I think we've all come across at least one series that looked promising but somehow disappointed along the way. It's not something a writer intends to do but it happens. There's always that question of why. Is it because the reader anticipated something else? Did the writer stop listening to their own voice and try to please the masses? How does a series go wrong?
I've had two series go a little south on me, as a reader. The first was a series of books called The Dragon Quartet by Marjorie B. Kellogg. I missed The Book of Earth but I read The Book of Water and The Book of Fire. Both great books, and like all great series you didn't need to read Earth to follow the overall story (still mean to get it though). I remember being so excited when I discovered the final book, The Book of Air was released and tucked into it as soon as I bought it. But there was something...unsatisfying about it. At one point one of the characters started to change unexplicably and the whole ending just felt like he just threw up his hands and went with things with no real explanation as to how this change came about. And this was a character who was raging against saving the world when he was supposed to be helping. I love character shifts as much as the next person, but there was something missing from this character's transition. It almost felt like the author lost touch with the story, at least to me. It was really hard to pinpoint, but it was disappointing.
The second was the Tairen Soul series by C.L. Wilson. I fell in LOVE with the first book, Lord of the Fading Lands as well as Lady of Light and Shadows. C.L. Wilson is a great writer and the whole series was well-written. What kind of killed it for me (and I guess this would be a case of reader expectation) was the change in the main female character Ellysetta. I'm going to try not to spoil it too much, my mom adores this series and she re-reads them which is something she doesn't often do with books. In the first book Ellysetta is a very ordinary girl, and it's the first book I've read where there was an emphasis on this. When I say she was ordinary I mean that in every sense of the word; she's not a girl with low self-esteem who doesn't think much of herself, or a beauty everyone but her recognizes. She truly is ordinary and she has absolutely no problem with being plain. I loved this! I loved this so much I can't even explain! Especially since the male main character is described as being utterly gorgeous and romance blossoms between the two. It was a nice refreshing twist. So when she stopped being ordinary and plain it kind of made me lose some love for the story. I would have liked to have seen that continue throughout the whole books, despite the fact that the reason for her change makes sense and is very well explained. Also, I felt that some of the conflict between them and the antagonists in the book got really drawn out at times. Like I said, probably personal preference and I have yet to finish the series because of it. But my mom gives it two thumbs up, haha.
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