SOS: Serious Overload of Series discussion

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message 1: by [deleted user] (last edited Aug 02, 2010 08:43AM) (new)

Have you ever been merrily reading along in a series and come to a "memory" or "Accounting of facts" that YOU did not remember happening as stated?!

I have come across some and had to actually go back and read the book it came from to make sure that it was remembered correctly.

I had an issue like that with one of the Midnight Breed books! I was so SURE that Conlan was murdered in a subway, that when it was mentioned in a later book that he was murdered in a wearhouse I actually had to go back and double check the facts.

Grr, what/when were your moments, and did you feel justified in knowing you were right?


message 2: by Literary Ames (new)

Literary Ames (amyorames) | 1854 comments Yes! I have come across this with the Anita Blake series. I read a prequel graphic novel of the series called Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The First Death, which was totally flawed!

In it she meets Jean Claude for the first time and it was not as stated by JC throughout the series. He said he fell in love at the first sound of her voice, upon seeing her gun and getting the feel of her confident and gung-ho attitude, knew she would save herself from danger rather than wait to be rescued like his previous lover Julianna (who died waiting to be rescued). But in the graphic novel, Anita is almost docile and submissive. It was the complete opposite of what I had come to expect from JC's description. I was so annoyed!


message 3: by Alyssa (new)

Alyssa Ricks | 8 comments In one of the Anita Blake books she is manifesting new powers and does something she's never done before...except that she did it about 20 pages previously and in the previous book in the series. Sorry, it's been too long since I read the book to remember which one, but it obviously bugged me!


message 4: by Steph, Serious series addict (new)

Steph (angel4492) | 32703 comments Nothing's coming to mind, E, but great post! I'm sure there are others who have found something "off kilter" in a series book. I have such a terrible memory, that with these long waits for subsequent books I have a tendency to forget things by the time I read the next one. Maybe that's not such a bad thing b/c major discrepancies would be disappointing.

On the flip side, trying to think of the author's POV (and playing a bit the devil's advocate), it must be difficult or at the very least, challenging to keep track of the many characters and their side-stories, etc when writing a series. Esp one that is as long as Anita Blake. Other's have mentioned her "need for a better editor", I wonder if that would've made a difference. Someone else looking after the "who/what/where/whens" of a story and making sure they all matchy-matchy. I haven't read any of that series, so I'm just going by what I've heard from others.


message 5: by Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required (new)

Sandra | 25908 comments I know that this has happened to me too. But I just can't think what books/series, at the moment.

Authors writing series need to keep track of what's what, like they do on TV series. You still get the occasional glitch on TV but not like the 'olden days', when it was just riddled with continuity errors. LOL. Ah, the good old, bad old days.....


message 6: by Laura Lulu (new)

Laura Lulu (lauralulu) | 1603 comments If you read author acknowledgments, sometimes you'll see a shout out to the author's "continuity people" which is pretty cool. Even authors have a hard time remembering everything they wrote, it's smart of some to have people who are solely in charge of making sure everything new jibes with the old.

Kelley Armstrong has a cool feature on her site--she tells of all the continuity mistakes she has made so far in her WotO series. But there's not many--she must have good continuity peeps. :)

It's the bottom link on the page, entitled "Mea Culpa" - I can't link the actual page as it's a PDF.

http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/extras/


message 7: by [deleted user] (new)

Laura Lulu wrote: "If you read author acknowledgments, sometimes you'll see a shout out to the author's "continuity people" which is pretty cool. Even authors have a hard time remembering everything they wrote, it's ..."

Wow! I have not noticed any... ever, they must be really minor!


message 8: by Carson (new)

Carson T (carsont) Okay, I dunno if this is a typo..'cause I'm too lazy to look it up....but is there such a thing as a trench fry? that's right Trench fry....I think the author messed up.


message 9: by Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required (new)

Sandra | 25908 comments Wow that's a good one. Trench fry. LOL. I'd like to see them eat 'em in the trenches. Hehehe!!


message 10: by Jayded (new)

Jayded ~*~Hershey's Kisses~*~ wrote: "Okay, I dunno if this is a typo..'cause I'm too lazy to look it up....but is there such a thing as a trench fry? that's right Trench fry....I think the author messed up."
I'd say the editor or whoever sets the type messed up on that one lol

I read the J.D. Robb series, and there is a character who appears in pretty much every book. His name was Morse for the first several books, and then it suddenly changed to Morris and has been Morris ever since.


message 11: by Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required (new)

Sandra | 25908 comments The coroner, I never noticed, although I'm skipping around on that series, grabbing whatever I can at the Library. LOL.

I've read the first one though and didn't notice. I'll have to keep a look out, Jeanine.


message 12: by Jayded (new)

Jayded yep Sandra, that's the one. There was another continuity issue involving Dr. Mira and her relationship with her father/stepfather that she actually "explained" in another book after it was brought to her attention.


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