a question a day

[kindkit]

Today's question from the question-a-day meme:

1 Do you have a favorite book series?

Several. I like serial storytelling, which combines the comfort of familiarity (yay, I get to hang out with these characters again!) with the pleasure of a new plot. It's the same reason I like fanfic.

A few favorites:

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series
Mary Renault's Greek novels, which are a sort of loose series with recurring characters (not all of them historical)
Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford series
John Le Carré's George Smiley series

But if I had to pick one, it would be Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe series. These police procedural mysteries (with a decent dose of police-skepticism built in) offer inventive and varied mystery plots, excellent prose, and characters with growing depth and complexity (including the women, and also one of the first recurring gay characters--one of the detectives, not a killer or a victim--that I know of in any mystery series). The worldview is broadly leftist and always compassionate and thoughtful. I re-read these books a lot, which says something in itself, because not a lot of mysteries will bear re-reading.

Comments

[mllesatine]

I answered the question for myself when I read it and first thought that I don't read book series but then you mentioned Discworld and I have read a lot of those.

Which Dalziel and Pascoe book would you recommend to a newbie?

[kindkit]

What I think of as the core of the series is the run of books from Deadheads (1983) through Death's Jest-Book (2003), which are almost all excellent. The problem is that Deadheads, while great, is not really typical of the series. So maybe start with Child's Play (1987), which has both a powerful mystery plot and some major character development. If you like it, read on chronologically from there, and maybe loop back at some point to catch the earlier books.

[mllesatine]

I just ordered a used copy of Child's Play.

[kindkit]

Oh, cool, I hope you enjoy it!