Mid-Trilogy Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Two Towers

J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy series 'The Lord of the Rings' was itself a sequel to his earlier (and much shorter work) 'The Hobbit' and was published during 1954 and 1955. The series was split into three separately titled novels ('The Fellowship of the Ring', 'The Two Towers' and 'The Return of the King'), although each one is made up of two "books".

The overall plot of the series follows the story of a hobbit named Frodo who has been tasked with the destruction of a powerful, but evil, ring that once belonged to the Dark Lord Sauron.

The first novel sets the scene and describes the first part of Frodo's journey to Mount Doom (the only place where the "One Ring" can be destroyed) along with a "fellowship" of friends and allies. 'The Two Towers' follows the later, separate, adventures of the former fellowship, including the Battle of Helm's Deep and Frodo and Sam's journey into Mordor. Finally, 'The Return of the King' features the siege of Minas Tirith, the events at Mount Doom and the triumphant return of the victors to their everyday lives.

Answer: Memoirs of an Infantry Officer

Although he was probably best known as a First World War poet, Siegfried Sassoon also wrote a number of novels. 'Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man', 'Memoirs of an Infantry Officer' and 'Sherston's Progress' were originally published between 1928 and 1936, before being published collectively as a trilogy called 'The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston' in 1937.

The works are all semi-autobiographical, with the main character, George Sherston, being a thinly disguised fictional version of Sassoon. The first book in the series is about the hero's innocent childhood in the English countryside before he joined the army and was sent off to the French battlefields. 'Memoirs of an Infantry Officer' is largely set in the trenches and features several of the war's major battles, including the Battle of the Somme and the 1917 Battle of Arras, and ends with Sherston being sent home to England while suffering from shell-shock.

The final book covers his time in hospital, his return to the front and the end of the war.

Answer: The Ticket That Exploded

'The Nova Trilogy' is also known as 'The Cut-Up Trilogy' as it includes three works that William S. Burroughs created using his "cut-up technique". This approach to writing, that Burroughs re-popularised in the 1950s and 1960s, involves producing large sections of text, cutting it into sections and then pasting it back together in a different order.

The trilogy falls into the science fiction and fantasy genres and is broadly about the activities of a secret agent named Lee who uses a combination of time travel, shape-shifting and investigation to defeat threats to the Earth.

The first book in the series was 1961's 'The Soft Machine', which was about abusive Mayan priests. The 1962 sequel 'The Ticket That Exploded' featured Lee's battles against an alien group (known as the Nova Mob) using mind control on the population, while the final novel 'Nova Express' (1964) continued the story as the Nova Mob became viruses that could actually invade the human body.

Answer: The Subtle Knife

Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy was published between 1995 and 2000 and tells the story of two children from different worlds who end up working together as they travel through different parallel universes while trying to discover the secret of "dust".

The first novel in the series was originally named 'Northern Lights' but was re-titled as the 'The Golden Compass' in various countries, including the United States. It introduced the character of Lyra Belacqua, a young girl who lived in a parallel Oxford University in a world where every human had a sort of second self, known as a 'daemon' - Lyra's was called Pantalaimon. 'The Subtle Knife' was the second part of the trilogy and introduced Will Parry, a human boy who became the "bearer" of the titular knife, which had the ability to cut through the barriers between parallel worlds.

In the final novel, 'The Amber Spyglass', Lyra and Will finally discovered the secrets of the universes, but also realised that they had to sacrifice their friendship and each return to their own world.

Answer: Men Against the Sea

The three novels that make up 'The Bounty Trilogy' were first published between 1932 and 1934 before being brought together in a single volume in 1936. All of them are credited to both Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, who first collaborated on a book about the history of the US Air Force unit that they both served in during the First World War and then continued to work together on various travel pieces and historical novels. 'The Bounty Trilogy' is a fictionalised account of the famous mutiny on the British naval ship HMS Bounty in 1789.

The first novel 'Mutiny on the Bounty' (which has since been adapted for both film and stage) was about the mutiny itself; the second book 'Men Against the Sea' is about what happened to William Bligh and other members of the ship's crew after they were set adrift in a small boat; and the final book 'Pitcairn's Island' is about the settlement founded by the Bounty's mutineers on Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific.

