Sometimes I come home from the library with armloads of new titles, new authors, debuts, ‘first’ books. This week, it seems, is Week of the Sequels. And it’s been a bit of a mixed bag, really.
A while ago I read the first in the Dog-faced Gods series, A Matter of Blood, and LOVED it. Book 2 was also a really good read. Book 3, sadly, has gripped me so little and annoyed me so much that I can’t even be bothered finishing it. It’s somewhere in the house, half-read and likely to remain that way until I find it and take it back to the library, destined to remain ever only half-finished.
Louise Penny’s series set in the tiny Quebecois town of Three Pines and featuring Detective Inspector Gamache was recommended to me by a friend. It’s been a long time since I read a ‘normal’ detective series, and I was a bit hesitant, but there’s just something about these books that I really like. I devoured Book 1, Still Life, and number 2, Dead Cold. Yesterday the third title arrived for me, and I can’t wait to pick it up. Interesting – there’s no zombies, mysterious inexplicable events (apart from the obvious murders), odd twisty interdimensional portals or much of anything really, apart from just damn good mystery writing.
I’ve only recently discovered Sarah Rayne, and I think I wrote about her somewhere here too … yup, here. To my surprise and delight, she’s picked up and kept some of the characters from Property of a Lady, and they feature in recent release The Sin Eater. This was just as good a read as Property, and I’ll be a happy girl if this turns out to be an ongoing series.
I love FG Cottam’s books, and have just finished The Magdalena Curse. While not a series in the strict sense, the more I read of these books, the more I see character and story patterns - impetuous but well-meaning intelligent man of action gets into sticky (often supernatural) situation, where only the interest (and then love) of a beautiful and super-sensible woman can save the day. This sounds a bit naff, but truly isn’t – I really do like these books, and will continue to find and read them, but maybe I should take a bit of a break for a while, so the ‘pattern’ fades a bit.
Waiting on the shelf and still to be read is the second in writing team Preston and Child’s latest series featuring Gideon Crew. The Agent Pendergast series by these guys is one of my most favouritest EVER series, and I had high hopes for Gideon, but I found book 1 to be pretty much bog-standard adventure. I have been putting off picking up Gideon’s Corpse (!), because I am frightened it will confirm how I felt about book 1.
I’m also still on the waiting list for the next-in-series from Jim Butcher, Simon Green (two different series), Cassandra Clare, Ben Aaronovitch, and a heap of others including The Twelve – the highly anticipated follow-up to Justin Cronin’s The Passage, a huge success with lots of readers from a couple of years ago.
What sequels are you waiting for? And what have you been thrilled or disappointed by recently?
20 June 2012 at 8:44 am
Avidly waiting for The Twelve by Justin Cronin too. And I think I might try Sarah Rayne on your recommendation.
20 June 2012 at 11:05 am
Have just discovered the Mortal Engines series by Philip Reeve, which is quite a departure from my usual reading fare, and am gobbling my way through the lot.
I have also been enjoying Colin Cotterill’s Dr Siri mysteries. I wasn’t sure about starting his new JImm Juree series, but now I’m hanging out for the return of both Jimm and Siri.
20 June 2012 at 11:54 am
I love a good series – there is economy and comfort in understanding your characters from their previous escapades and a joy in seeing them develop over time. For a straight detective series with all those great characteristics, Sue Grafton’s Alphabet series (A is for Alibi etc…) is a strong recommendation, helped by placing it in the recent past and moving through time at the author’s pace, not the pace of the real world.
20 June 2012 at 4:56 pm
I agree! Picking up the next in a series, any good series, feels very much like dropping in to visit old friends that you haven’t seen for ages, and finding that you all still love each other – truly rewarding, particularly at a time when so much else around us in the city is changing.
21 June 2012 at 12:15 pm
The old friends aspect is the best thing about a series – not having to invest time in learning about a whole new set of characters is ideal for me, lazy and confused as I am. How long can I use life-changing events as an excuse to be so lazy and confused? My fave of all time is Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles. I used to re-read the earlier ones every time a new one came out, I’ve listened to it a few times on talking book and I swear the characters are more real to me than some people I actually know. A bit sad really. In adolescence it was the Jalna series by Mazo de la Roche – a whole shelf of the Avonside Girls’ High Library devoted to it but I think you had to be a sixth-former before you were allowed to borrow them.
21 June 2012 at 9:53 am
It can be an extreme winter reading challenge – a couple of years ago I read through Patrick O’Brien’s wonderful series with Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. This winter its Game of Thrones. A good series is hard to beat.