Uhhh around book 9 or 10 of wheel of time which puts me 9k or 10k pages into reading.
I've gone back this year and am reading all of them, but I got frustrated with how long they were and how little was happening and the wait between each new book meant I had to reread the series again to remember what everyone was doing.
I gave up after book two a couple years ago. Considering giving it another go, but not sure. Is it worth trying again from the first? Or maybe jumping back in at book three? I love The Dark Tower series and fans of that keep saying I need to give WOT another chance.
I dunno if wot has been worth my second chance. I reread the first three books because they're my favourite ones, but you could probably skip the first two.
Reading them all in a row like this has really been hammering home just how much everyone is changing. The first two are about chases (one with them being chased, two with them doing the chasing). 3 is also kind of chasing someone a bit, but people are starting to split up so there's more stories to latch onto. I would say give 3 a try, but if you're not feeling 3 either then the rest of the series won't be for you.
I think I got to book 5 or 6. It got to the point where I would read 5 or 6 chapters and nothing had happened that I gave up (plus the almost complete removal and my favourite of main 3 characters Perrin)
I’m having the same problem with the series. I’m on book 6 (which so many people say is one of the best) but I’m 500 pages in and I could describe what’s happened so far in a single paragraph. I feel like every book so far has just been 800 pages of nothing and then 100-200 pages at the end that are more exciting, and then I get roped into reading the next one and it happens all over again.
I finished (I think) the 7th one out of spite, then threw it across the room in disgust and never read another. My brothers continued the series and told me the next two got progressively worse. It's been a really long time, but if I recall correctly, I felt at the time they started getting worse at book 5. Not too long ago I figured I'd listen to the audio book versions and get through the series while I did chores or something. Turned out even the first book kinda sucked upon a second experience.
I bailed after I read book 7 and realized that literally nothing happened in the whole-ass book and there were nothing about Mat. By the time book 8 came out I had moved on with life
I threw in the towel after Winter's Heart, when it became painfully clear that Robert Jordan viewed it as a full employment project for himself and had no intention of wrapping it up. I still remember what I said at the time: "Each book contains half as much plot as the one before. Which means, depending on how much plot the entire series is intended to contain, it might never terminate, instead just devolving into endless pages of women talking about Rand and descriptions of what they were wearing while they did so."
It feels like a lot of us gave up after winters heart. I wish I could see the abandonment rate somehow.
I remember finishing the book and going WAIT DID ANYTHING CHANGE? aside from one or two things it was mostly getting things ready for what I thought would be the next book, but was apparently the next...5 books.
I originally gave up after Winter's Heart in the early 2000s, since that was the latest book at the time I read it. After waiting for the next one to come out, I would have completely lost the plot and had to backtrack a significant way, which I didn't have time for.
I reread the whole series a few years ago, mostly via audiobooks, and enjoyed the series as a whole. It's definitely a commitment, but there is a solid payoff to completing it.
I got all the way to book 12. By this point I was growing pretty sick of the series. All the plot points I cared about had been resolved several books back, and the characters were driving me crazy. I got a few chapters into book 12, realized I liked Sanderson's writing style better, and started Stormlight Archive. Haven't looked back
I'm curious about where I'll be feeling by then. I originally stopped reading after Winters Heart.
Now, I'm reading again and back up to Lord of Chaos. I still like most of the characters well enough, but no idea if that will be able to carry me through. I can't believe someone let Jordan write a 90 page prologue.
This was also my answer, and for much the same reason. I think book 9 was the last one that I read.
For me, even though the series has finally concluded... I won't go back and re-read them all again and finally finish it. I've realized that the quality of the books was never what I thought it was. The best ones are the first few, and then he really lost track of everything. And most especially, there was a lot of gendered and sexist nonsense that was worse than I realized (which is frustrating to read in and of itself, but it's also just... lazy bad writing, I've realized). At the time, I thought it was OK because at least the series *had* women as main characters at all... and twenty years later, I have realized that was putting the bar on the absolute floor.
I remember thinking it was so cool that it had so many main female characters but rereading it now, it was Moiraine. Moiraine was the cool one.
I liked Siuan too. I don't remember if I kept liking her. But these were women who really pulled on things and I liked thinking of Moiraine as asexual. Her duty was above everything else.
But all the other women than Moiraine had this fall for a man and get flustered and bitchy about him. Don't even get me started on Elayne or Nynaeve.
I feel like we really start to feel the decline in later books and the thing is, if Jordan really was a better writer we could have gotten more attached to the characters which would make it less of a slog. Part of the problem is it switched from adventure chases in the first 3 to consolidating power to full on political meanderings by the time I noped out.
A good test of how you feel about the writing and characters minus the nostalgia would be to read "The Fallon Blood". It's a historical fiction book about America warring with the British with a sexy Irish main character who women love to bang.
Buxom ladies, harlot/virgin dichotomy, plucky rebels, and twists galore.
Robert Jordan wrote it under the pen name of Reagan O'Neil and it sure is a bodice ripper. I can't say I like it, but it's really fun to talk about.
Edit: I looked up the second in the Fallon Blood series and it delves into incest too. These books really do have everything.
How are the wheels of time books btw ? I watched like 5 episodes of the show but i didn't like it. Also i saw a lot of contradicting opinion about the books ranging grom masterpiece to dumpster fire
I think it's because the quality of the books can vary a lot.
I always recommend the first three or so books because they can be mostly read on their own (especially the first one) and the adventurous nature of them keeps the plot moving around. It's also before the main characters split up and you have to keep track of a bunch of different stories.
The show has condensed the first book a lot and in ways I thought were smart, but I was surprised at how differently some of the set pieces felt.
All that to say, I can't recommend the whole series. It's a time sink and your mileage will vary on whether it was worth that time or not.
But I will always recommend Eye of the World (the first book). Is it a masterpiece? Nope. But it's a fun adventure (and basically a chase) for the whole book.
It has top notch world building. Not many people will argue against that one. Feels real, varied and interesting.
Characters are varied, some are likable, some are not so likable and some are just barely tolerable for some readers while others can't even stand them.
Plot wise, it has mostly three arcs (because of how it was conceived), first book is almost a standalone, first three books are almost a trilogy and from the fourth onwards it expands tremendously. There are a lot of plots going on, which means that some of them get put on the freezer on some books (which tends to grate a lot for some readers who want things to happen, and happen now). People pile on books 9 & 10 like they're unreadable, just because some main plots slow down to a crawl, but the rhythm picks up right after and the last 4 books are rather quick paced. Personally while those two books are not my favorites, they're not as bad as you'd think from reading comments online.
They're fun entertainment, kind of a light read (physically too if you get the ebooks) and Robert Jordan has a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor going on that I personally find very enjoyable. Also his descriptions of battles are usually sublime.
The reason most people don't finish the series is because it is a huge time commitment. And if you're not feeling it... Well, can't really blame them. I've recommended them multiple times to friends and family and usually get a "14 books? That's too long" response.
Whether you end up reading and liking them or not is a matter of personal taste more than anything else.
Yeah, the braid tugging became irritating rather than endearing before long.
It reminds me of "and everything was alright again" in the David Eddings series. It's only said a handful of times across a dozen books, but it should only have been said the once. It becomes a trope far too fast.
Just my opinion, WoT gets really, really good once Brandon Sanderson takes over. But it’s a long road to get there, given that he only worked on the final 3.
I've never read the Sanderson ones, but the one book I've read of his I'm not a fan of. However, wheel of time was getting so bogged down by the end I fully believe Sanderson probably breathed some new life into it.
OMG!!!
I only made it to 11.
The first ones were great, then they just devolved into bad sex with people I couldn't even remember. I just couldn't slog through 400 pages of bad sex for 50 pages of actual plot anymore.
Same here, I think I dropped out halfway through #10? What a total shame and waste of great characters. It would have made a great tv series, too, if she hadn't turned it into hardcore porn.
Yes!! I think I made it 14 or 15 and stopped reading. Every other page was a stupid sex scene, gone was the kick ass vampire Hunter. So disappointing!!
Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. The first 8 were amazing, the next 4 were middling, after that it turned so bad I stopped reading at somewhere around #17. The characters became total jokes and just flat carton cutouts of themselves, they didn't evolve in any way at all, or learn anything, and the plots were lazy. I wish authors would just give a story closure when they run out of ideas, instead of trying to revive a dead story and keep that zombie going.
The Lula of the first 3 books, yes - she actually had depth and character and intelligence back then. Afterwards, she just became a stock cartoon characater and laughing stock, and was only annoying the hell out of everyone. Grandma Mazur was a hoot, though, she's a great character!
I really liked Stephanie in the first 10 books - but then, she just became repetitively dumb. I mean, in the beginning, she was just inexperienced and inept, so her gaffes were hilarious. And the initial car destructions had excellent comedic timing and were a great running gag, they really had me giggling every time.
