The list is growing...

Good -- thank you! :) For the "like," too, of course!

My pleasure...

Isn't the Earthsea trilogy a.....well, trilogy ? 1) A Wizard of Earthsea, 2) The Tombs of Atuan, 3) The Farthest Shore.

You are right. The Earthsea Cycle series have 6 books, one named as The Earthsea Trilogy and another one as The Earthsea Quartet.

I have also found some trilogies which have only 2 books. Quite ambiguous, isn't it?

Actually, the Earthsea cycle includes 5 novels and a bunch of short stories.

Just to understand, because I haven't read it myself: Are there any books in the Earthsea cycle that are more like The Hobbit or The Silmarillion to The Lord of the Rings than any of the 3 parts of The Lord of the Rings are to each other? If there are, how closely are they related to the other books?

Can a reasonable case be made for four books within the Earthsea cycle to stand apart from the others (similar to the way that the 3 books of The Lord of the Rings stand apart from The Hobbit and The Silmarillion)? If not, great series though it may be, I'm afraid I'm going to have to delete the Earthsea book(s). I've expressly stated in the list description that "Tetralogy" is to be taken literally, i.e., FOUR books -- not five, six, three plus three or, for that matter, three plus one.

The Earthsea cycle is composed of the original trilogy, plus 2 extra novels set a few decades after the original trilogy (making it a quintet), and the short stories, which are best read after the fourth book. I don't really see how you could count it as a quartet. I LOVE those books, but I would never put them on this list.

Thank you -- from your explanations, I take it that it's actually more like 3 + 2 + 1 (the "1" being the short stories)?

From The Farthest Shore: "Ged is done with doing now; henceforth he will simply be." (probably not verbatim).

Looked into it -- no, definitely not a tetralogy. Regretfully deleted.

FWIW, I've also deleted the omnibus edition of The Master of Hestviken, because the same series is already represented on this list by its first book, The Axe. Could I invite those who've voted for the omnibus edition to vote for The Axe instead, so we actually do keep it within the "1 book per series" idea? Thanks in advance!

I would keep it within the "1 book per series" otherwise we will have huge lists which don't show their real dimension.

Laura wrote: "I would keep it within the "1 book per series" otherwise we will have huge lists which don't show their real dimension."

Yes -- that's the idea! :)

FWIW, I've created another list specifically for series comprising six books, and have entered the Earthsea cycle there: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/42...

I just voted in this list.

So I saw. Thank you! :)

:O)

Two on the list really aren't applicable:

1. Agatha Christie's MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT was a stand-alone, not part of ANY series.

2. Dorothy L. Sayers' Wimsey stories have far more than four novels in the series

otherwise, very interesting list T-A, thanks for setting it up.

Abbey wrote: "Two on the list really aren't applicable:

1. Agatha Christie's MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT was a stand-alone, not part of ANY series.

2. Dorothy L. Sayers' Wimsey stories have far more than four novel..."

They're both there for a reason.

Man in the Brown Suit is the first of the four books featuring Colonel Race. They weren't released as a series, true, but have widely come to be considered one in the interim.

Strong Poison is the first of the four novels completed by Sayers herself featuring the story of/relationship between Lord Peter and Harriet Vane. Most Sayers fans consider them a series within the series (I certainly do).

Thanks for replying to my comment! Agree with you re. Wimsey/Vane novels, but thought list was concerned with an entire series equalling four, not a sub-set. My mistake.

However, "IMO" (grin) Col. Race, is one of the "lesser characters" in the Christie stories. Unlike even Battle we never actually "go along" with him in the solving of a crime - in the stories he shows up, he's always awfully peripheral, isn't he? Pulling strings behind the scenes but not really detecting, unless you count his Spymaster-type activities. Battle does occasionally take center stage for a brief period in some of "his" stories but unless my memory has gone completely wonky (possible...) he never really "detects" in a story, ykwim? Yes, I know he "helps" Poirot in DEATH ON THE NILE but you'd hardly call *that* one "A Colonel Race Book", would you? He has maybe three short interactive scenes with Poirot in that novel, and that's it - and pretty much that's all we ever see of Race in all his novels - in MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT he has a couple of short scenes with Anne (whose book it actually is, imo!) but that's all.

ANYway, "differences of opinion" - that's what makes horse races (grin) - and book lists/discussions! Thanks for putting together this list (and lots of others too!).

whoops - fuzzy sentence construction in the "however..." para:
- "in the stories HE shows up, he's always awfully peripheral..." I meant Race, not Battle.