The Third day of Christmas is naturally trilogies! What a ridiculous waste of time they are. The first book is always a prologue. The second is nearly always awful, and the third merely serves to starkly highlight what a bloated waste of trees this effort was. The philosophy of the author is that of the publisher which insists on getting a three-fer rather than a singleton because they can milk far more money out of desperate suckers from three novels than ever they can from one. It works for authors too, because they have to do little to no work in volumes two and three, since they're merely recycling the same charcters, world, and plot with a tweak or two. They're really troll-ogies.
Self-published authors readily adopt this scam, because they can give away the prologue for free in hopes that people will be suckered in to buying the next two - or however many more are to come. It's an extortion racket that works because people are sheep. Those with zero self-control cannot help themelves but to buy into the blackmail. I've read negative reviews of the first of a trilogy where the idiot reviewer concludes by saying, "But I'll probably still read the next volume just to see what happens"! Morons! So they're rewarding piss-poor writing. No wonder trilogies have bloomed like toxic algae.
In passing, when I did a search online for trilogies, the Amazon-owned Goodreads individual-review website-killing steamroller showed up. They list two 'trilogies' that aren't even trilogies which just goes to prove what fucking morons the librarians at goodreads truly are. The Lord of the Rings is a single volume. It was divided into six parts, and intended to be a companion novel with The Silmarillion which Tolkien had submitted as a follow-up to The Hobbit, but which was rejected by his publisher.
Inversely, these same dipshit Goodreads librarians list the Twilight "Saga" as a trilogy when it was a tetralogy with three additional supporting volumes. The imbeciles at Goodreads cannot count! Their librarians are utterly useless. Trust me, I have personal experience of trying to deal with these assholes, and I gave up on them and quit having anything to do with Goodreads when I learned that Amazon had bought it. In passing, 'saga' is entirely the wrong title to label Twilight with. It has an entirely different meaning, and any author or publisher with an ounce of smarts would know this. By the same token, Goodreads lists The Giver as a trilogy when in fact it is also a tetralogy. Morons.
Here's a selection of trilogies of which I've had some experience with:
- Apes and Angels by Ben Bova. This is described as the second in a trilogy, but the first in the 'trilogy' is also described as a sequel to a previous novel, so how this works as a trilogy rather than a tetralogy or even a series is a mystery. I did not like it anyway, so another fail, regardless of what it actually was. Reviewed here: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2017/11/apes-and-angels-by-ben-bova.html.)
- Children of Icarus by Caighlan Smith is the start, so I understand, of a trilogy, but since the first volume came out in 2016 and the follow-up in 2018 and there's been nothing since, maybe this is dead in the water, which is the best place for it, believe you me. The first volume claimed to be rooted in Greek mythology but proved to have zippity to do with Greece or with mythology. Fail! My review is here: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2016/08/children-of-icarus-by-caighlan-smith.html.
- The Dark Artifices starting with Lady Midnight by Judith Lewis aka Cassandra Clare. I read the first of these because I loved the title and the plot didn't seem like it was too godawful. My review is here: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2016/07/lady-midnight-by-cassandra-clare.html. The prologue (i.e. the first volume) was ridiculously long and the story that the book description promised never actually materialized. We're told that the protagonist lives to fight demons and yet in the first fifty percent of this novel that I could stand to read there was precisely one brief fight; the rest of it was the mind-numbingly tedious minutiae of the main character's life. It was boring as all hell. No thanks!
- Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy beginning with Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, reviewed here: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2013/04/daughter-of-smoke-and-bone-by-laini.html. I read volumes one and two. Loved one, not so much 2, never made it to three. Again a disappointment with the story going steadily downhill instead of thrilling me.
- Edelstein trilogy starts with Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier. I liked this and the sequel Sapphire Blue, but the thrid volume failed for me. You can find links to all three reviews here: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2013/12/emerald-green-by-kerstin-gier.html. That URL is to the third volume, which begins with a prologue. Now this is volume three in a trilogy, so how is there a prologue? Aren't volumes 1 and 2 the prologue? This, to me, is hilarious and pathetic simultaneously.
- Eyes Like Stars trilogy by Lisa Mantchev. There was no indication on the book I read that it was the start of a trilogy, and though I liked this particular volume (review: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2019/11/eyes-like-stars-by-lisa-mantchev.html), I ended it with no desire to read any more. One book is usually more than enough - if it's written well.
