One thing I’ve learned while reading is that there are several different types of series. The first type is one long storyline that unfolds over the course of the books. What I like about this one is that the story can develop into an incredibly rich, full-bodied epic with complex characters, deep connections, and a particular brand of immersion that can cause a wicked hangover when it ends. The author has an opportunity to slowly introduce a large world and history piece by piece, instead info dumping. Not that info dumping is bad, necessarily, but if it’s not done right, it can be overwhelming. The trickiest part of these series is keeping a reader’s interest. Sometimes by book three, the plot has devolved into so much redundancy that you just simply get bored. If it’s done well, the author will balance quiet, character building moments with loud, driving action. These are my favorite.
Another series type takes place in the same world, but each book focuses on a different character. A lot of times the next story is subtly (not so subtly) queued up towards the end of the story. You know what I mean. It’s fun to see characters from previous books make appearances in later books. The world gets to expand a bit more and you get to understand why the side character from a previous book acted the way they did. Often the timeline advances from book to book, but Sara Cate, the author of The Salacious Players Club series, did something really cool. She started each book in the same exact moment, but wrote the perspective from each different character, about which that book was focused. The timeline of each book in this series ultimate does advance from where the other left off, but the first chapter of each is that one moment, seven years ago when the idea for the SPC was born.
So now you’re probably wondering when I’m going to get to the point already and talk about the title of this post. Okay. The third series type is the interconnected series, which is represented by many different individual book series that connect together and make up the same world. This. Type. Intimidates. Me. But I am SOOOO intrigued by it. There are several that I want to list here, but for the sake of brevity, I will focus on one. The ultimate. The Great White Whale. The Shadowhunters epic by Cassandra Clare. Let me break it down for you. In total there are 21 books, from 5 series and 4 stand alones.
A couple years ago I bought most of this bundle thinking I was ready to spend the summer tackling it. I read the first in The Mortal Instruments series, City of Bones and just never returned. Don’t get me wrong, this book was excellent. I loved the magic system, the world, the characters (main and side), and wanted to know how it was going to develop. I just went on to other things. But it’s been scratching at the back of my lizard brain lately, so I might embark once again. Maybe now that I have a blog I will bring you along on the journey with me. Those posts might have spoilers though, so I’m not sure if I want do that to you. More to come.
As we always do, here’s the call to action paragraph. What are your favorite types of series to read? Have you ever read an interconnected series? What is your GWW? Have you tackled it yet and, if not, what is holding you back? Gentle reminder, please don’t comment any spoilers! Or if you do, preface your comment with clear indicators for the spoilers.
Swoon 
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