Book Series That Go Sour

[Myriad]

The first Covenant trilogy was tough going but it had an interesting premise driving it. Thomas Covenant was a grimy postmodern character in a sparkly fantasy world setting. It was all about the contrast, the mismatch, which many people who felt out of place in the real world could relate to. The second trilogy, the fantasy world had gone to hell, so it was a crapsack main character in a crapsack world. Much more comfortable, in a way, but even tougher going for three long books.

I missed this thread and it's far too late to tell the OP, but years before Riverworld, Farmer wrote a book called Inside Outside, which was the first book of his I ever read (essentially, by random chance). It was about people who had been reincarnated in a place they called hell, which is highly socially regulated. The physical setting is the interior of a hollow sphere, with strange gravity effects, hostile demons, and (for some reason) telephones. The reason for it all was revealed at the end, and it was kind of stupid; hell was an artificial world, a hollow-asteroid space ship, created by aliens to experiment on captured human souls. I resolved not to read any more Farmer books for quite a while, and I didn't, until the Riverworld series came out. That seemed like a really interesting premise and a good setting for adventures involving historical figures. Then came the long drawn-out ending... and it was the same ending, the same explanation, even with the same names for the factions of aliens, as Inside Outside. Fool me twice, shame on me.

He uses time travel to get his characters out of the holes they've dug for themselves.

Never mind the twist in the first Dragonriders of Pern novel/collection, Dragonflight, which launched the series and McCaffrey's career.

 

[ahhell]

It didn't sour necessarily but the Shanara Series is all over the map, some are good some are bad and doesn't seem to be dependent on when they were written.

Ringworld, the first series were great if basically just travelogues through the ringworld. Later entries, meh.

 

[Darat]

The first Covenant trilogy was tough going but it had an interesting premise driving it. Thomas Covenant was a grimy postmodern character in a sparkly fantasy world setting. It was all about the contrast, the mismatch, which many people who felt out of place in the real world could relate to. The second trilogy, the fantasy world had gone to hell, so it was a crapsack main character in a crapsack world. Much more comfortable, in a way, but even tougher going for three long books.

...snip...

I've never gone back to them so don't know how today's me would view them but at the time the original trilogy were in my top 5 fantasy series. The second trilogy - nah.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Never mind the twist in the first Dragonriders of Pern novel/collection, Dragonflight, which launched the series and McCaffrey's career.

If you like. Todd uses it like old toilet paper.

 

[Darat]

...snip...
Never mind the twist in the first Dragonriders of Pern novel/collection, Dragonflight, which launched the series and McCaffrey's career.

I think Dragonflight cemented* her career but I think the The Ship Who Sang and the fix-up novel launched her career.

The Ship Who Sang I think still holds up in its exploration of disability - I know it is often said to be "controversial" these days, but I'd say the people that consider it to be that have failed to understand the heart of the stories and that exploration - the stories aren't a manifesto.




*please see pet peeves thread for nitpicks

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I think Dragonflight cemented* her career but I think the The Ship Who Sang and the fix-up novel launched her career.

The Ship Who Sang I think still holds up in its exploration of disability - I know it is often said to be "controversial" these days, but I'd say the people that consider it to be that have failed to understand the heart of the stories and that exploration - the stories aren't a manifesto.




*please see pet peeves thread for nitpicks

I liked the Ship Who Sang. I read it while trying to learn to walk again. I sang with her in my mind.

 

[theprestige]

Reacher started going noticeably downhill the moment Lee Child started collabing with his brother.

The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time) was a pretty solid stand-alone novel. Each addition to the series made it incrementally worse. I gave up after the one book that was just 800 pages of characters traveling from A to B, where nobody grows or changes or learns anything, and nothing important happens.

 

[Carrot Flower King]

Can't think of any which didn't: either ideas ran out or descent into fan service.

 

[theprestige]

Can't think of any which didn't: either ideas ran out or descent into fan service.

That's one kind of series: the open-ended, formulaic, keep selling new books as long as there's customers willing to buy new books kind of series.

And even then, there are exceptions to the rule. I started another thread with one example: C. J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union books.

There's also plenty of trilogies that end well.

There's also, say, Slow Horses, which is the first kind of series, but which I don't think has gone sour yet.

Don Wilson's "border" series didn't go sour.

C. S. Lewis's "Narnia" series didn't go sour... or did it? The Last Battle was something of a tonal shift, and introduced some ideas that seemed at odds with or extending beyond what the previous books were actually doing.

 

[bignickel]

Searched every page of this thread for 'narn' and 'lion'... and didn't find them. How is that possible?

The Narnia series. Read this with great excitement as a grade schooler. "It's like LOTR, but without all the boring songs and poetry, and more action!"

Imagine being invited to a dinner, where one dish after another is delicious and tasty. Then a magician starts doing great tricks? Then you have people on a trapeze performing overhead! And a wall reveals a circus act! Then another wall pulls away and a band starts playing delightful music! Fireworks go off nearby!

And then you start smelling something awful, and realize that alot of guests at the table have just gone boom boom in their pants. Now they're reaching into their pants, pulling feces out, and throwing it everywhere. Now the air smells horribly, and the lion from the circus act goes crazy, starts attacking the band! And now the fireworks have set everything on fire! At that point you run off and escape through the window (not the wardrobe door you bizarrely used to enter the house with). From outside you see the whole house burning to the ground.

