Book Series That Go Sour

[RSLancastr]

Have you ever read a book series which starts out wonderfully, then goes horribly bad by the series' end?

There are many, but for me, the worst offender in this is Phillip Jose Farmer's Riverworld Series.

The first book, To Your Scattered Bodies Go, was an amazing, Hugo-winning masterpiece.

The second, The Fabulous Riverboat, continues the series admirably.

The third (of the supposed trilogy), The Dark Design was okay, but largely dsiappointing because Farmer didn't wrap it up as he had promised. The central mystery of the Riverworld was still not solved...

The fourth book, The Magic Labyrinth, was a horrible letdown, in which the central mystery is solved with the most banal possible explanation that crossed the reader's mind a few pages into the first book.

The fifth, Gods of Riverworld, was just crap, and reads like something Farmer hacked together over a weekend.

From the heights of brilliant Science Fiction to absolute crap, in five books.

::sigh::

So, what series went from brilliant to basura in your eyes?

 

[Glory]

I'll take on a few sacred cows with this one.

Biggest disapointment by far were the third and fourth books in the Ender series by Orson Scott Card.

Ender's Game was great.

Speaker for the Dead is one of the most brilliant books I have ever read.

Xenocide was promising but once they traveled outside the universe and introduced the ability to do virtually anything, I couldn't take it anymore.

Despite myself I read Children of the Mind and subsequently became very depressed. Suffice to say that Ender is one of the best characters ever written and he isn't really in the damn book.

There are other sequels which have some good moments but for the most part they don't do justice to the first two books. Very disappointing.

Running a close second in this dubious race is Arthur Clarke's 2001.

Loved the first one. 2010 was amazing. 2063 was entertaining. 3001 was partly canned. I had read parts of it before and the new stuff I found unoriginal and largely forgettable. I was nonplussed.

That's my contribution, such as it is.

I'm totally with you on Riverworld, BTW. That was my take on it exactly.

Glory

 

[reprise]

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.

 

[Reaver]

The _Wheel of Time_ seires by Robert Jordan, although this hasn't ended yet, the last 3 books have been craptastic.

 

[MRC_Hans]

I think the problem is money. Once a book or two in an intended series have been super-sellers, no publisher can afford to reject the next manuscript, even if it is below par, he knows it will sell anyhow.

Also, many good plots are characterized by the open-ended questions leaving things to the imagination of the reader. A "round up" will almost inevitably be anticlimax.

My addition to the list (another holy cow):

Athur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama.
Intriguing, mystrious, well-written.

The next one, slipped backwards towards simpler thriller plots, but still very worth-while.

After this, the idea was whipped to death in (I think) two more sequels.

Also Jean M. Auel, Clan of the Cave Bear. In spite of race chauvinism and idiotic dogmas, it was a fascinating book. But from then on, sequels became ever longer, sillier, an more boring.

I'm reading "Otherworld" now, that is I read the first five volumes, and am currently waiting for the next to show up in the library (wouldn't dream of buying it). It has also been steadily downslope, although walk-away level (IMHO) has not been reached just yet.

Hans

Hans

 

[a_unique_person]

Yep, Foundation. The problem is, you feel obliged to read all the books in a series just because the first one was so good.

I think that is one of the things I read about a drug addict counsellor once, he would try to get his clients to realise that all the times they are using, they were only ever really trying to get the high they felt the first few times they used.

A fruitless task.

 

[reprise]

I forgot to include the Discworld series.


You can all stop throwing things at me now.

 

[coalesce]

For me, it was the Dune series. The first was justifiably brilliant, and then each successive volume got worse and worse and worse, to the point where I couldn't even begin to remember what happened after the first vook.

Michael

 

[Tricky]

I'll take on a few sacred cows with this one.

Biggest disapointment by far were the third and fourth books in the Ender series by Orson Scott Card.

Ender's Game was great.

Speaker for the Dead is one of the most brilliant books I have ever read.

Xenocide was promising but once they traveled outside the universe and introduced the ability to do virtually anything, I couldn't take it anymore.

Despite myself I read Children of the Mind and subsequently became very depressed. Suffice to say that Ender is one of the best characters ever written and he isn't really in the damn book.

I agree with you, up to Children of the Mind. But then Card got re-inspired, and went back to the original story, but told from the viewpoint of Bean, rather than Ender. I thought it would be cheesy, but it turned out to be brilliant.

One of the things I really liked about the first two Ender books was that they didn't make obvious violations of the laws of physics. There was time loss when people traveled at near-light speeds etc. But with Xenocide, he threw that away when he had characters "jump into another dimension". That where it jumped the shark.

Going back to the original story, though, he stopped trying to write his way out of scientific conundrums and concentrate on the characters again. Smart move, Card.

 

[Mr Manifesto]

The Black Cauldron series.

I'm a huge fan of the Riverworld series, and even I thought the last book sucked.

Arthur C Clarke's 'Rama' series has had it's go, as well as 200140234: More BEM's and monoliths.

