The problem with book series

While browsing ebooks online recently I ran across the latest book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. It’s a book I will never read, not to mention a few others in the series. I read the first book years ago and while they were on sale, I got ebook versions of three or four more books. I regret that now because I haven’t even finished reading book two. I do pick it up once in a while and make progress. But anyone who knows the lengthiness of the books realises it takes a long time to finish one. I will finish the second book but who knows if I will ever get to the others. I think there’s enough in the second book to keep me with it. But after having seen much of the television series, I think I am done with the story. It’s basically one trauma after another, just different settings and sometimes different antagonists.

Another series I invested a lot of time reading has been Sarah Maas’ Throne of Glass series. It suffers from the same sort of problem in that it’s just repeated trials with different settings. Not much new is brought to the story once you get past the first few books. It’s not that I want a happy ever after, but I just can’t see the point of having so much trauma for basically the same characters. I think I finished five books in the series but I will not likely read any further. I also tried the first book in her more recent series but I didn’t really like it so I won’t be going further there either.

I think there’s something to be said for knowing when enough is enough and let the series come to a good conclusion. I guess it’s like movie sequels. Sometimes they work but mostly they are never as good as the original. And doing multiple sequels is just sucking the life out of the franchise.