# Authors who started out brilliant and then turned to custard **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2009, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-who-started-out-brilliant-and-then-turned-to-custard/501797 "2009-07-03T10:58:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-who-started-out-brilliant-and-then-turned-to-custard/501797/81 "2009-07-07T19:22:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Anthony was never very good. We were fooled by our youth and foolisness and the fact that he had one good protagonist in them. I’m curious who you think the one good protagonist was. Or are you referring to one of his recurring characters that he re-named as needed for several different franchises? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-who-started-out-brilliant-and-then-turned-to-custard/501797/82 "2009-07-07T19:28:23Z")
> [@Hockey\_Monkey](#): > > Stephen King - already mentioned, but worth mentioning again. I don’t even try to read them anymore. $10 says his next story is about a writer in Maine that almost gets killed by a car. Frank Herbert The first 3 Dune books are phenomenal. After that: WTF is going on? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-who-started-out-brilliant-and-then-turned-to-custard/501797/83 "2009-07-07T19:30:55Z")
> [@emarkp](#): > > Piers Anthony not only got weaker as a writer generally, he got weaker as his series continued. Take the first 3 books of any series (Xanth and Incarnations spring to mind) and they’re infinitely better than what follows. But then I haven’t read him in about 2 decades, so I could be remembering things better than they were. Sorry for the double post, but it sayss something when his latest book in the Incarnations abot Nox was not picked up. ---
**Author:** ![myskepticsight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@myskepticsight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myskepticsight)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-who-started-out-brilliant-and-then-turned-to-custard/501797/84 "2009-07-07T20:40:41Z")
> [@winterhawk11](#): > > IMO, Chuck is uneven. \*Fight Club \*was his best. _Diary_, _Lullaby_, _Haunted_, and \*Choke \*were pretty good. I haven’t read \*Invisible Monsters \*or \*Survivor \*yet. \*Rant \*was terrible, and \*Snuff \*was execrable. _Pygmy_, though, I enjoyed. Not as good as his older stuff, but an interesting read. I did not like Fight Club as a novel (but I was potentially spoiled by loving the film first), am ambivalent or pretty eh on the rest of his books (besides Pygmy, it’s waiting for me at the library) but I loved Survivor. I read his books because I like his style but usually his books just fall short of me wanting to say I liked them. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-who-started-out-brilliant-and-then-turned-to-custard/501797/85 "2009-07-07T20:54:28Z")
> [@SaintCad](#): > > $10 says his next story is about a writer in Maine that almost gets killed by a car. Actually, the funny thing about King is that he used to be really good, then he went through a big long “suck” period (We get it, Steve. You got hit by a car and it changed your life. We sympathize, but we’re tired of hearing forty-seven different versions of it). But nowadays he’s actually pretty good. \*Duma Key \*and his latest book of short stories were both more in the “old-style King” vein. Maybe he’s finally worked through the whole accident thing and is ready to stop obsessing about it. Of course, I’m probably one of about three King fans in the world who wasn’t terribly impressed by the Dark Tower series (what can I say–I like his horror, like \*Carrie \*and \*It \*and _The Stand_), so what do I know? ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aca169/32.png) [@Red\_Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-who-started-out-brilliant-and-then-turned-to-custard/501797/86 "2009-07-08T03:19:19Z")
Came in to mention Card, Asimov and Clancy. It’s a shame about Card’s politics because “Speaker for the Dead” is one of my favorites of the genre. > [@winterhawk11](#): > > Of course, I’m probably one of about three King fans in the world who wasn’t terribly impressed by the Dark Tower series (what can I say–I like his horror, like \*Carrie \*and \*It \*and _The Stand_), so what do I know? Im the opposite of this sentiment, I don’t like his horror much but I enjoyed the first 4 of the Dark Tower, especially Wizard and Glass. Infact the bulk of Wizard and Glass with a dash of The gunslinger could have been a great story all on its own. The wolves of the calla was ok-esque but the last two were difficult to finish. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-who-started-out-brilliant-and-then-turned-to-custard/501797/87 "2009-07-08T13:14:18Z")
Ira Levin started out brillant, maintained his brillance through several books, then turned really good. But his “Son of Rosemary” was not so much custard as durian fruit. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-who-started-out-brilliant-and-then-turned-to-custard/501797/88 "2009-07-08T18:07:02Z")
I would nominate Martha Grimes, author of the Richard Jury/Melrose Plant series. In the first half of her career, she wrote some wonderful mysteries (_The Man with a Load of Mischief_, _Help the Poor Struggler_, _The Old Silent_), but her last 12-15 books have been wretched, _Dust_ being one of the worst novels I’ve ever read. Thank God I checked it out of the library so I didn’t have to pay money for the damn thing. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-who-started-out-brilliant-and-then-turned-to-custard/501797/89 "2009-07-08T19:37:05Z")
What about John Sandford? The first couple of books in his Prey series were pretty amazing pageturners, masterpieces of suspense. Then I got about maybe 4 books in (Silent Prey?) and the serial killer protagonist was this ridiculous psychotic meth-head who seemed to be a mishmash of the killers from all the previous books. I couldn’t continue the series after that. I tried the Kidd series, but that just seemed lame from the get go. Do these get better again? He’s been writing about one a year since the early '90s. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-who-started-out-brilliant-and-then-turned-to-custard/501797/90 "2009-07-09T14:50:11Z")
Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole series. Adoloscent angst is funny; adult angst is ridiculous. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-who-started-out-brilliant-and-then-turned-to-custard/501797.md?page=4)