End of a series

[mrissa]

I finished reading The Hour of the Donkey this morning. It felt extremely different from the rest of the Anthony Price books in that series -- it's the end of a continuum that describes that series, I think. Anyway, it was different enough that I didn't have the kind of bittersweet feeling I sometimes have finishing long series I like a lot. It was just -- oh, well, that's done, just as if it was anything, really. I enjoyed it, but not in the same way, quite, and not to the same degree, either.

I almost never have that bittersweet feeling about trilogies. I think most trilogies just aren't long enough to get me into that kind of groove. And length can kill it in the other direction, too: I may not read the next of Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr series, if there is one, and if the last one was the last one, I won't be particularly sad, because I think he's already done at least one and possibly two or three too many in that series.

It's harder, too, to feel truly melancholy when the author is still writing things, because then I mostly want them to go on to other interesting things. (Sethra Lavode was a bit sad, however, because I knew he was going on to other interesting things anyway, in which case I don't see why I shouldn't get more Paarfi books also. And the answer is still "there are only so many hours in the day," I suppose, and "things had come to their end," so on we go.)

And sometimes the author manages to screw things up badly enough with the ending that I get too mad to notice that the series I liked is almost over. Which is, I suppose, considerate in its way. (I'm thinking of C.S. Lewis and Robin Hobb here -- Robin Hobb with the Assassin/Fool series, since I haven't finished the Ship series yet.)

But when they're dead -- and when the series has not overstayed its welcome -- and when the ending doesn't annoy me enough to distract me -- then I mope.

Mostly. But not today.

Which series have you been sorry to finish?

I'm now reading Edith Pattou's East, which is interesting to me more in its concept than in its execution. I am apparently a sucker for polar bears (see also: Pullman, Philip), but not necessarily for polar bear perspectives: oof.

And poking around my files to see what I've got in here that might sound like fun to write, maybe. The disir are gnawing the corners of my brain; we'll see if they look like fun or just like necessary good work. (They are sticking around for "Singing Them Back," which I owe to elisem from lo these many moons ago.) Maybe I will poke Toni of "MacArthur Station" and "Glass Wind" and the others. She's generally fun to write, even when her life sucks. Possibly especially then.

Comments

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Just curious what you disliked about the Assassin/Fool series ending? I had my own problems with it, just curious what yours were.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Among other things, and to avoid too many spoilers, let us say that the major romantic resolution was deeply unsatisfying to me.

We can talk more about it on e-mail if you like, but I prefer not to say too much more that's specific in case there are people who are still reading the series reading these comments.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Sounds good. I had fairly mixed feelings about that ending as well.

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

I was sorry to hit the last of Kate Elliott's Jaran books.

I will be Very Sorry when CJ Cherryh wraps up Foreigner.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the Jaran books. Recommended?

CJ Cherryh does immersive wodgy things to my head that no one else does. I haven't tried her fantasies yet, but almost all her SF has the same effect. I can see why bits of it suck, I just stop caring.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I think you would like Jaran, I think it is excellent. It also works pretty well self-contained, insofar as I can remember - probably five years since I read it - and while the subsequent books are good, I don't think any of them worked for me so well as the first.

Also, The Hour of the Donkey seems like an odd Price to read last. I'm thinking particularly about how it would read differently after things one finds out in Soldier No More which are probably spoilers too large to get into here.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I will put Jaran on the list, then.

dd_b said that putting The Hour of the Donkey last was more due to not thinking about putting it in some other position than due to some particular plan on his part. And I see what you mean about Soldier No More; it probably would have read differently before that.

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

I would recommend Jaran and the subsequent books highly, but then I love Cherryh, so your tastes may vary.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I like Cherryh. By "I stop caring," I mean "I stop caring about the bits that suck."

There's a difference between something good in fiction and something I like in fiction. I think Cherryh has some good stuff and some bad stuff, but enough stuff I like that the bad stuff doesn't matter as much.

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

I love the things she does that other people don't even try. "Hmm, I think I'll have a major subthread on group dynamics and I'll embody it is a kid's birthday party!"

Not your normal "stuff" of SF, but I love it.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about some endings making you so angry they block the melancholy series-ending. And I'm with you on Assassin and Fool. Usually, it's when a final book belongs to a different trilogy-- Holly Lisle's World Gates was like that for me.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I kept slogging through Katherine Kerr's fantasy series when I was 17, because I'd liked the first few, and because it had a fixed endpoint. Then when the ninth book came out, it said, "first book in the such-and-such trilogy." And I said, "No way, lady! Fool me once shame on you!" And ran away.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

Daggerspell and such? I can't read them all at once. One book every month or two is all I can pull off or I get saturated.
I don't mind long series as long as they aren't bad long series. Most of them, however, seem to be. And third books of trilogies... I don't know. Some of them change a lot in tone.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Ooo. I will be very interested to hear what you think of East, as someone described it to me and I await it, drooling.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It's worth reading (I'm almost done), but I'm not nearly to the point of drooling over it. It's done some very interesting things with fairy tales and its own direction, but there are also some aspects of the way it's told that make my eyes just about roll out of my head. One of them will get its own post tonight.

