Beyond Reality discussion

I am cross posting this question in a couple of groups because it comes up all the time for me as I read so many sf and fantasy books that are in trilogies or even longer series. Do you have to re-read the prior books before tackling the current novel. I just read Oath of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon, which is a continuation of the Deed of Paksnarrion novels but involves other characters. Moon states in a forward that reading the earlier books is unnecessary because this novel is a different interpretation. However, it was a trifle difficult to follow who the characters were without having re-read the Deed of Paksnarrion again.

Or we have The Gathering Storm by Sanderson and Jordan that just came out. I happen to have read the last three Jordan books recently but focused primarily on Mat's story. Again without the refresher of reading the earlier volumes again, who can remember all of the characters.

What do you do. Do you re-read a book you finished two years before -- say Name of the Wind, before reading the new novel, or do you skip it and just read the new book fresh and hope that you can recall why you liked it.

This is one reason that I stopped reading Janny Wurts big series that started with Curse of the Mistwraith -- the time frame between books was so huge and each individual volume was so large that it was impossible at that time to keep everything straight.

Do you give up on authors who cannot get books out.

So my last few series here is what I did:

Oath of Fealty -- did not read prior novels
Gathering Storm -- read parts of prior novel
Bound in Blood by PC Hodgell -- read prior novel
Petrodor -- waited until two books were out and read back to back
Through Stone and Sea -- waited until two books were out and read back to back

What do you all do.

In the "old days" when I didn't have such a huge TBR, I used to reread previous books when a new one came out.

Since then, the TBR has expanded and I have developed CFS which makes reading harder than it used to be and has significantly affected my memory.

So these days, I need the refresher more, but I simply can't manage to find the time to reread earlier books. I tend to read the new one and hope there are enough reminder points in it for me to start remembering who the people are and what happened before.

One thing I'll also do is check Wikipedia. If I'm lucky, someone has put up a good enough synopsis of the earlier books to remind me of points before I start the next one. But that's very hit and miss.

I remember reading Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy years ago and he had a detailed "the story so far" at the beginning of the second and third books. It was great. You could read it for a reminder if you didn't recall the details of the previous book, or skip it and jump right in if you did.

In my increasing forgetful state, I really wish more books did that.

I gave up on Jordan's Wheel of Time series a few books back as I hadn't a clue who the characters were after more than a year; the last book I read I sat in front of my computer with a website which listed the characters and a bit about them. This is no way to read a book!! I don't know what to say about The name of the Wind; I loved the book but it has been so long, I don't remember that much about it anymore. How long has it been since George RR Martin's penultimate book in his series? A synopsis at the beginning is very helpful (but for WOT-it would have filled the entire book)

If the series is a continuous story, in which e.g. book 3 is a direct sequel to book 2, I often just re-read the last few chapters of the previous book to refresh my memory. That's usually sufficient to figure out who was where doing what at the end of the last book, and does a good job of putting me back into the atmosphere of the series. Like Kerry said, another option is trying to find plot summaries online somewhere, like Wikipedia. I love it when authors include a summary of "what happened before" in later books.

I do still re-read books, either for enjoyment or to refresh my memory. I definitely plan to re-read The Name of the Wind when the sequel (finally) comes out, just because the first book was such a blast. Regarding George R.R. Martin, I'm not buying or reading another book in his series until he finishes the whole thing. I enjoyed his books very much, but at this point the time between books is just getting ridiculous.

My current re-reading project (for www.tor.com) is the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson. It's so complex and so huge that I firmly believe it's impossible to grasp on a first reading. Especially the first book, Gardens of the Moon, just plain doesn't always make sense on the first read-through (which is unfortunate because it's turned many people off from an otherwise excellent series).

Back in 2000, when they said there was only one or two books left in the series I went back and reread all the books. It really enhanced my reading pleasure. Of course they lied and there were 3 more books, plus the 3 books by Sanderson. I think I will go back and reread the books after the next book comes out. So when the LAST book comes out it will make more sense.
I now dont start reading a series until the last book comes out. So I read the first 3 books Fire and Ice but I am now waiting till the last one comes out, maybe never they way its going, to read them.
I am doing the same with Malazan and the new Thomas Covenant series.