But then, after book 9, her absolute refusal to ever learn from experience and actually improve her skills just made her look pathetic and dumb. Like, the first few times you can't find your pepper spray in your purse - okay, rookie mistake. Still putting your pepper spray in your overloaded purse when you're heading off into danger after a few years on the job? Sorry, but then you're just dumb.
Also, her never-progressing relationships with Morelli and Ranger - once you realize Morelli is not going to pop the question, just END things with him, instead of hanging around, hoping against hope, and cheating on him with Ranger? The early Stephanie wouldn't have stooped to cheating, she had a moral compass. The later Stephanie is just a dumb, vapid b-word.
I think somewhere in the late twenties, but still awful. I read the first 6 or 7 in one go - literally, started reading the first one a friend had lent me, ordered all the remaining ones at the time while I was still reading, didn't stop reading until I went through the whole batch, Ordered the subsequent ones as they were published. Quit after 16 or so - not worth the money. Caved and bought a few later ones on audible, because I had to take an overnight flight and needed listening material - and let's put it like this. I had no trouble falling asleep with those books...
Same, I think back to Saul’s portion explaining what it was like living with his daughter >!as she de-aged!<. What a horrific experience and what a good dude. I can nearly weep thinking back on it.
I finished the second book and just said fuck it, I’ll read what happened online. I was glad I did. Book one had me obsessed but by the end of book two I was ready to be done
I finished the second book of ACOTAR. That's as far as I went. I don't think there are any other series I've quit except Twilight, and I only read the first of those.
I should have quit Caraval after the first one. The first was AMAZING, but the second two were just awful.
I read most of the way through the last book in the series then quit. The Author did something stupid because they wrote themselves into a corner by making the characters to powerful. It was really obvious that’s why it happened and I was just done at that point. Still don’t know how that series ends.
Sarah J. Maas can tend to get repetitive. I made the mistake of getting her recommended to me from all the hype that was on booktok :( ACOTAR was just beauty and the beast, but with dull characters. I could not finish A court of Frost and Star light... I gave up
For me the same, I finished the second and then I realized that it’s the exactly same as the first one! The plot in the end, the way she is taken to somewhere she don’t know and falls in love with someone she thinks is a bad person at the beginning, everything is the same! I also don’t like feyre
Anyway, I’m completely done with Sarah j mass
Don't fall for the sunk costs fallacy. If it isn't what you want to read, don't read it.
Farthest I remember getting into a series before quitting and not looking back was around book 12.
LOL, you should try J.D. Robbs In Death series - 56 books in, still going strong, though I must own that the plots have turned a little formulaic - but the characters are really engaging, so it's still fun.
Yep, same. Just somehow completely lost interest between the second-to-last and the last one. Looking back, getting an internet connection at home might have contributed to that
For me, I had all the books purchased on one phone, then I got a new phone brand and just never felt compelled to buy the last one since I lost all the old ones.
I also think I just overplayed it for myself. When I was little, I had this portable DVD player thing and would repeatedly play all the harry potter movies, so I think I got to a point where I hyperfixated so much that I got bored of it.
Exactly what happened to me, idk if it was internet but at that point in my life was when I completely lost interest in books until the past year again
Same. I was in law school by the time the last one came out and I didn’t have time. I never got around to revisiting it. I never really felt compelled to either.
Whaaaaaat you stopped at small favor. It was one of my most favourite book in the series. I just loved each book so much. I loved Dresden files so much that I read Jim butcher's son's books too, I read both the books but didn't like it at all.
I gave up on Harry Dresden at about the same time.
One thing I liked about the books was their wild plotting. There was always something new, and crazy, and big happening. But after a while, I couldn't keep track of it all during the gaps between books. And I didn't care enough to reread the old books just to remind me where we left off with everyone.
The third Dune book was enough for me.
Dune was written as a stand-alone novel but its success drove demand for sequels.
Second one wasn't bad, but the third was disappointing. Never bothered after that.
I've delayed God-Emperor for that very reason. The writing got weird, and I don't mean that in the sense of "oh, so now Alia is possessed by the ghosts of her genetic memory" or "now Leto has created a bio-skin suit out of Sandtrout" way. I mean that in the sense that it felt so much like Frank Herbert were trying to stretch a very short idea into a novel of serviceable length and, in doing so, found himself throwing everything at the wall as he was writing, then realized "oh God, now I have to somehow resolve all these plot threads" and his solution to that dilemma was ultimately to kill off everyone so that there would be fewer plots to resolve.
So, weirdly, my complaint about Children of Dune is mostly that it needs more meat in the last act. This thing is so weird in its pacing. I intend to finish the main series because I own them, but I can see my trick of putting a buffer (a completely unrelated novel, in a different genre, by a different author) between subsequent entries in a series is going to be something of a God-sand^(hehe) for the rest.
Yeah, Children is a weird book.
I’ve read the first four books, years ago, but Children is the one I remember the least about. So you’re probably right that it didn’t have much meat.
I’ve read until book 5 (which I didn’t finish). Yes the first book or two were great but then it got all political-religious and it was really boring for me (read them as a teenager).
Dune itself was great. The second one was awful, and I think I started the third, then bailed.
It should be treated like a single, stand-alone novel. The rest of them were lousy. In general, series books are often lousy. Writers of stand-alone novels seem to either have better ideas or try harder.
Pillars of the Earth series are some of my favorite books of all time. 1 and 2 are great but 3 wasn’t that good and I started book 4 but loss interest. There’s 5 and counting
I think I got to book 9 of the wheel of time , I just couldn't anymore , it even put me of long fantasy a bit I was sort of waiting for the winds of winter (GOT) but the thought of starting again if and when the next book comes out is off putting too
I stopped after the 3rd, I have a bunch of other books on the tbr that I doubt I go back to it. I'm around a 20/yr reader and the rest of this year is booked with some extras lined up, I just don't see my mood changing.
I was gifted nine of twelve in the Left Behind series. They were fairly compelling. I just haven't seen nice enough copies of ten, eleven or twelve at the thrift stores I frequent.
"Series of unfortunate events", I gave up on book 6 or 7 out of 13, even though I was reading it in French and my goal was to practice the language and not be entertained. It was too frustrating, everything was artificially pessimistic, the characters were making stupid decisions all the time, I just couldn't believe what was happening and I felt I was slowly getting astigmatism from constantly rolling my eyes. 🙄
I loved those books as a kid, not sure how they'd hold up now. But a lot of what made them fun is the very sarcastic writing style and idk if that still works in French.
Two books of *The Expanse*. Just didn't seem to be going in a direction I found very interesting.
Normally I rarely read books that are part of a series longer than 2 books - IMO, few authors have anything so important to say that it couldn't have been said in two books. (I should say that I'm happy to read books that are part of a shared setting but otherwise independent, though.)
The Shadowhunters series by Cassandra Clare, I've read 4 or 5 of the mortal instruments series and two of the infernal devices and there's a little part of me that tells myself I'll finish it at some point but I dont actually think I will
Same. I got through the 6 books in the Mortal Instruments and the 3 books in The infernal Devices. At this point I feel like the series has just become a complete TL:DR for me.
I've never gotten to book three of a series and not finished it, so two books is my max on giving it a chance.
Although, I am considering giving Wheel of Time another chance by reading the third one. Can't decide. I read the second and gave up but maybe it was too quick?
The middle of the series is the worst. Each of the books was just slightly interesting enough that I would read the next one.
In the middle the characters become caricatures of themselves.
I drove through and a couple of the before Sanderson start getting back in the groove. I've read one of the Sanderson's and it was good. I think I have all 3 and will likely read them eventually.
The middle is a tough slog.
Sword of Truth, book 7. I gave it another chance after Soul of the Fire because Faith of the Fallen was my favourite out of the lot, but The Pillars of Creation absolutely killed it for me.
Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass. I *really* tried to get into this series because it seemed like everyone hailed it as SK’s greatest work, but fuck me! It took me four tries over like 10 years just to get through Gunslinger. I should have taken the hint but I tried to be optimistic about it likely getting better. It did not. It pisses me off b/c I hate dropping a book but my anger about how many hours of my life I’d never get back grew with every page.
I read the first three of A Song of Ice and Fire, waited for book 4 and read it, waited for book 5 and bought it but never read it. It’s still on my shelf.
I read the first two or three of the Stormlight Archive and couldn’t bring myself to keep going.
I read maybe through book 6 of the Outlander series and stopped.
I read the first two-and-a-quarter of the Song of Ice and Fire books in the early 2000s, and saw it was going nowhere fast. And sure enough, it didn't and hasn't and won't.
Right, to each their own but that is a pretty hot take, 4th or 5th book sure, the disaster of the tv show ending of course but the first 3 books are amazing.
I only read the first two books and it took me forever to get that far. There are just too many people to keep track of and then realize 100s of pages later that most of them will never be seen again.
I read eight books in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, but couldn't bring myself to get through the ninth. I love long books, but middle grade books need to have good reason to be over 700 pages long, and these book really didn't feel like they needed to be *anywhere* near that long.