[oyceter]

Hrm, I think like you, I liked the concept of East more than the execution. Or something. I feel like it had potential but never quite carried through, especially with the symbolism of the compass roses and whatnot. Plus, I was very irked at the treatment of the troll queen. More words on it here if you're interested.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, interesting. The mother's superstitions were particularly a problem for me, because if they worked that thoroughly -- and apparently they did; I don't recall any instance in the story when the mother's superstitions were totally wrong -- then why didn't other people pick them up? Why didn't more people subscribe to these notions? Why didn't more people notice the birth-direction thing once they'd heard it from this woman? And the troll queen -- yes, especially the handling of the troll queen and the bear at the end of the washing scene (trying not to spoil too much for those who haven't read it).

[ellarien]

Thinking about this, I find it surprisingly hard to name series I've finished -- or rather, that the author has finished and I've read -- lately. I was sad when I read the last of the Aubrey/Maturin books, but that wasn't supposed to be the last of the series but was a reasonably satisfying place to stop. I was a little wistful at the end of Lee and Miller's I Dare, because I was fond of those characters, it seems they still have more to do and be, and I don't know if there'll be any more of their story, at least for a while.

The end of Tad Williams Otherland series was annoying, because I half-wanted to go back and re-read the whole thing to see if it made more sense in light of the ending, but it was four fat books and I hadn't the time or energy.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I haven't started the Aubrey/Maturin books or the Otherland books, but I intend to.

Lee and Miller...I don't know, those books just didn't "hit" for me the way they did for a lot of people. I think the combination of name and subgenre made me want them to feel like the intersection of Miles Vorkosigan and Liavek (Liaden, Liavek...whatever, apparently), but even when I got past that want, what they actually were just left me cold.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

Finishing Laura Ingalls Wilder was crushing to me, when I was younger. Finishing the Prydain books was sad-making, as was the "Dark is Rising" series (yes, I know you didn't like the ending, let's not talk about it, at least not now). I was extremely upset finishing both The Sparrow and Children of God, so I don't think the feeling at the end of the latter was a series-related thing.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Which reminds me that Mary Doria Russell has another book out and I should put it on my Amazon list.

But yes, melancholy books, that's a different thing.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I was extremely upset finishing The Sparrow, but on the grounds of having wasted hours of my life I could have spent in many more profitable ways. Likewise, some to think of it, with Assassin's Quest.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Too much monotheism, or something else?

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

More sort of a combination of "these people are supposed to be so bright and they are acting like idiots", thinking that that sort of setting has been done much better, and... not quite sure how to put this, but it seemd to have a very shallow bestsellery attitude to the central traumatic event which I really did not like.

[carbonel]

I disliked the ending of the Assassin/Fool series. Or at least the first trilogy; I haven't read any of the subsequent Fitz books.

On the other hand, I enjoyed the Ship series much more than I expected. I think I picked up the first one as an airport desperation book, but those lived up to their promise.

I was sorry to finish the Anthony Price novels, but the last one I read was For the Good of the State, which is more of an appropriate ending, I suppose.

I was very sad to come to the end of the Kushiel books by Jacqueline Carey. They were wonderful, and that was pretty much the entire story of the main characters, so it was a logical end. I haven't read her new book yet; I believe it's in a different universe. Oh! But it looks like there'll be a sequel this summer with one of the younger characters. I'll probably have to buy that in hardcover.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The ending of the next trilogy of Fitz books is worse. Really worse. Uff da.

I'm reading Ship of Destiny today. I'm over halfway through. The thing that drives me nuts about it is that all the characters are once again self-pitying indecisive whiners, and half the plots are idiot plots, and I can see most of the Startling Twists telegraphed books in advance, and every once in awhile the prose diction slips badly. But the world in them appeals to my inner 11-year-old, so I keep reading.

I only read the first of the Kushiel books, and I hated hated HATED it. If one more thing was compared to a flower, a jewel, or a star, I was going to fling that book out the window. And yes, all right, she has the damned cloak. We know she has the cloak and looks awesome in it; MOVE ALONG WITH YOUR LIVES. Also, the whole "all the French people are beautiful and wonderful and noble and precious, all the Celts are noble barbarians, and there is nothing redeeming in Viking culture, which functions on the cheap stereotype level despite having none of the geographic features that made even that stereotyped version possible"...that got under my skin a bit. Actually. Just a bit. I could go on further with that, actually, but I think those are my main objections.

[carbonel]

I only read the first of the Kushiel books, and I hated hated HATED it.

Well, you probably wouldn't like the other two, then. I'm not style-blind, but I think it bothers me less than some people. Pamela couldn't read them, either. I loved the depth of the world and the mythology, not to mention the intricacy of the plot.

Thanks for the warning on the second Fitz trilogy.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

People keep saying that world was deep. I do not see how cheap ethnic stereotypes equate with deep worldbuilding. I really, really don't.

I can see how one might immerse pretty well in that book if it was one's sort of thing. But deep worldbuilding? How? In what way?