The series that come to mind when one thinks of classic book series are the Lord of the Rings and others. Today, we see tons of book series that cover numerous genres like the Bosch crime novels, the Hunger Games and Divergent dystopian series, and of course, Game of Thrones fantasy series. For authors, creating a world or a character than can continue through multiple books is a sure fire way to get a fan base, assuming people like your world or character. There are numerous book series out there so you can surely find one that you’ll like, it may just take you a long time to find it.
I’ve read a few series being the Divergent series, the ending of which I wasn’t a big fan of. I also read the Hunger Games series which I did like. I’ve recently started the Game of Thrones series. The issue with GoT for me is that I had originally started it back in 2017 but there were so many characters thrown at you in the beginning I couldn’t keep them straight. After watching the show, it was much easier to put names to faces and keep characters straight. Now, it’s just a long read and I intend to finish the books but I can tell you it won’t be anytime soon.
If you’re into crime fiction, Michael Connelly’s Bosch series is a good one. After reading the first Bosch book, The Black Echo, I was prompted to purchase more works by Connelly. If you like more medieval fantasy, go to the classics like the Hobbit and start the Lord of the Rings series. Sarah J. Maas also has two series of fantasy you may get into.
I’ve thought about starting a series following a specific character through a number of plots and stories but I don’t think I’m there yet. It’s hard to me to stick to one type of story long enough to finish a novel let alone use the same character throughout multiple novels. I guess the benefit of doing it is you just need a new story while the general plot could remain the same. Same guy, new adventure type of deal that bypasses the need to create a new MC for every idea, just new antagonists and supporting characters. I don’t mean to make the writing of a series sound easy because it is incredibly difficult and requires a lot of skill. There are other challenges to a series that a standalone novel doesn’t have but here are also some benefits to it is all I’m trying to say.
I’d like to come up with a series. It’d be good to have an idea of what I’m going to be writing next but it’s difficult. I’d need to give it a lot more thought before I could really go all in on a series. I’d have to plan it out a little more.
What do you think about book series? Do you like reading them? Have you given any thought into writing one yourself?
Drew Schroeder 