Tuesday Tea: What's your favorite book series?
Heck, yeah, recurring characters and continuing adventures!
While a 1500-page book can be intimidating, five 300-page books can be a whole lot of ongoing fun (or adventure or romance or terror).
Did you know that James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales was one of the first book series? Apparently, it kind of happened by accident. His novel The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna; a Descriptive Tale — starring frontiersman Natty Bumpo — was published in 1823. It was so successful, he went on to write four more books in the series.
Now we have trilogies, duologies, and series that are meant to be read in order, plus book cycles and ‘universes’ that can be read in order you please.
Dave says…
I don’t read many series. (I’m think I might be too motivated by novelty.) But I have a strong memory of reading my way through the Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman when I was a kid, and being very grateful to have that company.
Mel says…
I’m a completist for a handful of series, and I’ll read the next installment without knowing anything about it except its release date.
Daniel Silva’s Gabrial Allon series (spy thrillers)
Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell series (Victorian amateur detective)
Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley series (dark British psychological crime)
I also love the Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel!
I’ve read almost all of the Dick Francis mysteries (many of them two or three times) set in British horse racing.
I devoured every Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child (until #25 when the series nosedived for me).
Sadly, Philip Kerr passed to the great beyond, so we won’t be getting any more WWII crime stories starring Bernie Gunther, but the existing 14 are excellent and hold up to re-reading. (Related: The WWII Night Soldiers series by Alan Furst is also fantastic.)
For a completely different vibe, the Phryne Fisher murder mysteries, set in 1920s Australia, are delightful. There are 21 of them, and I enjoyed the first 20 (so not a bad track record).
Canada’s Louise Penny…Still Life and 17 more, each a treasure and the 19th due in October…I’ve read and reread each, only to discover new twists and poetry with every read. These could be stand-alones but the reader is cheated of falling in love with such fabulously drawn friends…start at the beginning and join us!!
I'm in Dave's camp, not really a series reader. However, I absolutely love the Amelia Peabody series (all 20 are on my bookshelf) by Elizabeth Peters. Amelia is an Egyptologist in the early 1900s. Archeology and crime and wit, all wrapped up together.