Final Fantasy 7 Series
Viola Mathenia
Kurtz began this in 1970 and has reached 16 books with approximately 5,000 pages. Plus, there is so much more to write about in this world that I doubt we have seen the end of this long running series.
Michael Moorcock has published dozens of eternal champion books, but I decided to use the White Wolf omnibus editions, which collected all the stories in one nice hardcover set. This White Wolf series stretches for 14 books with 6,095 pages.
Labeled scifi by some, these 26 books have always seemed more fantasy with just a touch of science fiction mixed in to liven things up a bit. But whether you agree with me or not about that, you will, no doubt, concede that the series is approximately 9,000 pages and still growing.
Okay, I know some of you are saying this is a serialized world with numerous authors writing about different characters, and I totally agree, so I am only counting the novels authored or co-authored by Margaret Weis or Tracy Hickman. With this criteria used, the core Dragonlance novels came down to 21 novels with 9,038 pages or there about.
Goodkind has published four series in his fantasy world of the Confessors: Sword of Truth, Richard and Kahlan, The Legend of Magda Searus, and Sister of Darkness: The Nicci Chronicles. These novels total 17 books so far with approximately 11,400 pages. Each book averaging almost 700 pages.
Youve left out the Horus Heresy from Black Library, which effectively stomps every other series in terms of books written and pages. 49 books at roughly 19,600 pages, which is only part one of the story. There will be atleast one, but more than likely two more parts until the story is finished, which doesnt account for the hundreds of other books in association with the story after the conclusion of the Horus Heresy.
Obviously, this is an old school sword and sorcery tale, which can be damn good IF the writer is top notch. Therein lies the problem with this book: the writing quality. It is on the poor side, turning what could have been a decent sword and sorcery story into a third rate Conan clone.
26. Everien by Valery Leith
Tarquin the Free lost his courage, then his honor, when he abandoned eight companions to die in a magical, floating city years ago. Outcast from his people, forever barred from returning home, Tarquin is the only one who can now warn them of the arrival of the invincible Sekk, and, if he can find the courage, return to the floating city to discover the secret knowledge to defeat them.
Sounded decent. Unfortunately, it was morbidly confusing with such indistinct characters that I had no idea who was doing what most of the time or whether it was internal monologue or actual conversation. After a book and a half, I gave up trying.
18. Darkness by Harry Turtledove
This is a fantasy retelling of World War II. Dragons replace aircraft, leylines replace trains, magic replaces guns/cannons, and all the people/nations of WWII are renamed but easy to guess. The story is fairly straightforward and entertaining, but it fails to deliver any suspense, as anyone with a basic knowledge of WWII will know which country is going to be invaded and conquered, which people are going to be persecuted and placed into concentration camps, and how the good guys are going to eventually end the war. After a while, this causes the books to become annoyingly boring. At least, it did to me.
10. The Crescent Moon Kingdoms by Saladin Ahmed
Epic fantasy in an Arabian Nights-like setting with ghuls (zombies), ghul hunters, ghul apocalypses and tea. Lots and lots of tea. Honestly, the main character spent more time worried about getting his greedy hands on his next cup of tea than the ghul apocalypse which was supposedly ominously hovering over his home town. How this rather dull narrative was ever nominated for so many prestigious awards is beyond me, because after finishing it all I wanted to do was grab a good cup of tea and an exciting book to sit down and read, because this one was a huge bore from beginning to end.
This was a well-written story which made certain to use every one of the grimdark tropes. The only problem was the caricature characters, the ridiculous plots, and a tendency to favor shocking moments over well thought out plot lines. Certainly, the book had potential, but it just did not measure up to superior books in the grimdark genre. All of which meant that this one was a huge disappointment.
Great cover. Tremendous hype. An award winning author. And a story of a recurring cataclysm about to strike an unsuspecting world, turning everyone against one another, as worlds collide. Unfortunately, this epic had loads and loads of problems from plot to pacing to characters. If you are interested in all the reasons why this one disappointed me, then I have a lengthy review posted here as well.