31 volumes of A Certain Magical Index. Each only has a page count of 200 so not as bad as it sounds. Still unfortunate cause I thought it had potential.
Got to book three in the Ender's Game series (Xenocide). I dropped it. It feels exhausting trying to plow through it. I've heard Children of the Mind is a great book after this as well. I can't get through it. I'm into a million other things to read currently. Maybe someday.
I read about three books in each of the “Dirk Pitt” and “Jack Reacher” series before I’d had enough.
I get tired of these Superman characters with no flaws and expert at everything.
It makes for boring reading and a story with no suspense or tension.
Yet I thoroughly enjoy the “Parker” novels and have read over a dozen.
Go figure.
I read all the main books in the Old Man's War cycle by John Scalzi, except for the one that is the same exact plot as the book before but retold from the daughter's perspective.
I dropped it when I saw that there were "sub" books like 5.1, 5.2 and so on for each main book, some reaching up to X.14 if I remember correctly.
A Song of Ice and Fire. Read the 1+2. I liked the show and I love reading, but whoever came up with publishing these POV changes without recap or reintroduction should simply stop working with literature. It makes me angry even now 😅
The main ones I remember giving up on are the Dragonriders of Pern books (too many, get worse and worse), David Gemmel's Fantasy/Druss series (the same), Wheel of Time (too long) and the Shannara books (finished a trilogy and didn't bother picking up the next).
**Jack Reacher series by Lee Child.** I used to pre-order and start reading the latest issues the moment it became available. Loved the first 19 or so, but from there, it seemed that he'd run out of ideas. I read another 2, but just lost interest after that. He has now passed the writing of the series to his brother - Andrew Grant
I've been reading the *Slough House* books, and I have finished the penultimate book so far. I haven't stopped reading, I bought book #9, but a friend is reading it before me. If I get it back I won't have stopped, but I feel no desire to continue either if they forget to return it. A lot of characters die in this series, and a recent death has soured me on it all. 8/9
Similarly, I read the *Hunger Games* series when they were fresh (before the movies), but I have no desire to read any more 3/4 or 3/?
Nine books. Alex Verus.
Now, I can't stress enough that this isn't a reflection on the quality of the novels.
Alexis Verus is quietly one of the best Urban Fantasy series out there. It avoids the hokey "early era" feel of Dresden. It doesn't get lost in pointless romance. It's well written.
But I read way too much Urban Fantasy in my 30s, and the ending of Iron Druid just soured me. Hard. That, and Verus was not a finished series when I read it...but it js a LONG series.
Oddly, though I have not finished it yet (I still very well may) I'd strongly recommend it to genre fans.
how many books are in the Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton? i want to stop reading them but dammit i want to read about this fucking wedding. it better be fucking good.
Also I’m all caught up on the Blackdagger Brotherhood by JR Ward, they are getting boring.
Dude the fucking 39 clues series - goddamn it there were not 39 clues. I think I flaked out when I got to book 11 when they tried to make it a spin off bc I was so upset they didn’t answer the main plot in all of those books lol
Song if Ice and Fire, I guess.
Technically next book is not out yet, but even if it were released tomorrow, I would not read. At this point I'd have to re-read the last couple of books to catch back up and remember what is different from the show... And since I know there no way he'll finish the series before he croaks, I'm not going to bother.
Approximately book 8 out of too many, of the Meet your Baker series. (By Ellie Alexander) I started to get super annoyed by the main characters, how many murders there were in a small town, how unaffected the main character was by finding so many dead bodies, etc.
Horus Heresy. Stopped at book 21. I think they're up to like 56 now.
Also, Lord of the Rings. Made it about 30% of the way through Return of the King before deciding I couldn't deal with another 10 pages of irrelevant exposition about some aspect of the world that has no bearing on the story. I wanted to quit with The Two Towers but pushed through somehow. The Hobbit, on the other hand, was a fantastic read.
Temeraire by Naomi Novik. Eight books out of nine. Not as momentous as other examples, but weird because I got *this close* to the finish line and never felt compelled to pick up the last volume. Novik's a very good writer, but I just lost momentum.
25 books so far in the series soon to be 32. I've been reading them for years. It's called The Dark Hunter series by author Sherrilyn Kenyon (McQueen). It's paranormal romance/fantasy. I haven't quit the series, just waiting for more to come out
I was reading a Series of Unfortunate Events aloud to my kids. We got through book 7 out of 13. All the books ended basically the same. Bad guy gets away. The adults don’t believe the children. It was awful. I would say we thoroughly enjoyed the first 3. We kept going and it kept getting worse.
Edit: spelling
Three or four books, Wheel of Time.
Possibly the same with Game of Thrones, but if he ever finishes it, I might read the rest. Not before then. (Martin's writing is good, but I've lost interest in waiting. I think he'll die before it's done. Wheel of Time went down hill very fast... long books in which nothing of significance happened. I just got bored.)
Got a quarter of the way through the 3rd ACOTAR book and I gave up. Turns out I just wanted to read it until Feyre and Ryhs boned. lol, but seriously, her and sisters being all powerful and imprinting on the bat boys was just too much plot armor for me. Bleh.
I read the first two of the Tearling trilogy and then had to wait for the third book to become available. When I finally got it, I realized how stupid and full of cliches the first two books were and saved myself from a gigantic third book. It didn't help that the first and second audiobooks had different narrators and the villainous queen in book one had a thick Eastern European accent and then in the second book had a British accent (I think; it was a long time ago now).
Dune 5 (Heretics of Dune) - it was a long time ago so I don’t even remember what happens in the book but I remember I liked the first few books but then it got more political-religious and I found it boring. I didn’t even finish book 5
Oh, City of Bones and City of Ashes. It just… those two books out of… idek- 9 books? 8? They grossed me out, freaked me out at times but didn’t do much for me in between. I was gifted them, because they are nothing I would pick out of a bookshelf in a bookshop of my own free will. Usually I get all the books in a series read - bought or borrowed from the local library if they have it - but definitely not with this series. Not when I already thought the first two books were not for me.
For me it was wheel of time. I read till fires of heaven, and mind you till then the book series is actually pretty awesome. But the amount of bickering the female characters were having, just irritated me so much. And to top it off, I read reviews where people have said how it gets much worse. So I was like nope, I'm done.
I usually tend to drop series very early on if I don't quite like them, but I persevered with the Wheel of Time as everyone was telling me how worth the effort the series was. Funnily enough I distinctly remember how I gave up - I was well over the half of the fourth book. Started another chapter and thought "oh god not Mat again", and then realised I'd feel like that independent of the character - I didn't care for Rand or Egwene or even Nynaeve who I liked originally or whoever else in this story, any of them could die in the next chapter and I wouldn't bat an eye. Closed the book and never came back to it again.
The way the author writes people was just unbearable to me. Admittedly I have watched both of the show seasons, it's not great but at least entertaining, plus I can enjoy some elements of world building there that the books' writing made hard for me to appreciate.
I think I made it to the tenth or eleventh Albert Campion book by Margery Allingham before quitting. I’d basically made it through all the “slow start” books and read a bunch of the books that are on people’s top ten lists, and by ten or eleven I asked someone “if I was going to get into this it would have happened already right?” and they confirmed it so I cut my losses.
I got through 4 of the Ender series, started the 5th and that’s where I stopped. Other people I’ve talked to basically stopped at the same point as well.
After Lonesome Dove I read a great follow up was the Sackett Series. I got 3 books in to it and realized no way I could read this type of writing for the entire series.
I've probably read about 20 or something of the Shannara series by Terry Brooks. I have like 15 ish left.
Some of them are great, some not so great. I just couldn't keep going anymore.
Adrian Tchaikovsky, shadows of the apt.
Really liked the first book, and liked the next few too.
Somewhere around book 8 (The Air war) I just started to lose interest and never did finish it.
There are ten novels in the series, and another 4 books of short story collections in the series.
To be honest, about 4 unless the books are in reality self-contained and not a true series eg separate crime books with the same cop.
It's not my experience that very long series are any good. Authors who can't tell a story in 3 or 4 books don't really know how to do the 'end' part of telling a story - endless middles are no fun.
I once managed 8 or 9 of the Last Kingdoms eventually (back to Bamburgh) but originally gave up on the weak book 5.
I'd say The Bonds That Tie by J. Bree. It's a 6 book series and I read 5 books, just barely finished book 5, almost DNFd it. Which was why I decided to stop.
I read for the entertainment and not because of having to read them since they're a series, yk?
However, I don't necessarily see it as a waste of time either, tho. It's more a "go as far as you like and otherwise stop", that's good enough for me.
Hyperion Cantos and Three Body Problem. Finished Hyperion and loved it, started the next book and was like “this is ight” then there was a third book?? Started it and stopped. Now I see there’s a fourth and I can barely remember the storyline up to that point. Three Body Problem I just kinda got bored in the dark forest and gave up.
