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Hello all the members of RMFAO,

We all love reading series. And how can we not? There are so many amazing series that we simply can't have enough of. Reading about the familiar characters, following their lives one book after the other and exploring their worlds intimately. Reading series is like living in different fictional worlds in a true sense. But so many times, much to our dismay, we fail to complete series started long ago. Sometimes "real life" comes in the way and some time procrastination does, but no matter what we always think about reading and completing these series, but to no avail.

This challenge is devised considering this very problem, and we are happy to present the 4th instalment of this most extraordinary challenge - RMFAO 2018 Series Challenge.

RMFAO 2018 Series Challenge is here to give you an opportunity to complete the series you've longed to complete for a long time! You can even start with a fresh series and try to complete it within the year. Just pick a Level you want to aim for and start reading.

Levels:
Level 1: Casual Reader: 1 series (easy)
Level 2: Frequent Reader: 2 series (moderate)
Level 3: Bookworm: 3 series (mildly strenuous)
Level 4: Bibliophile: 5 series (strenuous)
Level 5: Bookiopath: 6 series or more (challenging)

You can download this image here:

There are absolutely no rules for this challenge. All you have to do is complete as many series as you can, new and old alike.

Feel free to use this discussion board for recommending books, discussing the ones you're reading or really love and posting links to the books or your reviews.

Other challenges that you can participate in are:
RMFAO 2018 Genre Challenge
RMFAO 2018 Classics Catchup
RMFAO NetGalley Challenge
RMFAO Audiobooks Challenge
RMFAO Bonus Challenge (link will be up soon!)

If you're as crazy about reading and books as we are then go wild combining all or any challenges to spice up your reading lists!

You can also read blog posts relating to this challenge, other challenges or the group itself here:

Happy Reading!

I'm going to go for Level-3 - 3 series. And one of them is going to be Vampire Academy. I've read all the books in this series except the last one.
Also, I'll try to get the last 2 released parts of Cliffton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer.

Series Read 2018: 4 series.

1. Dr. Lazlo Kreisler Series by Caleb Carr.
Only 2 books in series so far so this is an easy one!
a. The Alienist. 5 stars. Read 2/18/18.
b. The Angel of Darkness
c. The Alienist of Armageddon not due out until 2019.

2. Thomas Cromwell series by Hilary Mantel.
Again only 2 books released so far.
a. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. 3 stars. Read 2/24/18.
b. Bring Up the Bodies
c. The Mirror and the Light. No release date.

3. The Meg (megaladon shark) series by Steve Alten. Fun thriller series. Jurassic Park meets Jaws.
a. Meg by Steve Alten. 3 stars. Read 6/14/18.
b. The Trench by Steve Alten. 3.25 stars. Read 10/22/18.

4. Gilead series by Marlynne Robinson. Three books concerning the same circumstances from three independent point of views. Theology.
a. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. 4 stars. Read 7/18.

5. DONE The Supernaturals by David L. Golemon. Action, Paranormal.
a. The Supernaturals: A Ghost Story by David L. Golemon. 4 stars.
b. In the Still of the Night: The Supernaturals II by David L. Golemon. Rated 3.75 stars. Read 9/30/18.

Dagny wrote: "#6 of 10
Y is for Yesterday (Kinsey Millhone #25) by Sue Grafton
Looks like Z is the only one left to be published. Saw an estimated publishing date of 2019. I wonder if Grafton will end the serie..."

Grafton recently passed away. (Article link ) It looks like the series will end at Y, according to this article.

Dagny wrote: "#5 of 10
The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon #2) by Dan Brown

This is actually a reread, but it was over 12 years ago. I wanted to go ahead and reread it since I'm going for the entire series this year..."

Dagny, I'm so sorry I totally forgot that we planned to read this series this year. I've ordered the first two books from Amazon so they should be here by next week. I'll be beginning with Angels and Demons and will try and catch up with you fast :)

Yeah, they do tend to go on for a bit. I've actually read the 3rd and the 4th books so it shouldn't take me long to read those, but I hope I'll be able to catch up soon.

Going for level 3: Bookworm for the Series Challenge.

1. The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins

Book 1: The Hunger Games 3/5
Book 2: Catching Fire 3.5/5
Book 3: Mockingjay 4/5

2. Cormoran Strike Series by Robert Galbraith (pseudonym of J.K. Rowling).

Book 1: The Cuckoo's Calling 2.5/5
Book 2: The Silkworm 3.5/5
Book 3: Career of Evil (yet to read).

3. Jurassic Park Series by Michael Crichton
(Yet to read)

Book 1: Jurassic Park
Book 2: The Lost World

Thanks for sharing your views on it Dagny.Looking forward to reading it. But it'll be a couple of weeks I guess before I could start reading Jurassic Park.

Dagny wrote: "I got Inferno from my local library - even though I have a ton of things to do and other books I should be reading. May have been a big mistake! I thought I'd just read some here and there and take..."

I loved The Inferno! I'm not surprised that you dove right into it after the first chapter. I happened to me too when I read it a while back :)

I got my books and I'm starting with Angels And Demons tomorrow.

