I've only read Dark Matter, but I really enjoyed it for what it is: the book equivalent of a well made, fast-paced, turn your brain off, popcorn film.

I read it after reading Tolstoy, and as such, it was a fun, fast and easy read. If you don't go into it expecting something it's not, you'll enjoy his work.

I think it's safe to get into the Cosmere, assuming you treat the entire opus as one series

Everyone has a right to read what they want and how they want (and as long as you’re enjoying yourself go wild!) but I could never subscribe to the idea of not starting a series that isnt completed already. Like you said there’s so many good books out there to fill the time in between. NotW is my favorite book and I couldn’t imagine having missed out on all the enjoyment that book has brought me simply because the series isn’t finished.

In my opinion, mysteries are the only genre where the lack of final is important - cause their whole schtick is the riddle and the answer, and if the plot is unfinished, you are left without the answer. In all other cases, the value lies in emotions and thoughts that you get while reading. ASOIAF, for that matter, brought me more joy and influenced me more than almost any finished series I've read.

>Children of Time

What did you hate about it?

I read the Earth's Children series. (Jean Auel) They were 8-10 years between each one. I bought the 1st 3 in a set: read in a weekend. They were good enough to wait for. Finished now, if you want to read them.

Read series if not finished? Sure, why not.

Good luck

Did not like it as well. For me it was the other way around, 4/5 for the upper world part, 1/5 for the inner world part. I stopped reading this book when the horse started talking through that girl's mouth .. After nightshift, shining, pet sematary and the institute fairytale was just disappointing

I always recommend challenging yourself with your reading, not every book but enough so that you expand what you’re comfortable with.

The biggest hang up some people have is the Russian naming system. And the writing itself is different than modern writing but by no means impossible.

His Notes from Underground is short and worth reading to get used to his writing. But I jumped right into Crime and Punishment and loved it without fully taking everything in. Dostoevsky is one of my favorites.

I used that technique on one of my early books. I couldn't think of a better way to tell the story. The feedback I got from readers was they really enjoyed the alternating POV. Especially when I would have both characters describe the same event. It gave them a richer overview of what was happening.

Not sure I'll use it again. All depends on the story. Sometimes it just works.

Unless we are talking about a mystery where if you don't read the ending, the entire book/series is basically a waste of time, I personally don't worry much if a series is going to be finished. As long as I enjoy the individual volumes, I can easily live without the grand finale. Especially when it comes to extremely long fantasy series where those series that I have finished pretty much always ran out of steam before the ending and limped across the finish line.

And, as mentioned, the vast majority of series do get finished. If you want to be absolutely certain you will get the ending, sure, you should wait until it comes out but the possibility of this never happening isn't anything new.

Thank you! So many times in the past, I powered through books I wasn't impressed with. Because I was a "Finish every book you start!" weirdo. I used to finish-a-book-in-1-sitting as well. Now, I might read a paragraph or a page & have no problem putting it down. (Auto accident in 2009)

I would have loved hearing, "You don't Have To Finish any book you don't Click with."

Series wont be published if the first books dont sell....

I don't believe reading books that don't interest you is giving up. The only time I will push myself to read a book I'm not enjoying is when I have decided that specific book has value in my reading it.

If you are trying to respark your joy in reading, I recommend reading books that you enjoy. I had a goal last year of reading outside of my comfort zone, I pushed myself to read a couple of books early in the year but after slogging through a couple of horrible books I joyfully DNF'd other books and just looked for another book to fill that slot in my challenge.

I love Warhammer 40k books, but this comment I read in the /r/40kLore subreddit an hour or so ago perfectly sums it up

https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/11cvpwq/whats_something_40k_is_actually_very/ja5tes8/

Most of Dickens, Sherlock Holmes.

I dont know. I guess I dont have a particular genre that I like, or atleast I haven't found one yet. I'm also back reading after some time. In school I loved percy jackson, inheritance series by christopher paolini, treasure island and all. Now recently I read 1984, metamorphosis, catcher in the rye, animal farm, thousand splendid suns and some others. There is a lot for me out there to explore.

After writing this much I think I'm more into memoirs or harsh but closer to life stories lately.

If it's longer than 4 books I don't care for it anyway, unless it's an episodic kind of series where I can quit at any point. The chances of both the book quality and my enjoyment of it remaining the same for more than a couple months, are close to nonexistent.

there was a subscribtion service, which was 80, then later 100 books from the warhammer world. its meant to be the best books from the setting

most are stand alone, theres a few trilogies in it.

i made a list here of the first 80. im sure i added the other 20 tho

https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/d8b5ra/the_warhammer_40k_legends_collection_has_finally/

I once dropped war and peace and it landed on my big toe.

Here is a thing I think you are forgetting, how many series do you actually read all the way to the end anyway? There are a lot of series I have started that I stopped not becasue I ran out of books but because it stopped landing. Are these series bad? No. It's just that readers tend to wonder off. A lot of series lose 40% of sales book to book. So if there is a series you do want to read you should buy it. After all, a lot more series end from lack of sales than author inaction.

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You, all of you, take in visual information more easily and completely than you do audio alone. It's just how you're wired.

I have found only one audio book I enjoyed -- a book I had already read and loved. And, I read along as it was narrated. Most of the time, audiobook narrators read far too slowly for me. (The book was Among the Living, by Jordan Castillo Price, book 1 of a paranormal gay detective series.)

>I’m studying classics at university and during a modern literature module we studied Jane Eyre. Now I have read it all, written many notes and essays on it and have a pretty good grip on it (not particularly hard when the author is the least subtle author I have ever read).

Right. You've written 'many essays'. 'Least subtle'.

I don't know where to begin here, but the fact that you don't understand vol 3 belies the 'least subtle' notion. Never mind what it says about the 'many essays'.

What kinds of books do you like? My taste and yours may be very different.

I haven't read Children of Time (thanks for the rec), but personally, Blake Crouch fills the Michael Crichton-shaped hole in my heart - i.e. smart, page-turning thrillers, based on high-concept (but digestible) premises. I loved both Dark Matter and Recursion (the latter a bit more than the former), but confess I was underwhelmed/disappointed by Upgrade.

What I love about those aforementioned novels is that they root their sci-fi high concepts squarely in the human experience - to the degree that the science working is actually dependent on human experience. I mean, the premise of Recursion is essentially >!time travel based on human memory!<. It can feel a little hand-waivey, but Crouch makes it just plausible enough to accept, and it keeps the reader engaged.

All of this to say, if you're looking for a particularly cerebral read that explores the far-reaching social/economic/cultural repercussions of technology, and holds a dark mirror to our current society, you're looking in the wrong place.