Originally Posted by
pablo
To me, a series tells one ongoing story. So, The Dark Tower, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones. If it's different stories, it's not a series per se.
Then, my opinion is they qualify and can be for short called "multivolume novels", like War and Peace.
Originally Posted by
fearless-freak
i get what you mean turtle, its like Lord of The Rings Tolkien originally conceived it as one volume (which you can get now) but iwould have been too much so they decided to set it into three volumes... there, my hat is now in the ring
Originally Posted by
Merlin1958
The authors intent should play a significant factor IMHO. King intended TDT to be multiple volumes, clearly. As did Tolkien and to my knowledge, Carroll. A story has a beginning, a middle and an end regardless of publishing quirks/marketing or time frame. FWIW A good example is Tolkien in that The Hobbit was intended as a children's book and no necessarily required reading to enjoy "TLOTR" as the central information needed from "The Hobbit" is provided in the trilogy again. Also, the central character changed from book to trilogy.
Originally Posted by
Merlin1958
Originally Posted by
pablo
The Dark Tower, on the other hand, was never intended to be a series, much less a single novel. In fact it started out as separate novellas, so you can view The Gunslinger as either a novel, which was published in installments, or a collection of novellas.
True, but at some point King changed his mind as clearly evidenced by the numbering and the "R" naming of the volumes, no?
Originally Posted by
ladysai
Even in a series of novels like TDT or ASoIaF or Chronicles of Narnia, each part of the series is a complete novel.
I disagree.
Originally Posted by
Heather19
I think if we judge series in with novels they'll get an unfair advantage since there's so much more to judge them on.
I don't really think so. Length has very little to do with the value.
Originally Posted by
Merlin1958
I don't really think it is a matter of wether you "could" read any series of novels as a stand alone, but more a matter of a continuing underlying and over-riding story line in the case of TDT. They were written in installments, yes, but are intended to read as a single story. Now, "The DaVinci Code" is a single novel that introduces a character that has further adventures, but each story is complete. Hard to argure that "Roland" reaching the Tower is not the central underkying theme, IMHO
Originally Posted by
Mattrick
The dark tower is a complete novel, each picks up where the previous ended. It is one novel in parts.
Originally Posted by
BROWNINGS CHILDE
I think that if you could read the first installment (or any other installment) of a series and be completely satisfied, and have a solid ending that is not dependent on future installments for resolution, then it is a novel. If none of the installments can stand alone then it is one long novel. I think that this qualifies, most definitively, Lord of the Rings and TDT. I've not read any of the other series in question except an incomplete reading of the Harry Potter series, which I am less sure should qualify. However, I feel like the HP series is one of the great pieces of literature of our time and should thus have a rightful place on the list. But, then if it should pass the test, then I think that most series should be found acceptable.
Originally Posted by
WeDealInLead
I haven't nominated or voted (yet) but it's unfair to other writers that a series of books is considered one title. Why should King get a pass and have thousands of pages to tell a story and drive a point home? Yes, it's a series of books that works best as a whole but for something like this, you need a level playing field. FWIW, the original The Gunslinger can be a complete stand alone with a dark, ominuous, open-ended ending. You could also pick up The Drawing without reading The Gunslinger. Ditto W&G and King himself said you can read The Wind without prior knowledge of DT. It says so in the book.
The Wind is a separate novel, which proves that TDT - a complete novel - is part of the series, which include the Wind, Eluria, the Eyes and maybe something else. It is, actually, a good example of a long novel vs. series.
Originally Posted by
Mattrick
The wastelands, wizard and glass wolves of the calla and song of susannah have no direct endings and two dont tell andly specific, isolated story to be considered anything but a piece of a larger novel. It is one novel, designed to be one large story from the get go. Don't think of it as a series but instead as one novel written in installments, as many of the greatest novels have been...just not over this period of time. Dexter is a series, TDT is not.
thus, I think many people here agree with my clumsy definition
Originally Posted by
Jean
a novel is a long piece of prose that starts on, or about, the first page and ends on, or about, the last
<...>
A series, consequently, is a number of interconnected novels, each of which is a novel, that is, starts at the beginning and ends at the end of this particular novel.
and I would just rely on my own common sense, if only I'd read all the suspects. I have to ask people to look at the least once again and tell me which of the nominants, in their opinion, don't comply with the definition of "an ongoing story, with a beginning, an ending," or which of the previously rejected novels have been, in this light, rejected mistakenly.