SubscribeI love a good trilogy, me. On Sunday, I finished Wideacre,
a glorious bodice-ripper of a family saga, full of lace and velvet and revolting peasantry and people gasping in parlours - and attics, for quite different reasons. (No, I’m not telling you, you’ll have to read it for yourself.) And one of the best things was that, when I got to the end, I didn’t have to wonder What Happened Next because I could go straight to my shelf and pluck down The Favoured Child. Which I will follow, in due course, with Meridon.
I’m not sure whether my love of three-books-in-a-row is just another manifestation of my big book fetish: there’s definitely something about having the feeling of living properly in another world.
One of my favourite reading experiences ever was Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, the end of which saw me sobbing my heart out in Carluxccio’s in Kingston, not just for the end of the story – no! no! let there be love! – but for the loss of these books that had kept me breathless and enchanted for weeks.
Maybe it’s not so much the trilogies that are special, as any series, and the opportunity to engage long-term. Margi, a frequent commenter here, has written a bit-more-than-a-trilogy for older children, about a squirrel called Urchin who lives on the isle of Mistmantle, and those books are enchanting and beautiful and come highly recommended, especially for those of you who are still lucky enough to read to small people on a regular basis.
What trilogies/series do you recommend? Has anyone got through Lord Of The Rings? I must admit that ‘The Hobbit’ pretty much finished me, so I put that particular trilogy on the ‘life’s too short’ shelf.
I got through LOTR while staying in strange hotels all over the world when I was cabin crew. Don’t think I could now. I haven’t read the Gregory trilogy, but I just love series, and can read my way straight through 20 novels back-to-back with no trouble. Doing so at present, actually, but have to wait for the 20th to come out. And this is re-reading! Could be why I write a series, maybe…
Loved, loved, loved the Wideacre trilogy, although it must be 10 years at least since I last read it. Time for a re-reading! I like her more recent Tudor novels a lot less, in fact I couldn’t finish the first one I tried. The Tradescant ones are quite good though.
Tried to read LOTR on jury service 20 years ago, got to nearly the end of the first book and actually got on a trial, and never went back to it.
Recommendations – the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon (first book is called Cross-stitch in the UK for some reason). Very much a Marmite experience. I personally love them and don’t mind Herself’s digressions into many and various subjects, although some people wish she would just get on with the story.
Also the Kushiel trilogy (which is followed by another trilogy with many of the same characters, which is followed by another set in the same world, so if you like it, there’s a lot to read!) by Jacqueline Carey. Set in a version of mediaeval France, it’s not for the prudish, but I enjoyed it a lot.
And, if you haven’t read it, the Hunger Games trilogy. I wish I’d been able to read it as a young adult.
Thanks! And can recommend the House Trilogy by Norah Lofts, recently republished. Stories of the people who live in The House at Old Vine from before its building to mid 20th century.
Read LOTR after A levels, good time to do it!
Like my mother, I love a series; my favourite is the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard, which starts with The Light Years set in the late thirties. Lovely stuff.
Thanks, all – my To Read list just got a LOT longer!
Tricia, I loved the Tradescant ones too – such an interesting insight into an area I knew nothing about.
And I will definitely look up Norah Lofts, the EJH books and the Jacqueline Carey.