Basically, Ferrett sums up my position nicely, although I'm already hooked.

The latest Home on the Strange truly does emulate the feel of reading the Wheel of Time series. As Tom says, 'Friends don't let friends read Jordan.' I was introduced to reading and fantasy as something I really enjoyed by a friend of the family who gave me a copy of Magician for christmas. But even he swore never to read Jordan until the series ended.

I laughed when I realised it was Websnark who gave this little piece of information a while back. It's always Burns that gets me the stuff I need. I know that a man's life is at stake and there are horrible horrible things that he must face. But one of my immediate thoughts upon reading the news was, Thirty years? Thirty years worth of books!? Now, that just seems unreasonable anyway. What the hell else needs to happen before the end of this series!? Maybe its another series he means.

Its what has kept me from commiting to unfinished series. Like the Martin of the title.

A thought though: I am willing to read webcomics without knowing how the story ends. Even ones based around a particular narrative. So what is the difference? The immediacy of the interaction. Although I feel sorry about strips that end midway, I have seen enough around to know that the chance of dissapointment is slim. Whereas I have seen far too many unfineshed series of fantasy novels.