With few exceptions, I no longer start a series until all the books are published. I may buy them if they are creating a buzz and getting good reviews (like Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series or Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen), but I don't start reading them until the series is complete. The most recent exceptions were the Harry Potter books--those I read as they came out. And I'm working my way through the Discworld books, knowing there may be a few more of those yet to come.

Sometimes an author fakes you out--the Hitchhiker's Guide was a trilogy that grew, as was Le Guins Earthsea series. In those 2 cases, I reread the earlier books before tackling the newer ones. And then there are the Dune books--Frank Herbert's original books, then the prequels by his son & Anderson, and now the additional books I reread the orginal Dune books before reading the 6 prequels, but with the additional books I don't think I want to spend that kind of time.

The advantage to waiting is that I can read the whole series, one book after another or perhaps with a different book interspersed here & there, but basically all the books in a relatively short time span so I don't forget characters or plot developments.

The disadvantages are that everyone is raving about books I haven't read and I have to wait years for a series to be complete. Or I read what I think is a complete series, and the author chooses to go back and add some more!

I don't always re-read the series when the new book comes out. It depends upon several things.

The first is whether the books are closely linked. For instance, you don't need to re-read Discworld books.

The second is the amount of time between books. Usually if it is a year or less, I'll won't re-read the series when the new one comes out. I keep a reading general, and if I liked the book enough to get the rest in the series, then I can usually (at least up to a year) remember most of what happened.

The third is how long the series is. For instance, when the last two books of Michelle West's Sun Sword series were about to come out, I re-read the books before because it had been about 4-5 years since the first book came out and the books are good, but there are massiave amounts of characters. Strangely, I don't feel a need to do this when reading most UF series (such Harrison or Armstrong).

The only problem waiting for all the books to come out is whether the series has enough legs. I once met Janny Wurts along time ago but while she was writing the third book in the Curse of the Mistwraith series. My question to her was what do readers do when authors take a long time between books or there series somehow subdivides into different things. Her response if I recall was that you need to stick with it b/c if you do not buy them then they may not be out later on.

In case of Martin, I bought last book but didnt read it -- still waiting for second part 6 years later.

In case of Wurts -- stopped reading her series

IN case of Jordan -- I have bought every book but not last one -- took it out of library, but not going to go back and re-read 11 volumes -- only read 2, I only mostly pay attention to major characters -- the guy took bad guys who were dead and revived them under new names -- Dallas moment anyone, so I can only focus really on the 3 main girls and 3 main guys

I like to read them all at once. I get buried in whatever world I'm reading about and it's delicious. However, if the books are really, really good, I'll read them as they come out. Usually I'm hot to read the next as soon as I finish one, but if I wait, then I can wait for a long time. I've read the first R.R. Martin book and the other three are waiting on my bookshelf. I will read the next two and then wait on the fourth until five comes out.

I read the Honor Harrington books a while back, but lost interest in the series when he started spending so much time on space hardware. I really like her character, though.

I've just finished the Vorkosigan series, but skipped a few of the books which I plan to go back and read. It's not so necessary to read these books in order, as each is a stand alone piece.

Right now I'm reading the Sirantha Jax series by Ann Aguirre, and it's quite good.

I have a book by Janny Wurts and plan to read it soon, and have found so many great series to read on this website, I doubt if I'll have enough time in my life to read them all, lol.

Generally I don't reread the series, I find that it comes back to me as I read the next book. If the series was very involved and had a lot of characters (a la WOT) then I will reread it, as much because I enjoy it again as for following the plot. I think I've reread WOT four or five times now. I still like it!

In the case of Oath of Fealty I was fortunate to have just reread the Deed of Paksenarion before receiving Oath as a gift.

I stopped reading the Fire and Ice series because it got too dark for me (same with non-genre books by Patricia Cornwell and James Patterson).

If it's three books or less I can keep up, if more I have to like it enough to read it again.

Let me ask this. When I was younger I read a lot of sf where books were more standalone. But I constantly expanded the authors that I like -- although sometimes I guess we all have to stop reading someone because there is just a lot of good new stuff (in my case Feist and Brooks), and because with so many more authors that we look for there becomes less and less time to read other authors.

I also think age is a factor. I am 46 and I read about 2.5 books a week or 130 a year. When I was younger, unmarried and without kids, I read over 220 books a year.

