There was the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, but that one was in 5 parts, which made me think that the English just weren't very good at counting.

People do seem to like trilogies, though.  The Star Wars movies, for example.  And then the other Star Wars movies, for another example.

Don't forget the big Daddy of trilogies....The Lord of the Rings!

Okay the books have a few decades on them but the movies are more recent. Within the last 12 years or so.

Now that we are on trilogies, shall we add on series of books in general? Or start a separate thread? And the books have to have a definite timeline or order.  Not just a random collection of similar stories or the same characters. There must be a chronology.

Wheee I'm excited about this!

I don't know if triologies are really anything new.  I think the trilogy is just a basic story form - give a good framework for an opening, middle and wrap up.

Almost all of Mercedes Lackey's books run in trilogies and they date back to the late 80's or early 90's at least.  A lot of the older Star Wars books run in trilogies too, for example the Jedi Academy series and the Dark Force Rising series are both trilogies.A fair number of the Forgotten Realms books run in triologies and linked triolgies. I think some one else mentioned the Lord of the Rings trilogy.   I've got  an older SF series called Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars (3 books).   Elizabeth Moon's Deed of Paksenarrion books are a trilogy and they date from the late 80's too.  Those are just ones I can think of off hand from my book collection.

Some older trilogies include Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast",  Robertson Davies who wrote 3 different trilogies including "Deptford".  The Dune books started out as 3 books then expanded to at least 6.  I gave up after the 4th one.

Movies - Matrix, Superman, Spiderman, and my all-time favourite, the Bourne books/movies.  Apparently there is a new movie follow-up to the Bourne story.  Can't wait to see it.   Story-line is about other rogue agents like Bourne.

And looking on my bookshelves, I forgot about Rama, Rendezvous With Rama, and Garden of Rama by Arthur C.Clarke.  Also Asimov's "Foundation Trilogy". 

Trilogies have long been popular in genre fiction, largely thanks to Tolkien. Ironically, he wrote LOTR as a single volume and it was the publisher who broke it into three, something rectified at least as early as the eighties with the release of omnibus editions compiling it back into one volume. Robertson Davies, mentioned above, was actually one of the few mainstream or literary authors producing them on a regular basis until recent years when things like Twilight made the leap from genre to mainstream.

An early "trilogy" that I enjoy is the Skylark series by E.E. "Doc" Smith, the s-f writer who largely invented space opera. It started as a trilogy in the 1930s but Smith added a fourth volume in 1963 (much as Douglas Adams added to the Hitchhiker trilogy). The story is about Dick Seaton, a young scientist who invents an interstellar drive and builds a series of increasingly larger and more powerful starships to battle various aliens and other enemies while dealing with a jealous, greedy rival named Marc Duquesne who functions as the ongoing antagonist of the series. It's free on Project Gutenberg if you have an e-reader but be warned: it was written in the 1930s and has some archaic attitudes, esp. towards women (the heroine, Seaton's wife Dorothy, is your classic "damsel in distress").

Another that hasn't been mentioned is The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen. It ultimately ended up as a trilogy of trilogies. The original trilogy came out in the first post-Tolkien wave of fantasy in the late seventies with subsequent trilogies coming out in the eighties (Seoond Chronicles...) and noughts (Last Chronicles...) though Wiki shows the last ended up as a tetralogy - four books - with the last still not out. I only read up to the middle of the second trilogy and then gave up for various reasons. The first trilogy is a rather good, if somewhat cynical, take on epic fantasy but I know some people on other boards who have been put off by the rather unsympathetic protagonist. Certainly, I got tired of him at times which is part of why I stopped reading.

Mendalla

Another that hasn't been mentioned is The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. IIRC, it's now a trilogy of trilogies (the original trilogy came out in the first post-Tolkien wave of fantasy in the late seventies or early eighties), but I only read up to the middle of the second trilogy and then gave up for various reasons. The first trilogy is a rather good, if somewhat cynical, take on epic fantasy but I know some people on other boards who have been put off by the rather unsympathetic protagonist. Certainly, I got tired of him at times which is part of why I stopped reading.

Mendalla

[/quote]

I read at least 6 of the Thomas Covenant books, but got tired of them because of the repetition in the story-line.

Interesting that there are trilogies and chronicles - thinking here of C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronices.

Seems that the science fiction/fantasy genres lend themselves to trilogies - others I remember from my years as a librarian are books by Anne McCaffrey and Ursula LaGuin.

Also Mists of Avalon and Sword of Shannara - think these were trilogies.

