Books

I don't know, it sounds like your biggest issue is that the books are written to be a series and not self contained. To me, that's a narrative choice and isn't always bad. I hate it when the author doesn't finish and leaves he hanging forever, but I can appreciate a long story that takes multiple books to tell.

I'm currently rereading the Amber Chronicles, by Roger Zelazny, and it's like that. Arguably, it's two stories of five books each, although there's a thread from the first five that continues in the second. It's a wonderful series, especially the first five.

On the other hand, sometimes it feels like the author of a long series doesn't know where he's going, but is just trying to milk the franchise, and that's more problematic.

Deathstalker. OMG. This can't be the series you're talking about, but my god were those books a series of neverending escalations with the exact same resolution every single time. If you want to know how many times a hero can get into an impossible situation and get out of it by simply overcoming the impossible situation be becoming impossibly stronger, which is something apparently any other character is also potentially capable of if they are given the right drugs, that is the series for you.

Unfortunately, unlike you, i was determined to ride it out through spite instead of self respect.

Good for you! Life is too short to read disappointing stories, there are way too many other good ones out there waiting for you.

My suspicion is you are talking about Dungeon Crawler Carl?

Life is definitely too short to read books that don’t give you pleasure!

But the first book ended POORLY

I can think of a few series that had books where I really enjoyed the first books, but felt that the series went downhill over time. The Dune Chronicles

I really liked the first book, but the later books just got progressively worse, in my opinion. Or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

But I can't think of any series where I had a bad first book and then the thing progressively got better.

Granted, that may be selection bias

maybe I just never complete a series if the first book is bad.

I think this makes sense. If the first book didn't actually have an ending and the second book left you feeling like it's just a series of battles and banter, good job recognizing that that's not what you want.

This has all the ingredients you enjoy but you don't like the way those pieces are assembled. Nod and move on.

You not liking the series isn't an insult to the fandom. I don't think people who dislike and rant about pistachio ice cream to be insulting to me.

And if you want to go off about pistachio ice cream, go off! I'll be here eating it anyway.

So... I did not buy the third

Did you also give up on Lord of the Rings after book 2 didn't have an ending?

8 is ridiculous but many books follow the Lord of the Rings structure where books aren't self contained novels.

This is me with the Stormlight Archive. I vociferously defended the first book, but after finishing the second one I couldn't face subjecting myself to a decade plus of thousands of pages of mediocre fantasy.

Without the name of the series, I can only provide some very basic thoughts.

The first of these will likely upset you, however. There is, barring actively harming someone, no such thing as BadWrongFun™. Saying that you didn't like it because you expect more depth is fine. (I'd even agree.) But there was a very strong streak of disdain for those who do not share your tastes in your post. This, IMO, is not fine.

The second of these is that I actually thank authors who make huge series. It tells me that they aren't serious people and that I won't enjoy their works. A novel is a very long format for writing. If you can't get a good, complete, story that actually ends in a single novel, you're probably not an author I want to read anyway, so thanks for the warning.

I will always proselytize with the goal of getting people to read those substantive books. You can read for fun, but you’re missing out on a lot of reading’s value if you just read the same thing over and over again and never challenge yourself.

Me personally, once I get that commercial taste in my mouth while I’m reading a book, it’s very hard for me to think about it objectively. I become consumed with resentment, irrationally.