Re-reading an entire series in order to read the latest book is just such a killer b/c it cuts significantly into my time for reading new books now. I think I did re-read the first volume of the WOT at least 4 times, but now, I am less inclined to do so b/c I just do not want to waste the time.



But I think in a

I generally pick up my favorite authors the instant they come out - and plunge in the moment I'm free, series or not. The ones I love best, I seem to pick straight back up without a problem.

There are a very few series I've re-read multiple times - Dorothy Dunnett's historical works are so very lush and complex, with such stunning twists that there is NO WAY to absorb everything in one go. Her stuff is well worth the investment, there's always nuance that leaves me breath-taken.

I'll re-read a comfort book to relax, or a complicated one, just to savor.

Jeffrey - a comment of yours struck me as just a tiny bit odd: I've produced my titles, steady on, every two years or so.... is it possible you have mistakenly thought I stalled out during the years, following a massive corporate merger, when my stuff was only available in Britain & Commonwealth, and not the USA/Canada? Just in case there could be a misapprehension - the titles that followed Peril's Gate are all reissued here, now. Should be no need to re-read. Any fact you need is presented with a new layer, stripped off, each story; if a name or place is forgotten, each volume's glossary is specifically updated for that book, so that all prior facts are inclusive. The last two books, third arc, have a time-line summary - because by then, the plot is converging extremely fast - the reference was provided only as needed.

Not your cuppa, no problem, just wished to lightly touch base, in case, to ascertain the record was straight.

Jeffrey said "I remember reading Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy years ago and he had a detailed "the story so far" at the beginning of the second and third books. ....You could read it for a reminder if you didn't recall the details of the previous book, or skip it and jump right in if you did.
In my increasing forgetful state, I really wish more books did that."

I find that to be preferable myself, as opposed to filling in the story arch throughout the 2nd or 3rd book which is sometimes naught but tedious.

I think I would like to reread but since I can't read all the time I don't. I go for the new over the old unless I run out of new and even then I usually just get more. And I haven't run out of new in a decade or so. I like the World of Time well enough to just muddle along. The Fire and Ice has been so slow that although I thought it was really good I've given up on it. Especially since it is rather dark for my tastes, as for Laura. I am much quicker to give up on an author than I used to be. I don't think I am going to run out of books anymore.

As others have said, I typically wait for a series to be done or very nearly done before beginning. I also pick up each book as it comes out, knowing I won't get to it for a while, even years (if ever!)

There are exceptions, of course. I was reading the Harry Potter series long before it was finished, and I just kept re-reading the books before each new one came out. Same thing with Jack McDevitt's two series. If I like an author enough, I won't bother waiting.

I'm glad to see someone else mention Tad Williams' synopses, because I also don't understand why more series don't include them. I think Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy had them, but I can't think of another author who routinely does this. It should be required!

It just comes down to the fact that I'm not going to remember what happened in previous books after a year or more away from a series, and being a fairly slow reader (50 books a year for me would be exceptional), I'd rather not spend too much time re-reading books just as a refresher.

Kevin Anderson did summaries in the seven suns series also.

I usually do re-read previous books before starting a new book in a series, for a number of reasons. First, I'm a pretty fast reader, so it doesn't take too much of my time (unless it's a monster epic, but I'll get to Martin in a minute!). Second, and probably a consequence of the fact that I do read so fast, I often miss things upon my first read of a book, so a second or third time through helps me make connections that I may have overlooked the first time. Third, I have an excellent memory for characters but not a very good memory for plot, so I generally need that refresher of what's happened before if there isn't a handy synopsis available.

And then, there's Martin. I do own the first four books of A Song of Ice and Fire, and each time a new one came out, I did re-read the earlier ones. At this point, I can't take it anymore... I'm going to wait until the entire series is finished, do one more re-read (may skip the first one since I've now read it enough times that I do remember it well enough) and then finish it all at once.

I have a lot of old favorite comfort books that I return to over and over to re-read as well - they're like visiting old friends! My three favorite fantasy series to re-read are Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books, David Eddings' Belgariad series, and Jennifer Roberson's Chronicles of the Cheysuli. Good escapist slightly fluffy fantasy (though the Roberson is a bit more serious) for stressful times. Oh, and also Tamora Pierce's Lioness books.

