series. The three discussions I’ll be posting are:
- Series I’ve finished and whether I recommend them to other readers
- Series I’ve started and whether I plan to finish reading them
- My top ten series I want to read next
Part 1: Series I’ve Finished
I’m starting off The Series Series by discussing series I’ve read from start to finish and whether I’d recommend them to other readers. Let’s get started.
Anna Duology by Kendare Blake
Number of Books: 2
Overall Feeling: I love the atmosphere. It’s eerie, suspenseful, and feels a lot like a SUPERNATURAL episode.
Recommend: Yes if you like ghost stories, a little bit of horror, and SUPERNATURAL.
The Books of Bayern Series by Shannon Hale
Number of Books: 4
Overall Feeling: It took me a while to get into each book and I didn’t particularly care for the final book. I do enjoy the retelling of a classic fairy tale aspect with THE GOOSE GIRL. I also like the elemental magic in each book.
Recommend: It’s up to you. Go for it if you like fairy tale retellings and elemental fantasy.
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
Number of Books: 7
Overall Feeling: There are aspects of this series I love and aspects I don’t. I love Narnia–the characters, the history, the world, all of it. However, I wish there was more character development and more detail in general. I also think the series should be marketed to be read in publishing order. The chronological order is for the birds. (I’ve read the series both ways.)
Recommend: Yes if you like fantasy and allegory.
The Dark Divine Trilogy by Bree Despain
Number of Books: 3
Overall Feeling: I’m normally not a fan of shapeshifting lore (i.e. werewolves). However, Bree Despain’s story completely captivated me from beginning to end. I love her characters and her world.
Recommend: Yes if you like paranormal romance.
Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth
Number of Books: 3
Overall Feeling: I love DIVERGENT because of its clever dystopian society. I also love Tris and Four and all the other characters. I think both INSURGENT and ALLEGIANT are good sequels, but I don’t care for the world outside of Chicago and all that entails. I also don’t like being in Four’s head in ALLEGIANT. View Spoiler »
Recommend: It’s up to you. Go for it if you like dystopian societies.
Dragon Prince Trilogy by Melanie Rawn
Number of Books: 3
Overall Feeling: I love this trilogy so much. I’m actually in the middle of a reread. I love Melanie Rawn’s writing, the characters, the setting, the complexity of the story, the political intrigue, and the ethical/moral issues it explores.
Recommend: Yes if you like high fantasy.
Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
Number of Books: 7
Overall Feeling: I love the Wizarding World. I love the characters, the stories, and the magic I feel every time I read this series. Harry Potter’s one of the reasons I read and have a blog.
Recommend: Yes if you like fantasy and coming of age stories and you can get past it being associated with JKR.
I learned in DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) that life is full of dialectics, or two opposing truths. In this case, the two opposing truths are: 1) I don’t agree with JKR’s stance regarding trans people, and 2) I still love Harry Potter.
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
Number of Books: 3
Overall Feeling: I love this trilogy. I love the clever mythology, especially our souls appearing as animal companions known as dæmons. I love the fight between good and evil, in this case the militant religious vs. free will.
Recommend: Yes if you like non-allegorical theological fantasy.
The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins
Number of Books: 4
Overall Feeling: I love this series so much. I love the characters, even the evil ones. I think the story isn’t that far off if we let it happen. It’s a reminder that we need to fight against fascism and the people who want to rule and destroy the world.
Recommend: Yes if you like dystopians.
The Infernal Devices Trilogy by Cassandra Clare
Number of Books: 3
Overall Feeling: I love love love this trilogy. Not only is it set in one of my favorite literary worlds (Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunters), it’s also set in 19th-century London. View Spoiler »
Recommend: Yes if you like mythology-based urban fantasy and historical fiction.
The Looking Glass Wars Trilogy by Frank Beddor
Number of Books: 3
Overall Feeling: I’m not a huge fan of Lewis Carroll’s Alice duology. I thought it was nonsense with no point to it. I read both of Carroll’s books so I could read this trilogy. I like this trilogy better than the originals because there’s an actual plot that makes sense. However, I’m disappointed in the lack of character development.
