Reflections on giving awards to series-things

[naath]

So the nomination for WoT as *one story* has annoyed many people. I have thoughts, but not good words.

*One friend alleges that a novel-in-a-series is no good if it doesn't make sense stand-alone. There are indeed many series-novels just like this. But I feel strongly that the sort of series that really is *one story* in many volumes has a place in this world, and that it is neither necessary nor desirable for the volumes to *always* make sure that a newcomer can fully understand what is going on. Plus, even if you *could* get something out of the book stand-alone, you certainly won't get all the things that readers of the whole series get out of it (you have less background on all the people).

*The suggestion that it is "unfair" to suppose that voters should read an entire 10,000 page series. I don't really think you have to read the whole thing to get an idea whether it is any good. Start at the start. If you hate it instantly I guess you just hate it; if you love it and can't put it down then yay (you agree with me!) and I don't think you have to get to the end to know that. (I really do recommend you start at the start; because I agree that it is one story, starting in the middle would be like starting a novel in the middle)

*If just the final volume had been nominated in addition to the problems with "does it even make sense" (ish? maybe? there's a fight I guess you could follow it; but there are loads of cameos to tie up loose ends) there is the problem that if you did go "OMG THIS IS THE BEST THING" you have just read the HUGE SPOILER.

*the 'wtf is going on' and the spoiler problems are shared by two of the short-form dramatic nominees this year - if you watch the GoT or Orphan Black episodes that are nominated and not the whole series (in the case of GoT a whole 3 seasons!) then you may find yourself confused about who all these people *are* (perhaps more so for GoT which has a stronger on-going story) and they both contain serious spoilers for the serieses as wholes. (Dr Who doesn't *really* have so much of a season long plot that you can be confused about/spoiled for - but it also isn't that good, and I am tired of the category trying to be "best Dr Who episode". )

*Season 1 of GoT go nominated as a long-form in one piece. This got much less of the whining that the WoT nomination did. Is this because more people like GoT? more people have seen it all already? Or was I just not paying attention to the whining?

*I am of course a HUGE WoT fan. But also in general a big fan of very long form story telling. I like epic fantasy series that come in 10 1,000 page novels; I like TV series that have ongoing plot arcs... I think it is good that such works get recognized as awesome (when they are awesome) and not just dismissed as "too long" or have to be judged one small part at a time. Also I think that if we give more recognition to people who write at a particular length then people will be less likely to write looooooooong things and I will be sad.

Comments

[jack]

In fact, even 5 years might be too much. I'm thinking of Jo Walton's description of different types of series: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2009/04/so-what-sort-of-series-do-you-like

We're talking primarily about type 1 series or type 1.5 series, which are primarily one ongoing plot, not separate stories. How often are there five of those that might get nominated? I can't think of that many (and it goes down over time -- at 500k words, LOTR is barely longer than some single novels).

OTOH, you could have an award for *any* sort of series, and sometimes "individual books in the same world" series would win, and sometimes "one long story" series would win.

But on the other other hand, there's lots of sorts of stories which *could* have their own categories, which ones actually should? I'm not sure.

[naath]

Oh, thanks, that's a useful link. (And I agree with Jo that series need LABELING DAMMIT)

I think a problem with style 3 and especially 4 series is that they don't really have an actual end. Discworld is clearly going to keep going until Pterry is nailed in his coffin, and possibly beyond if his daughter inherits it. So if the award is for "finished series" you can never give it to Discworld, because it is never done. If you allow unfinished series then presumably some series will be nominated (and maybe even win) in multiple years-of-awarding.

A story like WoT you get to write "The end of the Wheel of Time" at the bottom of the last page and know that *it is done*; which is part of how you know it's one story.

[jack]

Yeah, I always knew there were different types of series, but seeing them all laid out like that was really, really helpful. And yes, I really hate it when series aren't marked. I can sort of see why, but for me, it's just awful -- I'm usually only looking for that if I've picked up a book and said "this sounds awesome, ok, let me find the first one and if that's any good I'll start reading there". And the first one almost always IS there, because bookshops buy that if anything. And if I can't find it, I'll not buy the potentially-middle book, because sometimes that works out well, but often it makes no sense...

[naath]

I can't really see why. Surely people who accidentally buy book 5 of 13 in a type 1 series are more often annoyed by this than they are happy? And if you buy, say, a randomly selected Vorkosigan book then *maybe you want more* and it would be useful to know that there is a lot more, and what it is called.

Obviously sensible bookshops buy copies of volume 1; but sometimes they will have all sold out. Libraries often don't have #1 around, which is also very irritating. (Obviously more people will buy/borrow #1, because it's the start, but some won't like it and so stop there)