Begging book series to include a "previously on" recap at the beginning of the book. I've already forgotten everything that happened in previous books. I don't know who any of these people are or why they're all yelling at each other.
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Agreed! The recaps on the Lord of the Rings audiobooks narrated by Rob Ingles are perfection––succinct, yet they fully capture the important plot points.
Isn't this what Charles Dickens basically did?
The first few pages of his chapters seemed redundant until I found out that they used to be released as serials, not really intended to be chapters.
So reading his work as a novel involved recaps of the prev "chapter", which made them extra long.
Yes, my biggest need! I will shout out M. A. Carrick (Rook and Rose trilogy) and Shelley Parker-Chan (Radiant Emperor duology) for very creative ones done in their respective books' storytelling styles.
Tell me who died, tell me who's fucking who, give me the full spoilers recap and do it in a couple of paragraphs. I'll even take bullet points. I just need something.
Literally had to watch YouTube recaps for a book series I'm working on because it's been a minute since I read book 7 and it's finally my turn with book 8 through the library!
Shout-out to Nalini Singh who is the queen of recapping the story of dozens of previous novels within the first chapter. I've skipped so many Psy-Changeling novels and still fell caught up
"Previously in ... ANITA BLAKE, PARANORMAL FUCKER: "As the wedding prep for Anita's union with Jean-Claude dragged on for the 10th book in a row, Anita had sex with a rat, a cat, a bat, a coyote, three vampires and an incubus. She also found time to stab a demon. NEXT TIME ON..."
So many authors cleverly “summarize” the previous book with copious context clues that are sometimes a little clunky at the beginning, but just as many do not. I think a “previously on:” is totally valid as a format and I would endorse this becoming commonplace!
Though Meredith Ireland/Mai Corland in her Broken Blades series does an incredible job of reminding the reader of exactly what they need to know in the early chapters of her second book. It was like having a "previously on" recap of necessary knowledge.
this would be so good. both for the situation of "I read the previous book more than a month ago I do not know who these people are anymore" as well as "I read the previous book an hour ago please stop with awkward dialogue and exposition to remind me what happened"
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The first few pages of his chapters seemed redundant until I found out that they used to be released as serials, not really intended to be chapters.
So reading his work as a novel involved recaps of the prev "chapter", which made them extra long.
And this goes double if it's been literal years since the previous book.
😁
("Every issue is someone's first" ≈ "every book in a series could be someone's first or read LONG after the previous one.") 😉
Though Meredith Ireland/Mai Corland in her Broken Blades series does an incredible job of reminding the reader of exactly what they need to know in the early chapters of her second book. It was like having a "previously on" recap of necessary knowledge.