1. Winterlands by Barbara Hambly
Dragonsbane was a fantasy standalone which was light, naive, filled with likable characters and headlined by an endearing couple. so this return to this world and these characters seemed like an amazing idea. However, the Winterlands trilogy was disappointing in every way with Ms. Hambly tormenting the main characters from Dragonsbane, John Aversin and Jenny Waynest, in a ridiculous way, tearing both their relationship and their personalities apart. It was so bad the author reversed directions in the last book, turning it into something of apology to her fans, who had loudly voiced their displeasure with the series. All in all, reading this trilogy was a bitter disappointing in many ways, one I wish I could forget.
15. The Deeds of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon remains one of my favorite books. Love coming of age aspect and the good over evil. I have read it at least 4 times. I am 60 year old male, so I must like it becuase it is so much like my life.
A Song of Ice and Fire, by contrast, was supposed to be a trilogy. Then a quartet. Then a sextet. Then A Dance With Dragons got too long, so Martin split it and now the series is a septet. In a recent interview, he said it might run to eight books instead. Step by step, I can see him walking into the same swamp Jordan got lost in.
So yes. By all means let your characters wander off and do their own thing . . . but not for too long. Bring them back together periodically, and look for ways to get multiple stones to work together on killing that bird.
The above wound up generating some interesting discussion in a variety of places: comments on the original post, Twitter, etc. I wanted to come back to it long enough to highlight a few lengthier responses that I think make very good points.
But: I do acknowledge that there is more than one way to do this. So just think carefully about what your readers expect, whether adding a new viewpoint and plotline helps satisfy that expectation, and if not, whether you have a good answer for why you want to do something different. You may! And if so, I wish you the best of success with it.
I read a series in the 80s and am trying to figure out what the name was. Here is what I can remember about it. Starts out with a guy, think he is a truck driver, giving a lift to an old man. Then a lady is picked up also, but she wasn't really part of the initial plan and is just an innocent bystander. The old man has the truck driver drive him to a ferry that transports them to a leftover portion of Earth where fantasy creatures exist. Since this world was just the leftovers of the Earth they had to write laws to govern how everything interacted. The truck driver was brought by the old man to help save this alternate world. When they make the crossing the truck driver is given a new body that is made from his thoughts, he is described as a barbarian that looks like Geronimo. He has the body of a barbarian, but has to go through rigorous training to be able to use the muscles, since one of the laws is that nothing can be gained without effort. I think the lady became a sorceress. Later in the series his new body dies and he is brought back to life, but another law states that he can't have the body that died or his original body, so he comes back as the body he had when he was in the marines and around 22. He also becomes a True Were later in the series so that he turns into whatever living thing he is close to when the full moon rises. At one point he is suspended over a snake pit filled with snakes with silver nitrate venom. The thinking is that the moon will rise and he will turn into a snake and fall into the pit with the other snakes and be bitten and die because of the silver nitrate.
Joe, the trucker, becomes a barbarian warrior. Marge the lady he picks up becomes a Kauri (kind of the positive equivalent of a succubus), after a one book stint as a virginal sorceress. As you mention, he loses his created body later, due to some body switching, but regains his body from the prime of his life.
The pit you mention is from the third book; it was meant to be his doom, but, due to the Rules the world operates under, there HAD to be a way out. (Ironically, they were no longer in that world, but since all involved were from it, the Rules still apply.)
You have the first three books described in your question, but I must warn you -- the story continues, and, unfortunately, suffers from Author Existence Failure* just as it comes to a MASSIVE cliffhanger, so be warned. (That being said, it was almost a decade between the last novel and his death, so he may never have been going to write the sequel -- but certainly won't now.)
The brutal dictator known as the Lord Ruler has ruled over the Final Kingdom for a thousand years, and he employs a dozen abominations known as Steel Inquisitors, each more powerful than any Mistborn. And the Lord Ruler himself has power far greater than that of the Steel Inquisitors.
At the outset of the first book, a young Skaa girl named Vin is just coming to realize that she is something more than a thief, and an ambitious rogue Mistborn named Kelsier is determined to change the world.
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