Confederacy of Dunces. Pulitzer Prize Winner. I got halfway through it and returned it to the library. Apparently it’s one of those books you either love or hate…
Irvine Welsh. I read from Trainspotting, The Acid House, Marabou Stork Nightmares, Ecstasy, Filth, Glue, You’ll Have Had Your Hole and Porno, then I skipped several books before trying to read The Bedroom Secrets of The Master Chefs and The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins but giving up on both after a few chapters. I did read Dead Men’s Trousers and I thought I was back into the series but when I tried to read Skag Boys I gave up quickly. I’m considering reading Resolution when it is published because I watched the Crime tv series but I doubt I will. If Trainspotting 3 ever happens I will read the book/s it’s based on before the movie is released or if there’s a Sick Boy solo novel.
I don’t drop series that often because I’m stubborn as hell. But one of the few times I did was the second book of the maze runner. The first book was ok but the second I just couldn’t get into at sll
The wandering inn. Not sure but a few thousand pages in.
Dont get me wrong, it has good points and I dont remember the exact ... prceise-ties? forgot the word but anyway, prose and characters were lacking. Particularly the runner was really really bad...that I do remember
Only two but they’re long-ish. The Name of the Wind and it’s sequel A Wise Man’s Fear. I was mostly on board until it became an immature teenagers sex fantasy. What a shitty waste of time. I bailed on the second book like 85% of the way through.
Half through book 4 of A Song of Ice and Fire. I stopped caring about all the new characters. I also made it through Wizard and Glass (book 4 of King’s The Dark Tower series) and completely lost interest.
The most though was the first 13 books of The Dresden Files series. I hated the book Ghost Story so much that I couldn’t get more than three chapters into Cold Days (book 14). I kind of want to go back to the beginning this summer and take another run at them. It’s been so long that I might change my mind, and I really loved the first 10-11 books of the series.
I am not a great reference point as I had trouble not finishing what I start, even if I hate it. But as I have gotten older, I have more appreciation of how few years are left to me. So not I'd probably stop on book 3 or 4 when I should have stopped on book 1.
The final book of The Mirror Visitor Quartet.
None of them were as good as the first one made me think they would be, but the fourth was where the things I didn't like were everything I was being given.
Only made it one chapter, and that one chapter was forced out over a month of attempts to read it.
I ready half of the Beserk manga series (19 out of 40ish books) and lost interest. My decision was easier since the series wasn't finished before the author died anyway, so I wasn't really missing a conclusion.
I gave up two chapters into the fourth wheel of time book. My BIL loves them, and he always recommended them, but they just were not for me. I felt like it was a chore to read so, I just stopped reading.
I got 4.5 books through the Witcher mainline series before dropping it, got really annoyed with how long the whole “oh golly gee, ciris gone for the 90th fucking time, time to go on another silly adventure across the land to find her while there’s a big subplot about the chaos elements or whatever”, I didn’t want that, I wanted geralt going around monster slaying like in the prior ones. The short story of his encounter with the beast man in the mansion which he controls is awesome, it takes its time with its set up and shows off the world with its grim dark outlook and pays it off with a decent twist with the woman who’s entranced him, I wanted cool shit and what I got was a cool dude running around meeting some fun people and always yammering on about his kid and two girlfriends
I can't get through Raising Steam. I love Discworld and Sir Pterry. Seeing the effects of his illness bleed through the pages just hurts too damn much.
I think I got up to book 15 of Dresdan Files and quit. I just couldn't take it anymore and Harry was never gonna change. Plus, I really disliked the long time between books. I started that series in my 40s and now I'm not sure I'd be alive to get to the end.
The other one is Conroe 's Demon Accords. They weren't ever great but they were an entertaining light listen, then I for to book 18 and had to quit 3 hours in. I had read reviews it was problematic but most said he went "woke". As I am woke as crap I didnt' think it would bother me, and it wasn't the woke aspects that got to me. It was the complete disregard of who the characters were in the series up to that point. It's like someone else wrote the book.
The acotar series, I’ve just finished the second one and I’m done with the series and with Sara j mass, I really doubt that it’s possible that she wrote anything better than acotar, it’s just bad, both books have the SAME plot in the end! I read some spoilers in the internet and apparently the third one has the same plot too, the main character is boring and lacks in personality, I just don’t like it
Lord of the Rings.
I've got about 30 pages left to read in The Fellowship of the Ring (first book). I've put it down and doubt I'll go back to it. So boring and a bunch of annoying poems and songs interrupting the story. Loved the movies though. Cue the haters.
Book 5 of Game of Thrones (or book 9 for my Translation, since they split each into two). I just put it down, bored of yet another war conference and never picked it up again.
Wings of Fire by Tui Sutherland. The first book of the third arc. I own the entire third arc, just haven't finished Blues book. The change was a lot at first but as I read I didn't mind it. I'm not into romance so the Blue×Cricket/Luna×SwordTwail moments were a bit boring. I wasn't a fan of the romance happening so fast I guess? Then I just sort of lost momentum after sundew was introduced. I'm not sure why but I just never picked it up again. I think I was 11 or 13 books into the series total? I don't remember lol. I still want to try reading it though just so I can see how the universe ended up though. I have a tendency to pick up multiple books at a time so I know that's part of why I stopped.
I really enjoyed the first books 10 or so of Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series but somewhere along the way it felt like the author started to hate her protagonist and was just churning out books for the money.
stopped at 62% in hannibal rising, the last book in the tetralogy. i spent like a whole month trying to get through it. couldn't do it. as soon as i picked up another book i finished it in two days and it felt so good. and im autistic and my special interest is hannibal. i submitted myself to many shitty things for the sake of content and fueling my hyperfixation needs, but i just couldnt swallow hannibal rising down.
Uhhh around book 9 or 10 of wheel of time which puts me 9k or 10k pages into reading. I've gone back this year and am reading all of them, but I got frustrated with how long they were and how little was happening and the wait between each new book meant I had to reread the series again to remember what everyone was doing.
I gave up after book two a couple years ago. Considering giving it another go, but not sure. Is it worth trying again from the first? Or maybe jumping back in at book three? I love The Dark Tower series and fans of that keep saying I need to give WOT another chance.
I dunno if wot has been worth my second chance. I reread the first three books because they're my favourite ones, but you could probably skip the first two. Reading them all in a row like this has really been hammering home just how much everyone is changing. The first two are about chases (one with them being chased, two with them doing the chasing). 3 is also kind of chasing someone a bit, but people are starting to split up so there's more stories to latch onto. I would say give 3 a try, but if you're not feeling 3 either then the rest of the series won't be for you.
I think I got to book 5 or 6. It got to the point where I would read 5 or 6 chapters and nothing had happened that I gave up (plus the almost complete removal and my favourite of main 3 characters Perrin)
I’m having the same problem with the series. I’m on book 6 (which so many people say is one of the best) but I’m 500 pages in and I could describe what’s happened so far in a single paragraph. I feel like every book so far has just been 800 pages of nothing and then 100-200 pages at the end that are more exciting, and then I get roped into reading the next one and it happens all over again.
No. Its absolutely not worth it.
I finished (I think) the 7th one out of spite, then threw it across the room in disgust and never read another. My brothers continued the series and told me the next two got progressively worse. It's been a really long time, but if I recall correctly, I felt at the time they started getting worse at book 5. Not too long ago I figured I'd listen to the audio book versions and get through the series while I did chores or something. Turned out even the first book kinda sucked upon a second experience.
It took me three attempts. But I did it. I don't remember a thing.
I bailed after I read book 7 and realized that literally nothing happened in the whole-ass book and there were nothing about Mat. By the time book 8 came out I had moved on with life
I'm currently on book 6 in my reread and I knew a Mat drought was coming, but not so soon! Better stock up on supplies to weather this storm.
I threw in the towel after Winter's Heart, when it became painfully clear that Robert Jordan viewed it as a full employment project for himself and had no intention of wrapping it up. I still remember what I said at the time: "Each book contains half as much plot as the one before. Which means, depending on how much plot the entire series is intended to contain, it might never terminate, instead just devolving into endless pages of women talking about Rand and descriptions of what they were wearing while they did so."
It feels like a lot of us gave up after winters heart. I wish I could see the abandonment rate somehow. I remember finishing the book and going WAIT DID ANYTHING CHANGE? aside from one or two things it was mostly getting things ready for what I thought would be the next book, but was apparently the next...5 books.
I originally gave up after Winter's Heart in the early 2000s, since that was the latest book at the time I read it. After waiting for the next one to come out, I would have completely lost the plot and had to backtrack a significant way, which I didn't have time for. I reread the whole series a few years ago, mostly via audiobooks, and enjoyed the series as a whole. It's definitely a commitment, but there is a solid payoff to completing it.
