Book Series That Go Sour

[jimbob]

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

That's fair

 

[alfaniner]

As long as it came up, I'll relate the story again... (I can't find the original posts in Search)
Early in my days in the Forum, I mentioned my not liking the later books in the Foundation series (after the original first three). Someone said "There were no books past the first three." I got in a huff and eventually took and posted a picture of one of them (now gone from my Media since the changeover purge). The person insisted.
By now I understand it's the same meme as claiming there was no Highlander 2. And I have learned to rarely argue now on the internet.

(edit to add)
Mostly because, unless specifically noted, it's impossible to tell who's being sarcastic any more.

 

[theprestige]

Probably an unpopular opinion but Ghormenghast. As a proof of concept - stringing together fantastical vignettes in an "and then"-style narrative, it's great. The imagery and invention are iconic. Few could do what Peake did, even half as well as he did it.

But I read the first book at the same time I was realizing how many modern TV shows were just soap operas with artistic pretensions. The goal was never resolution, closure. The goal was always stringing along the audience along with yet another vignette that starts nowhere and goes nowhere and is only there to be a chapter in a story they want you to come back for more of. So naturally I got about halfway through Peake's book and thought, "this is that'? And then what's the point?

That said, I still use Ghormenghast as a worldbuilding reference, for when I need a suitably fantastical scenario or character for a TTRPG campaign. When the loremaster you seek is a melancholy giant, and his footman is a giant, and his whole family is giants, and they all live in a giant castle that comes and goes like Brigadoon... well, you know whose work I'm shamelessly stealing frrom.

 

[alfaniner]

The Ender series. Really liked the first one. (Before my reread, I thought they had spent a lot more time in the Battle Room. I thought they should have concentrated on that more in the movie.) Speaker for the Dead was OK. The rest, no. And the side story Ender's Shadow just seemed like a money-wringing grab.

 

[theprestige]

The Ender series. Really liked the first one. (Before my reread, I thought they had spent a lot more time in the Battle Room. I thought they should have concentrated on that more in the movie.) Speaker for the Dead was OK. The rest, no. And the side story Ender's Shadow just seemed like a money-wringing grab.

My dad really liked Speaker for the Dead. He doesn't read much fantasy or SF at all, so the fact that he even picked this one up, let alone read it, let alone really engaged on a heartfelt level with the story, is pretty amazing to me. Doubly so because I didn't really care much for it. I wanted a lot more of the warrior-savant goes to war in the midst of conspiracy stuff from the first book. The set-piece problem solving and hard SF of it all. Oh well. At least I'll always have Cheradenine Zakalwe.

 

[ahhell]

Probably an unpopular opinion but Ghormenghast. As a proof of concept - stringing together fantastical vignettes in an "and then"-style narrative, it's great. The imagery and invention are iconic. Few could do what Peake did, even half as well as he did it.

But I read the first book at the same time I was realizing how many modern TV shows were just soap operas with artistic pretensions. The goal was never resolution, closure. The goal was always stringing along the audience along with yet another vignette that starts nowhere and goes nowhere and is only there to be a chapter in a story they want you to come back for more of. So naturally I got about halfway through Peake's book and thought, "this is that'? And then what's the point?

That said, I still use Ghormenghast as a worldbuilding reference, for when I need a suitably fantastical scenario or character for a TTRPG campaign. When the loremaster you seek is a melancholy giant, and his footman is a giant, and his whole family is giants, and they all live in a giant castle that comes and goes like Brigadoon... well, you know whose work I'm shamelessly stealing frrom.

I think this is somewhat unfair to most soaps. As a rule the vignettes are part of longer stories that do come to an end but they always have 3, 4, 5... of those stories going so if one ends, there's 3 more still running and they'll start a new one tomorrow.

 

[alfaniner]

I think this is somewhat unfair to most soaps. As a rule the vignettes are part of longer stories that do come to an end but they always have 3, 4, 5... of those stories going so if one ends, there's 3 more still running and they'll start a new one tomorrow.

