The Bartimeus Trilogy. I know there’s a prequel now from Babylonian times which I’ve not read, but the Bartimeus trilogy has one of the best endings I’ve read full stop. Very good.

 

Now that it's officially finished - bar the eventual release of some Patreon extra chapters for non-subscribers like me - I think Practical Guide to Evil can be included in this thread. 7 books, a word count that I imagine is somewhere in the millions, and a satisfying ending to tie it all up. https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/

 

An update to my previous post here @Ched

Benedict Jacka has since written a series of posts on why he chose the specific ending that he did and some general thoughts on what makes an ending.

https://benedictjacka.co.uk/2022/07/22/author-commentary-on-the-ending-of-the-alex-verus-series/

 

I see that Abercrombie's First Law has gotten a fair bit of discussion here. He finished a second trilogy - "The Age of Madness", set in the same world last year, which I think hasn't been mentioned yet. This brings up the total to nine books: two trilogies and three standalone books set between them in the timeline. I think reading them as a series is definitely the correct way to read them, even if the standalones don't impact the greater plot that much.

Anyway since this thread is about endings - I think that Abercrombie has refined his writing and that the second trilogy has a better ending than the first which I already liked. It's still a bit of a downer with plenty of the characters being unhappy, but it really works with the grimdark world and overall themes. The ending of the first trilogy could be critiqued for sort of trampling character development and personal stories to achieve a sufficiently cynical tie up (even though one could consider that the point). In comparison I think the character storylines were more poignant and tied up better here - having meaning and development even if they fall far short of a happy ending.

Fair warning though, the series is quite likely to get continued and the ending already sows some seeds for the future.

Another quick mention, which I can't really vouch for since I haven't finished it yet, but still. Robin Hobb hasn't been mentioned here yet. She has finished a sixteen book set in the Realm of the Elderlings. It's built from five "trilogies" (one actually contains four books). Nine of the books follow the same characters while the others are sort of tied into the world. So far I've only finished the first trilogy - The Farseer trilogy, but the ending was fantastic which is why I think she deserves a mention. Judging by the reception of the last trilogy I think that the readers are quite happy with the overall ending to the series.

 

Farseer is an interesting case tbh.

While the ending to the entire series worked out well enough in context of what had happened this far, the endings of most of the trilogies or quartet sub-series were incredibly frustrating.

Honestly the best part about the final ending was that

Spoiler

Fitz was finally fucking dead, or at least a peaceful analogue to it in being turned into a stone statue of his lost pet, so he wasn't going to have to deal with any more of the shit which the author kept piling on him.

 

Hobb's novels (Farseer) all are competently written, very well worldbuilt, internally consistent, have interesting characters and plots -- but are so freaking depressing that I never want to re-read them.