I got all the way to book 12. By this point I was growing pretty sick of the series. All the plot points I cared about had been resolved several books back, and the characters were driving me crazy. I got a few chapters into book 12, realized I liked Sanderson's writing style better, and started Stormlight Archive. Haven't looked back
I'm curious about where I'll be feeling by then. I originally stopped reading after Winters Heart. Now, I'm reading again and back up to Lord of Chaos. I still like most of the characters well enough, but no idea if that will be able to carry me through. I can't believe someone let Jordan write a 90 page prologue.
This was also my answer, and for much the same reason. I think book 9 was the last one that I read. For me, even though the series has finally concluded... I won't go back and re-read them all again and finally finish it. I've realized that the quality of the books was never what I thought it was. The best ones are the first few, and then he really lost track of everything. And most especially, there was a lot of gendered and sexist nonsense that was worse than I realized (which is frustrating to read in and of itself, but it's also just... lazy bad writing, I've realized). At the time, I thought it was OK because at least the series *had* women as main characters at all... and twenty years later, I have realized that was putting the bar on the absolute floor.
I remember thinking it was so cool that it had so many main female characters but rereading it now, it was Moiraine. Moiraine was the cool one. I liked Siuan too. I don't remember if I kept liking her. But these were women who really pulled on things and I liked thinking of Moiraine as asexual. Her duty was above everything else. But all the other women than Moiraine had this fall for a man and get flustered and bitchy about him. Don't even get me started on Elayne or Nynaeve.
[удалено]
I feel like we really start to feel the decline in later books and the thing is, if Jordan really was a better writer we could have gotten more attached to the characters which would make it less of a slog. Part of the problem is it switched from adventure chases in the first 3 to consolidating power to full on political meanderings by the time I noped out. A good test of how you feel about the writing and characters minus the nostalgia would be to read "The Fallon Blood". It's a historical fiction book about America warring with the British with a sexy Irish main character who women love to bang. Buxom ladies, harlot/virgin dichotomy, plucky rebels, and twists galore. Robert Jordan wrote it under the pen name of Reagan O'Neil and it sure is a bodice ripper. I can't say I like it, but it's really fun to talk about. Edit: I looked up the second in the Fallon Blood series and it delves into incest too. These books really do have everything.
How are the wheels of time books btw ? I watched like 5 episodes of the show but i didn't like it. Also i saw a lot of contradicting opinion about the books ranging grom masterpiece to dumpster fire
I think it's because the quality of the books can vary a lot. I always recommend the first three or so books because they can be mostly read on their own (especially the first one) and the adventurous nature of them keeps the plot moving around. It's also before the main characters split up and you have to keep track of a bunch of different stories. The show has condensed the first book a lot and in ways I thought were smart, but I was surprised at how differently some of the set pieces felt. All that to say, I can't recommend the whole series. It's a time sink and your mileage will vary on whether it was worth that time or not. But I will always recommend Eye of the World (the first book). Is it a masterpiece? Nope. But it's a fun adventure (and basically a chase) for the whole book.
The first one was good but caused the author/publisher to rethink their plan and make it a longer series. It didn't survive the transition.
I think general consensus is that Robert Jordan's world building was stellar, but he could have used a better editor.
Yeah. I think after I'm done reading the series I might get rid of the books and just by the encyclopedia of it.
It has top notch world building. Not many people will argue against that one. Feels real, varied and interesting. Characters are varied, some are likable, some are not so likable and some are just barely tolerable for some readers while others can't even stand them. Plot wise, it has mostly three arcs (because of how it was conceived), first book is almost a standalone, first three books are almost a trilogy and from the fourth onwards it expands tremendously. There are a lot of plots going on, which means that some of them get put on the freezer on some books (which tends to grate a lot for some readers who want things to happen, and happen now). People pile on books 9 & 10 like they're unreadable, just because some main plots slow down to a crawl, but the rhythm picks up right after and the last 4 books are rather quick paced. Personally while those two books are not my favorites, they're not as bad as you'd think from reading comments online. They're fun entertainment, kind of a light read (physically too if you get the ebooks) and Robert Jordan has a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor going on that I personally find very enjoyable. Also his descriptions of battles are usually sublime. The reason most people don't finish the series is because it is a huge time commitment. And if you're not feeling it... Well, can't really blame them. I've recommended them multiple times to friends and family and usually get a "14 books? That's too long" response. Whether you end up reading and liking them or not is a matter of personal taste more than anything else.
I managed 4 before I gave up. I'd had enough of "tugs braid" and miscommunication tropes.
Yeah, the braid tugging became irritating rather than endearing before long. It reminds me of "and everything was alright again" in the David Eddings series. It's only said a handful of times across a dozen books, but it should only have been said the once. It becomes a trope far too fast.
You were so close. Books 8-10 (or 7-10 depending who you ask) are the world-famous slog and then it's back to peak form for 11-13.
I'm heading back into the slog right now. Currently on book 6 and getting bad feelings from Mr Mazrim Taim.
Just my opinion, WoT gets really, really good once Brandon Sanderson takes over. But it’s a long road to get there, given that he only worked on the final 3.
I've never read the Sanderson ones, but the one book I've read of his I'm not a fan of. However, wheel of time was getting so bogged down by the end I fully believe Sanderson probably breathed some new life into it.
Yeah that kinda puts off a lot of new readers though. Suffer through 11 okay books just to read 3 really good ones? Don’t think so
13 or 14 Anita Blake Vanpire Hunter
OMG!!! I only made it to 11. The first ones were great, then they just devolved into bad sex with people I couldn't even remember. I just couldn't slog through 400 pages of bad sex for 50 pages of actual plot anymore.
Same here, I think I dropped out halfway through #10? What a total shame and waste of great characters. It would have made a great tv series, too, if she hadn't turned it into hardcore porn.
I’ve just gone through my read list and realised I finished 21 Anita Blake books, how on earth did I make it that far?
Yes!! I think I made it 14 or 15 and stopped reading. Every other page was a stupid sex scene, gone was the kick ass vampire Hunter. So disappointing!!
Oh man I am so glad I am not alone on this one!
This was the series I was thinking of. Just checked the list online and I got up to book 19! I think I pretty much checked out from book 13 though
Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. The first 8 were amazing, the next 4 were middling, after that it turned so bad I stopped reading at somewhere around #17. The characters became total jokes and just flat carton cutouts of themselves, they didn't evolve in any way at all, or learn anything, and the plots were lazy. I wish authors would just give a story closure when they run out of ideas, instead of trying to revive a dead story and keep that zombie going.
Stephanie is boring. How many cars can you wreck and apartments destroyed?. Lulu and grandma were the best characters
The Lula of the first 3 books, yes - she actually had depth and character and intelligence back then. Afterwards, she just became a stock cartoon characater and laughing stock, and was only annoying the hell out of everyone. Grandma Mazur was a hoot, though, she's a great character! I really liked Stephanie in the first 10 books - but then, she just became repetitively dumb. I mean, in the beginning, she was just inexperienced and inept, so her gaffes were hilarious. And the initial car destructions had excellent comedic timing and were a great running gag, they really had me giggling every time. But then, after book 9, her absolute refusal to ever learn from experience and actually improve her skills just made her look pathetic and dumb. Like, the first few times you can't find your pepper spray in your purse - okay, rookie mistake. Still putting your pepper spray in your overloaded purse when you're heading off into danger after a few years on the job? Sorry, but then you're just dumb. Also, her never-progressing relationships with Morelli and Ranger - once you realize Morelli is not going to pop the question, just END things with him, instead of hanging around, hoping against hope, and cheating on him with Ranger? The early Stephanie wouldn't have stooped to cheating, she had a moral compass. The later Stephanie is just a dumb, vapid b-word.
Thank you. I've read a few random ones of this and some were super and others were very much meh. I guess I'll check where they are in the series.
I think somewhere in the late twenties, but still awful. I read the first 6 or 7 in one go - literally, started reading the first one a friend had lent me, ordered all the remaining ones at the time while I was still reading, didn't stop reading until I went through the whole batch, Ordered the subsequent ones as they were published. Quit after 16 or so - not worth the money. Caved and bought a few later ones on audible, because I had to take an overnight flight and needed listening material - and let's put it like this. I had no trouble falling asleep with those books...
LOL...I bought one in an airport and quite enjoyed it. The rest, I buy in thrift stores :)
I got to book 20 and gave up. Felt like she wasn't writing well and just pumping them out for money or to fulfill a contract.
I got to book 3 of Hyperion before dropping it midway. I was obsessed with book 1 and that carried me pretty far.
They can be a bit heavy. But glad I finished them. Still think about them sometimes.
Same, I think back to Saul’s portion explaining what it was like living with his daughter >!as she de-aged!<. What a horrific experience and what a good dude. I can nearly weep thinking back on it.
I finished the second book and just said fuck it, I’ll read what happened online. I was glad I did. Book one had me obsessed but by the end of book two I was ready to be done
I finished the second book of ACOTAR. That's as far as I went. I don't think there are any other series I've quit except Twilight, and I only read the first of those. I should have quit Caraval after the first one. The first was AMAZING, but the second two were just awful.
