Mal ,'Out Of Gas'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
A question I just thought of. Do you have a preferred fiction length. Flash fiction, short story, novelette, novella, novel, series?
I dislike flash fiction, and I'm not a big fan of short stories either. I like a good self-contained novel. A series that's really well done I like as well, but a lot seem to peter out.
I don't even know what "flash fiction" is! I think that means I am not qualified to answer.
Flash fiction is considered 1,000 words or less (in general).
I never thought about it before but I love a trilogy.
Thanks, Gud. I was having nightmares about Adobe Flash.
My favorite is a well-paced trilogy. Quartets are acceptable as well. Almost any time a series goes longer than that (no matter how addicted I might get), I expect an unfortunate degradation in quality. (I'm looking at you, George R. R.!)
A series of trilogies or quartets set in the same universe but with different primary characters can be awesome, too. (Tamora Pierce!)
Standalone novels are good, of course, but I prefer incredibly long books like Anathem. I tend to like epic scale, especially in Fantasy/SF (my genres of choice).
I do like well-written (and paced) short stories, but my favorite form is the trilogy.
Funny you mention this, because last night, another blog had as its question of the day "What is your favorite short story?" I'm going to be cutting and pasting a lot of recommendations from that thread, I think. My mentions were "The Yellow Wallpaper," "Shambleau" and "Black God's Kiss" by C.L. Moore, "With Delicate Mad Hands" by James Tiptree, Jr., and for pure fluff, "Who Am I This Time?" by Vonnegut.
I dislike flash fiction, and I'm not a big fan of short stories either. I like a good self-contained novel. A series that's really well done I like as well, but a lot seem to peter out.
This is me.
My favorite is a well-paced trilogy. Quartets are acceptable as well. Almost any time a series goes longer than that (no matter how addicted I might get), I expect an unfortunate degradation in quality.
Hah. I just wrote on my new blog about how I'm usually disappointed by trilogies: A Trilogy of Trilogies. BTW, that link is not spoilery for Mockingjay.
I love a good short story, but I have to be in the mood. Otherwise a novel is what I generally read. And anything that continues into a series is usually welcome, but some mystery series do have the same-old feeling after a while.
I read fast, so I love a GOOD engaging massive tome.
I also love good series; I really like following characters I love despite the OMG GIMME MORE NOW A YEAR, FUCK -ness of many.
One of my truest pleasures is finding a new-to-me series I really like that already has about 4-5 books in it published. NOM CRACK.
Flash fiction always feels like writing exercises to me, although some can be excellent. I love a good anthology of short stories, esp. as bedtime reading, because then I don't feel compelled to stay up till 3 finishing the book.
I love an elegantly crafted shorter novel, too; Duras is especially a favorite for this, although some leave me cold (Blue Eyes, Black Hair) and some I adore (The Lover.)
Oh, hell, I like it all. Depends on mood.