 

[hgc]

The Bible Series.

The first book, Genesis is a real corker, with 800 year-old dudes, multiple wives and concubines, fratricide, talking serpents, big floods, and lots more.

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.

Things pick up later with the Samuel books, where this kick-ass king named David is the star attraction. He sends his top man to die in battle just so he can diddle the dude's wife. Whoa. For this and other "moral" crimes, he is prevented by the puppet-master from realizing his rightful crowning acheivement, building the great puppet theater known as "Temple." His wise son, Solomon, will get that on his own resume.

And all appropriate due should be given to the 2nd series of books in the same tradition, attributed to a different author, which focuses on another "king," known as Jesus. This ruler plays a prince and pauper kind of game, posing as a common man, displaying a wealth not so much in palaces in gold chains, but in righteousness and magic tricks (walking on water, raising the dead). He also gets the prostitute-with-a-heart-of-gold.

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

 

[Michael Redman]

I read Card's Tales of Alvin Maker series to a point (5th or 6th book) when he started to incorporate ideas from discussions on his web fora, and the last book I started, but quit, read like overheard dialog at a Society for Creative Anachronism meeting. I just couldn't take it.

But I agree with Tricky, the new books in the Ender series are pretty decent.

 

[RSLancastr]

Biggest disapointment by far were the third and fourth books in the Ender series by Orson Scott Card.

Agreed. But as was said later in the thread, I think Card redeemed the series with Ender's Shadow and the subsequent books. Yes, they weren't as good as the first two, but at least they didn't continue the downward spiral.

Running a close second in this dubious race is Arthur Clarke's 2001.

I never read beyond 2010. Now I'm glad...

Athur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama

Yes, the last book was disappointing in the extreme.

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

That's Revelation (so "s")! Fans of the book would want you to get it right.

I read Card's Tales of Alvin Maker series to a point

Come to think of it, I never read the last book in the series. Just lost interest, I guess.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

I think the "Dirk Pitt" novels by Clive Cussler aren't as good as they used to be, though I am not sure if the books got worse or if my tastes have just changed.

 

[Glory]

I agree with you, up to Children of the Mind. But then Card got re-inspired, and went back to the original story, but told from the viewpoint of Bean, rather than Ender. I thought it would be cheesy, but it turned out to be brilliant.

One of the things I really liked about the first two Ender books was that they didn't make obvious violations of the laws of physics. There was time loss when people traveled at near-light speeds etc. But with Xenocide, he threw that away when he had characters "jump into another dimension". That where it jumped the shark.

Going back to the original story, though, he stopped trying to write his way out of scientific conundrums and concentrate on the characters again. Smart move, Card.

I enjoyed Ender's Shadow very much and was thrilled to see Card returning to the chracterizations that make him so good. I still had a big problem though. Peter is just impossible to write. He was so evil in the first book and became the ominous shadow in the second. We finally meet him as a real character and he's just this self pittying little jerk. I didn't buy it and I still don't. That's just me, I guess.

Glory

 

[jj]

I forgot to include the Discworld series.


You can all stop throwing things at me now.

Throwing? Who's throwing? I'm HURLING at your comment.

And Granny Weatherwax rules.

Btw, did anyone notice the reference Tonks uses in the last Harry Potter book?

 

[VicDaring]

The Bible Series.

The first book, Genesis is a real corker, with 800 year-old dudes, multiple wives and concubines, fratricide, talking serpents, big floods, and lots more....

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

That's one of the funniest things I've read in a while.

 

[Tricky]

Taking the opposite tack for a second, how about series which have remained constantly excellent? Has anyone else read Dan Simmons' Hyperion series? It is four tomes, but actually only two stories which, in spite of their length are packed with action, philosophy, novel concepts and truly great sci-fi from start to finish. There will never be a more enigmatic baddie than The Shrike, and I swear they stole The Matrix directly from Simmons.

Sadly, the other things I have read by Simmons have not measured up.

 

[Azathoth]

Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionovar trilogy. The third book is so bad, I can hardly believe it. I'm glad I didn't read it when he was new and hot, or I might never have picked up his later and much better fantasy works.

Anne McCaffrey's Dragon books. Somewhere around the 7th or 8th book.

Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels. Somewhere around the 8th or 9th book

Anne Rice's Vampire novels. The first is passable, but the other two I've read weren't very good.

Can I stick up for the first two Xanth novels? I've never re-read them, but I made it into the third one before quitting the series, blessedly avoiding the next 70 books.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Can I stick up for the first two Xanth novels? I've never re-read them, but I made it into the third one before quitting the series, blessedly avoiding the next 70 books.

Ugh, Xanth. I stuck it out for the first five or six books. By that time it had gotten more stale than a five week old bag of Doritos.

Come to think of it, Piers Anthony in general got old after a while. When I first read him, I really liked him. After a while I realized that all of his stories are structured nearly identically and his characters are so one dimensional as to be laughable.