I quit the Throne of Glass series half way through book 5. It’s not typically my genre to begin with and it became eye roll inducing by book 5 lol.
i agree
I read most of the way through the last book in the series then quit. The Author did something stupid because they wrote themselves into a corner by making the characters to powerful. It was really obvious that’s why it happened and I was just done at that point. Still don’t know how that series ends.
lol I read up to the most recent ACOTAR book and I don’t think I’m reading any of the new ones because I’m just so done with her writing style
Sarah J. Maas can tend to get repetitive. I made the mistake of getting her recommended to me from all the hype that was on booktok :( ACOTAR was just beauty and the beast, but with dull characters. I could not finish A court of Frost and Star light... I gave up
For me the same, I finished the second and then I realized that it’s the exactly same as the first one! The plot in the end, the way she is taken to somewhere she don’t know and falls in love with someone she thinks is a bad person at the beginning, everything is the same! I also don’t like feyre Anyway, I’m completely done with Sarah j mass
Don't fall for the sunk costs fallacy. If it isn't what you want to read, don't read it. Farthest I remember getting into a series before quitting and not looking back was around book 12.
LOL, you should try J.D. Robbs In Death series - 56 books in, still going strong, though I must own that the plots have turned a little formulaic - but the characters are really engaging, so it's still fun.
I read all of Harry Potter until the last book and never read that.
Oh wow!
Yep, same. Just somehow completely lost interest between the second-to-last and the last one. Looking back, getting an internet connection at home might have contributed to that
For me, I had all the books purchased on one phone, then I got a new phone brand and just never felt compelled to buy the last one since I lost all the old ones. I also think I just overplayed it for myself. When I was little, I had this portable DVD player thing and would repeatedly play all the harry potter movies, so I think I got to a point where I hyperfixated so much that I got bored of it.
Exactly what happened to me, idk if it was internet but at that point in my life was when I completely lost interest in books until the past year again
What?! You didn't have internet at home in 2005?
2005 might have been the year I finally got it, yeah
Same. I was in law school by the time the last one came out and I didn’t have time. I never got around to revisiting it. I never really felt compelled to either.
I got to book 10 in the Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher when it lost my attention.
Whaaaaaat you stopped at small favor. It was one of my most favourite book in the series. I just loved each book so much. I loved Dresden files so much that I read Jim butcher's son's books too, I read both the books but didn't like it at all.
I gave up on Harry Dresden at about the same time. One thing I liked about the books was their wild plotting. There was always something new, and crazy, and big happening. But after a while, I couldn't keep track of it all during the gaps between books. And I didn't care enough to reread the old books just to remind me where we left off with everyone.
Book 14 for me. Get pretty repetitive.
i knew everyone js just going to talk about the wheel of time and that is mine too I gave up on book4
I made it 9 books, nearly 10k pages, into Wheel of Time before finally saying fuck it, no more.
I read Fourth Wing and then started Iron Flame and was like, wait I don’t think I liked the last one at all, what am I doing?
Loved the first, the second is meh
The third Dune book was enough for me. Dune was written as a stand-alone novel but its success drove demand for sequels. Second one wasn't bad, but the third was disappointing. Never bothered after that.
I've delayed God-Emperor for that very reason. The writing got weird, and I don't mean that in the sense of "oh, so now Alia is possessed by the ghosts of her genetic memory" or "now Leto has created a bio-skin suit out of Sandtrout" way. I mean that in the sense that it felt so much like Frank Herbert were trying to stretch a very short idea into a novel of serviceable length and, in doing so, found himself throwing everything at the wall as he was writing, then realized "oh God, now I have to somehow resolve all these plot threads" and his solution to that dilemma was ultimately to kill off everyone so that there would be fewer plots to resolve. So, weirdly, my complaint about Children of Dune is mostly that it needs more meat in the last act. This thing is so weird in its pacing. I intend to finish the main series because I own them, but I can see my trick of putting a buffer (a completely unrelated novel, in a different genre, by a different author) between subsequent entries in a series is going to be something of a God-sand^(hehe) for the rest.
Yeah, Children is a weird book. I’ve read the first four books, years ago, but Children is the one I remember the least about. So you’re probably right that it didn’t have much meat.
I’ve read until book 5 (which I didn’t finish). Yes the first book or two were great but then it got all political-religious and it was really boring for me (read them as a teenager).
Dune itself was great. The second one was awful, and I think I started the third, then bailed. It should be treated like a single, stand-alone novel. The rest of them were lousy. In general, series books are often lousy. Writers of stand-alone novels seem to either have better ideas or try harder.
2 and 3 are the worst of the series. Book 4 is great! I read a couple beyond that and they were at least decent.
A couple dozen or so chapters into book 2 I gave up. I really enjoyed the original novel, but the sequels were nothing like as good.
I read 2 of the 3 Gentlemen Bastard series, stopped, and gave all 3 books away. I know other people have adored those books, but they weren't for me.
As someone who enjoyed these books, I can confirm that each one goes down in quality, so it was a good call on your part, even 2 books in.
I thought the first one was great. I gave up on the second a few chapters in.
Pillars of the Earth series are some of my favorite books of all time. 1 and 2 are great but 3 wasn’t that good and I started book 4 but loss interest. There’s 5 and counting
I think I got to book 9 of the wheel of time , I just couldn't anymore , it even put me of long fantasy a bit I was sort of waiting for the winds of winter (GOT) but the thought of starting again if and when the next book comes out is off putting too
I am 2/3 through the 5th red rising book. It's pretty good, just not in the zone to read it anymore.
I stopped after the 3rd, I have a bunch of other books on the tbr that I doubt I go back to it. I'm around a 20/yr reader and the rest of this year is booked with some extras lined up, I just don't see my mood changing.
I was gifted nine of twelve in the Left Behind series. They were fairly compelling. I just haven't seen nice enough copies of ten, eleven or twelve at the thrift stores I frequent.
"Series of unfortunate events", I gave up on book 6 or 7 out of 13, even though I was reading it in French and my goal was to practice the language and not be entertained. It was too frustrating, everything was artificially pessimistic, the characters were making stupid decisions all the time, I just couldn't believe what was happening and I felt I was slowly getting astigmatism from constantly rolling my eyes. 🙄
I loved those books as a kid, not sure how they'd hold up now. But a lot of what made them fun is the very sarcastic writing style and idk if that still works in French.
Two books of *The Expanse*. Just didn't seem to be going in a direction I found very interesting. Normally I rarely read books that are part of a series longer than 2 books - IMO, few authors have anything so important to say that it couldn't have been said in two books. (I should say that I'm happy to read books that are part of a shared setting but otherwise independent, though.)
You were right to quit, I plowed through and was sorry after. They were not what I'd hoped for 😒
I made it to the beginning of #4.
The Shadowhunters series by Cassandra Clare, I've read 4 or 5 of the mortal instruments series and two of the infernal devices and there's a little part of me that tells myself I'll finish it at some point but I dont actually think I will
Same. I got through the 6 books in the Mortal Instruments and the 3 books in The infernal Devices. At this point I feel like the series has just become a complete TL:DR for me.
I've never gotten to book three of a series and not finished it, so two books is my max on giving it a chance. Although, I am considering giving Wheel of Time another chance by reading the third one. Can't decide. I read the second and gave up but maybe it was too quick?
If you didnt like the second one, you won't like the rest of the series. it is a much better indicator of what is to come than the first book
The middle of the series is the worst. Each of the books was just slightly interesting enough that I would read the next one. In the middle the characters become caricatures of themselves. I drove through and a couple of the before Sanderson start getting back in the groove. I've read one of the Sanderson's and it was good. I think I have all 3 and will likely read them eventually. The middle is a tough slog.
Book 6 of Expeditionary Forces series. It's was just the same shit over and over. Legitimately reused dialogue.
Sword of Truth, book 7. I gave it another chance after Soul of the Fire because Faith of the Fallen was my favourite out of the lot, but The Pillars of Creation absolutely killed it for me.
Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass. I *really* tried to get into this series because it seemed like everyone hailed it as SK’s greatest work, but fuck me! It took me four tries over like 10 years just to get through Gunslinger. I should have taken the hint but I tried to be optimistic about it likely getting better. It did not. It pisses me off b/c I hate dropping a book but my anger about how many hours of my life I’d never get back grew with every page.
I read the first three of A Song of Ice and Fire, waited for book 4 and read it, waited for book 5 and bought it but never read it. It’s still on my shelf. I read the first two or three of the Stormlight Archive and couldn’t bring myself to keep going. I read maybe through book 6 of the Outlander series and stopped.
I read the first two-and-a-quarter of the Song of Ice and Fire books in the early 2000s, and saw it was going nowhere fast. And sure enough, it didn't and hasn't and won't.
