The Pros and Cons of Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Series
Ask an average sampling of science fiction and fantasy readers about their thoughts on book series…and you’ll get a wide variety of answers. Some love ’em…others don’t.
This week at the Kirkus Reviews blog, I take a look at The Pros and Cons of Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Series.
Head on over and see if you agree!
Would trilogies count as series for the purpose of this discussion? Because they are in a sense a mixed bag, aren’t they? Most of the time, it’s one (bigger) story just spread over 3x the paper or bit amount, and yet as consumers we still need to buy them as three entities – or a pack of three, at any rate.
By just picking up “the first part”, you *may* get a sense of the writing, but you definitely won’t get a finished story, or any real closure beyond few local threads. In this way, they are even more enticing to get readers to go through the entire lot than a series of self-sufficient tales, and much more, well, serial, in their nature than true “book series” are.