I just started reading the last book of a series I began many years ago.

Crashnburn

Crashnburn

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Crashnburn
And I'm feeling like I'll be saying goodbye to an old friend.
Do any of you feel that way when you finish a series?

Actually, I read books 1 through 13 of the Honor Harrington series a number of years ago, but David Weber took his time issuing the final book - Uncompromising Honor. When I started reading it, I'd forgotten a lot of what went on in the previous books, so I restarted at book #5 (I hadn't liked #4). When I finished #13, I decided I wanted to have reread the entire series (and delay the goodbye), so I ordered the first 4.

Books 1 - 3 came as a bundle, and the three of them together are about as thick as #14 by itself.
As the saga continued, the books got longer.

There are 2 related 4 book series that I can read when I've completely reread the series.
 
I've never felt that way about a book series. Either my interest/attention span wanes or the books peter out or become repetitive. In this vein, I really liked Charles Krauthammer's editorials and was surprisingly upset at his passing. The final episodes of Game of Thrones and Seinfeld got to me. I'll add Honor Harrington to my reading list since you enjoyed it so much.
 
Crashnburn said:
And I'm feeling like I'll be saying goodbye to an old friend.
Do any of you feel that way when you finish a series?
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I do. I feel that way after just about every series I read.

And it really sucks when a good author dies.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
I do. I feel that way after just about every series I read.

And it really sucks when a good author dies.
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Or retires and turns the series over to a Son, Son-in-law, or some other pseudo-ghost writer. Clancey did that to some extent. WEB Griffin did it, Lee Child is doing it with the Reacher series. The follow-on guy or gal never has what made the original books what they were.

But I also agree that some series become repetitive. I read several books from Jodi Taylor's series "The Chronicles of St Mary's" After a while, there weren't enough new ways for the inept time travelers to get themselves into and out of ridiculous situations of their own creation and I ended up just stopping in the middle of one of the books.
 
Does anyone here read the Stuart Woods novels? The hero is handsome Stone Barrington who is worth a few $billion which he inherited from his late movie star wife. Our hero also loves to fly and, if memory serves, has flown a Cessna 182, Piper Mirage, Citation Maverick, and is now flying his new Gulfstream 650. He is constantly hopping in bed with whichever beautiful woman he happens to be with at the time. The books are all stamped out of a mold with similar plot lines in each one but they are fun to read for the flying references if nothing else. The author flies the same planes so there is some authenticity in his writing.
 
kyleb said:
Or retires and turns the series over to a Son, Son-in-law, or some other pseudo-ghost writer. Clancey did that to some extent...
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I would have mentioned Clancey in my original reply if not for this exact reason. This happens all too often. A lucrative brand is established and then milked for everything it's worth.

There's another dynamic in the industry worth mentioning. I worked with the author who wrote Excel for Dummies who later started publishing romance novels as apparently that is where the money is. He described to me how he comes up with an outline and then farms chapters out to numerous authors for hire. Since he told me about this practice, I've read books where the writing style between chapters is so different that I'm pretty sure multiple authors were involved.
 
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Archer Jack said:
Does anyone here read the Stuart Woods novels?...
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I keep track of and rate every book I read. I have a two strike rule. If an author receives two "poor" evaluations, as Woods did with "Cut and Thrust" and "Insatiable Appetites", then I stop reading that author (or at least that series). I'm sure I've missed out on some good books with this approach but there's so much material to read I don't want to invest more time only to get to the end of another book thinking that one sucked too.
 
Archer Jack said:
Does anyone here read the Stuart Woods novels? The hero is handsome Stone Barrington who is worth a few $billion which he inherited from his late movie star wife. Our hero also loves to fly and, if memory serves, has flown a Cessna 182, Piper Mirage, Citation Maverick, and is now flying his new Gulfstream 650. He is constantly hopping in bed with whichever beautiful woman he happens to be with at the time. The books are all stamped out of a mold with similar plot lines in each one but they are fun to read for the flying references if nothing else. The author flies the same planes so there is some authenticity in his writing.
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I read a lot of Stuart Woods a long time ago. The only airplane book I remember was "White Cargo" which I thought was pretty good. After a half dozen, maybe 10 of his books, they all started "feeling" the same, so I went looking for greener pastures.

John Sanford is someone I really like with a couple of different series and a few books that aren't in a series.
 
kyleb said:
Or retires and turns the series over to a Son, Son-in-law, or some other pseudo-ghost writer. Clancey did that to some extent.
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“To some extent” is being extremely charitable. I used to be a big Tom Clancy fan, through my 20’s. Read the books up through Executive Orders at least twice. Lots of interconnected plot lines, twists and turns, building tension and suspense, all coming together at the end for the resolution.

And then in the early 2000s I read the latest Clancy novel and my thought was “there’s no way that was Clancy writing.” The plot was fairly boring, no plot twists, no multiple plot lines, just a basic straightforward story. VERY un-Clancy. Since that was almost 20 years ago now, I’m not 100% sure which book it was, but online reviews suggests others felt that way about The Teeth of the Tiger, so that may have been it.

