Top Ten Series I Haven't Finished

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the bloggers of The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is the top ten series I haven't finished for one reason or another. Now, I'm not a huge fan of series to begin with. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I think that a number of authors create series more as a way to keep publishing books and earning money than because the storyline legitimately needs to be continued. And keeping up with a series takes a lot of effort on my part as the reader. I am willing to do so, however, for those series I really like. I've organized my list into three categories: those I plan to continue, those I'm not sure about continuing, and those I definitely will not continue.

First I'll list the series I have every intention of continuing with in the future:

Philippa Gregory's The Cousins' War series — I love Philippa Gregory's books. Whenever I'm in the mood for a historical fiction fix, I always turn to her. Although Tudor England is one of my favorite time periods to read about, I find all of her books comforting. They're adult reads, feature good romances and strong female protagonists, and are a great means of escapism into a different time period. Plus I do love learning about histories of the world. I've been slacking with her books lately, however, as I continue to read mostly YA. But I will continue with her newest series soon!

Juliet Marillier's Sevenwaters series — I adore Juliet Marillier. In my defense, when I first read her Sevenwaters books, back when they were recently published, it was only a trilogy (and I read those three Sevenwaters books). I only found out recently that apparently she's added more books to this series. I kind of liked how the trilogy ended and this makes me a little wary of continuing with it, but I trust her abilities as a writer. I just need to reread the first three books again before continuing on with the new ones.

Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series — I read the first one and maybe the second...although I'm not sure. I was a huge fan of Clare's Harry Potter fan fiction. Any other Draco trilogy and "A Lot to be Upset About" fans out there? So I was excited for her first series, but then I started hearing criticisms that Jace is her Draco. And I couldn't help but agree. Apparently that criticism was enough to turn me off, despite relative enjoyment of the first book. But I can't really ignore Clare's presence in the YA world. So I'd like to either really read this series or start with The Infernal Devices.

N.K. Jemisin's The Inheritance Trilogy — I really enjoyed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Give me any story with solid world-building and a believable mythology (and gods who actively are involved in the lives of mortals!) and I'm good to go. I've heard that the POV changes as the series continues, so I'm anxious to see what happens next. Plus the first book ended on a major cliffhanger. So I need to return to the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms soon.

Here are some series I'm not quite sure whether I'd like to continue with or not:

Lois Lowry's The Giver quartet — The Giver is probably my favorite YA dystopian of all time. I mean, it helped define the dystopian genre for YA audiences years and years before The Hunger Games headed the recent surge in YA dystopian novels. Just everything about The Giver is so inventive and full of commentary, and it makes societal criticisms without having to rely on constant action. I didn't realize that Lowry continued with the series until years later, and I just consider the first book to be so perfect I'm kind of nervous to see how it continues

Lauren Oliver's Delirium series — I may get back to this series eventually but I haven't decided one way or the other. Oliver's writing style is beautiful, but I had issues with the world-building and premise of this dystopian world where love is outlawed. In some ways it's a really thought-provoking idea, but I never truly understood the urgency behind banning love. I know that the sequel, Pandemonium, has been published. I guess this is one of those books where I'll need to have time and desire before I pick it up again.

Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series — I read and loved Uglies, Pretties, and Specials. But those were years ago and I'm not even sure how to classify Extras. Isn't it featuring a different protagonist? So is it really a continuation of the same series or something slightly different? I'm not sure. I feel like I'd need to reread the first three books before picking up Extras, and right now that's just not something I have the time to do.

And these are the series I have no desire to continue reading:

Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series — I read the first three or so books in this series back in high school. But they're long and I guess there were other books calling out to me. And then the TV series "Legend of the Seeker" came along a few years ago. I ended up reading the first and second book in the series again, but then again lost interest. Would it be bad of me to admit that I prefer the TV series to the books? Although I'm sad the series ended, I just can't muster up the dedication and time needed to read thirteen very long books. 

Sophie Jordan's Firelight series — Firelight and Vanish, the first two books in this series, were some of the first books I reviewed for this blog. At the time I was super excited to read books about dragons. And I'd had such a hiatus from the current YA book marketplace that I had not many recent comparisons to this series. But now it is a few months later and I've come to admit what I had already suspected while I was actually reading these books: they're typical lite YA paranormal romances and, as I have far too little time to read books I'm truly interested in as it is, I will not be reading future books that I realize aren't that great.

Beth Reavis' Across the Universe series — Once again, this series was just not very good. I thought it was cool that I'd found a science fiction book where I didn't feel like I was drowning under heavy scientific concepts, but the flaws in this first book outweighed the pros. I'm not a huge fan of dual narration and while I identified somewhat with the female narrator, the male one felt completely cliche. The story had some interesting ideas, but the mystery was kind of obvious.

I realize that not all of these series are finished, but I'm still behind in all of them in terms of books published.

What are some series that you haven't finished?