Trilogies

[Extollager]

Anyone here read Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy? I read the first one, The Crystal Cave, I think... but that’d be nearly 50 years ago.

 

[Extollager]

As I prepare to turn in for the night, memory brings to mind from long ago two more trilogies. Does anyone here recall them? Maybe Parson? There was The Trilogy, three LP records by Larry Norman, 1. Only Visiting This Planet [the only one of the three I think I ever heard], 2.So Long Ago the Garden, 3. In Another Land. And Calvin Miller’s books 1.The Singer 2. The Song 3. The Finale....the Singer Trilogy...I was aware of it at least....a long time ago!

 

[Danny McG]

This is one example that annoys me, there are others I've encountered over the years.
A writer does the fanfare "I present book one of a trilogy"
Then a year or two later "I present book two"
Then nothing else!

Ride the Storm (novel) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Parson]

@Extollager .... I know Larry Norman's "Only Visiting This Planet." I still sometimes sing "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?" and "I Wish We'd All Been Ready." But I did not know that it was a musical trilogy. At that time I was really into the Gaithers and Hozanna! in Christian music but mostly I listened to Country Music, as has been true for most of my life.

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I was under the impression that the idea of a trilogy for S.F. books was coined? popularized? by Azimov's Foundation Trilogy. C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy also has to be considered formative for the idea.

 

[Extollager]

How about this trilogy by John Buchan -- a favorite of a few of us here?

Huntingtower
Castle Gay
The House of the Four Winds

These feature a somewhat hobbit-like grocer caught up in adventures, at least the first one does. I haven't got round to reading the third book.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

There's a YA trilogy I discovered in a charity shop
The Black Magician trilogy by Trudi Canavan

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

I really enjoyed The Mapmaker's Trilogy by S.E. Grove.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

99% of the reason trilogies are a preferred format is Tolkien. I'd like to add Steve Cockayne's "Wanderers and Islanders" trilogy, which alas is little known. I think the reason I settled on the trilogy format for "Factory Girl" was the Tolkien effect! It just seemed right for what I wanted to do...

 

[paranoid marvin]

I rarely come to a series at book one. Usually it is well established (or complete) by the time I get to notice it. Which is quite fortunate as I would hate to start a series that stops half way through.

And I agree with the earlier sentiment that LOTR is not a trilogy ; it's effectively a story in 6 volumes.

 

[Cayleb]

A trilogy I have always admired is "Warlord Chronicles" by Bernard Cornwell: 'Winter King', 'Enemy of God', 'Excalibur'. All three are splendid books in their own right, but together throw a fresh light on Arthur Pendragon.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Anyone here read Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy? I read the first one, The Crystal Cave, I think... but that’d be nearly 50 years ago.

Yes, and if my memory serves, they were really good.

 

[KiraAnn]

Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote several trilogies although only one was marketed as such: The Moon Maid. But the first 3 books of Tarzan, John Carter, and Carson Napier read like trilogies.

 

[saulfan]

How about John Dos Passos' USA Trilogy:

The 42nd Parallel (published 1930)
1919 (published 1932)
The Big Money (published 1936)

... and then published/re-published as a trilogy in 1938

Best Wishes,
David

 

[Pyan]

Melanie Rawn wrote a double trilogy: The Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies, where the first one is about the father, and the second about his son. Well worth a look - a bit like a gentler GoT, but where a character death is a shock rather that a muttered "what, again..." and you can invest in a lead character knowing they're not going to be written out on a whim...

 

[Dave Vicks]

The first two books in Nancy Kress' SLEEPERS trilogy are good.
As are the first 2 book in Kim Stanley Robinson's MARS trilogy.

 

[saulfan]

Len Deighton's Trilogy of Cold War-era Trilogies are well worth a read:

(Berlin) Game (1983)
(Mexico) Set (1984)
(London) Match (1985)

(Spy) Hook (1988)
(Spy) LIne (1989)
(Spy) Sinker (1990)

Faith (1994)
Hope (1995)
Charity (1996)

Best Wishes,
David

 

[BAYLOR]

How about John Dos Passos' USA Trilogy:

The 42nd Parallel (published 1930)
1919 (published 1932)
The Big Money (published 1936)

... and then published/re-published as a trilogy in 1938

Best Wishes,
David

I thought his book Three Soldiers quite good.

 

[saulfan]

I thought his book Three Soldiers quite good.

There is also a companon/background novel to the cold-war trilogies, titled 'Winter', which I found very good.

Best Wishes,
David