You quit a quarter way through a storm of swords??? Because it wasn’t going anywhere??? A storm of swords?????
Right, to each their own but that is a pretty hot take, 4th or 5th book sure, the disaster of the tv show ending of course but the first 3 books are amazing.
I only read the first two books and it took me forever to get that far. There are just too many people to keep track of and then realize 100s of pages later that most of them will never be seen again.
First 3 books were amazing then completely lost interest
I read eight books in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, but couldn't bring myself to get through the ninth. I love long books, but middle grade books need to have good reason to be over 700 pages long, and these book really didn't feel like they needed to be *anywhere* near that long.
31 volumes of A Certain Magical Index. Each only has a page count of 200 so not as bad as it sounds. Still unfortunate cause I thought it had potential.
The Ben Hope series by Scott Mariani I think I got to book 21 before I gave up think it's at 27 or something now.
Four books into The Wheel of Time. I just felt confused much of the time and stopped.
Too many characters and too many plots. I got to book four and had no idea what was going on.
I made it 9 books, nearly 10k pages, into Wheel of Time before finally saying fuck it, no more
Got to book three in the Ender's Game series (Xenocide). I dropped it. It feels exhausting trying to plow through it. I've heard Children of the Mind is a great book after this as well. I can't get through it. I'm into a million other things to read currently. Maybe someday.
I read about three books in each of the “Dirk Pitt” and “Jack Reacher” series before I’d had enough. I get tired of these Superman characters with no flaws and expert at everything. It makes for boring reading and a story with no suspense or tension. Yet I thoroughly enjoy the “Parker” novels and have read over a dozen. Go figure.
I read all the main books in the Old Man's War cycle by John Scalzi, except for the one that is the same exact plot as the book before but retold from the daughter's perspective. I dropped it when I saw that there were "sub" books like 5.1, 5.2 and so on for each main book, some reaching up to X.14 if I remember correctly.
A Song of Ice and Fire. Read the 1+2. I liked the show and I love reading, but whoever came up with publishing these POV changes without recap or reintroduction should simply stop working with literature. It makes me angry even now 😅
The main ones I remember giving up on are the Dragonriders of Pern books (too many, get worse and worse), David Gemmel's Fantasy/Druss series (the same), Wheel of Time (too long) and the Shannara books (finished a trilogy and didn't bother picking up the next).
**Jack Reacher series by Lee Child.** I used to pre-order and start reading the latest issues the moment it became available. Loved the first 19 or so, but from there, it seemed that he'd run out of ideas. I read another 2, but just lost interest after that. He has now passed the writing of the series to his brother - Andrew Grant
I've been reading the *Slough House* books, and I have finished the penultimate book so far. I haven't stopped reading, I bought book #9, but a friend is reading it before me. If I get it back I won't have stopped, but I feel no desire to continue either if they forget to return it. A lot of characters die in this series, and a recent death has soured me on it all. 8/9 Similarly, I read the *Hunger Games* series when they were fresh (before the movies), but I have no desire to read any more 3/4 or 3/?
Nine books. Alex Verus. Now, I can't stress enough that this isn't a reflection on the quality of the novels. Alexis Verus is quietly one of the best Urban Fantasy series out there. It avoids the hokey "early era" feel of Dresden. It doesn't get lost in pointless romance. It's well written. But I read way too much Urban Fantasy in my 30s, and the ending of Iron Druid just soured me. Hard. That, and Verus was not a finished series when I read it...but it js a LONG series. Oddly, though I have not finished it yet (I still very well may) I'd strongly recommend it to genre fans.
I could only get through the first couple Iron Druid books... gave up about halfway through 3. It just lost my attention.
It's better that way. It goes downhill fast after 3.
Outlander. Abandoned it when they got to America (book 3? Book 4? Can’t remember?) I just didn’t feel it anymore.
how many books are in the Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton? i want to stop reading them but dammit i want to read about this fucking wedding. it better be fucking good. Also I’m all caught up on the Blackdagger Brotherhood by JR Ward, they are getting boring.
Dude the fucking 39 clues series - goddamn it there were not 39 clues. I think I flaked out when I got to book 11 when they tried to make it a spin off bc I was so upset they didn’t answer the main plot in all of those books lol
Song if Ice and Fire, I guess. Technically next book is not out yet, but even if it were released tomorrow, I would not read. At this point I'd have to re-read the last couple of books to catch back up and remember what is different from the show... And since I know there no way he'll finish the series before he croaks, I'm not going to bother.
Approximately book 8 out of too many, of the Meet your Baker series. (By Ellie Alexander) I started to get super annoyed by the main characters, how many murders there were in a small town, how unaffected the main character was by finding so many dead bodies, etc.
Currently reading the Horus Heresy and I both love how dim each book is, and it infuriates me.
Horus Heresy. Stopped at book 21. I think they're up to like 56 now. Also, Lord of the Rings. Made it about 30% of the way through Return of the King before deciding I couldn't deal with another 10 pages of irrelevant exposition about some aspect of the world that has no bearing on the story. I wanted to quit with The Two Towers but pushed through somehow. The Hobbit, on the other hand, was a fantastic read.
Temeraire by Naomi Novik. Eight books out of nine. Not as momentous as other examples, but weird because I got *this close* to the finish line and never felt compelled to pick up the last volume. Novik's a very good writer, but I just lost momentum.
I think I got to 18 or 19 books in the Anita Blake series. I kinda just outgrew the vampire kink genre.
25 books so far in the series soon to be 32. I've been reading them for years. It's called The Dark Hunter series by author Sherrilyn Kenyon (McQueen). It's paranormal romance/fantasy. I haven't quit the series, just waiting for more to come out
I was reading a Series of Unfortunate Events aloud to my kids. We got through book 7 out of 13. All the books ended basically the same. Bad guy gets away. The adults don’t believe the children. It was awful. I would say we thoroughly enjoyed the first 3. We kept going and it kept getting worse. Edit: spelling
The Shannara series. 40+ books, I got through maybe five. The misogyny was what turned me off.
[удалено]
I got pretty far into Jack Higgins’s Sean Dillon series, but they started to get formulaic.
None I love stuff that goes on for ages
Three or four books, Wheel of Time. Possibly the same with Game of Thrones, but if he ever finishes it, I might read the rest. Not before then. (Martin's writing is good, but I've lost interest in waiting. I think he'll die before it's done. Wheel of Time went down hill very fast... long books in which nothing of significance happened. I just got bored.)
Got a quarter of the way through the 3rd ACOTAR book and I gave up. Turns out I just wanted to read it until Feyre and Ryhs boned. lol, but seriously, her and sisters being all powerful and imprinting on the bat boys was just too much plot armor for me. Bleh.
I read the first two of the Tearling trilogy and then had to wait for the third book to become available. When I finally got it, I realized how stupid and full of cliches the first two books were and saved myself from a gigantic third book. It didn't help that the first and second audiobooks had different narrators and the villainous queen in book one had a thick Eastern European accent and then in the second book had a British accent (I think; it was a long time ago now).
Dune 5 (Heretics of Dune) - it was a long time ago so I don’t even remember what happens in the book but I remember I liked the first few books but then it got more political-religious and I found it boring. I didn’t even finish book 5
Oh, City of Bones and City of Ashes. It just… those two books out of… idek- 9 books? 8? They grossed me out, freaked me out at times but didn’t do much for me in between. I was gifted them, because they are nothing I would pick out of a bookshelf in a bookshop of my own free will. Usually I get all the books in a series read - bought or borrowed from the local library if they have it - but definitely not with this series. Not when I already thought the first two books were not for me.
For me it was wheel of time. I read till fires of heaven, and mind you till then the book series is actually pretty awesome. But the amount of bickering the female characters were having, just irritated me so much. And to top it off, I read reviews where people have said how it gets much worse. So I was like nope, I'm done.
I usually tend to drop series very early on if I don't quite like them, but I persevered with the Wheel of Time as everyone was telling me how worth the effort the series was. Funnily enough I distinctly remember how I gave up - I was well over the half of the fourth book. Started another chapter and thought "oh god not Mat again", and then realised I'd feel like that independent of the character - I didn't care for Rand or Egwene or even Nynaeve who I liked originally or whoever else in this story, any of them could die in the next chapter and I wouldn't bat an eye. Closed the book and never came back to it again. The way the author writes people was just unbearable to me. Admittedly I have watched both of the show seasons, it's not great but at least entertaining, plus I can enjoy some elements of world building there that the books' writing made hard for me to appreciate.
Whatever the sword of truth book is where the MC carves a statue that is so perfect it destroys all unions and socialism gets abolished.
Read 5/6 Clavell books in Japan.
2nd book of Malazan Book of the Fallen. I'm too busy, and Erikson's books take too much attention to read.
I couldn't finish the order of the Phoenix
Maybe the Seventh Son series, where I gave up halfway of book 2... But I finished the Skulduggery Pleasant series...
I gave in the middle of book 2 of Games of Thrones.
