I do love a good series but there are a couple I've started that I just won't ever get around to finishing. Here are four series that I'm sorry to say I won't be finding out the endings to:
A Song of Ice and Fire. I started off reading the books after watching a couple of series of Game of Thrones but two books into the series I just couldn't go any further. While I do think watching and reading the series at the same time is a little pointless I just found the sheer complexity of characters and scope of the tale a little hard to remember through the books. I needed some type of flow chart to keep track of all the characters and if I'm honest the television series is so much easier. Plus theres John Snow in the flesh so, ya know, it's kind of a no brainer.
Tomorrow When The War Began. This is a fantastic series for young adults and while I read and loved the first three (or four?) books in the series about fifteen years ago and always had the intention of reading the entire series, each book got progressivly worse in my opinion. For those who don't know the series is based around a group of young Australians who head out into a remote area camping and when they return to their hometown find it has been invaded by a European military regime. I loved the first few books as the characters faced survival in the bush, fighting the enemy and trying to save the ones they loved who have been taken prisoner by the invading army. I think this is the type of series that was intended to have three or four books and then as it grew in popularity was extended, as in each novel the story got more and more far fetched. At one point the characters are saved by the Australian army and taken in refuge to New Zealand but then are taken back to Australia to help fight the enemy, which is just all kinds of ridiculousness. I thoroughly recommend reading books 1-3 though if you are after an adventurous read with brilliant characters.
Outlander. Another series that I abandoned as I found each book to be more and more unbelievable. I really enjoyed the story of wartime nurse Claire Randall who accidentally time travels two hundred years into the past and finds herself as an unwanted English visitor in uprising Scotland. I feel like books 1-3 had a point, although Diana Gabaldon does revel in telling each and every detail of her characters which can get tedious. I actually can't believe this series is still being written as I gave up half way through the fourth book as I just thought there wasn't much of an end goal in reading anymore and it felt pretty repetitive!
The Bronze Horseman. I loved this wartime romance book but part of me really wanted the love story to end happily in the Bronze Horseman and I was pretty disappointed when there were two more books in the series to complete Tatiana and Alexander's story. I felt like their connection having survived an epic separation during the Russian winters was enough exploring of the two characters. For me it was a perfect read and would have been nicely summed up with the ending of this book, I'm not sure what more their characters have to give to a new storyline or if the second and third books will be a rehashing of the same emotions but under slightly different circumstances.
The Given Day. This book by Dennis Lehane is actually one of my favourites to read which is why I'm not sure if I want to ruin my love for the character of Danny Coghlain by reading the next two in the series. Part of me doesn't want a character I love to be put through the ringer again so I'm still debating whether to continue reading or just pretend that he lives happily ever after in the first book. For those who haven't read, The Given Day is a historical fiction novel set in Boston after the first world war. Danny the son of a police chief goes undercover to infiltrate a workers union but soon finds he believes in their cause. It's a fantastic stand alone novel even if like me you are not sure about reading the entire series!
What series have you abandoned part way through? If you have any thoughts on series that are must reads I'd love to know too!
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