The Confusion of Juggling Multiple Fantasy Worlds
Jumping Back and Forth Between Unfinished Fantasy Worlds is Confusing!
One of the joys of reading fantasy is the sheer complexity of the worlds explored. I enjoy losing myself in a different and often very real world portrayed within a novel. However, jumping in and out of different fantasy worlds is a confusing process.
The very nature of fantasy lends itself to massive epic tomes and long ancipatory waits between new books in a series. As someone who has read most of the fantasy books out there, I find there is always a curve of confusion when returning to a fantasy world through a new book. In fact, it’s a rather jarring experience to jump back into a fantasy world that you have not visited more than a year. Let’s use George Martin for example. Between his fourth book, Feast, and his upcoming book, I’ll have read at least several hundred fantasy books. The finer details of Martin’s story will be lost to me; I know I’ll be spending at least a couple hundred pages of the new book trying to stitch the details of his world back together into something completely cohesive.
There are a few things you can do to mitigate the “confusion” you may experience when returning to a fictional world:
Reread the entire series.
A solution for some people I’m sure and certainly the best way to reintroduce yourself to a specific fantasy world. However, I personally almost never reread books – I can’t stand the foreknowledge.
A Summary of the Previous Books
Some authors are nice enough to provide a “what’s gone on before” section, which is immensely helpful. However, you still lose all the finer nuances of the story – all those emotional attachments and buildups that occur when you’re reading a story. It’s kind of like putting on a pair of really dark sunglasses — all the color is drained out of the world.
Wait Until the Series is Finished
You can certainly wait until a series is finished before reading it. This is a strategy I have been employing with certain TV shows such as Lost and Battlestar Galactica – I refuse to watch them in anything but seasonal chunks. It’s a bit different with books though; if a fantasy series tweaks my interest, I lack the patience to wait a good three to four years to start reading it.
Do you guys have the same problem?
I usually go with the third option. Years ago I was in the middle of both The Wheel of Time and The Sword of Truth series. Even though the stories are different enough, occasionally I would find certain elements “leaking” between series in my memories. That led me to re-read WoT a couple of time dues to the lengthy periods between releases of new books in that series. I gave up on SoT around book #5 or so, in part because the books started getting horrible after the first 2 or 3, and also due to me getting the two series mixed up.
I also ran into this issue with scifi books. For some reason I read Scalzi’s Old Man’s War and Haldeman’s Forever War back-to-back (both were great). A few months later, I started reading the next book in the Old Man’s War series, The Ghost Brigades. I found that I was completely confused as to which events had happened in which universe.
So now I wait until a series is finished before starting it. The only ongoing series I am waiting to finish is WoT, and there’s only one book to go in that series (I have no clue how Sanderson is going to wrap up all the dangling story lines). The series I am most anxiously awaiting is Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. Other than that I have gotten so many great recommendations from this site that I will have plenty of completed series to read by the time Martin is done with it.
Comment by tpd — March 10, 2009 @ 6:28 pm
I prefer to go with number three also, which is why I created http://dragonsheroesandwizards.blogspot.com. I love the total immersion created by reading an entire series at one time. Fortunately, there are so many good and completed series out here, I will never run out!
The main exception to this rule is when a series is subdivided. Some of the really large series, for example, are grouped into a separate trilogies. That I can handle reading while I wait on the next set to be finished.
Comment by Mulluane — March 10, 2009 @ 7:18 pm
I also normally wait for the entire series to be published. Notable exceptions are the Malazan and Song of Ice and Fire books. As Mulluane said, there is plenty to read out there while waiting for some of these to be completed.
Comment by KP — March 12, 2009 @ 12:04 pm
I think it is fine to let series finish before reading them, but there are books that I just can’t wait for, one of them is Dance.
I am fine with re-reading books. I find that there are many things you have missed or have forgotten, and it is very true when it comes to huge books like Song of Ice and Fire.
Ben stated that he hates the foreknowledge, but I find that a 2nd time is fine, perhaps a 3rd time is bad. I remember watching fight club the 2nd time and it was perhaps more amazing than the first (but the third time was arse)
Comment by Jon Snow — March 19, 2009 @ 12:03 pm
I usually go for the first option. The only books that I can’t read over again are ones with bad writing or characters. I have a habit of missing a lot of the worst parts the first time through, and there are many books where that can make them a lot better. I’ve found that I can handle rereading a good book several times. There are quite a few which I’ve read five times or more.
Comment by Elisabeth H — April 4, 2009 @ 1:18 pm
As someone who hasn’t been reading Fantasy books for almost 25 years, I’m amazed by what’s on offer these days. This website has certainly given me the appetite for returning to the genre I once loved as child/young adult but I’m unable, or at least not prepared, to start a seven or ten book series which I will not be able finish until some vague date in the future. For the time being I’m going to miss out on what appear to be some extraordinary fantasy books, Malazan Empire and A Song of Fire and Ice to name but two, but there still seems to be plenty of complete series in which to immerse myself. I’m looking forward to trying First Law, Farseer and Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone.
Comment by Paul Standere — June 13, 2009 @ 11:50 pm