I believe it’s the author’s job to make it very clear what the reader can expect from a book they buy. I believe it’s the author’s job to not irritate the reader. The Evil Mastermind wrote about Series vs. Each book depends on the one(s) before, and reading out of order or reading only a single book will only confuse and frustrate the reader. You might choose to read others in the series, but if you don’t, you won’t miss out on a larger, overarching story.Ī serial, by contrast, is when a single large work is broken up into separate installments and must be read in order and in its entirety to grasp the larger story (like Lord of the Rings).
SERIES VS SERIAL BOOKS FULL
Each book can stand alone and has its own story arc that comes full circle by the time the book is done. Although the books have these things in common, they do not link to each other in a chronological way. According to Wikipedia, a series will typically share a common setting, story arc and characters, for example in crime fiction, adventure or science fiction (i.e. It got me to thinking that there are actually two types of series books out there.
Yes, they say they’re a series no, they don’t say you have to read them all to get the full story. In checking back with the book descriptions, I did not find any clear evidence that these books were only part of the larger story. I’m not averse to a continuing story, I’m just not happy to find out that’s what I’ve got after I’ve read the entire book and was looking for a satisfying resolution. For the second time in several months, I’ve picked up a book that I have enjoyed and was anxious to get to the climax of, only to find at the very end NO climax and a “to be continued” with an ad to buy the next book in the series.