Dagny wrote: "Finished Inferno
Great read! Non-stop action and I never saw that coming, or that, or that, lol. There are descriptive passages to give us a chance to catch our breath, but they're ..."

It is a beautiful book! I loved it too and gave it 5/5 :D
It is one of the most memorable Brown books I've ever read.

I'm done with the first Robert Langdon book - Angels & Demons - 3/5

Having read Inferno and Lost Key already, I feel like this book was a bit on the amateurish side, which is understandable, as this is the debut novel. Lots of unnecessary elaborate descriptions and lots of random scenes and anecdotes. But I'm looking forward to the next one! Will be starting it today.

Starting with The Da Vinci Code

Dagny wrote: "That's the first Dan Brown book I read and the one that hooked me on him! "

It is the same novel that made him a best-selling author too! I read this one when I was 16 and just started reading main-stream fiction, but at that time I wasn't able to fully appreciate the main plot. I'm really looking forward to reading this one.

Lol. I already started Da Vinci. It's difficult to control when a good book is right in your hands!

Done with The Da Vinci Code. Starting with The Lost Symbol now.

Series 2: Cormoran Strike Series by Robert Galbraith
Book 3: Career of Evil
4/5

Forgot to post this here earlier. I'm done with The Lost Symbol - 3 stars (again)

This was a re-read for me and I felt the same way about the book as I did the first time around - it was a bit slow, too predictable and well, could have done without 100-200 pages of description. I guess so far this is my least favourite in the series :(
Here's my review: /review/show...

I'm excited for the next one - Inferno, as this is again going to be a re-read but I loved it last time I read it :)

Dagny wrote: "The Lost Symbol is my least favorite also, Heena. Inferno - super exciting! Non-stop action which begins immediately."

Yes! I read it first in 2014 and after reading it again, it's still my favourite in the series!

Series: 1
Book: 4
Name: Inferno
Rating: 5/5
Review: /review/show...

Dagny wrote: "That reread didn't take long! This book just flies by - did for me also."

Yes, it does! I enjoyed the re-read as much as I enjoyed it the first time. And last night I happened to see the movie as well.
I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series, Origin, as I'm planning to get an audiobook for it. Though I'm going to read this one after a couple of days as I need to read a couple other books first.

Complete Book #5 of Robert Langdon Series - Origin

I loved it! It was a really good book and a perfect sequel to Inferno. I really liked the fact that the book didn't start with Langdon being thrust into the action as it was starting to get old now. I liked the whole built-up that was going to lead to Kirche's presentation, it was really very impressive.

I'm also done with this challenge. I wasn't able to read more than 1 series, but I'm glad that I did at least this one.
I have a lot of series to complete so I hope next year would be better for me.

I did pretty well in 2018 with series (and even have a few weeks to go)

Terry Pratchett - Discworld (40 books)
de Lint - Newford (10?)
Tanenbaum - Karp&Bianchi (29)
Barry Eisler - Rainiverse (19)
G M Frasier - Complete McAuslin (3)
O'Brian - Aubrey/Maturin (21)
Iain M Banks - Culture series (8)
Clavell - Asian Saga (4 of 5 my bad)
Glen Cook - Black Company (and spin-offs) (10)
Jacques Antoine - Emily Kane (7)
Carl Hiaasen - all YA books (6)
Sandford - Prey plus Flowers combined (36)
Dahners - El Donsaii (14)
Connelly - Bosch/Haller/etc. (32)
...and a few short series I may have missed

These are almost all re-reads or re-read plus the new one.

Altogether in 2018 I've read 60,960 pages across 172 books including all the non-series books according to Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. This is down a bit from previous years.

Just to raise the bar, I just started a reread of Gabaldon's Outlander series (including all the spinoffs). Somehow I don’t think I’ll be finished by the end of the year- even at 3000 wpm.

Peter wrote: "Just to raise the bar, I just started a reread of Gabaldon's Outlander series (including all the spinoffs). Somehow I don’t think I’ll be finished by the end of the year- even at 3000 wpm."

Hi Peter,
I am not sure I can read 3000 words an Hour. LOL

Peter wrote: "Just to raise the bar, I just started a reread of Gabaldon's Outlander series (including all the spinoffs). Somehow I don’t think I’ll be finished by the end of the year- even at 3000 wpm."

OMG, 3000 wpm!? That's that... wow.

Feel free to join us for the next year's series challenge to complete this series. It would be interesting to know your thoughts on this series and the spin-offs.

It's a reread. I think I've already read the series 3 or 4 times.

I think it was one of the major practitioners of Historical Romance (Dunnett*, Heyer, somebody) who said that combining sex and history was a surefire recipe for a bestseller. I can't find the quote, but Gabaldon certainly follows the recipe.

Lord John (the main spinoff character) has some interesting constraints (gay at a time when that was a capital offense; relatively small) and some interesting freedoms (nobility and wealth), plus he's basically a pretty nice guy.

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* Arrrggghhh! I seem to have reread Dunnett's Lymond and Niccolo series about three years ago; maybe time to read them again. I can usually tell within a few pages whether I am returning to a book or series too soon. Also been thinking about rereading all of Elmore Leonard again - all the Westerns in copyright order; then all the non-Westerns. About 100 books. Does reading an author's entire oeuvre count as a series?