Answer: The Piccolomini

'Wallenstein' (which shouldn't be mistaken for the 1920 novel by Alfred Döblin) is a trilogy of plays by the 18th century writer Friedrich Schiller. The plays premiered in the German city of Weimar in 1798 and 1799 and were directed by another famous German author - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

The name of the trilogy is taken from that of the plays' main character, General Albrecht von Wallenstein, who commanded forces of the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War. The first play 'Wallenstein's Camp' highlights Wallenstein's popularity with his men but sets the scene of their growing unease when they face being put under Spanish control.

The "mid-trilogy" play, 'The Piccolomini', is about a spy within Wallenstein's camp who is lined up to replace him as commander when Wallenstein's loyalty to the Emperor comes into question.

The title of the final part, 'Wallenstein's Death', provides a large clue as to what happened in the end!

Answer: In Chancery

'The Forsyte Saga' is the name given to the first trilogy of novels written by John Galsworthy about events in the lives of the Forsyte family, members of the upper-middle class of English society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Galsworthy went on to write a total of 17 novels and short stories about the Forsytes, which are collectively known as 'The Forsyte Chronicles'.

While 'The Forsyte Saga' is described as a trilogy, it actually consisted of three novels and two short stories (or "interludes").

The first book, 'A Man of Property', is about the doomed relationship of Soames Forsyte - a jealous and avaricious man - and his beautiful new wife, Irene. The second book, 'In Chancery', deals with Soames' attempts to divorce Irene and is named after the Court of Chancery, which dealt with domestic legal issues at that time. 'To Let', the final novel in the initial trilogy, was set some years later and followed the developing romance between Irene's son and Soames' daughter.

Answer: Catching Fire

Suzanne Collins' young adult novels 'The Hunger Games', 'Catching Fire' and 'Mockingjay' were first published between 2008 and 2010 and are collectively known as 'The Hunger Games' trilogy. The three novels all individually topped the 'New York Times' best sellers list, have collectively sold over 100 million copies around the world and been adapted into four highly successful feature films.

The books are set in a fictional future dystopia where much of the world's population has been obliterated and most of the survivors live in poverty while their leaders enjoy great wealth and luxury.

In addition to the economic and social inequality, the population of this new world (called Panem) also have to submit to various punishments, the worst of which is an annual requirement to offer up their children to compete to the death in tournaments known as the "Hunger Games".

The heroine of the series is a young girl named Katniss Everdeen who enters the titular tournament in the first novel, before being forced back to compete again in 'Catching Fire' and then become the face of revolution in 'Mockingjay'.

Answer: The Town

William Faulkner's 'Snopes Trilogy' are stories about the lives of the eccentric Snopes family in rural Mississippi. The first novel 'The Hamlet' tells how the Snopes family gradually fit into the community of Frenchman's Bend after migrating to the area and settling down as tenant farmers. 'The Town' continues the narrative of the lives of various members of the family after they move to the larger town of Jefferson and the final novel 'The Mansion' is largely about the financial downfall of Flem Snopes - one of the key family members who appeared throughout the trilogy.

The books of this trilogy are among Faulkner's later works, but the author left a particularly long gap between writing them. 'The Hamlet' was published in 1940, but 'The Town' and 'The Mansion' didn't appear until 1958 and 1959 respectively.

Answer: The Libation Bearers

The term 'trilogy' has been around for thousands of years and comes from the Ancient Greek 'treis' and 'logos', meaning 'three' and 'story'. 'The Libation Bearers' is the second part of the 'Oresteia' - the only surviving trilogy of Greek plays from antiquity.

The 'Oresteia' is believed to have been written by the playwright Aeschylus, who lived in the 5th century BC, and forms a large part of his surviving works - most of which have been lost to history. Together the plays - 'Agamemnon', 'The Libation Bearers' and 'The Eumenides' - are about themes such as murder, revenge, guilt and justice. 'Agamemnon' is about the return of King Agamemnon to the city of Argos after the battles of the Trojan War and his subsequent murder by his jealous wife Clytemnestra. 'The Libation Bearers' tells how Agamemnon and Clytemnestra's son, Orestes, exacts revenge for his father's murder by murdering his mother. Finally, 'The Eumenides' is about the trial of Orestes and the torment inflicted on him by three goddesses known as the Furies.

It is believed that the trilogy was originally accompanied by a "satyr play" (one with more comedy in it than the tragedies that were generally included in Ancient Greek trilogies), but all but a few lines of 'Proteus' - the satyr play in 'Oresteia' - have been lost.