Wondering how everyone approaches a series or books that go on to get a sequel? For the longest time I would automatically reach for any sequels that followed books I loved but now…eh. Sometimes I just like how a story has wrapped up and am not looking for more of the characters even if I enjoyed them the first time around. Anyone else do something similar and/or what are your reading habits when it comes to sequels?
I find sequels/series are generally worse books, just based on the nature of what sequels/series are: primarily that the sequel/series structure means the story is less self-contained and less satisfying. I think a new book also requires more ideas and time and polish to get finished by the author/bought by a publisher. There’s also just basic “regression to the mean”: most books are average; if the first book in a series is exceptional, statistically any other book that follows is more likely to be relatively worse.
I think it’s also what leads to a sequel effect with reviews- if you get a number of people reading the first book, your second book’s audience is essentially limited to the biggest fans of the first pool of readers. So you tend to get a second book that’s worse, but with more enthusiastic reviews.
All that being said, I’m not against the concept of sequels/series- they’re just fighting an uphill battle.
Nah. If you read fantasy/sci-fi, sequels are a given and integral to the whole story. And usually there’s as good if not better.
I agree. I’ve read a bunch of stand-alone novels, as well as series, and the series tend to be more enjoyable to me. Characters and story tend to get fleshed out more in series than they do in stand-alone books, at least for the ones I’ve read.