Series I Liked That Have Ended, Part 1 (What a Wordsmith, Huh?)

I've got 14 series (15 if you count 2 from W.E.B. Griffin) that are done (a couple might come back).  So that you don't have too much to read at one time, I'm breaking this category up into 2 posts.  Here are the 1st 7.

J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter.  I loved all 7 of these books (I didn't like #4 quite as much as the other 6 because the 1st part of the book takes place at the quidditch tournament, and I liked them at Hogwarts the best - aren't you glad you asked?).

Larry McMurtry wrote 4 books with Lonesome Dove being 1st (1985).  Did you know that there were 3 others?  After LD, he did 2 prequels, Dead Man's Walk (1995) and Comanche Moon (1997), and a sequel, Streets of Laredo (1993).  I enjoyed the other 3 well enough.  But Lonesome Dove is in my top 12 all-time.

David Baldacci's The Camel Club.  He wrote 5 books in this series.  It's terrific.  The protagonist is a homeless guy, Oliver Stone, who lives in a tent in the park across from The White House.  Of course, Oliver is not just your average homeless guy.

Tom Rob Smith's trilogy with Child 44 as the lead.  I loved this series.  The main man is a young KGB officer in the 1950's who is on the fast track for advancement.  However, he ends up developing a conscience.  This doesn't really jibe well with the philosophy of the KGB.  This series only ended a couple of years ago.  He has just come out with a new book, The Farm.

John Jakes' The Kent Chronicles.  This is definitely one of my favorite series ever.  It's 8 books and starts in the early 1770's and goes all the way into the 2nd decade of the 20th century.  The whole series begins with a young man that leaves England for the colonies prior to the American Revolution.  This is historical fiction at its very best.

Ken Follett's 2-book series about England in the 1100's and 1300's.  I'm cheating a little bit here because Pillars of the Earth really stands on its own.  In fact, it's one of my 3 favorite books ever (with Shogun and The Source).  Nevertheless, 18 years later Follett wrote a sequel.  It's takes place 200 years after Pillars and is loosely based on the families from book 1.  That's a series, darn it.

Harlan Coben and Myron Bolitar.  There are 10 of these, but only one in recent years. For all intents and purposes, Coben is done.  Myron is an All-American college basketball player who gets injured and can't play in the pros.  He becomes a sports agent, and each book is a murder mystery.  Plus, Myron has one of the best-ever sidekicks, Win Lockwood.

Part 2 will be coming soon to a computer near you.