That feeling you get when you finish a series that totally captured your imagination....

[Kristina]

*sigh...

[Pickle]

not a series but i finally read Neverwhere and when i finished it i loved it but i knew that was it.. i wont get that feeling back of being in awe of it.

I gave it to my pal and told him to relax and enjoy it, take it in. He loved it too.

Ive watched the BBC TV Series and listened to the BBC Radio adaptation and both were surprisingly excellent.

Its a genius of a book.

[Jennifer]

Ahh yes, that book hangover feeling. (I got that way with Neverwhere too. It's my favorite Gaiman book) It's that feeling of total satisfaction in reading an excellent book, but that sadness that comes because it is over and you have to move on. It's always so hard trying to figure out what I'm going to read next whenever I have that feeling.

[AndPeggy]

I may or may not have shed a tear (only one if any) when someone pointed out thatA Memory of Light would be the last Wheel of Time book we read for the first time.

[John (Taloni)]

Yeah...when that happens, I usually don't go on to the next book right away. I enjoy the afterglow of a great story and let it settle in my head for a while. During that time, newspapers and nonfiction articles are fine, but I don't want any new fiction messing with the story for a while.

[Joseph]

I read 5 of the Herbert Dune books and I was so captured I had to read the first three all over again. It was a buffet I almost couldn't walk away from.

[Kristina]

The last time I felt this way was finishing wheel of time. Most of the time there's a nice satifaction finishing a series. But then there are those special ones that you hate to see end even as you can't put them down. Ironically I think part of my problem is lack of sleep-I stayed up waaaayyyy to late last night reading-so now i'm all extra emotional.

[Kristina]

Sounds like I need to pick up neverwhere... it kinda sounds like just the thing i'm in the mood for.

[Joanna Chaplin]

I started breaking up series specifically to draw out my enjoyment of a good series, particularly of series that are still being written. But now my to-read list is sufficiently long that it's too long between books in the same series, so I've changed my habits again.

[Trike]

I used to be like the Teletubbies: "Again! Again!"

Mostly I just have that contented feeling of experiencing a a tale well told, like a good meal.

[[deleted user]]

I think the last series I finished was Harry Potter! Seems like I've been reading exclusively stand-alones, #1s, and on-going series for quite some time. I may have to remedy that.

Any good suggestions for finished series? Aside from Wheel of Time?

[Lindsay]

For series that I felt concluded in a particularly satisfying way:

The Cycle of Fire by Janny Wurts (first book is Stormwarden). A classic fantasy coming-of-age and journey of the hero story with an underlying (and really cool) SF element.

The Milkweed Triptych by Ian Tregillis (first book is Bitter Seeds). Pretty dark for all three books, but wraps up very well.

The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay (first book is The Summer Tree) is an amazing high fantasy trilogy which rewards readers with a background in English and Celtic mythology.

I was also going to add the Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett, but apparently there's a fifth one coming. (Bit of a shock really, I thought book four tied her up nicely).

[Kristina]

The one I just finished was Mortal Instruments. Other series I have finished and really enjoyed include Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, Night Angel by Brent Weeks, The Legend of Eli Monpress by Rachel Aaron and Shadow Ops by Myke Cole.

[Michele]

Ah, the first time I finished LotR!

The Initiate Brother duology by Sean Russell have a very satisfying end.

The Empire trilogy by Janny Wurtz and Raymond E. Feist

The Dragon Prince series (6 books) by Melanie Rawn

Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams

Pern by Anne McCaffery (I think it ended well with her last book before her son started writing them)

Mercedes Lackey Valdemar - Talia's trilogy (Arrows) and Vanyel's trilogy (Magic's)

[Gaines]

The Xanth series, up to about the 6th or 7th book. The feeling of excitement waned after that, and then completely died. Still, that first book was magical, in more ways than one :-)

[Joe Informatico]

I'm jealous of you guys. I have trouble thinking of a series I finished that lived up to the promise of its earlier installments. Usually they peter out or overstay their welcome. Jo Walton's Small Change trilogy is probably the most recent one I can think of.

[John (Taloni)]

Matthew wrote: "Any good suggestions for finished series?"

The original Pern series. Dragonflight / Quest / Song / Singer / Drums / White Dragon. The first two are the best, the next three represent the "Harper Hall" trilogy, Drums is essentially YA and if Piemur isn't Todd McCaffrey I'll eat it. White Dragon as a kind of capstone to the series. There are others of varying degrees of quality, but the first six range from excellent to pretty good.

[Dara]

Just finished the Malazan series so I'm feeling it some now.

[[deleted user]]

A series that stayed strong from start to finish is The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.

Madeleine L’Engle's Time Quntet is another that never lags or falters.

[Alan]

"The original Pern series. Dragonflight / Quest / Song / Singer / Drums / White Dragon. The first two are the best, the next three represe..."
I also really liked the first 6 books and White Dragon does provide a nice stopping point. I didn't, however, get that feeling of "uh-oh, the end of the series is coming up, let me slow down my reading to drag it out some more ..." because when I read White Dragon it was still new-ish and I didn't know that I wasn't going to love the others as much and should treat it as the last Pern book ....

I can't second Xanth because I read way past book 6 and they retroactively spoiled some of the earlier books for me.

I was really happy with the Tawny Man Trilogy and how it ended. I know the Rainwilds books came after but I was so satisfied with the ending of Fool's Fate that I haven't felt the need to revisit the world ...

I also get that feeling sometimes on stand-alones (or sort of stand-alones) - I remember it pretty clearly for The Curse of Chalion.