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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Best Single Arc Series


[This poll is now closed to more nominations, but you can go vote!]

What is the best single arc series?

Even as you pop over and vote on our Best Magic System poll, let us move ahead on our extremely late February poll so that we can try to catch up to a poll each month.
We do a lot of "Best Series" polls here at Writing About Writing, but today we're going to look at a very specific kind of series. Many "series" tell several stories in a single world. Series like Dresden or Discworld. But some series are really a single story spanning multiple books.

While one or all of the books (especially the first one in many cases) might stand alone, the series itself is really a single work.

What is the BEST series that is really a multi-book single story?

The Rules

1- As always, I leave definitions up to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. If you feel that Harry Potter counts as a single work, even though clearly each of its stories (especially the first three) are stand alone works, I am not going to quibble over the nomination. If there is a specific run of three books in Discworld that you feel tells a SINGLE cohesive story, you can nominate that. But the point here isn't to bend the rules to get a series you like on the poll, (we do plenty of polls–there will be other chances to shout out your faves); the point here is to really nominate the best multi-book single story.

2- You may nominate two (2) series. (Remember that I am a horrid and unyielding power hungry monster* here at Writing About Writing. To encourage reading and reading comprehension I will NOT take any authors beyond your second nomination.) If you nominate more than two books, I will only take your first two and consider any beyond that to be pre-seconds for a future nomination.

3- You may (and should) second as many nominations of others as you wish. No series will be going on to our poll that doesn't get at least one second.

4- The series must be done. Otherwise we don't know if it's got an ending that really lives up to "the best single arc."  So, for example, no Song of Ice and Fire.


5- Please put your nominations here. I will take books nominated as comments to this post on other social media; however, they may not get the seconds you need because no one will see them.

6- PLEASE NOTE: If we end up with an unwieldy number of nominations, the first split I will make will be the science-fiction, fantasy divide. If you feel your series is in any way genre bending or ambiguous, please include which way you would to see it go should the split occur. Otherwise I'll use my best judgement.  And while I don't anticipate any series that aren't either one or the other, if they do show up, I'll do my best.

29 comments:

  1. It's not DONE yet, but the War Against the Chtorr series by David Gerrold is shaping up to be a good single-story arc. That's my first.

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  2. 1 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams
    2 The His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

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  3. Bean's saga (Ender's Shadow etc.)

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    1. Second (am actually rereading these right now!)

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  4. Bean's saga (Ender's Shadow etc.)

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  5. I would say... Lord of the Rings and The Thrawn trilogy.

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  6. Mistborn trilogy, by Brandon Sanderson is the only one I can think of.

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  7. Gemma Doyle trilogy, Libba Bray
    Hunter ideology, Michelle West

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  8. The Obsidian Mountain Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory

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  9. Jacqueline Carey - Moirin trilogy (Naamah's Kiss, Naamah's Curse, Naamah's Blessing)

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  10. One I discovered recently... the Olivia Lawson Techno-Shaman books by M. Terry Green. A story that isn't finished (WRITE, WRITE!!) is Melissa F. Olson's Boundary Magic books.

    Second for Lackey and Mallory's Obsidian Mountain, Gerrold's Chtorr, and Adams Hitchhiker's Guide.

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  11. The Coldfire Trilogy - CS Friedman
    Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe

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  12. Hands down, the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold.
    While she *might* write more in this series (I kinda doubt it) in the form of prequels or a new story line, it's clear that the through-line of Cordelia Vorkosigan's journey of "what does it mean to be a mother?" is finished with the publication of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.

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    Replies
    1. I will second this. If only to break up the complete manfest of how this poll is turning out.

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  13. The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelasney

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  14. Hands down - Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton

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    1. Second Reality Disfunction/Nightdawn trilogy - it was fantastic

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  15. Callahans (Spider Robinson)
    Robot series (Isaac Asimov) - the novels from Caves of Steel to Robots & Empire.

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  16. Seconded on Callahans!

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