This was almost the case with Charles Stross’ Laundry Files series.

(I make exceptions, however, for truly horrible novels even if I don’t like them, I try to find it in myself to finish them, so I can report back to the world about how bad they are.) After all, if the first book can’t impress us, what assurance do we have that any subsequent books will be better-especially when there are series out there that can not only come off well in the first novel, but sustain that energy into the later books? My general policy, as a reader, is not to waste time on novels or series that don’t engage me very much, and I’ve tried to adhere to this policy as best as I can. Unfortunately, these series can be hard to find-mostly because I (and other readers, I suppose) aren’t very willing to give a series a second chance if the first novel proves to be lacklustre. Some series, however, start out with an unimpressive novel, but have a sequel (and hopefully, sequels) that strengthen and patch up the weaknesses and holes in the first novel. Brian Staveley’s Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne also took a while to gain momentum, with the first book acting as an introduction to the world and characters before the second book set out to make up for the lack of plot in the first book while throwing out more plot for both itself, and the books to come later in the series.īut those are, I suppose, planned delays on the part of the authors, because they already know where they intend to take the story and so are willing to hold back important plot movement in favour of developing the world and/or the characters. Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive opened with what amounted to a (very long) book-length prologue before getting down to actual plot movement in the second. This appears to be something of a pattern nowadays in fantasy novels: Elizabeth Bear’s Eternal Sky Trilogy was slow in the first book, but picked up a significant amount of speed in the second book. Some stories take a while to pick up speed.

The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross