Multiple parallel story arcs - rant

Nody

I'm reading a great book (The Last Mortal Bond by Brian Staveley, book #3 in "Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne") currently that ticks all my boxes with a unique world, unique story, unique background, in depth plot with good twists etc. In short a great read even at 850 pages (all the books are long in the series). Love the story, love the series and highly recommend it.

However... What's driving me up the wall in the series and many other books as well (and there was book 11 or 12 in the Wheel of Times series as the extreme example with 1 chapter per group in the whole book due to 20+ different groups being told in parallel) is because it has multiple parallel plots going on it spends one chapter on each group of people. This in turn means it feels a bit like reading a lot of short stories because every chapter is dedicated to Group A, B, C etc. and every chapter because of this becomes it's own small story with a start, middle and end (usually dramatic). Then when you finish at the top and wants to know what's next it moves on to the next group to say what they are doing at the same time. I understand the need to drive multiple plots in parallel but this split up (and this series is far from alone on it, common complaint for many other series) really makes the story stop and start over and over again. I'd much prefer if they would stick to one or two stories and finish a few chapters to make it more cohesive and then move on (I'd argue books but between the groups crossing path etc. it would get to convoluted and spoilers for future books). Am I the only one seeing this more and more and getting annoyed by it?

Beanstalk

It drives me mad. Two POVs is more than enough.

ixoy

Ah that feeling you'd get when reading 'A Song of Ice and Fire' and Sansa would appear at the chapter title..

I know what you mean and it's very common in epic fantasy. It's happening to an extent in the book I'm currently reading ('The Witchwood Crown') with each chapter focusing on a different party. Thankfully, each is interesting enough but I've certainly found that's not always the case.

I did like it when Josiah Bancroft split one of his books into three, with each section focusing on a different character. It gave a lot more time with them and it provided a nice way for their story arcs to intersect.

TheIrishGrover

Yeah: ead read read... Good good good... read read r.... aw, SANSA???!!!!

Then Sansa got a bit better and it became aw, SAM AND ETERNALLY CRYING GILLY AND BABY ON THE NEVER-ENDING BOAT TRIP OF MISERY???!!!

lordgoat

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

Yeah: ead read read... Good good good... read read r.... aw, SANSA???!!!!

Then Sansa got a bit better and it became aw, SAM AND ETERNALLY CRYING GILLY AND BABY ON THE NEVER-ENDING BOAT TRIP OF MISERY???!!!

If I ever re-read these, I'll skip plenty of chapters.