I have a lot of old favorite comfort books that I return to over and over to re-read as well - they're like visiting old friends

I hear that! My comfort series/books are the Liaden series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, The Company series by Kage Baker, any book by Connie Willis, off-genre but Lord Peter Wimsey novels by Dorothy Sayers, Name of the Wind by Rothfuss, Skolian series by Catherine Asaro. Also Vorkosigan series by Bujold, short stories by Theodore Sturgeon.

There are plenty of other books I like immensely, but these are the ones I return to.

Last two comments mentioned books I like and read, sometimes more than once, the Valdemar series I love. However I don't normally re-read books before the next one comes out. By the way, does anyone but me remember there was a youngster in Song of Ice and Fire who was crippled by a fall, still had his wolf and rode off into a forest and hasn't been heard of since.

I will do re-reads for good books simply because they are good books, and you get more out of each re-read. If it is a pulpish series that I just want to find out what happens, I'll read an on-line synopsis, or hope that the author has included one, or just bull on through with the next volume. Wheel of Time meandered so badly between books 7 to 10, and without a whole lot of character development, I will never re-read those books, so I just read the synopses.

Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is made for re-reads, because the plotting is so complex, the number of POVs is huge, and you get lost. Also, there are layers that are uncovered by re-reads. However, you can log on to http://www.towerofthehand.com/books/101/ and get chapter by chapter summaries of all the books. You could, in a day or so, brush up on the entire series when A Dance with Dragons finally gets published sometime in the next decade (6 years and counting, George (aaaw crap. There goes another Stark!)).

Janny Wurts's series The Wars of Light and Shadow, as she posted above, has been really, really regular, so I don't get Jeffrey's comments about not getting books out. Just about every 2 to 2.5 years we get a book, which is far better production than Martin, or Katherine Kerr's Deverry books. I've read them as they come out, and it is at 8 books, with the ninth coming next fall sometime. This series is made for re-reads too, as the plotting is incredibly complex, and the character development is astounding, without 50 billion POVs that explode the story line beyond belief (cough Martin cough Jordan cough). I have re-read the series three times, but more because it is so damn good than to get up to speed for the next book. With this series, there is always another layer of subtlety that is uncovered with a re-read.

Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen is also a demandingly complex series that does not engage in back story at all, so the reader has no clue of what is going on until the third volume (which I recently finished). Re-reading Erikson is a must, just to understand the story. I have not re-read Gardens of the Moon or Deadhouse Gates yet, but I will one day. I have found that I have to work a bit at reading this series, whereas with Martin and Wurts, comprehension comes much more easily. Erikson is also very dark and bloody, though more hopeful than Martin. At least he doesn't kill a favourite character with each turn of the page. With Martin, if you start liking somebody, that is as good as a death sentence (watch out for Jaime Lannister. He is becoming likeable and sympathetic. The knives will be out for him).

With other series, a re-read is simply not necessary, because certain series are not that complex (e.g. the Dragonlance stuff, anything by David Eddings, or Terry Goodkind's hopelessly trite Sword of Truth series (which I gave up on despite, or perhaps because of, its regularity). Wheel of Time is complex enough in the plotting, but books 7 through 10 could have been drastically cut down, and the series would now be finished.

Nophotu, to respond to your query, the youngster's name is Brandon (typically "Bran") Stark, and he is the second son of Eddard and Caitlyn Stark, and the disputed heir to Winterfell and the North. He should figure largely in the forthcoming A Dance With Dragons. And he did not "fall". He was thrown off a castle wall by Jaime Lannister (before he was likeable). Bran's younger brother, who is little more than a toddler, is Rickon, and they are together (as I recall), in the wilderness of the North.

Everyone's talking about series I've never heard of, and so I am finding lots of 'to be read' material here. I've only read the first Song of Fire and Ice, although I have the next three on my book case and am waiting to read until the lasst one comes out. Can't stand being left hanging. I have Janny's newest book and plan to read it in the near future. It will be my first of hers.

Re-reads: Depends on the series. I read A Game of Thrones about a decade ago. I plan to re-read it (or at least skim it!) before going on to A Clash of Kings . (And, clansman, thanks for the link!) The more complex the story, the more likely I am to re-read before going on to the next book in the series. Also, there are many, many series, including ones I've liked (like Song of Fire and Ice), where I've only read the first book in the series.