Sequels

Imagine the feeling of an amazing book. A good one. You go to the store, find this new shiny cover, bring it home, open it, inhale the smell of freshly printed paper, spend the whole night on it, close it with happiness. It had new characters, they progressed well, everything was wonderful. You now want more of it.

Now a few days later, or a few years if you’re not lucky, you get the sequel. You go to the store, find this new shiny cover, bring it home, open it – the smell is there, it looks pretty, but your expectations are set high. No new characters, just this constant sense that thing need to go wrong before coming back to normal. And they go wrong, and you fight to reach the last page.

Then vol. 3. comes.

You go to the store, find the same cover with a different color, bring it home, open it, uhh. The author has discovered the magic of torturing the main character to keep the attention. He also introduced 30 more characters, because the original one is already holding the Sky like Atlas nad no progress is ever possible. Something with the editing has changed too. The first chapter was 400 pages, the 3rd is 700, and many pages do not say anything.

This is what I’m dealing with at this very moment, trying to read Red Rising #3 and Liveship Traders #3.

There is a solution, but it takes mental power. It is a very simple one.

Go to the bookstore, find this new shiny cover, bring it home, open it, inhale the smell of freshly printed paper, spend the whole night on it and close it happiness.