Half Books – Shitty Books That Have No Ending

Whenever I talk about the Three Body Problem, a book I abhorred, someone always mentions that the first book is just exposition for the next 2 in the series and I should stick with it.

Hell no, a first book in a series should stand alone.

Heh, this is the case for almost all comic books, as well as more than half the TV shows that end with a cliffhanger and never get funded for a new season.

It's tempting to say something sarcastic like "If you want tidy stories, stick to fairy tales," but that would be unnecessarily sarcastic.

There's a little more that goes into well-written novels than following strictly-defined plot conventions.

I'd say, if a reader reacts that strongly to unconventional narrative structures, they might be a bit more invested in the story than they think? Which tends to be a sign of effective writing.