TCL’s Tell Me Something Tuesday #TMST #16 & #LetsDiscuss #12 – Ending Things Badly – December 16, 2025. – The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog
TMST is a weekly meme with optional participation hosted by Jen Twimom @ That’s What I’m Talking About. There isn’t a check in and she doesn’t have a linky. She does, however, encourage you to leave a link to your post on her blog if you participate so she and others can find you!
Jen sends out an email with the upcoming prompts roughly every two months. To get them, just go to her blog and sign up to get her newsletters. Then, just write a post for the corresponding date’s topic!
Today – December 16 – the topic is: Have you been disappointed by the end of a series? If so, did you read that author again?
So, without any further ado…
Have you been disappointed by the end of a series? If so, did you read that author again?
Well, I don’t usually really read a whole lot of series, although lately I’ve been doing some reading of Agatha Christie’s various lesser detectives and sleuths. Usually, I’ll try to read the first book in a series, and if that isn’t up to snuff, I don’t bother reading more. However there were two series that I read where I never finished reading the last books. They are:
The Masters of Rome Series by Colleen McCullough.
Back in the day, when these first came out, I was MAD about them. I bought new releases as soon as they were available and practically inhaled each of them. However, when I was just past page 400 of “The October Horse” (maybe a third of the way in) I started to get, well, frustrated. Something felt different about that book, and I had a hard time concentrating on it. I kept trying to read more, but I just couldn’t conjure up the enthusiasm to go on. And as time went by, and my copy languished on my shelves, I realized if I ever wanted to finish reading the whole series, I’d probably have to re-read those 400 pages first. Well, that’s when I gave up. Sad, because the last one – “Anthony and Cleopatra” – sounded really good, but… I just couldn’t.
As for reading anything by her after that, actually, I didn’t. That said, I really wanted to read her book “Angel” and I think I’ll see if I can get a copy second hand. So, it wasn’t because of her writing that I haven’t read anything since, but just… opportunity!
The Earth’s Children Series by Jean M. Auel.
This was another series that I really enjoyed when it started out. These too aren’t short books, and they take some time to get through. I finished reading the fourth one, and was very much interested in reading the fifth. Well, as luck would have it, I won an online giveaway of that book, but they wouldn’t ship it abroad. So, I asked an acquaintance if they’d be willing to take my prize, and then ship it to me later – at my expense. Well, she agreed, and then… she just disappeared into the internet ether. At first, my emails went unanswered, and then they began to bounce! Needless to say, I never heard from her again! Now, to be totally honest, the fourth book was a bit problematic for me. There were a couple of… (we’ll call them) love scenes that were a touch too graphic for my taste, which I don’t remember having in the earlier books. So, I wasn’t all that disappointed that I never got the fifth one.
Auel took a long break between writing the fifth book in this series, and publishing the last and sixth book – nine years, actually! Now, because I hadn’t read the fifth, I just ignored the sixth. And well… her publishing another book in this series just felt like a desperate attempt to be relevant again. Since Auel never published anything aside from this series, I obviously never read anything by her again, and I don’t think I’m missing much. If you’ve read them all, please let me know if I’m wrong in that assumption.
I’m considering this post as a discussion post, because I’d really like to hear about why people finish series they’re not happy with, or if they DNF that series and/or give up on that author for the future (and I may not get a chance to write another discussion post this month).
This post is my 12th entry in the 2025 Discussion Challenge, hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight!
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