The Cases For and Against Long Fantasy Fiction Series
Multiple book series are the mainstay of the fantasy genre. Many reasons explain this common format for fantasy literature, including tradition, reader demand, and publisher business models.
The very nature of most fantasy stories demands more than one book to fully tell the story. An epic is not something short and simple. A story like JRR Tolkien’s famous Lord of the Rings needed to be a trilogy of books. This trilogy largely defined the fantasy genre and created a reader base with an appetite for long adventures that spanned several volumes. In addition to Tolkien, fantasy’s roots come from the pulp publications of the 1920s and 1930s, where authors like Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan, left a deep mark on the fantasy genre with an epic hero that thrilled readers with numerous adventures published over time in newspapers. Another notable 20th century fantasy writer was Edgar Rice Burroughs, who wrote Tarzan and the Martian Chronicles. All of these early fantasy fiction writers contributed to the expectation of plots that supported long, continuous narratives.
Multi-book series typically follow the fantasy genre well because once readers find a writer, character, cast of characters, and fantasy setting they enjoy, they naturally want more of the same. Other genres, especially mystery, also share this adaptability to series.
Long-running fantasy fiction series are also attractive to publishers. For starters, once author recognition has been established, it’s easier to market multiple works by the same fantasy writer instead of continually introducing unknown authors of new fantasy books. When a fantasy writer achieves a successful book, it is almost mandatory for the author to continue the story into a series in order to achieve more book sales. This model works very well for publishers because subsequent novels in a fantasy series require decreasing amounts of marketing dollars because author name recognition and a reader base have been established.
Under such circumstances, the long series of fantasy books seems to be a win-win situation for readers and publishers. Fantasy readers get a lot of books to enjoy and publishers can sell more books. A problem arises when this model is stretched. Success inevitably leads to the temptation to push the boundaries of the business model. If a story can be told well in five books, stretching it out to seven books might work as well, right? Maybe, maybe not. What started out for the reader as an exciting read can gradually wind down and bring returns with no end in sight.
Speaking for myself and probably other readers, I think that no matter how much you’re enjoying a story, you still want it to end. Readers want to know what happens to their favorite characters. They want to know how the bad guys lose, or if they lose. Using narrative terminology, a story is supposed to be an arc. It begins, rises, and then descends to a conclusion that hopefully satisfies the reader. Even Odysseus returned home after 20 years.
Another problem that can arise with fantasy series is the long wait between novels. Writing novels definitely takes time, but when a book is written to satisfy the whims of a business model rather than tell a story to readers, the years continue to drag on as readers go by without learning what ultimately happens. Of course, this problem is alleviated for readers who start a series that is already complete and all the books, including the final book, are published. Therefore, older fantasy series appeal to both readers and publishers. Readers can read the full story without long waits, and publishers can keep selling series for decades to come.
However, until a series ends, readers caught up in the development of the series must wait for each installment. Right now, many fantasy readers are waiting for the next book in George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. This is a tremendously good series, and I was engrossed with the first three novels and pounced on the fourth book when it came out in 2005, but then I felt like something had changed. Martin’s fourth book, A Feast for Crows, began to introduce new subplots and left everything fascinating about the epic in a holding pattern. All the interesting characters and stories were left hanging until, presumably, the fifth book. I had the clear feeling that they were playing me slow. Of course, the fourth book was captivating enough to leave me wanting to read the fifth, but now I’m on my guard. If the next book in the series still doesn’t satisfy me, I might lose interest in what was an astonishingly well-written epic on a grand scale for the first three books.
How many books should a series have? At what point does an epic fantasy turn from exciting to tedious because the storytelling has been subverted by the commercial need to extract more books from the concept? The answers to these questions are subjective. A series that is dragging on for some readers may be interesting enough for other readers. The fantasy book series is a good publishing business model, but all systems have their limits. Publishers are certainly smart business people and I’m sure they crunch the numbers and produce the number of books that will make the most money. Essentially, my opinion is that more weight should be given to good storytelling rather than unnecessarily stretching out successful series just to sell more books. If a great epic can be told in six volumes, do so and don’t spread it over twelve books.