That was pretty much my reaction to "The Last Battle".

I reread LOTR again later at university and realized that I didn't know how good I had it from the get-go.

PS Started writing this before prestige's last post

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Can't think of any which didn't: either ideas ran out or descent into fan service.

Everybody is born.
Everybody dies.
What you do between may or may not matter.

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

I pretty much agree with all of the series mentioned in the thread(that I've read anyway)

Dune, I thought most that were written by Herbert Sr would good, not as good as the first and mostly overlong. But when Jr took over, oif.
Thomas Covenant, the lead was pretty dense and generally unlikeable. I can deal with an imperfect hero but given some good quality.
River World, nothing to add to what's been said.
Jack Ryan books, I gave up when he spent 2/3s of a book describing the building of a bomb.
Who was that objectivist Fantasy writer? First book was fine, second creepy and weird and heavy handed.
Foundation, I was never a huge fan but by the end, oif, just boring really.
The vampire series, I read way to many of those.

I've been listening to a lot of LitRpg*, with the exception of Dungeon Crawler Carl, not one of them has more than one book in them. even with Carl, the last book or two has been meh.

*Moderately embarrassing, it's all basicaly just teenage nerd wish fulfilment fantasy.

I'm not sure who you mean here, but if it's Terry Goodkind and the Sword of Truth series I disagree that the first book was fine, the sixty pages of torture porn with the leather lesbians and their magic pain dildoes alone disqualify it from that ranking. I do agree that he really sprinted downhill with the subsequent books though.

 

[ahhell]

I'm not sure who you mean here, but if it's Terry Goodkind and the Sword of Truth series I disagree that the first book was fine, the sixty pages of torture porn with the leather lesbians and their magic pain dildoes alone disqualify it from that ranking. I do agree that he really sprinted downhill with the subsequent books though.

That was the first book, its been a while, you are correct, it was never good.

 

[TragicMonkey]

The Rumpole stories. The first few volumes were great, but then Mortimer (and his editors) started forgetting characters' names and backstories, and Rumpole started getting into increasingly unrealistic situations (Rumpole prosecuting?!). I stopped shortly after that.

Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody series. The first few were really good. Then she had Ramses grow up, and he started taking over. That was less good. Then it became the Ramses and Nefret Hour with special guest Amelia Peabody. That was worse. Then Ramses and Nefret had kids. That was the end. Cousin Oliver reproduces and the offspring are themselves Cousin Olivers? No, thanks. The charm of the books was the Victorian lady, not her post-Victorian offspring. Every moment she's not on the page the books diminish; I mean, FFS, they're written in first person from her! How can you sideline the POV character that way?! (Also not thrilled with how every recurring character gets worse over time. Walter turned into a pudgy jerk. Evelyn became a shrew. Sexy heroic whats-his-name turned into a gullible jerk who gets cuckolded by a fifteen-year-old Ramses. Women who were intelligent in prior books return as idiots because there's only room for one smart younger woman and Nefret has to occupy that role. She's a doctor! She's beautiful! She's rich! She's brave! Whatever good qualities any woman can have are already monopolized by Nefret. Even Peabody herself can't compete. Ugh! And don't get me started on Sethos. Dumber and more cringey with every appearance.)

Preston and Child's series with Agent Pendergast was fun at first, but then disappeared up its own ass. Pendergast became practically (modern) Doctor Who level of amazing brilliance, and --what's worse-- so did all his friends and acquaintances. Even for slightly-silly airport thrillers it was just too much. And then literal magic started showing up. C'mon, buddy, what are you doing?

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Can't think of any which didn't: either ideas ran out or descent into fan service.

I'm reading the books in chronological order again. May report back, or I may not. Or both.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Can't think of any which didn't: either ideas ran out or descent into fan service.

Nine Princes in Amber piloted a lot of good read. Nitpicks aside.

 

[theprestige]

I think it's okay to include series that go sour somewhere in the first book.

I had an interesting experience with The Housemaid, by Frida McFadden. First book was okay, maybe a little strain on the ol' suspension of disbelief, but that's thriller fiction for you. It wasn't until about halfway through the sequel that I realized just how bad it had been even in the first book.

 

[jimbob]

I wouldn't say sour, exactly, but as far as I can tell, Alistair Reynolds doesn't know how to finish a story. I really enjoyed his Revelation Space series up to the conclusion of the last book, which just was a lame deus ex machina as far as I can remember.

I enjoyed Dune. Struggled through the sequel, tried the third but stopped pretty quickly.

Agree about Foundation, although I'm not sure how well I'd enjoy the first three either now. But beyond then, it got silly.

 

[theprestige]

Reynolds is also terrible at writing people. And terrible at moderating the rule of cool in his longer works.

 

[Garrison]

David Weber's Safehold. A series which practically demands big time jumps to allow a world to go from medieval to being able to fight the aliens who almost wiped out mankind and after ten very long books its barely moved forward a few years. It also has the other cardinal sin of seemingly having been abandoned while the author churns out completely unnecessary sequels to other books.