I figured he just gave up and put no effort into it, or had a ghost writer, but there was no indication of that anywhere in the book that I remember, and I see there’s still no mention of that on various internet sites. But I still hold that there’s no way he wrote it.

Then the whole Op-Center series came out, which were vague on the cover “created by Tom Clancy and Steve Piecnezik” but at least the first one didn’t obviously say who wrote it (it was yet another person writing as it turns out). But it was also obvious as the story was very un-Clancy.
 
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RussR said:
Then the whole Op-Center series came out, which were vague on the cover “created by Tom Clancy and Steve Piecnezik” but at least the first one didn’t obvious say who wrote it (it was yet another person writing as it turns out). But it was also obvious as the story was very un-Clancy.
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Yeah, I bought the first Op-Center book. Got about ten pages in and realized I'd been "had". Didn't make that mistake with Clancy's franchise again.
 
BTW Honor is a female cross between Horatio Hornblower and Captain Kirk.
 
I finished Uncompromising Honor, then restarted the series. The first book (On Basilik Station) lays the ground work for some of the later books. Honor is a lot more interesting as a starship captain than as a ground bound admiral. Luckily, Weber is good at space battles no matter who is at the helm.
 
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Finished On Basilisk Station and am halfway through The Honor of the Queen. After initial suspension of disbelief issues because of the futuristic techno jargon, I'm enjoying the series. Clear connections to issues prevelant in the early 90s. Battle sequences reminiscent of The Hunt for Red October.
 
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Thanks for the recommendation @Crashnburn I just finished the last book in the series. I didn't form a connection to the series like you did but it was entertaining. Are you a Brit, a historian or do you have military background per chance? I could see how someone with one of those in their background might seriously get into the series.
 
I had the same feelings about the Clancy novels as expressed above.

My latest favorite author is CJ Box.
 
I guess the only series I ever read was Steven King's "The Green Mile."

My favorite author is John Grisham. Most are about lawyers and stuff but he has some winners that have nothing to do with the courtroom at all. Plus, he's from my home town.
 
kyleb said:
Or retires and turns the series over to a Son, Son-in-law, or some other pseudo-ghost writer. Clancey did that to some extent. WEB Griffin did it, Lee Child is doing it with the Reacher series. The follow-on guy or gal never has what made the original books what they were.
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I've been making my way through the Reacher books, and I have no problem with the author turning the series over to someone else they way they did it - starting with book #20-something, the name of the new author is right there on the cover in plain sight. Whether they're good or not, at least you're not misled. With the Clancy books, there was no indication it was being written by somebody else, just the quality went way down.
 
RussR said:
I've been making my way through the Reacher books...
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I think I've read them all but the last. Very good series. I recommend interleaving different books rather than reading straight through. Each book definitely follows a recipe which becomes apparent when reading them back-to-back which if they were not written so well and good stories would be a deal killer for me.
 
Mahneuvers said:
I think I've read them all but the last. Very good series. I recommend interleaving different books rather than reading straight through. Each book definitely follows a recipe which becomes apparent when reading them back-to-back which if they were not written so well and good stories would be a deal killer for me.
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Speaking of formulas, I was laughing with my wife, who has also read many of them, that there is no such thing as a "homely" woman in these books. Call it sexist or whatever, but it seems that every single female character is thin, fit, and attractive.

There are a lot of errors and misunderstandings (presumably from lack of research) when it comes to general Army life, too. I just roll my eyes and move on because they are enjoyable.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
I do. I feel that way after just about every series I read.

And it really sucks when a good author dies.
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Patrick O'Brian died halfway through his 21st Aubrey-Maturin novel, and it was published as The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey. The problem was that by the time I had been reading it for a bit, I had forgotten that it was unfinished, and it was very jarring to have the story finish halfway through.
 
Mahneuvers said:
Thanks for the recommendation @Crashnburn I just finished the last book in the series. I didn't form a connection to the series like you did but it was entertaining. Are you a Brit, a historian or do you have military background per chance? I could see how someone with one of those in their background might seriously get into the series.
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I'm sort of a polyglot. I like lots of different things. I grew up on a steady diet of Science Fiction by Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein. In fact, I'm considering re-reading Asimov's Foundation, Empire, and Robot series novels. Anyway, there's a lot of action in the books, but a lot of text is devoted to interpersonal interaction, and as an engineer, I've missed out on a lot of that, so in a way, I'm getting it vicariously.

I have to say, I was disappointed in the last half of the last book, as the most exciting part was about 1/2 way through.
 
I also liked the book series that started with Day of the Cheetah, Dreamland, etc. I can’t remember the author, maybe Dale or Dan Brown?
 
Honor Harrington rocks!
I have the last book sitting on my nightstand. I don't want to start it because there will (maybe) never be another.
 
Not really a series but three excellent books by Gavin Lyall:

The Wrong Side of the Sky
The Most Dangerous Game
Shooting Script

All 3 are heavily aviation-themed, with a pilot as the lead character.

Highly recommended. All available on Kindle Unlimited.
 
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