Recommend: No unless you like Lewis Carroll’s Alice duology and retellings of classics.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
Number of Books: 3
Overall Feeling: I love the story of The Lord of the Rings and I love the characters, especially Samwise Gamgee. I do like THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING the best because I don’t like that the other two books are split half and half between Frodo and Sam, and everyone else. I wish Tolkien had interspersed them together so the timing isn’t so jarring.
Recommend: Yes if you like high fantasy, despite my issue with the second and third books.
Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie
Number of Books: 3
Overall Feeling: I think Ally Condie’s dystopian world is really interesting. Before I finished the series, I kept wondering how she was going to resolve the problems. I think the journey from beginning to end is a lot of fun. I also always love the poetic feel to Ally’s writing.
Recommend: Yes if you like dystopians.
The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare
Number of Books: 6
Overall Feeling: I love the world of Shadowhunters. It’s one of my favorite literary worlds as I said above. I love Cassandra Clare’s use of different religious and cultural mythologies to create her stories. I also love the characters, angst, and the fight between good and evil.
Recommend: Yes if you like mythology-based urban fantasy.
The Night Walkers Trilogy by JR Johansson
Number of Books: 3
Overall Feeling: I love the dark, creepy–in a not scary but very suspenseful way–vibe of this trilogy. I also think the concept is very clever.
Recommend: Yes if you like dark, creepy paranormal stories.
Pivot Point Duology by Kasie West
Number of Books: 2
Overall Feeling: I really like the alternate timelines. I think the story’s unique, fun, and suspenseful. I also like that it’s a duology instead of a trilogy.
Recommend: Yes if you like alternate timelines.
The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
Number of Books: 4
Overall Feeling: It’s no secret that I love the Twilight Saga. I love the characters, the mythology, the romance, etc. I also love the readability of this series and its ability to suck you in right from the start. This series is the main reason I read and have a blog.
Recommend: Yes if you like paranormal romance and character-driven stories.
The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden
Number of Books: 3
Overall Feeling: I love how the fiction intermingled with the medieval time period–the time when paganism and Christianity clashed, rather than trying to coexist together peaceably. I adored the Russian setting–the language, buildings, scenery, clothes, food, everything.
Recommend: Yes if you like mythology-based fantasy.
Conclusions
Whew! That was fun. I’m surprised by how few series I’ve actually finished. I thought there’d be more of them. I’m now curious to see how many series I’ve started and not finished because I think there will be a lot more. I’m not surprised that most of the series I’ve read are YA because that’s what I used to read the most of. I’ve only started reading more adult novels in the last five or so years.
Be sure to tune in next Wednesday for part 2 of The Series Series. I’ll be discussing series I’ve started and whether I plan to finish reading them.
What about you? Have you read any of these series? Do you agree with my comments? If you haven’t read any of these, what series have you read from start to finish?
A number of these are my favorite series of all time; I would love to re-read them as though they were brand new to me. Philip Pullman has his last in the series coming out sometime soon, I hope. He’s old, and I don’t want him to die before finishing!
I need to read the companion series to HIS DARK MATERIALS. I’ve heard such great things about it. I’ll probably wait until the final book is published. Fingers crossed Pullman can finish it before he dies.
The first one was a prequel and filled in a lot of the history. I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but I loved the second one. (although parts of it made me very sad)
Hmmm. I wonder what I’ll think of them.
I have only read the Divergent series and the Twilight series from your list. I really enjoyed them both. I have completed So many series. I still have SOOOOOOO many more to complete. Last year I took the time to write out all (or I thought it was all) the series I had started, so now I have them in a notebook, and every time I finish a book or a new one gets published, I add it to the notebook. I have finished one series already this year (I only had one more book of the series to read, LOL).
They were both very popular at one time, weren’t they? I guess Twilight still is. It’s just also popular because it’s “in” to hate it.
That’s really cool that you have a notebook with all your series. I have a spreadsheet that I use. I use it to keep track of all the things I like to about my books. 😀