Gave up on a 900 page fantasy epic after the third map

Saw a post about how world building is the point, but I quit halfway through this huge series when the author introduced a fourth continent on yet another map. I counted 14 named characters just in one chapter, and I couldn't keep any of them straight. My friend says I'm lazy for not finishing, but I think there's a line between rich detail and needing a spreadsheet. Has anyone else bailed on a book because the cast got too big to track?

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stellabennett1mo ago

Watched my buddy make a color coded chart for one series.

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lunawilson1mo ago

Read a whole blog post once where a guy kept a notebook just to track who was who in a long series. He said he had pages of family trees and little notes like "the guy with the bad knee" so he wouldn't mix people up. That sounds like homework, not reading for fun. If you need a color coded chart like your buddy made, something went wrong with the book. I bailed on a series for the same reason, too many names and not enough reason to care about any of them. A big cast can be great, but only if the story gives you a reason to remember them.

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