There’s something to be said for a kickass stand-alone novel. It’s self-contained—you can judge it for what it is, not for what it aspires to be. The narrative arc works or it doesn’t; the resolution is satisfying or it isn’t; the character development is either compelling or you’re left scratching your head, saying, “Does she make the safe choice and marry the accountant, or does she run away with the circus geek? You’re going to leave me hanging? For real?! You bastard!” If there are flashes of promise, or hints that the writer has better in store in the next book, that’s all well and good, but that’s about the potential of the writer, not the story in front of you—you can always evaluate the stand-alone and make some kind of determination: it’s awesome; it’s hackneyed; it almost made your orgasm; it made you puke in your mouth a little bit and throw it across the room. Unless it’s in your Kindle. Then hopefully not.
Plus, if you’re short on reading time, it’s obviously a lot easier to invest in a stand-alone than an ongoing series that’s hit seven books and shows no signs of reaching anything approaching a climax anytime soon.
That said, I’ve always been drawn to a good series, both as a reader and a writer. If I love reading about the characters, I want to really spend some watching them grow or shrink, develop in interesting and unexpected ways, find some redeeming humanity or go batshit crazy. Obviously, you can do this in a single volume, but I like the big canvas. Ditto for a well-thought out and constructed world—I don’t want a three-day vacation that’s over before it hardly gets started. I want to tour, enjoy the spectacle, explore, ruminate. Go big or go home. (more…)
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