Welcome to the Australasian Christian Writers Tuesday Book Chat, where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week.
Today’s question is:
Do you prefer standalone novels, or a series?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation in a comment on this post or in a comment on the blog post shared in our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group.
Let’s chat!
I will confess to loving series books. I like to collect all the books and binge read them in a row. I also like being able to immerse myself in the story world and not forget important series details. Continuity series in the romance genre are my favourite type of series to read and write.
What do you think?
And don’t forget: if you’d like to participate in our weekly Book Chat by posting the question and your answer on your blog, drop us an email via our Contact page and we’ll send you the list of questions for 2019.
I like them both, especially when I don’t want the story to end, when it ends too soon.
Hi Alicia, Yes, a series postpones the sad goodbyes to the characters we love. 🙂
I prefer stand-alones or a series where all the novels can be read as stand-alones. I do enjoy encountering characters in a second story because knowing a bit of their history adds depth, but I still want every book to be complete in itself. They say write what you like, and I write that way, too. A person could enter my “series” with any book and not feel they’ve missed something key. All my favorite authors who write series do that as well.
Hi Carol, I agree, and that’s why I enjoy continuity series where you can read the books out of order.
Both. I like quality writing and occasionally the writing deteriorates by the end of the series. However I don’t like good stories to end so I love a good series. My most recent favourite is Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series. The characters are wonderful and the books are so well written.
Hi Sue, Yes, it’s disappointing when the later books in a series don’t live up to our expectations. The Chief Inspector Gamache books sound like a cozy mystery series I’d enjoy reading. 🙂
I like series but I like them to mention previous characters. Gilbert Morris’s House of Winslow is one that comes to mind. It spans centuries and has a family tree.
I also like Series like Janet Tronstads Dry Creek LI books they have recurring characters but are also stand alone books.
The series which have cliff hangers and you have to wait up to a year for book two are frustrating. I tend to wait till I have all the books. I remember reading one and it just ended and then it was a year before book two was out. The problem is you forget what has happened.
Hi Jenny, I enjoyed Janet Tronstad’s Dry Creek LI series and I did read those books out of order. I’d come across interesting minor characters from previous books and go looking for the book I’d missed. 🙂 Family Trees are helpful for complex series. Cliffhangers in rapid release series are fun, but if you’re waiting twelve months it’s a bit tiresome.
The series I am thinking of it was like the book ended abruptly yes it was a cliff hanger (3 books so second was the same) but it felt like the book was missing something and it was like a tv series with the end of season cliff hanger. The problem with books they don’t give a recap like in a tv series.
I prefer the loose ends to be tied up and the ending to make sense. Those tv series cliffhanger endings are frustrating, and if a show is canceled mid-season, the cliffhanger ending is even more annoying.
Both, but if the main character interests me, I love series. I do find some series degenerate into formula-type, shallow character novels. Perhaps this is because the publisher is waiting for the next novel.
I like all novels to be able to stand alone with satisfactory endings.
Hi Jeanette, I tend to mainly read romance series where the main characters are different in each book. A series with the same main character in each book can start to feel repetitive if the main character isn’t growing and evolving through the series. I prefer to read a complete story, or know up-front that I’m reading an episodic series. 🙂
I do read both, but prefer stand-alones. It is lovely however to see characters I know and love in a book I’m currently reading. Just began reading Dee Henderson’s O’Malley series 😀📚
I really loved the O’Malley series.
Hi Jo’Anne, I second what Nola said – I read the O’Malley series years ago and loved the stories. 🙂
I like them both. If I love the characters, I want to read more about them. Though it has to be a good overall story that warrants several parts or else a character who can star in a number of different stories (e.g. a detective or amateur sleuth). I don’t like it if the story is being unnecessarily stretched out or if the author is just trying to capitalise on the success of an earlier book without having a great plot for the second one (e.g. like some Hollywood sequels). There are some series I started out loving, but then petered out.
One of my favourite genres is romantic suspense, and a lot of those authors write good series (e.g. Terri Blackstock, Colleen Coble, Brandilyn Collins, and the earlier novels of Dee Henderson). In the mainstream market, I’ve also really enjoyed Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles, Alexander McCall-Smith’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, and Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series.
Hi Nola, Yes, I’ve read a well known series where the middle of stories dragged and it kind of felt like the 4-book series was originally supposed to be a 2-book series. I prefer a faster paced story, so it might just be me being fussy and getting bored in the middle. I also enjoy Lisa Harris’ romantic suspense books. 🙂
Both are good, but I think overall I prefer series.
It is hard to wait for the next book in a series, particularly when you know that even though it will be released in the USA, you’ll have to wait another 3 months for it to be available in Australia.
The frustration comes with a series when it’s left as a cliff-hanger and the next book isn’t written for whatever reason. Or where there isn’t the consistency between characters – like in a series where near the start someone is married and has kids and then near the end of the series it said they never married; or where names are not consistent between books.
Stand-alone books can be good, but sometimes you want to know more about how the character grows and develops. There can also be a bit of a “formula” for how stand alone novels (particularly romances) are written, which gets very predictable when you read a lot of books. I’m not sure how that could be changed though. I also want to know what happens next, because I know that life is not just ‘happily ever after’.
One of the things I really love is in Robin Jones Gunn’s books how she has characters from her other series have a cameo role. Characters from the Christy Miller and Glenbrooke series popping up in each other’s books as well as in the Sisterchicks books. You get a glimpse of their ‘life’ continuing even when ‘their’ book is over.
Hi Beth, I enjoy series where the lead characters appear in later books. I tend to order new release print books from Amazon AU or The Book Depository so I don’t need to wait so long. Unresolved cliffhangers in stories are not fun. 🙂