Since Harry Potter ended, I’ve been looking for a series to love. I’ve tried a few but have yet to find any books that hold me captivated like Harry. Twilight was fun at first, but apart from being poorly wrapped up, the surrounding media hype felt like the series was being force-fed to me. Sherlock Holmes is a new obsession for me, but since most of the series is short stories, it won’t be long before I’m in this same boat once again.
I’m searching for a series that will grab me, that I can fall into with abandon and feel like I’ve lived it. Fantasy is my preference, but any genre will do. Here are the top five things I look for in a series. While these qualities are important for any book, I think they are crucial for a series to really be great.
- Characters who are like real people.
The characters in Harry Potter feel like old friends. Even minor characters have first names and last names, and you get the sense that they all have lives beyond Harry and Voldemort. They also all have flaws that are just like the flaws of real people: Harry is judgemental and a tad egotistical; Hermione is a know-it-all who sometimes falls apart under pressure; Ron is thick about emotions in spite of his good intuition. They do and say funny things. They have misunderstandings that make sense and jump to conclusions due to prejudice. They are just like real people. - A developed setting that is more than just set-dressing.
I’ve read books in which you can tell that there’s nothing beyond the room the characters are standing around talking in, or the castle they’re about to attack. I don’t need Tolkien-like development (though that is nice), but I should sense that if the characters went through that door, a real, functional world exists on the other side. - A good hero and an evil villain.
Everyone has virtues and flaws, but I like heroes who try their hardest to do what’s right, even when they suffer for it. I don’t want to be confused about who should win and who should lose, and why. I don’t want the villain’s excuses to be treated as justifications. If I’m going to read this series for 3+ books, I want to experience a world that is basically moral, if complex, where tough decisions are made and the hero earns an appropriately happy ending. - Story threads that flow from book to book.
I’m not much for cliffhanger endings, but I do like some threads left loose to be picked up in future books, and I definitely like at least one story arc, even a background one, to flow through all the books in the series, only to be resolved in the last book. Many series (mysteries especially, perhaps?) tend to resolve all plots and subplots before the end, so things are sort of “reset” at the beginning of the next book, but I prefer connecting threads. - A believable romance.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I struggle to stay interested if there are no racing hearts or at least some blushing. Give me a romantic story that develops over the course of the series along with everything else above, and you’ll have given me a series I can fall for.
If you know of a series with these elements, do tell! I am always looking for Mr. Perfect Series.
So far I’ve been enjoying the Landover series by Terry Brooks, but I have not yet completed the first book.