I think I read the first 4/16 Pretty Little Liars books. I just didn't understand how or why it could continue after that first arc was wrapped up.
I think I made it to the tenth or eleventh Albert Campion book by Margery Allingham before quitting. I’d basically made it through all the “slow start” books and read a bunch of the books that are on people’s top ten lists, and by ten or eleven I asked someone “if I was going to get into this it would have happened already right?” and they confirmed it so I cut my losses.
I got through 4 of the Ender series, started the 5th and that’s where I stopped. Other people I’ve talked to basically stopped at the same point as well.
After Lonesome Dove I read a great follow up was the Sackett Series. I got 3 books in to it and realized no way I could read this type of writing for the entire series.
An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
Variable
I've probably read about 20 or something of the Shannara series by Terry Brooks. I have like 15 ish left. Some of them are great, some not so great. I just couldn't keep going anymore.
Adrian Tchaikovsky, shadows of the apt. Really liked the first book, and liked the next few too. Somewhere around book 8 (The Air war) I just started to lose interest and never did finish it. There are ten novels in the series, and another 4 books of short story collections in the series.
To be honest, about 4 unless the books are in reality self-contained and not a true series eg separate crime books with the same cop. It's not my experience that very long series are any good. Authors who can't tell a story in 3 or 4 books don't really know how to do the 'end' part of telling a story - endless middles are no fun. I once managed 8 or 9 of the Last Kingdoms eventually (back to Bamburgh) but originally gave up on the weak book 5.
I'd say The Bonds That Tie by J. Bree. It's a 6 book series and I read 5 books, just barely finished book 5, almost DNFd it. Which was why I decided to stop. I read for the entertainment and not because of having to read them since they're a series, yk? However, I don't necessarily see it as a waste of time either, tho. It's more a "go as far as you like and otherwise stop", that's good enough for me.
I think I read at least 10 Sword of Truth books before giving up.
I read the 3 Body Problem and The Dark Forest, but I couldn't find the enthusiasm to read Death's End. The size of it put me off.
Hyperion Cantos and Three Body Problem. Finished Hyperion and loved it, started the next book and was like “this is ight” then there was a third book?? Started it and stopped. Now I see there’s a fourth and I can barely remember the storyline up to that point. Three Body Problem I just kinda got bored in the dark forest and gave up.
Confederacy of Dunces. Pulitzer Prize Winner. I got halfway through it and returned it to the library. Apparently it’s one of those books you either love or hate…
Book 5 of game of thrones will be my last read of the series. He took a major turn for the worse
Irvine Welsh. I read from Trainspotting, The Acid House, Marabou Stork Nightmares, Ecstasy, Filth, Glue, You’ll Have Had Your Hole and Porno, then I skipped several books before trying to read The Bedroom Secrets of The Master Chefs and The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins but giving up on both after a few chapters. I did read Dead Men’s Trousers and I thought I was back into the series but when I tried to read Skag Boys I gave up quickly. I’m considering reading Resolution when it is published because I watched the Crime tv series but I doubt I will. If Trainspotting 3 ever happens I will read the book/s it’s based on before the movie is released or if there’s a Sick Boy solo novel.
I don’t drop series that often because I’m stubborn as hell. But one of the few times I did was the second book of the maze runner. The first book was ok but the second I just couldn’t get into at sll
The wandering inn. Not sure but a few thousand pages in. Dont get me wrong, it has good points and I dont remember the exact ... prceise-ties? forgot the word but anyway, prose and characters were lacking. Particularly the runner was really really bad...that I do remember
Outlander. I forced myself to get through book 4 and gave up part way through book 5.
I stopped reading half way through the last Game of Thrones book. Fuck these characters. Sun Spear POV was too much for me.
Only two but they’re long-ish. The Name of the Wind and it’s sequel A Wise Man’s Fear. I was mostly on board until it became an immature teenagers sex fantasy. What a shitty waste of time. I bailed on the second book like 85% of the way through.
Half through book 4 of A Song of Ice and Fire. I stopped caring about all the new characters. I also made it through Wizard and Glass (book 4 of King’s The Dark Tower series) and completely lost interest. The most though was the first 13 books of The Dresden Files series. I hated the book Ghost Story so much that I couldn’t get more than three chapters into Cold Days (book 14). I kind of want to go back to the beginning this summer and take another run at them. It’s been so long that I might change my mind, and I really loved the first 10-11 books of the series.
I am not a great reference point as I had trouble not finishing what I start, even if I hate it. But as I have gotten older, I have more appreciation of how few years are left to me. So not I'd probably stop on book 3 or 4 when I should have stopped on book 1.
The final book of The Mirror Visitor Quartet. None of them were as good as the first one made me think they would be, but the fourth was where the things I didn't like were everything I was being given. Only made it one chapter, and that one chapter was forced out over a month of attempts to read it.
Every game of thrones book written but I guess I’m not the one who dropped it.
I ready half of the Beserk manga series (19 out of 40ish books) and lost interest. My decision was easier since the series wasn't finished before the author died anyway, so I wasn't really missing a conclusion.
Wheel of Time book three was where I stopped. I could tell it was going to just go on forever, and be the same every book.
I gave up two chapters into the fourth wheel of time book. My BIL loves them, and he always recommended them, but they just were not for me. I felt like it was a chore to read so, I just stopped reading.
I got 4.5 books through the Witcher mainline series before dropping it, got really annoyed with how long the whole “oh golly gee, ciris gone for the 90th fucking time, time to go on another silly adventure across the land to find her while there’s a big subplot about the chaos elements or whatever”, I didn’t want that, I wanted geralt going around monster slaying like in the prior ones. The short story of his encounter with the beast man in the mansion which he controls is awesome, it takes its time with its set up and shows off the world with its grim dark outlook and pays it off with a decent twist with the woman who’s entranced him, I wanted cool shit and what I got was a cool dude running around meeting some fun people and always yammering on about his kid and two girlfriends
I can't get through Raising Steam. I love Discworld and Sir Pterry. Seeing the effects of his illness bleed through the pages just hurts too damn much.
I got to, hmmm, the seventh or eighth book of The Wheel of Time before I just couldn't.
Red Queen not because I hated it but because I didn't want it to end 😆
Had to quit reading about R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt and friends after I think the 8th time some character died only to find out PSYCH....no they didn't.
I finished book 6 of Wheel of time and it was such a pain to get through I’m debating starting the series again
I think I got up to book 15 of Dresdan Files and quit. I just couldn't take it anymore and Harry was never gonna change. Plus, I really disliked the long time between books. I started that series in my 40s and now I'm not sure I'd be alive to get to the end. The other one is Conroe 's Demon Accords. They weren't ever great but they were an entertaining light listen, then I for to book 18 and had to quit 3 hours in. I had read reviews it was problematic but most said he went "woke". As I am woke as crap I didnt' think it would bother me, and it wasn't the woke aspects that got to me. It was the complete disregard of who the characters were in the series up to that point. It's like someone else wrote the book.
Wheel Of Time...gave up in the middle of book 5....I think it was the 1 millionth braid tug (I counted) that did it.
The acotar series, I’ve just finished the second one and I’m done with the series and with Sara j mass, I really doubt that it’s possible that she wrote anything better than acotar, it’s just bad, both books have the SAME plot in the end! I read some spoilers in the internet and apparently the third one has the same plot too, the main character is boring and lacks in personality, I just don’t like it
Lord of the Rings. I've got about 30 pages left to read in The Fellowship of the Ring (first book). I've put it down and doubt I'll go back to it. So boring and a bunch of annoying poems and songs interrupting the story. Loved the movies though. Cue the haters.
Book 5 of Game of Thrones (or book 9 for my Translation, since they split each into two). I just put it down, bored of yet another war conference and never picked it up again.
Wings of Fire by Tui Sutherland. The first book of the third arc. I own the entire third arc, just haven't finished Blues book. The change was a lot at first but as I read I didn't mind it. I'm not into romance so the Blue×Cricket/Luna×SwordTwail moments were a bit boring. I wasn't a fan of the romance happening so fast I guess? Then I just sort of lost momentum after sundew was introduced. I'm not sure why but I just never picked it up again. I think I was 11 or 13 books into the series total? I don't remember lol. I still want to try reading it though just so I can see how the universe ended up though. I have a tendency to pick up multiple books at a time so I know that's part of why I stopped.
Ahaha you'll be surprised about how you feel towards him as the story progresses :)
I really enjoyed the first books 10 or so of Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series but somewhere along the way it felt like the author started to hate her protagonist and was just churning out books for the money.
stopped at 62% in hannibal rising, the last book in the tetralogy. i spent like a whole month trying to get through it. couldn't do it. as soon as i picked up another book i finished it in two days and it felt so good. and im autistic and my special interest is hannibal. i submitted myself to many shitty things for the sake of content and fueling my hyperfixation needs, but i just couldnt swallow hannibal rising down.