Scope
Continuing the post on Endings – the irony of which does not escape me – I had a thought: It’s not (usually) that I get tired of a series, it’s that the series changes out from under me.
Many stories (not just LitRPG) start with the struggles of our intrepid hero. As he overcomes those struggles, he becomes intrepider. At some point, when he becomes intrepidest, the story changes. It’s not just about that character any longer. It’s about what the character is leading. If he’s just hanging out by himself, he’s not the intrepidest; he’s just some hermit in the woods (and even that doesn’t always work out).
When He Who Fights with Monsters became He Who Saves Worlds, I lost interest. When the Ultimate Level 1 ascended to godhood (at level 1, of course), I lost interest. When Battlemage: Farmer went back to Battlemage: World Saver, I lost interest.
Wine of the Gods has avoided this by hellacious point-of-view switching. Our Intrepid Hero (Xen) went from not born to main character to special guest star. It worked by staying in the same universe (mostly) and “starting over” with new heroes. It also helps that most of Xen’s extended family are major characters, too. That makes it easy to “branch” the story without losing the world building.
The Maxwell Saga avoided this due to the “obvious” progression from mercenary grunt to mercenary leader. The Stiger Chronicles is much the same, although legionnaire and a great deal bloodier.
Trader’s Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper avoided this by changing the series name. The same characters continue, but in a new series (SC Marva Collins, I think) wherein they are power brokers, not “just folks”.
Destiny’s Crucible avoided this by not avoiding it but rather diving into it from the start. If fighting grand battles on the world stage is not what you’re after, you won’t finish book one.
Expeditionary Force didn’t avoid this, but also didn’t lose me (although the last book came close; not sure if that is still the last book because I haven’t gone back). I think the sheer insanity of the whole thing kept me going. I can’t (at least “yet”) write that.
There are a few authors I read who write in multiple worlds/universes simultaneously. (Sean Oswald and Michael Anderle come to mind). Aside from annoying me because it delays the next book in the series I’m reading, I don’t have the skill for that. I’m confused enough keeping things coherent on Chapter Five of Book One.
This is why I like the series title of Pack Rising. Once the pack has risen, it’s time for a new series (Pack Ascendant) and there is room for an interlude (Wolf Tales from the Golden Age of the Pack, which I won’t actually use; it’s too long), which may spin off into who knows how many things.
A final example that I like: Family Law “spun into” the April series. It was clearly in the same universe (same tech, same planets, etc…). It was not clearly related. The relationship came fairly late in the Family Law series (book five? six?), which resulted in more books in the April series. I assume that was planned on the author’s side. It was a wonderful surprise for this reader. To contrast, in Ithria, the Kyron books and the Taroniah books alternated and I was waiting for them to meet for thirteen books! I don’t like that “technique”, not to mention that I thought they’d be romantically involved but they both got married long before meeting (unromantically).
To be fair, right now Wu Pen is Chekhov’s gun. I mention him at the start of chapter one and I have no intention of circling back to him until at least book four. Everyone else mentioned is going to show up in book one.
Marked Up 