[Perry] Reading Unfinished Series…es

Okay, before I begin, Steve signal?

How do you pluralize “series”? oO

Anyway, long and unfinished works, what’re your strategies? I found myself on the horns of dilemma recently when I turned my attention back to the Expanse science fiction books by James SA Corey (it’s a pseudonym used by a pair of writers).

I had read the first three as they came out but the series had dropped off my radar for a while and I suddenly was smacked in the face with book four, which was apparently out and glorious.

Then I found myself in a bit of a predicament.

Thing was, it’d been a while since I read the first three books, I didn’t remember them all that well. I had the general gist of the story, but a lot of the specifics had been blurred over time.

So what was I to do?

I could either read just the latest book and hope that the familiarity of the world and characters would jog the important things back to mind when I needed them.

Or? I could read just the last book (book 3), and rely on that to do all the memory jogging and then charge forward into book four.

Or? The nuclear option? I could just go right back to the beginning and read the series straight through from the beginning.

In this case, I went with option three.

I remembered the books being really good, and now that I didn’t have Goodreads pressuring me to reach my goal of 80 new books read for the year? I had the time and the lackadaisical pleasure of reading whatever the hell I wanted.

And I’m enjoying the hell out of my reread of the series. It’s a hell of a rip-roaring, space opera adventure mixed with elements of the macabre and a film noire vibe at places.

But it got me thinking.

What do other people do in this situation?

There are other series I’m reading that are still ongoing. Some of them? I’ve essentially given up on so it’s a moot point now (coughWheelofTimecoughcough). With other ones? I enjoy reading them so much that I’ve read and reread the series over and over again so that when a new book comes out, I’m still completely up to date on what’s happening (Dresden files/Monster Hunters International).

But what do you guys do?

Surely there must be some of you out there in the midst of a series that’s yet to be complete.

When a new book comes out, do you reread the whole series? Or maybe just the previous book? Do you just jump into the latest book blind? Or maybe seek out plot summaries and such online?

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