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I'm noticing a trend in literature - especially YA literature - that publishers are numbering books in a series... oddly. There will be a book series, say its a trilogy, so you get Book One "Foo," Book Two "Foo Too," and Book Three "Foo as Well." Then, there will be a prequel, maybe not even a full book length called Book ZeroPointFive "Before Foo," and between Book Two and Book Three there might be a side-story for a secondary character that doesn't fit in the story arc called Book TwoPointFive "Not Foo, But Related to Foo."
I mean, I know Douglas Adams did it for laughs (I'm looking at the Hitchhiker's guide "Trilogy" that went on for five books and one omnibus was called "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: the Trilogy of Four" and after that came the fifth book which had as its subtitle "The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy").
But really? Producing a novella or a short story and then tacking a PointFive to whatever number you want it to come in the story arc as a whole just seems like shoddy storytelling. Either develop the story fully, or cut out the bits that don't add anything but giving anything a PointFive numbering looks like a marketing ploy in order to get more money out of me so I can read the "Full Story/Back Story/Secondary Character's Story."
I mean, I guess I have accepted that the publishers are asshats along about the time they re-numbered the Narnia series in 1994 to be "in sort of chronological order" even through if you read them for the first time in that order you would be very confused and kind of put off (You NEED the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to get the introduction to Narnia - starting with the Magician's Nephew when you don't KNOW what Narnia is about just makes no sense - and the Magician's Nephew is kinda boring anyway).
I guess I am Just Not A Fan Of The PointFives.
I mean, I know Douglas Adams did it for laughs (I'm looking at the Hitchhiker's guide "Trilogy" that went on for five books and one omnibus was called "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: the Trilogy of Four" and after that came the fifth book which had as its subtitle "The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy").
But really? Producing a novella or a short story and then tacking a PointFive to whatever number you want it to come in the story arc as a whole just seems like shoddy storytelling. Either develop the story fully, or cut out the bits that don't add anything but giving anything a PointFive numbering looks like a marketing ploy in order to get more money out of me so I can read the "Full Story/Back Story/Secondary Character's Story."
I mean, I guess I have accepted that the publishers are asshats along about the time they re-numbered the Narnia series in 1994 to be "in sort of chronological order" even through if you read them for the first time in that order you would be very confused and kind of put off (You NEED the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to get the introduction to Narnia - starting with the Magician's Nephew when you don't KNOW what Narnia is about just makes no sense - and the Magician's Nephew is kinda boring anyway).
I guess I am Just Not A Fan Of The PointFives.
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