Mists is more than a trilogy now, I think, because Bradley's estate allowed other authors to continue it. Shannara is an ongoing series but arranged into trilogies, much like Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series that were mentioned upthread.

mendalla

My favourite trilogy is Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.  I guess it would be found with young adult fantasy... but, much like Harry Potter, it ends up maturing to more adult-friendly territory by the end.

Looooove it!

Recently, my wife has read the Joe Ambercrombie fantasy First Law trilogy. She also read some Prince of Nothing trilogy. I have read the Stephen Ambrose trilogy on Nixon and Inkheart.

I think one trilogy we're all forgetting is the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Book of Mormon.

LOL chansen

Actually that would be the book of Morman, Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants.

If you're a Muslim, drop the Book of Mormon and substitute the Qu'ran (they do acknowledge the veracity of the Jewish and Christian narratives but, in essence, say the followers are reading them incorrectly ).

Mendalla

LOTR

Hitchhiker is a classic.  Of course it also claims that the Earth was created on order for the dolphins which is ludicrous.  Everyone knows it was/is the cats who ordered and run the place

Careful. Both hypotheses have at least as much support as Christianity.

Personally, I've always held that it's a conspiracy between the cats and the dolphins. I suspect the pigeons are in on it, too.

* puts on tinfoil hat and heads for basement *

On topic, China Mieville's Bas-Lag novels are currently a trilogy (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, The Iron Council) and some of the more original fantasy fic out there. It may not stay a trilogy, but his last couple books have been exploring other settings so it stands as one for now.

Mendalla

The Wizard of Earthsea trilogy by Ursula Le Guin was one of the most awesome things I had ever read when I was in my early teens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wizard_of_Earthsea

When I started this thread, it was more about the change in popularity of books (and other than Harry Potter, the only ones I've heard about have been trilogies).  It seems to come in phases where over a fairly short period of time a particular trilogy becomes extremely popular until the next one comes up.

I like where this thread has gone though, so feel free to continue on!

Well, on the popularity of books, in the eighties and nineties (I was working in a public library through the nineties), it was King and Steel that tended to dominate. A new novel by either of them was guaranteed number on the bestseller lists and a holds list as long as my arm. King was probably one of the first writers to become a multimedia phenomenon as his novels were adapted for films, television, audiobooks, comics, etc. He even wrote some original screenplays for movies and television. He seems to have run out of steam now, though I hear his recent stuff is pretty good he isn't getting the same attention anymore. I burned out on him in the early nineties and haven't read much by him in probably 10 or 15 years.

However, the massive popularlity of series like HP, Twilight, etc. does seem to have taken things to another level altogether. I don't recall having conversations at work about popular books in the nineties the way we have about Twilight (I haven't read it but a lot of the women have).

Mendalla

V.C. Andrews trilogy of Flowers in the Attic, Petals on the Wind, and If There Be Thorns appeared in the late 1980's and was immensely popular with teenagers.  I could never keep enough copies in our high school library.  I had read the books previously and was reluctant to expose teenage girls to them at first because of the content, namely incest, forbidden love and child abuse.  Other librarians were comfortable with the books, so I relented.

Interesting that now those books are considered very tame compared to the Twilight series, and other books.

LOTR came to mind right off the top! 

In the spring I read a book I really enjoyed - "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness.  It was the first of a trilogy - the second came out just yesterday - so I'll soon be into it!  But think there will be a bit of a wait for the last tome to be published ... boo on that! 

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Shadow of Night and it is at least a good as A Discovery of Witches.  Deborah Harkness is one of the more brilliant new authors I've run across in recent years.

My best friend read the VC Andrews books while we were in high school. I wasn't interested in reading much then, and especially not about incest and child abuse. I didn't get why she liked them. I didn't like the movie Mommy Dearest either.... Interesting that those are considdered tame compared to Twilight. I didn't think Twilight was all that major.

Yeah Stephen King was big, but I don't remember much frenzy about it either. The Shining was quite a popular film though, lines from it being quoted, t shirts being worn... That was pretty scarey though. Too much for me. That was his wasn't it? It's funny, I saw several horror films as a teen with friends, but would never have read a horror novel.

Maybe reading has become more popular? And/or promotion has gotten more pervasive? 

How About Clan of the CaveBear and the other umm The Mammoth Hunters and I cant remember.

Jean Auel's Earth Children series: Clan of the Cave Bear, Valley of the Horses, The Mammoth Hunters, The Plains of Passage, The Shelters of Stone and The Land of the Painted Caves. My assessment: The first two are wonderful, books 3 and 4 are readable, books 5 and 6 should never have been written.

@ Rowan - good to hear Shadow of Night is captivating as well!    I'm disciplining myself to get some other stuff done before picking it up ...