I recently read The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. It’s been a while since I’ve read a fantasy series, while I enjoyed it, I was reminded how clunky recaps are at the beginning of each book in a series, especially if the author attempts to do it within the narrative of the story itself, narrated by a character who would have no reason to recap in the context of their story. It is for this reason that I prefer an author prologue or even have it through written, like Tolkien. Given that most authors earn most of their income from residual sales it seems strange, when reading a sequence back to back, that the industry insists on slowing down storytelling to service such short term gains.
I’d be interested in anyone’s thoughts.
by patrickwall
2 Comments
Like and wish it happened more. Successive entries in a series sell less. An excellent Book 7 in a series deters newcomers from jumping in. An excellent Book 7 with a recap will be more alluring to newcomers. Thus sales go up.
Abercrombie does a short recap of the previous book on his website. if you need it you can go check it out. if you are reading back to back you just read.
i prefer this approach and wish more authors did that. mid chapter infodump from a character is always immersion breaking.