[ndhaon91]

... do you like to read all available books in a given series before moving on to the next series, or do you bounce around?

just curious. i'll probably finish Martin's "Clash of Kings" tonight, and could easily dive right into the next book. but i have Erikson and Bakker sitting here as well, neither of whom I've read yet. decisions decisions...

[Evil Agent]

In a situation like yours, I would continue with Martin. Especially since the next book, Storm of Swords, is so good.

Plus Erikson's books are excellent, but pretty complex; the world is staggering and often confusing, and you will definitely need to devote a fair amount of time and attention to them. I've heard Bakker is a bit challenging as well. So it depends how you feel about diving into a new complex series.

[Legend]

You need to know who's who. Finish Martin, and you'll find after 2700 pages you've subconsciously memorised the whole cast and can appreciate what happens. Martin throws in the asnwer to several intrigues subtlely in somepne else's chapter, so it pays to pay attention.

Erikson . . . don't even think about stop-starting him. Read at least the first three books after each other. The 2nd explaisn the first, and the third picks up after the second. Just remember: give him the benefit of the doubt! He's not afraid to kill the best, most lovable names to you. But he's a damn bugger.

What you think you've seen happen . . . can change by next book. The surprises are outstanding!

[Jack]

I have a very hard time reading a series straight through, but I try not to put too much time inbetween books in a series. For example, I read Bakker's Darkness, and then read two more books, then read The Warrior Prophet. So the plot line was still incredibly fresh in my mind.

Having said that, I tend to be a character/plot sponge, especially when it comes to fantasy. It will typically take a few years for me to truly go fuzzy on certain plotlines and characters.

[Brys]

I'd say that the easiest series of these three to stop-start is Bakker - for the simple reason that at the start of the books after the Darkness that Comes Before, he writes a brief summary of the previous book in a chapter entitled what comes before, which was really useful in refreshing my memory when reading the Warrior Prophet. Erikson has a huge cast, but as his books have proper conclusions at the end of each, and the story jumps in time and place between books (so DG and MoI take place at the same time, but are on different continents), stopping and starting is a bit easier. With Martin, it's easiest just to keep reading them, or you probably will start to forget some of the characters and plot details, especially as all the books seem to merge into one storyline.

[Wulfa_Jones]

It depends... but most of the time if I get hooked by the first couple of books I'll read everything in that series.

[farnés]

I'm right at the beginning of my discovery of fantasy so I have a lot of finished or unfinished but allready quite long series to choose from.
I find myself reading a whole series at once when I'm enjoying it but not getting that excited about it. That way I've read it, so I can put that behind me.

Then the things I read on this forum give me an overall feeling that the real good series are quite scarse, so when I finally come upon a series that excite me and get me that nice warm feeling, I try to read other "new" books inbetween. I'm just scared to have read all the good stuff by the end of next year (allthough somewhere I do believe that won't really happen).

Right now I'm halfway through A Clash of Kings and allthough the encouragements in the previous posts to just stick with Martin for now sound reasonable, I don't know if I will. Knowing there's more of it waiting for me, feels really good. It makes me smile.

[Iskaral Pust]

Personally I perfer to mix things about, I rarely read two books in the same series after each other. I guess I just enjoy the variety more.

[U-Borat]

I prefer finishing a whole series, becase i read so much that i tend to forget the character casts unless i read them in quick succession.

[KatG]

I bounce around. It's kind of like eating foods. If I read straight through a series, I'm gorging on one thing and it might make me ill. It can get too intense. :) Switching to another author gives me the chance to sample different styles, characters and stories, and then come back to the first author with a fresh eye.

Of course, the tricky part is if you go for a really long time before you pick up the next book in the series, especially if the author is doing one long continuation. I'm working on Jordan's latest and though he throws in lots of orienting info for you, it's hard to remember who's who of his giant cast or what happened before. But then I'm about done with Jordan anyway.