And always a cliffhanger on Friday.

 

[LSSBB]

I found The Radix Tetrad increasingly more difficult and less rewarding to read. Radix itself I thought was excellent.

 

[dudalb]

Probably already been mentioned, but Stephan King'a Dark Tower sereies jumped the shark around the fifth book.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

The Dune series, the Foundation series, and (sadly) even the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series are ones where I wished the authors hadn't written "just one more book".

The Harry Potter series is heading the same way IMO.

In at least two of those series there's also the aspect of "I wish the author's copyright holders hadn't decided to get someone else to write'just one more book'"

 

[theprestige]

Probably already been mentioned, but Stephan King'a Dark Tower sereies jumped the shark around the fifth book.

Yeah, but then it stuck the landing.

 

[alfaniner]

Yeah, but then it stuck the landing.

Wasn't that the one where he wrote in the book telling his readers to "Skip this last chapter"?

 

[theprestige]

Wasn't that the one where he wrote in the book telling his readers to "Skip this last chapter"?

That's one of my favorite parts.

The series goes kind of sideways after Wizard and Glass, but I really do think it ended well.

But I had read The Khazar Dictionary, by Milorad Pavitch, some years before. The author opens by telling the reader to read the book however they like, read as much or as little as they like, decide for themselves what the story is and where it begins and ends.

The Khazar Dictionary was probably one of the most formative experiences of my life as a reader. So I was perhaps uniquely prepared to appreciate what King was doing, and taking it the spirit offered.

 

[dudalb]

In at least two of those series there's also the aspect of "I wish the author's copyright holders hadn't decided to get someone else to write'just one more book'"

My expectations are very low whenever a book series is continued after the author's death.
The Hacks almost always take over.
There are exceptions; Tony Hillerman daughter is a talented writer in her own right, and her contiuntioan of the Leaphorn/Chee series is one of the few times I think a fictional series has managed to have some quality after the original author died.

 

[ahhell]

My expectations are very low whenever a book series is continued after the author's death.
The Hacks almost always take over.
There are exceptions; Tony Hillerman daughter is a talented writer in her own right, and her contiuntioan of the Leaphorn/Chee series is one of the few times I think a fictional series has managed to have some quality after the original author died.

That would be a sharp contrast to Brian Herbert and that other fella who probably did most of the work.

 

[jimbob]

That would be a sharp contrast to Brian Herbert and that other fella who probably did most of the work.

I didn't think Frank had more than one good book in him. Which was a good book. I can't remember if I finished the second. It's utterly unmemorable.

 

[ahhell]

I liked most of Herbert's Dune series. He had a bunch of other books, he had interesting ideas but for the most part, the rest of his books were meh but worth reading because they were relatively short and I liked what he was trying to do.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

The Bible Series.

The first book, Genesis is a real corker... But by the time you get to Leviticus, you have a bunch of mind-numbing rules and regulations, repetitive and irrelevant, that'll put you to sleep even in church on a Sunday. And that's still near the beginning of the series...

The finale, Revelations, can only be comprehended on Acid.

Wrong, Revelations is the best part! The NT as a whole was much more readable than the OT. Having it narrated from four different viewpoints was great, and the story was far more cohesive. It had some great one-liners too. If I had to choose only one I would definitely go for the NT. Pity more Christians don't do the same.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

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.

The third and set last of four books, The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, was even tougher. And when I say tougher, I mean better. Stephen Donaldson started writing it 21 years later, an effort that all Thomas Covenant fans greatly appreciated. I have the final book, The Last Dark, in hard cover.

Donaldson also wrote a science fiction series called The Gap, but for some reason it didn't enthuse me at all.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Wrong, Revelations is the best part! The NT as a whole was much more readable than the OT. Having it narrated from four different viewpoints was great, and the story was far more cohesive. It had some great one-liners too. If I had to choose only one I would definitely go for the NT. Pity more Christians don't do the same.

I can't help but feel they overdo the whole 'unreliable narrator' thing.