What's the longest series of books you ever read, and did the quality stay up all the way to the end?

I've read Stephen King's The Dark Tower series and ended up being disappointed by the last 3 of the 7 books.

I only made it through the first three Wheel of Time books and gave up because I wasn't getting into them.

I'm currently reading E.E. Knight's Vampire Earth series and loving them. It's up to 7 books and I'm reading part 5.

Jim Butcher's Dresden Files is another good one. I've read the first 4 or 5 of them, and it's into like the 10th or so book now.

I only read the first two in the Wheel of Time. Could see it wasn't going to end while he still had blood pumping through his veins (meaning no disrespect) and stopped reading. Now with Brandon Sanderson writing the final book I have to decide whether to just read book 12 or all the middle books I've missed. I'm a fan of Brandon's, but that's a big sacrifice.

6+ book series:

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends = 6 books

M. Weis and Tracy Hickman's Death Gate Cycle = 7 books

David Brin's Uplift Saga = 6 books

Orson Scott Card's Tales of Alvin Maker = 6 books and one more on the way

Robin Hobb's Farseer/Tawny Man trilogies (I don't include the Liveship Traders trilogy as part of the same series) = 6 books

Frank Herbert's Dune series = 6 books

And the longest: Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga = 14 books and counting

The longest series I've read in its entirety is Oz (counting the books typically considered official books - I've read some but not all of the unofficial entries in the series). The Baum books are generally significantly better than the books written by Ruth Plumly Thompson or the other folks who contributed.

I've read nearly all of the Judy Bolton mysteries (all fantastic), but a few of the last books in the series came out after my inherited set was purchased and I haven't found them all as an adult. Ditto Trixie Belden (except they were still coming out with new books when I was a child). I've read maybe 40 of the 56 original Nancy Drew books but I've not made any real attempt to fill in the gaps. There are a lot of other long mystery or adventure series I've made a dent in, some of which were consistently good and others not so much.

If you include all of the periphery books (collections of related short stories, books in the same world but focused on other characters), the longest science fiction series I've read is David Weber's Honor Harrington series (11 books in the mainline sequence, 1 book each in two spinoffs of the mainline sequence, 4 collections of related short stories, plus a couple of stories in other collections not devoted wholly to the series).

While I have some real problems with one of the major decisions made late in the series and don't feel the more recent books are as good as some of the earlier books, I like this series a great deal. At its best it's fantastic and at its worst it's still better than a lot of the crap out there. The one book I actively disliked the first time I read it improved on subsequent reads.

Andy already mentioned my very favorite series, Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. One of my goals in life is to get as many people as possible hooked on the series. The guy who introduced me to it (and to Honor Harrington, for that matter) was a firm believer in paying it forward so I do.

I could go on, but I have to go so I'll shut up now :)

Those detective novels are individual stories. I'm talking more about books that continue one long story.

Last summer I read the 13-book "Daughters of the Moon" series by Lynne Ewing.

It started out much better than it finished. The first book grabbed me, and I devoured them rather quickly after that. I think if I wasn't so curious how it was going to end, I may not have finished the series without large gaps in between. There were some definite lulls throughout the series, and the final book was a huge disappointment, if I remember correctly.

~*~Danielle~*~

Longest series of books I read were my sixty-some Nancy Drew Books. I was a young girl when I devoured those books so I don't recall my impressions of The Secretof the Old Clock compared to the later mysteries.

Second longest were the Lilian Jackson Braun cozies. These The Cat Who books started off well but by book twenty-nine were beyond pathetic.

The next longest set I read was from David Eddings. If memory serves, there were ten books if you count the Belgariad and Malloreon together. That was the only series I ever anxiously awaited the next book. It felt like I eas holding my breath for a year or more at a time! Plus I had to force myself to wait even longer for the more affordable paperback versions. Thank goodness a friend allowed me to read her freshly printed hardbacks. Though I was a teenager when I started this series, it has made the most lasting impression on me. I think David Eddings is my favorite author.

Currently tied with Eddings’ numbers are Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen books. These weren’t overly fantastic light reads to begin with and they quickly soured. But I must be a glutton for punishment because I keep reading them.
The eight Joanna Carl Chocoholic books and J.K. Rowling’s seven Harry Potters also come to mind. Overall, each of these series held their own.

So, I suppose an argument can be made that series books generally suffer the same fate of a slowly staling decline. However, there are a few authors that can ensnare your mind and maintain your affection for quite a while.

Here is another one: Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series. It should top out at 17.

Talyseon.

I've read Robin Hobb's six books in the connected Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies.

Frank Herbert's six Dune books.

The seven Harry Potter books.

Gene Wolfe's "Sun" books: The Book of the New Sun (1 book), The Book of the Long Sun (3 books), The Book of the Short Sun (3 books).

Stephen R. Donaldson's First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (six books).

In progress:

George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire (four read, awaiting the fifth).

Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series (five down, awaiting release of sixth).

I've read the first five Narnia books by C.S. Leis and am on number six.

As a child , I loved the Three Investigators.

When I was in the fourth grade, I read about 26 of their mystery books. Today I would love to find one of the original books just for nostalgia.

As a teen I loved the Princess of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Like many who already posted, the last series of books I read was Harry Potter.

The lensman series runs for 6 breath-takingly fast books.

All published in the early 70s.

Great fun and well written, but like a lot of sci-fi prone to premature aging (a wee-bit in some ways) e.g. typically not many opportunities for women to really get involved. Similar to the 12 Fleming's James Bond novels, at least in that respect.

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