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I'm back with a new question for you guys. And before I start I'm going to say that it will take a bit of explaining on my part, and it's probably going to sound confusing as hell when I start, so just bear with me, okay? Here's the thing. I'm trying to figure out the difference between a series of books, and books that have the same main character, but wouldn't necessarily be defined as a series. I'll call this second type "continuing adventures" for lack of a better term. I don't know if this makes a lot of sense, so allow me to explain. When I say a series, I'm talking about things like The Hardy Boys, The Alphabet Mysteries by Sue Grafton ( A Is For Alibi...), Death On Demand by Carolyn Hart, and The Cat Who... mysteries by Lillian Jackson Braun. When I say continuing adventures, I'm talking about books like the ones by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child that feature Special Agent Pendergast, the Shane Schofield books by Matt Reilly, or the Harry Bosch books by Michael Connelly. And then there are others, like the Alex Cross books by James Patterson ( Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls), the Temperance Brennan books by Kathy Reichs, or the Dubric Byerly mysteries by Tamara Siler Jones, that I'm not sure about which category they belong in. Is the difference merely in the marketing of the book? Or is the difference inherent in the writing? Or does the way the book is marketed affect the way the writing is perceived? One of the main differences that I see between the two is that a series tends to be lighter in tone - if it's a mystery series, they all tend to be cozy mysteries - and I'm never particularly concerned that any of the main characters are going to be knocked off in some gruesome fashion. I feel relatively safe in assuming that they'll all be back for the next installment with their sanity and all their various appendages intact. On the other hand, with continuing adventures, I usually have a real sense of impending doom, and am never certain if anyone is going to make it out alive. This, of course, is just one of the things that I've noticed seems to differentiate between the two types of books. But I'm sure there are many others that I haven't taken into consideration. Can anyone weigh in on this? I'd be grateful for any insight you guys could offer. Tags: books, writing
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I have this problem with starting things and never finis... Just kidding. Sort of. With books I'm especially bad. I'll have as many as five or six on the go at any one time, which is a pain in the ass. It's also why I haven't updated this in quite a while. Anyway, here's a few more books for the 50 Books list. 4. Mint Julep Murder by Carolyn G. Hart. This is a good one for lovers of traditional mysteries like Christie and Sayers. 5. A Little Class on Murder also by Carolyn G. Hart. 6. Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz. NOT one of his better books. People accuse King of verbal diarrhea, but he's got nothing on Koontz in this one. 7. Brother Odd also by Dean Koontz. This one was much better. It's the third book about the continuing adventures of Odd Thomas. Not as good as the first, which was Odd Thomas but better and more mysterious than Forever Odd. If you're interested, definitely read them in order. 8. Area 7 by Matthew Reilly. Lots of Action, and quite fun. Second in the adventures of Shane Schofield. 9. Scarecrow also by Matthew Reilly. This is the third Schofield adventure. LOTS MORE ACTION. Still fun, but a fair bit darker than the second book. 10. Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris. A good read. Fun, a bit darker than I was expecting, and a bit more serious, but definitely worth checking out. Tags: 50books, books
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Well, I've been doing a fair bit of reading so far this year. I'm in the middle of three or four books right now, and my To Read pile just grew considerably. I've been trawling the used book stores in my area for King and Koontz lately, and my search today yielded a few Koontz books that I'd completely forgotten about. On the other hand, the one book I went looking for, Stephen King's It, was not to be found. Anyway, here's the list of Books Read in 2007 so far... 0. The Regulators, Richard Bachman. It's 0 on the list, rather than 1, because I started it on New Year's Eve, so I can't really count it, but it was really good, so I think it deserves a mention. 1. Cell, Stephen King. The Master of Horror takes on Zombies. What more can I say? 2. To The Power Of Three, Laura Lippman. Not bad, but not as good as I was hoping. Everything got tied up nicely by the end, but it wasn't particularly satisfying. Also, the backstory scenes seemed to take forever to read, and weren't worth the effort for what you got out of them. Shaving about 75 pages off this sucker's 412-page length would do wonders. 3. Sensei, John Donohue. A nice quick read, especially in comparison to that last one. This guy isn't going to win any literary awards, but he weaves a credible, suspenseful plot, and his protagonist is genuinely likeable, if somewhat naive. Tags: 50books, books
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[ETA: Uh, yeah... That cut thing? Still not working.]Top ten favorite books. 1. Lightning by Dean Koontz 2. Mystery of the Dead Man's Riddle by William Arden 3. Skywatcher by Winona Kent 4. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin 5. Howliday Inn by James Howe 6. The Regulators by Richard Bachman 7. Stones by William Bell 8. The Judas Child by Carol O'Connell 9. Big Trouble by Dave Barry 10. Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard ( The rest of the meme... )Tags: books
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