Working on Serieses for Shannara

[Monique]

OK - I am going to set to work on the Shannara serieses. Before I make any changes, I am going to outline what changes I am making where so if there are issues, they can be ironed out beforehand.

I am pulling information from here to make these all correct:

http://www.terrybrooks.net/novels/rea...

http://www.terrybrooks.net/novels/rea...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Br...

[Monique]

The following series names are involved:

Word/Void series - 1 book - incorrect
Paladins of Shannara - 2 books - correct
The Dark Legacy of Shannara - 3 books - correct
Legends of Shannara - 2 books - correct
The Sword of Shannara - 3 books - incorrect
High Druid of Shannara - 3 books - correct
Genesis of Shannara - 3 books - correct
Word & Void - 3 books - correct
Voyage of the Jerle Shannara - 3 books - correct
Heritage of Shannara - 4 books - correct
The Original Shannara Trilogy - 4 books (as many as 9 works) - incorrect
Shannara series - 26 books - incorrect

[Monique]

I am getting rid of the one book in the Word/Void series and putting it in its proper place as 0.5 (prequel) in the Word & Void series listed later, but not as a primary work as it is a short story prequel.

[Monique]

For "The Sword of Shannara" series: that is not a series. The Sword of Shannara was at some point split into 3 parts and each part was published separately. Do we want to keep that as a series or do we handle that in a different way?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

We do keep such things as series, for grouping purposes.

[Monique]

rivka wrote: "We do keep such things as series, for grouping purposes."

OK - thanks! I'll leave it as-is then.

[Monique]

OK - in the Original Trilogy, we should remove the following works:

First King of Shannara
both the Paladins of Shannara shorts, and
Dark Wraith.

They are not part of the series. I would leave Indomitable because it is an epilogue to The Wishsong of Shannara, though it would not be a primary work of the series.

[Monique]

For the full Shannara series:

I have marked it as the chronological version as that is how the original creator of the series set it up and added Imaginary Friends as a non-primary work.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

You may also wish to include links to the various sub-series in the description field of the full series.

[Monique]

rivka wrote: "You may also wish to include links to the various sub-series in the description field of the full series."

Oh! Good point. I'll go do that now.

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

Are we allowed to use wikipedia as a source? I know its not a bookseller site but tends be crowdsourced from the same readers as here.

I have seen series information and other articles "changed" here, there, shelfari, etc. as the reader convinced they are right makes sure to change at all the well-known crowd-sourced sites they can access.

[Krazykiwi]

I'd go from this, if it were up to me:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?765

(Actually I do, when ordering my own books, for these series where everyone has an opinion on the order. The fact they ask for verification for data changes puts it a step ahead of raw crowdsourcing, and makes it tend towards stability.

[Monique]

Debbie wrote: "Are we allowed to use wikipedia as a source? I know its not a bookseller site but tends be crowdsourced from the same readers as here.

I have seen series information and other articles "change..."

It lines up well with what Terry Brooks has on his site and I am using it only for publishing dates, which can still be checked elsewhere.

[Monique]

Krazykiwi wrote: "I'd go from this, if it were up to me:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?765

(Actually I do, when ordering my own books, for these series where everyone has an opinion on the order. The fact th..."

Checked it out. It will be a real help to cross-check the short stories and smaller works.

[JSWolf]

Under Word and Void series Imaginary Friends does not show up with the series name. The others do.

http://www.goodreads.com/series/44330...

[Monique]

OK - update: I have started the publication date series but not yet sorted all the books into proper order. I will have to finish that a bit later.

As you can see, I have not made much in the way of changes to existing series. Also, am awaiting feedback on the Original Trilogy series before making any changes to it.

Once the publication date series is complete, I will be adding 2 more series for Terry's books. They will be his suggested reading orders for people new to the series and people doing a re-read of his series. Those will not impact on any existing series(es).

Also, will probably need to pull a couple other omnibus editions into the chron order series. I'll have to check on that.

