I love fantasy, but fantasy series are kind of nefarious for some… problems.

Series that drag on to reach an arbitrary number, creating a number of filler books. (8/9/10 of a certain series comes to mind for “filler books” )

Series that keep going for so long and lose the thread, straight up making what happened in previous books seem silly and irrelevant.

Books that vary wildly in quality (book 10, shout out to you again)

Series that aren’t finished (GRRM fans, you might get your books if he lives long enough. King Killer chronicle fans… I’m sorry, but the author is dead even if the man remains).

I just really wanna try a bunch of fantasy standalone novels from different authors. But I can’t for the life of me find a website that’ll let me do that. Amazon will say after clicking on it “book 1 of x”, so like the information is there, but I can’t find any website that let’s me search for it. I can find websites that list like “Top x standalone novels of the year” but those are usually really click baity.

“Finished series only” filter would be sick as well.

Anyone have any ideas?

    • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      2 months ago

      gasp

      And there are even recommended tag mashes for different genres! I have found my people who have been similarly hurt by picking up a book that they thought was a standalone, then running right into a cliff hanger wall and an unfinished series.

  • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    2 months ago

    The library of congress no doubt envies Archive of Our Own’s tag system. Say what you will about fanfiction but they have filters for literally all of this and more. I know it’s probably not what you’re looking for, but man if it was!

  • 🦄🦄🦄@feddit.de
    0·
    2 months ago

    King Killer chronicle fans… I’m sorry, but the author is dead even if the man remains

    wtf happened?

    • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      2 months ago

      Fans who follow more closely can correct me if I’m wrong, but…

      The author streams and does events, but hasn’t given any updates in a long time. He did a fund raiser where a goal was releasing the first chapter of his next book, which he supposedly has been working on since 2011, and he never did despite meeting the goal. Sure feels like despite supposedly working on it for 2011 he hasn’t even made a draft of the opening chapter.

      Additionally, his previous editors and publisher have said they haven’t seen any indication he is working on them at all. So it doesn’t seem like he’s agonizing over revision 512 and still not happy with it. Seems like he just never made a first draft.