Favorite Sequels

To kick off our month of sequels properly, we're picking our favorite sequels!

You guys well know that I love Catching Fire and that it's my favorite of the Hunger Games books, so it would be the obvious choice for me here. And you also know that Cassy and I both picked not-the-first-one as our favorite Harry Potter books, so we clearly like those sequels. So instead, I'm going to tell you that I really like all of the sequels in the Uglies series.

I think Specials is probably my favorite of them all, but Extras is really incredible too. They're good in different ways, so it's hard to choose. I'm fairly certain that it's very difficult to make a series get much better as it progress, and I believe that's what Scott Westerfeld did with the Uglies series.

I've talked about the Percy Jackson series a lot on this blog lately, which is good, because everyone just really needs to go read it.

And there were a lot of runner ups for this particular favorites today.  Like Alex mentioned, I LOVED Extras (which is interesting because it was 100% a tack on for him.  Completely unplanned when he originally planned to do the series.)  I also really love book seven in the Chronicles of Narnia series (The Last Battle).  You get to revisit all the people that you love and adore in it.  There's just something about the way Lewis brings it all together.

But book four in the Percy Jackson series, The Battle of the Labyrinth, just is amazing.  There is a quest that has been going on for three previous books that finally comes to a conclusion in book four.  And it's wonderful and heartbreaking all at the same time.  Grover gets a TON of face time in this book.  In fact, I would argue that this book is almost more about him than it is about Percy, which is nice that we get a little break from Percy to be reminded that there are other characters in the book, other heroes.

It's the book that really brings the series together, I think.  Sure, everything culminates in book five and the Big Battle happens in book five, but I think book four is what really sets that up and gives you a lot of answers to questions you'd been asking for the whole series.

Favorite Series

This week's review book, I Am Number Four, is part of a series called Lorien Legacies, so we're choosing our favorite series, which is a really difficult choice for each of us.

My choice is the Harry Potter series, which you heard each of us weigh in on back in April. I chose HP because I consistently liked all of the books, even though the tone changes drastically from Sorcerer's Stone to Deathly Hallows. It does so gradually, getting a little more serious with each book.

I also love HP because it feels like you know these people. Like you could just strut right up to the Burrow and Molly Weasley would sit you down and make you lunch. As fantastic and magical as the story is, it feels more real than a lot of books out there.

And as much as I want to agree with the rest of the world and say that we need more HP books, I think the series is a good length. It spanned Harry's adolescence, told the story that needed to be told, and didn't overstay its welcome. (Though I'm convinced that this is partially because anyone paying attention within the first few chapters of Sorcerer's Stone knew there would be exactly seven books, so we knew what to expect all along, at least length-wise.)

I have a million and one series' that I've read over the years.  And there are a TON that I love (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Hungers Games.  The list goes on.)  But there's one that I really adore, and has actually been around awhile.

I know there's a lot of controversy over The Vampire Diaries.  And, to be perfectly honest, I haven't read past book six (The Vampire Armand.)  But, they're REALLY good, those first six book.  We already know my feelings on book five.

If nothing else, you should read the first three books.  You grow so attached to Louie and Lestat (ESPECIALLY Louie.  I LOVE Louie.)  You really get a great feel for the characters and Rice makes you fall in love with characters in such a short amount of time.  It's uncanny and takes a lot of talent.

I know that she kind of got a little crazy and a lot religious, but there's a reason that The Vampire Chronicles sold so well and are still a big deal, almost 40 years later.

(A side note: I am unaware as to why we didn't have a vampire tag before today.  Goodness knows we've talked about them enough.)