I've noticed something very similar to your complaint, in which the series get stale after a while. However, I will highly highly recommend The Dresden Files books as a rare example of a series improving with each book. Some aren't as good as others, but the 9th blew me away. His writing got better (the first two are rather weak, but from what I understand they were for a creative writing class and he was learning).
The characters also start developing in awesome directions. He took an interesting approach, adding "elements" to his Chicago (mob boss, the faerie courts, the vampire courts, some personal friends) and kind of combines them into different stories. One character pops up then doesn't come back for a bit—but in the meantime, the character's grown and changed. I think you'd really love the series, I know you liked the show. To me, the show wasn't more than a mid-level diversion that could've gotten cool given the chance. The writers made some changes that were good for a tv audience (Bob's my main example, in the book he's a sprite similar to The Tempest's Ariel, rather than a ghost), and sometimes the books can be on shaky ground, but overall they are fantastic. I can't wait for the next one :)
I, sadly, did not read past A Game of Thrones :( I know it's the adult fantasy series of the early 21st century but... medieval fantasy makes my teeth hurt. I read way too much of it growing up, to the near-exclusion of everything else. And what I read of the first book didn't catch me as I'd expected it to from the reviews.
Of course, I don't have the song here at work, I'll email it to you when I get home.
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Date: 2007-09-28 02:01 pm (UTC)I've noticed something very similar to your complaint, in which the series get stale after a while. However, I will highly highly recommend The Dresden Files books as a rare example of a series improving with each book. Some aren't as good as others, but the 9th blew me away. His writing got better (the first two are rather weak, but from what I understand they were for a creative writing class and he was learning).
The characters also start developing in awesome directions. He took an interesting approach, adding "elements" to his Chicago (mob boss, the faerie courts, the vampire courts, some personal friends) and kind of combines them into different stories. One character pops up then doesn't come back for a bit—but in the meantime, the character's grown and changed. I think you'd really love the series, I know you liked the show. To me, the show wasn't more than a mid-level diversion that could've gotten cool given the chance. The writers made some changes that were good for a tv audience (Bob's my main example, in the book he's a sprite similar to The Tempest's Ariel, rather than a ghost), and sometimes the books can be on shaky ground, but overall they are fantastic. I can't wait for the next one :)
I, sadly, did not read past A Game of Thrones :( I know it's the adult fantasy series of the early 21st century but... medieval fantasy makes my teeth hurt. I read way too much of it growing up, to the near-exclusion of everything else. And what I read of the first book didn't catch me as I'd expected it to from the reviews.
Of course, I don't have the song here at work, I'll email it to you when I get home.