Too much of a good thing?

[KanoasDestiny]

Thinking about the Stephanie Plum series and other sets that have a LOT of books in them, do you think there's such a thing as too much of a character/storyline? I've read most of the Eve Duncan books by Iris Johansen and I kind of got to the point where it just doesn't feel 'right' anymore. There's no way that all of those situtions find one person, and it just feels like the character is being drawn out at this point. I think I'd prefer for those story ideas to be used while introducing new characters. Does anyone else feel this way or do you prefer marathon series?

 

[Jill]

IF I like the series and it keeps "true", the longer the better!!!

A lot of people probably are proud that they do more reading than TV watching, but honestly... I read FLUFFY books. I'm not growing my brain with Stephanie Plum, Sookie, or even Tempe Brennan and Kay Scarpetta. I'm only entertaining myself!

The reason I really like a long series is I can go from one book to the next seamlessly. I already know the characters and care about them. It can be 11:30pm, just finished one book, and move on to the other yet fall asleep before midnight. That's what I like. I don't care if it's unimpressive, but when I read for fun, that's all it is

For fun, and I like moving from one book to the next effortlessly.

What I do not like is when a series is really good, but then "jumps the shark". That happened to me with the Besty the Vampire Queen series reached like #10 or so. And, yes, I do realize to say that the vampire queen jumped the shark seems like an oxymoron as if she hadn't already... but trust me

The series was SO good and with storylines and characters you could easily relate to. Then it got into this time travel situation -- to include very long passages from the prior books -- and after a few nights of feeling like the book was a school assignment, I finally check out. I don't regret having spent time with the first many books, but I wish the series had either wrapped up, or stayed away from that shark tank!

It's also fun to read the same author back to back, even when not a series. I read (listened to) most of Jonathan Tropper's books back to back and that was fun because I was into his "voice" even though each book was about new characters.

 

[KanoasDestiny]

LOL! I read 'fluffy" books too! The fluffier, the better.

If a book gets too technical or starts using big words, I start to lose interest. Who wants to spend more time trying to decipher what the author is saying, then reading the story? My husband always laughs at my simple books, but he seldom reads. (He likes to read, just never does.) I asked him why and he said that he either gets confused or bored when he reads his books. So I told him to stop trying to read all those brainy books and to read some of mine. Lol. I tend to like young adult books because I figure if they were written to keep kids interested, then they should be easy enough for me to follow.

I like a story to be fast paced and to the point, without a lot of unnecessary dialog and scenes.

As far as series go, I like short ones where it's a story that is split up between a couple books - usually like a trilogy. If it's a longer series, then I like for the books to "end" with each one (each book is a stand-alone adventure). I don't usually like for one storyline to be drawn out over tons of books. By the time I'm half way through, I forget what the first books were really about, or what happened in them.

 

[wildoak]

I'm happy for them to go on and on too, as long as the spark is still there. Stephanie Plum is definitely fluff LOL, but very entertaining! Dick Francis wasn't as prolific a writer as Evanovich, but when he was still alive and writing I would be on the edge of my seat waiting for his once a year book to come out. I haven't found any new writers lately that I'm that crazy about - I read a lot and enjoy them, but not many right now I follow obsessively.

Jan