[JSWolf]

Monique wrote: "Krazykiwi wrote: "I'd go from this, if it were up to me:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?765

(Actually I do, when ordering my own books, for these series where everyone has an opinion on the ..."

But it's way off base for the actual order of the series.

[Monique]

JSWolf wrote: "Under Word and Void series Imaginary Friends does not show up with the series name. The others do.

http://www.goodreads.com/series/44330..."

No. Whether to put the series name in the title field or not is optional. In this case, I added it to the series, but did not change the title of the work. My policy as a Librarian has been to leave it in when it is in before I am working on that book and leave it out when it is out before I am working on that book.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Monique wrote: "Whether to put the series name in the title field or not is optional."

Correct.

[Krazykiwi]

Given the author gives two wildly different orders on his own website, that's partly what I meant when I said "everyone has an opinion". It fairly closely matches Brooks suggested order for new readers, although it does place Word and Void separately.

I figure Brooks says he writes the trilogies to be purposefully standalone in and of themselves and a new reader should be able to jump into any of the individual trilogies without having read any of the others, so this is one of those things where nobody is going to please all the people even some of the time.

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

I'm not sure I would try to put series info in the book title field for these because of the multiple order series. (Not editing, just expressing an opinion).

If any series info to go in title field, my opinion would be the individual trilogies 1,2 or 3 order info just for the three books in the respective trilogies.

[Monique]

Debbie wrote: "I'm not sure I would try to put series info in the book title field for these because of the multiple order series. (Not editing, just expressing an opinion).

If any series info to go in title..."

Debbie, I agree.

[JSWolf]

Monique wrote: "Debbie wrote: "I'm not sure I would try to put series info in the book title field for these because of the multiple order series. (Not editing, just expressing an opinion).

If any series info..."

I disagree because regardless of the overall order chosen, each sub series has an order. For example, if you choose to read in published or chronological order, Word & Void is in the same order. Where Word & Void fits depends on the overall series order. But, Angel Fire East is still third.

I'm not asking for the overall series to be shown, just the sub series name such as Word & Void.

[Monique]

OK - the publication date series is done. I ended up leaving the omnibus editions at the end. If anyone wants to integrate those, that would be fine.

Edit: And I have created both the suggested reading series.

That just leaves the original trilogy series to clean up.

[Chris]

Hey Monique....

I'm Chris, and the one that built most of the original series listings for these. I did that back when we first started doing the serieses on GR. So if you have any questions about why I did things like I did, I'll try to remember my reasoning at the time. Heh...

I do like the modifications you've made with Chronological, Publication, and Recommended Orders.

As far as the original trilogy,

1. First King has usually been called a prequel to the standard trilogy. As the original trilogy is actually three stand alone stories in chronological order rather than a continuous story (like his other serieses), and the fact that First King wouldn't belong to any other sub series, I included it there. Prequels usually are included in series creation with what they're prequeling. Though I could see its removal in this case, due to the recommended reading placement by Brooks himself.

2. The Paladins stories should be removed. When the first one came out, it seemed to fit as another prequel, but Brooks is obviously going a different direction with those.

3. Dark Wraith is a direct sequel to Indomitable. If that one is included, DW should be as well. I'd agree that both should be non-primary.

Any other or further questions, just shoot. You can also send me a personal message if I'm slow at checking back here...

[Monique]

Chris wrote: "Hey Monique....

I'm Chris, and the one that built most of the original series listings for these. I did that back when we first started doing the serieses on GR. So if you have any questions about..."

Chris, great! Thank you. I have left First King, Indomitable and Dark Wraith as non primary works in the Original Trilogy series. I have also removed the Paladins shorts from the series.

I have added a note in the notes field about why those 3 are left in and noting that the core of the original trilogy are Sword, Elfstones, and Wishsong.

I think that solves all the outstanding issues in this series. If you see anything else that might be out of order, I welcome the feedback.

And serious thank yous and kudos for setting up all the original series and subseries for this.

[Monique]

The clean up on this has been completed.