I’m having thoughts about how to restructure these posts (again) to make them more manageable, but that’s a project for the new year and the next update; for now, I’ll stick to the format I’ve established. A few more “Oh, I forgot I was reading this series” books have been added, found when I was digging through my TBR for other reasons–I’ve accepted that I’m never going to have this concept fully organized, because some first-in-series books are probably always going to slip through the cracks of my memory, especially when I didn’t realize they were part of a series to begin with (or became so after I read them, in some cases.)
The final stats: I’m currently enmeshed in 21 series (15 active, 6 on hold while I wait for the next book.) I don’t have a firm count on series I own but haven’t started, because the list here is incomplete. As for series I’m now no longer reading, that’s also 21 total: 4 actually finished and the others started but abandoned. I’m willing to give authors a try, but I won’t commit to reading a whole series when I’m not interested!
Whatever goal I set myself for 2021, I’ve got to get this under better control. The problem is, for a lot of these series I need to buy books in order to continue reading, but 2020 was the big year of Not Buying Books so that I could work through my backlog. I acquired 32 new books this year, but first of all, most of them were free (thank you, Tor newsletter), and second, most of the ones that weren’t, I bought and read immediately for my indie book club. Next year I don’t think I’ll have to be so restrictive, so I can earmark some of my book budget for continuing series.
Waiting for the Next Book to Be Published
- The Kingkiller Chronicles (Patrick Rothfuss)
- A Song of Ice and Fire (George R.R. Martin)
- The Archived (Victoria Schwab)
- The Boss (Abigail Barnette)
- The Kiss Quotient (Helen Hoang)
- Cyclone (Courtney Milan)
Series in Progress (books read/total books)
- Preacher: 1/9 (Garth Ennis)
- The Expanse: 5/8 (James S.A. Corey) [progress]
- Elemental Blessings: 3/4 (Sharon Shinn)
- The Memoirs of Lady Trent: 2/5 (Marie Brennan)
- Irin Chronicles: 3/7 (Elizabeth Hunter)
- The Giver: 1/4 (Lois Lowry)
- Foolish Kingdoms: 1/4 (Natalia Jaster)
- Brothers Sinister: 3/7 (Courtney Milan) [progress]
- The Bromance Book Club (Lyssa Kay Adams): 1/2
- Reluctant Royals (Alyssa Cole): 1/3
- The Brown Sisters (Talia Hibbert): 1/2
- The Kingston Cycle (C.L. Polk): 1/2
- True North (Sarina Bowen): 1/7
- Bad Habits (Staci Hart): 1/3
- Shanghai Girls (Lisa See): 1/2
I Own The First One (or More) But Haven’t Started Yet
- Shadowmarch (Tad Williams)
- Nightrunner (Lynn Flewelling)
- The Falconer (Elizabeth May)
- Griffin Mage (Rachel Neumeier)
- Book of the Order (Phillippa Ballantine)
- Wayward Children (Seanan McGuire)
- Firekeeper Saga (Jane Lindskold)
- The Vagrant (Peter Newman)
- Dreamer Trilogy (Maggie Stiefvater)
- The Interdependency (John Scalzi)
- Brooklyn Brujas (Zoraida Córdova)
- Remembrance of Earth’s Past (Liu Cixin)
- Hidden Legacy (Ilona Andrews)
- Danielle Cain (Margaret Killjoy)
- and probably some more because the Tor Newsletter gives me a lot of free first-in-series books, plus all those romances I couldn’t possibly list
Off My List in 2020
- Red Rising Saga (Pierce Brown) — DNF’d the first book, can’t/won’t go on
- Micah Grey (Laura Lam) — read the first one, gave it 3/5 stars, but the story ended on a weird cliffhanger I didn’t like, don’t really want to go on
- Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs) — read the first one, gave it 2/5 stars, have no interest in continuing
- The Edge (Ilona Andrews) — FINISHED
- Waverley Family (Sarah Addison Allen) — FINISHED
- The Bone Witch (Rin Chupeco) — read the first one, rated it 2/5 stars, too frustrated with its flaws to want to go on, despite some curiosity about the way it ended
- Regency Reimagined (Megan Mulry) — read the prequel novella and first novel, gave both 2/5 stars, not worth my time to continue
- In Stilettos (Nana Malone) — finished the first one, DNF’d the second, both were poorly edited
- Shades of Love (Tracey Livesay) — read the first two books, both were full of plot holes, looks like the third book is based on an amnesia plot so nope-nope-nope
- Wallflowers (Lisa Kleypas) — read the prequel novella years ago, not realizing it was even in this series; read the first novel, it was okay, but I don’t like Regency romances enough to keep reading “okay” ones
- Gentleman Bastard (Scott Lynch) — author behaving badly in public
- Wildwood (Juliet Marillier) — read the first one, gave it 2/5 stars. As the second book is a sequel focusing on a different character (one of the sisters, meh) I’m not going on with this
- The Matheson Brothers (Joanne Wadsworth) –One of the many unlisted romance series I had lying around. The first book was a glorified novella that made me laugh when I wasn’t supposed to be laughing. No need to read any further.
- The Doms of Her Life (multiple authors) — Another romance series I won’t be bothering with after the first one.
- Dive Bar (Kylie Scott) — The first book was better than many other romance novels in series on my abandoned list, but still not gripping enough to make me keep going.
- Imperial Radch (Ann Leckie) — FINISHED
- No Ordinary Star (M.C. Frank) — After reading the first two (3 stars/1 star reviews) I’m no longer invested enough to finish.
- Dread Nation (Justina Ireland) — Read the first one, 3 stars. I ended it on the fence about whether I’d read its sequel, but reviews for it seem to have readers who loved the first book disappointed by the second. And I didn’t love the first book, so…
- Realms of the Elderlings (Robin Hobb) — FINISHED after three years!
- The Hangman’s Daughter (Oliver Pötzsch) — Did not like it, won’t be going on
- Yellowstone Romance (Peggy L. Henderson) — Wow, that first book was not great, and it’s my second not-great read by that author, so this is a no
