I primarily read fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery novels (but I’m open to pretty much anything). In my experience, for almost all series, the first book is the strongest. The author puts their best ideas there: they shape the world, craft the characters, and set everything in motion. Subsequent books can be good and satisfying, but it’s ultimately the first book that really shapes the story.
However there are some notable exceptions:
* In ASOIAF, most people agree that SOS is the best book, mostly due to >!Jon’s character arc!<
* Many would say Red Rising (though I disagree)
* Most say the First Law standalone books are better than the original trilogy
* Dresden Files, not particularly controversial
* Discworld series. Colour of Magic is no one’s favourite (I like Mort best personally)
* Harry Potter, though the first book has its own brand of magic I think it really matures around book 4
I am tired of being disappointed after reading book 2 in a series. So, what series would you suggest where the first book is good, but the ones that come after are better?
by rrrriddikulus
37 Comments
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King is worth a look
Mr Mercedes
I think Finders Keepers is much better
Remembrance of Earths Past series!
Martha Wells’ *Murderbot Diaries*.
Network Effect is a masterpiece.
Chaos Walking, Ness
The Wheel of Time, Jordan
Symphony of Ages, Haydon
Mistborn, Sanderson
Black Jewels, Bishop
The Dark Tower series. The first book is not bad, but for me it does not give an understanding of the plot, as if King himself did not know exactly how it would end. My personal favorite is the 4th book Wizard and Glass.
Words of Radiance, the second book of the Stormlight Archive, is more popular with most fans than the first book.
Susan Cooper’s *The Dark is Rising* series.
The first book (*Over Sea, Under Stone*) is fine.
The second (*The Dark is Rising*) is amazing.
The third (*Greenwitch*) is also incredible.
Fourth and fifth (*The Grey King, Silver on the Tree*) are good.
Going back a couple decades, but Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko series. I thought Gorky Park was excruciatingly slow and struggled to get through it. Then I picked up Polar Star. I read that in one night with no breaks, not even putting it down long enough to go smoke a cigarette. Red Square and Havana Bay were the same. Then I got sidetracked by life and never finished the series.
The Pendergast series by Preston and Child; the first two books are Relic and Reliquary and they’re fine stories but Pendergast who becomes the main character in the series is barely in them. It picks up as we get more Pendergast and then meet his other friends.
First Law Series. The first book, The Blade Itself, while great fun, is mostly character and world building, setting up the series. It’s a big story and needs a big setup. Fabulous story and terrific in audio books.
The Oxford Time Travel series by Connie Willis. _Doomsday Book_ is good, but it’s also grim, and doesn’t tap into the potential of time travel stories the way that _To Say Nothing of the Dog_ or _Blackout_ and _All Clear_ (which are really one story in two books) do.
Most people who’ve read Malazan agree that the first book is one of the weakest, while the second and third are some of the best.
I’m not sure if this fits with the spirit of the question but in the Sherlock Holmes Series, the best stories might be The Final Problem or A Scandal in Bohemia.
Discworld by Terry Pratchett
The first and second books are broad pastiche of sword and sorcery stories. They’re not bad, but most fans recommend starting later, after Pratchett learned about the joys of plot. The stories are mostly independent, and I started with Pyramids, which is the seventh book. The best is probably either Small Gods or Night Watch, although Night Watch relies on being fairly familiar with the world and the characters. Mort, Wyrd Sisters, and Guards! Guards! are also good places to start.
The Three Body Problem Trilogy.
Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, personally like books two and three the most. The Broken Earth trilogy by N. k. Jemisin also just gets better and better. Both are science fantasy.
Earthsea, Ursula K LeGuin. Best one, imo, is Tehanu; though the others are excellent.
Annals of the Western Shore, also by LeGuin. The third book is the best.
The Expanse series. I have no idea which one is my favorite (I’ve only read the first 6 so far) but I think they are all solid and I wouldn’t say the first one stands above the rest.
Kate Daniels series by ILONA ANDREWS! Actually almost anything by house Andrews, the books just always get better and better
Dungeon Crawler Carl. The Expanse. Bridgerton. Cradle. Vorkosigan saga. The Great Library series.
Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (alias JK Rowling). Maybe you’d like those 😋
In any trilogy, I universally like book two the most. The first book is all about world building and setting up the story. The final book is all about wrapping it up. The second book is about letting the story run wild and go crazy and usually ends in a big cliffhanger.
Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell series – they’re all good but the second book is the best
ACOTAR series, it blew my mind when I loved the second book and the rest of the series so much more than the first book!
Realm of the elderlings by Robin Hobb.
The first trilogy (Farseer) is good, but the subsequent trilogies ( Liveship traders and Tawny man) are some of the best books I’ve ever read
MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood. They are great!
The Earthsea books. The 2nd one is the best.
The Grishaverse maybe? I read a lot about how the first books showed that the author is kinda inexperienced, but gets better with the sequels
The Earth Series. Clan of the Cave Bear is the first book
gotta say His Dark Materials. first book is a little bit of a drag, but it gets so good
The *Vorkosigan saga* by Lois McMaster Bujold. There is some dissent over what constitutes the “first book” in this series, but if you go by publication order *Shards of Honor* is clearly not as polished as most of her later work. I don’t think she really hit her stride until she wrote *Ethan of Athos*.
The Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy L Sayers. The first book is a fairly standard golden age detective novel but they grow much deeper from there until you get books like Nine Tailors and Gaudy Night which are fantastic.
(Consider skipping Five Red Herrings though, I don’t know anyone who successfully got through that one. )
In Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy, I thought the second book (Year of the Flood) was the strongest.
Skulduggery Pleasant
The Chronicles of Prydain series. The best one is the second one, aka The Black Cauldron.
The Dark is Rising sequence. The best one is the second one as well, aka The Dark is Rising proper.
Lord of the Rings…I feel Two Towers was superior.