Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
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"In Death" series numbering
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According to J.D. Robb's website listing, “Midnight in Death” is a story included in the Anthology, "Silent Night," November 1998, and not a part of the series novels. http://www.jdrobb.com/books/quick.html
Midnight in Death was a short-story/novella, not a full novel, which is why we have it (as well as a number of other similar stories) listed as half numbers rather than full numbers. I personally think our current numbering system is more accurate and should not be changed.
This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: "Midnight in Death was a short-story/novella, not a full novel, which is why we have it (as well as a number of other similar stories) listed as half numbers rather than full numbers. I personally t..."I agree with you. The half #'ing system has always helped me distinguish between the full books & the short story/novellas.
Actually, I found the answer.This is actually #8 and not #7.5. So when fixing the series number to #8, In Death book that is numbered #8 will have to be #9 and so on. I found the definitive answer at Overdrive. http://search.overdrive.com/TitleInfo...
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/j... <--proper numbering shown
http://search.overdrive.com/TitleInfo... shows Fantasy in Death to be #37 and it matches Fantastic Fiction.
Beth wrote: "According to J.D. Robb's website listing, “Midnight in Death” is a story included in the Anthology, "Silent Night," November 1998, and not a part of the series novels. http://www.jdrobb.com/book..."
All that list shows is that it's not a full length novel and instead included in anthology. That says nothing definitive about numbering.
I think Overdrive and Penguin have it correct in terms of numbering.
I agree it should not be changed. The novels are the numbers in the series. The half #'s show where the other stories are published, but are not a part of the series of *novels.*
JSWolf wrote: "Actually, I found the answer.This is actually #8 and not #7.5. So when fixing the series number to #8, In Death book that is numbered #8 will have to be #9 and so on. I found the definitive answe..."
Overdrive & Fantastic Fiction seem to be sites just like Goodreads. They have just chosen to # all the books in this particular series with whole #'s. That doesn't necessarily make it the 'right' or 'wrong' way - just their way. Every site has their own policy or SOP, Goodreads is just different from theirs. I think that if JDR wanted them #'d in a certain way she would have it listed on her site.
If you are going by the official J.D. Robb site that shows the shorts not in order, then take a look here http://www.jdrobb.com/books/allbooks.... and you will see that they are indeed listed in order. So Midnight in Death is surly listed in the #8 slot making it #8.
The author's preference is given priority but lacking *actual numbering* from Robb, I see no reason to change the GoodReads system, which is perfectly functional. Chronological order doesn't necessarily indicate numbering -- for eample, we would show the bundle of books 1&2 as 1-2, not whatever chronological place it has on that list.If this is so important to you, you have the option of becoming a librarian and starting a secondary, chronologcal listing for the series. Or you could try to find a current librarian who agrees with you, who's willing to do that work.
JSWolf wrote: "If you are going by the official J.D. Robb site that shows the shorts not in order, then take a look here http://www.jdrobb.com/books/allbooks.... and you will see that they are indeed listed in o..."In your link, I don't see any #'ing done by JDR, just books listed. However on this particular page, http://www.jdrobb.com/books/quick.html you'll see the full books listed seperately from the short stories/novellas. IMO, this proves Beth's point that the full novels are the #'d parts of the series while the shorts are additions to the series. While Missing may be #8 due to publication date, it fits between the full stories.
Mod
Completely agree. There's a reason this method was arrived at, after much discussion. It works!
I've already posted something similar in the other thread about JD Robb, but worth mentioning here, I think. On the JD Robb website, it lists Fantasy in Death as book #30 on the 'all books' page. You only arrive at that number by counting all the full-length novels - if you were to add in the novellas, etc published that number would be significantly higher. I think that demonstrates that the GR system is perfectly accurate in this case.
Fantastic Fiction has Midnight in Death listed as #8 and Good reads has it listed as 7.5. I think Goodreads is incorrect and Fantastic Fiction is correct. If that is the case, can someone please fix all of the In Death series to match Fantastic Fiction?