- Gemma Doyle which starts with A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. The reviews for this trilogy can be found here: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2017/04/a-great-and-terrible-beauty-by-libba.html, followed by Rebel Angels reviewed here: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2017/04/rebel-angels-by-libba-bray.html, and concluding with The Sweet Far Thing: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-sweet-far-thing-by-libba-bray.html. Believe it or not, I enljoyed this trilogy, but that's because I enjoy Libba Bray as an author. Not all authors can carry a trilogy, but that doesn't mean that some talented writers cannot.
- The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson turned out to be another trilogy I liked, and links to my reviews are here: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2013/03/var-gaq-gaq-gaq_4.html.
- The Girl Who Kicks Ass trilogy starting with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson is the start of this excellent trio. Links to all three reviews are here: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-girl-who-kicked-hornets-nest-by.html. I loved this without reservation. Loved the Swedish movies too. The English language remake not so much, although I admired Claire Foy's performance especially after seeing her in The Crown. Talk about chalk and cheese! What a difference in character portrayals!
- Graceling Realm starting with Graceling by Kristin Cashore, I review at the following URLs. Graceling at https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2013/06/graceling-by-kristin-cashore.html, Fire at https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2013/06/fire-by-kristin-cashore.html, and Bitterblue at https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2013/06/bitterblue-by-kristin-cashore.html. The beauty of this trilogy is that it's not a derivative series, all using the same characters. These three standalone novels are all set in the same world. I have a lot more respect for an author who can do that.
- The Grisha Trilogy starting with Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo of which I review the first volume here: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2014/08/shadow-and-bone-by-leigh-bardugo.html. I have zero respect for Bardugo as a writer at all because she has no clue how to create intelligent female characters.
- His Dark Materials which starts with The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, and which is probably my favorite trilogy wherein all three books follow the same character throughout. This trilogy consists of The Golcden Compass (reviewed: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-golden-compass-by-philip-pullman.html), The Amber Spyglass https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-amber-spyglass-by-philip-pullman.html, and concluding with The Subtle Knife: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-subtle-knife-by-philip-pullman.html. These books were well-written, inventive, and original. They didn't repeat the same story three times over, and they told an engaging tale over all three volumes and showed a strong female main character who grew and changed over the course of the trilogy - and who didn't get a sappy happy ending, but who got a realistic one given the story premises.
- The Hunger Games trilogy (The Hunger Games https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-hunger-games-by-suzanne-collins.html, Catching Fire https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2013/08/catching-fire-by-suzanne-collins.html, and Mockingjay https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2013/08/mockingjay-by-suzanne-collins.html) by Suzanne Collins. I liked this trilogy, but even so I have to say that volume two was essentially a repeat of volume one. There was enough difference in it to make it readable, but it was esssentially the same story again. This is a problem with trilogies.
- The Maze Runner which starts with The Maze Runner by James Dashner, the first volume of which I negatively reviewed here: https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-maze-runner-by-james-dashner.html. I had seen the first movie and didn't think that was appallingly bad, so I decided to give the novel a try, but it turned out to be a real disappointment and I never went on to read any further. The real problem here, even with the movie, is that the story makes zero sense as I pointed put in my review. The boys are supposed to be training for something, but not a single thing they do in the maze prologue has any bearing whatsoever on anything they face afterwards, and if the scientists are so amazing that they can effortlessly create and maintain the maze environment in the first place, what can they possibly need with young and inexperienced boys? Or are they simply pedophiles and voyeurs?
- Sprawl trilogy by William Gibson, beginning with Neuromancer https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2013/01/neuromancer-by-william-gibson.html, followed by Count Zero https://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2017/03/count-zero-by-william-gibson.html, and concluding with Mona Lisa Overdrive, which I read a long time ago, but which is one of very many novels I've read that I never got around to writing a review for. These all came out in the space of four years in the mid-eighties. You can argue this is more than a trilogy because Johnny Mnemonic, Burning Chrome, and New Rose Hotel are also set in this world, but they're not really a part of the same story. The first and last titles in the trilogy are kick ass, and Neuromancer remains one of my favorite stories of all time. I completely fell in love with Rose Kolodny, aka Molly, aka Sally Shears.
So maybe now you're thinking 'he claims to hate trilogies, but he's listed here several that he likes. Well, it's a built-in bias. I only read the whole trilogy of ones that I liked, and most trilogies I've automatically skipped no matter how tempting the book blurb, precisely because I've had so many bad experiences with trilogies - as my extensive reviews will show - that I won't even give them the time of day anymore.
