History GrowingTheBeard / Literature

* Creator/DJMacHale's series ''Literature/{{Pendragon}}'' starts out a bit rocky with its first two books, but by the third book, it really starts going, with the second book ending with the main protagonist losing his mentor figure and having to stand on his own now, and the third book raising the stakes even further and giving the protagonists some extremely hard choices, and the series really expands on its potential and the creativity of the worlds they visit.

* ''[[Creator/TimDorsey Serge A. Storms]]'': ''Florida Roadkill'' and ''Hammerhead Ranch Motel'' got respectable sales and reviews. Still, the plots aren't as good as those in later books, and the over-abundance of the AnyoneCanDie trope and Serge's EarlyInstallmentWeirdness nastiness can provide a decent amount of TooBleakStoppedCaring sentiment. For some, ''Orange Crush'' is where the series begins finding a decent balance of plot twists, CharacterDevelopment, a larger recurring cast, and whacky hijinks.

* The ''Literature/UncleJohnsBathroomReader'' trivia book series, beginning with volume 8 (''Uncle John's Ultimate Bathroom Reader''). This volume was was bigger than the last two volumes combined, and it started the gradual shift towards a more in-depth writing style. The evolution has continued in subsequent volumes, which now feature multi-part stories and an "extended sitting" section with even longer material. While the first few books had about 200 pages, the last few volumes have pushed 600.

* While it may not be extraordinary, ''Literature/TheHost2008'' was much better received, and overall is much better than Creator/StephenieMeyer's other works, and is perhaps an indication that she can indeed write things other than [[Literature/{{Twilight}} novels about sparkly vampires]].

* A common opinion amongst the ''Literature/ThroneOfGlass'' fanbase is that the third book, ''Heir of Fire'', is a significant improvement over ''Throne of Glass'' and ''Crown of Midnight''. A criticism of the first two books - ''especially'' the first - is that the plot and pacing can feel off, such as the main storyline's lack of development, excessive focus on romantic subplots, uneven worldbuilding and Celaena having little depth beyond being an EscapistCharacter with a lot of CharacterShilling (a frequent joke being that for an infamous assassin, Celaena sure doesn't ''do'' much assassinating). Some readers also weren't thrilled that the only other significant female character besides Celaena gets [[spoiler:killed off]] in the second book. It's widely agreed that ''Heir of Fire'' is a step-up in quality, with the main story getting more focus, interesting character development for Celaena and the other protagonists, better implementation of worldbuilding and the introduction of popular characters like Elide, Manon and the other witches. Some readers attribute this to Creator/SarahJMaas being a teenager when she began writing the series (''Throne of Glass'' was also her debut novel) so it's understandable she had gotten more experienced by the third installment. Whether the series ''stays'' good is a matter of debate amongst readers, but most find ''Heir of Fire'' to be one of the strongest entries.

* For ''Literature/TheDarkTower'' series, Book 2, ''Literature/TheDrawingOfTheThree'', not only picks up the pace and introduces some permanent companions for the main protagonist, Roland of Gilead, but takes up a linear structure which is followed for the rest of the series, compared to the episodic nature of Book 1, ''Literature/TheGunslinger''. It also jettisons some (but not all) of that book's EarlyInstallmentWeirdness and truly sees Roland start on the quest for the titular Dark Tower.

* In Terry Brooks' ''Literature/{{Shannara}}'' series, the second book Elfstones of Shannara is often cited as the best starting point, due to the first book, ''Sword of Shannara'', being [[FollowTheLeader very very similar, and even downright identical in places]] to [[Literature/TheLordoftheRings a certain other fantasy series]]. The second series, ''The Scions of Shannara'' is really where the series hits it stride with much more complex characters, unique stories, and a much more fleshed-out magical world.

* The first couple of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' books are decent, but not amazing; it's only really during the third that it picks up, beginning the tradition of [[WorldOfBadass totally over the top]] [[UpToEleven levels of]] [[Awesome/TheDresdenFiles awesomeness]] that would later become one of the series' hallmarks and starting Harry down the road to {{Woobie}}fication and CharacterDevelopment with [[spoiler:Susan [[VampireRefugee being half-turned by the Red Court]]]]. It improves even further around ''Dead Beat'', with the introductions of Cowl and Lash, [[spoiler:Harry joining the Wardens]], and TheReveal of a traitor on the White Council. According to Jim Butcher, the first book was written to show a creative writing teacher how bad her method of writing was by doing exactly what she said in the expectation it would be badly received.

* In Terry Brooks' ''Literature/{{Shannara}}'' series, the second book Elfstones of Shannara is often cited as the best starting point, due to the first book, ''Sword of Shannara'', being [[FollowTheLeader very very similar, and even downright identical in places]] to [[Literature/TheLordoftheRings a certain other fantasy series]].