# Biggest Book Sequel Disappointment **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 30, 2003, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246 "2003-03-30T18:34:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/1 "2003-03-30T18:34:48Z")
You all have run into them…eagerly anticipated book sequels that left you wondering why you plonked down $29.95 for the hard cover because you couldn’t wait the extra year for the paperback. For me, it was _The Shelters of Stone_ by Jean Auel, the latest in the Earth Children series. Set aside for a moment that her fans had to wait 12 years for the next book. She introduced about 35,000 new characters and it was very difficult to keep track of them all, especially since they wandered in the story for a few pages and disappeared again. Ayla’s incessant recitation of her lineage got very tedious, and Jondalar’s step-father got a new spelling of his name with no explanation. I finished reading it, then closed it, bewildered, feeling slightly betrayed. I waited 12 years for this? Or could Auel have gotten away with it if she hadn’t waited so long and built up her fans expectations to a level no one could have met? ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/2 "2003-03-30T18:55:43Z")
I came in here to say _Shelters of Stone_. After the wait for this book, I expected something much better. I can’t even bring myself to re-read it to try to figure out what plot was there. I’m also certain that if the next one comes out anytime soon, I won’t be buying it. ---
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/3 "2003-03-30T19:17:16Z")
Sundiver, the first book of Brin’s Uplift series, was an okay book. Nothing exceptional but I did like the whole idea about uplift. After reading it I went out to get Startide Rising, read the first hundred pages then gave up on the story. Terrible, just terrible. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/4 "2003-03-30T19:30:43Z")
_Life, the Universe, and Everything_ is the one that stands out in my mind. The jokes fall flat time and time again. It reads like something written by a high-schooler who just finished a creative writing class and wants to be like Douglas Adams, but just doesn’t have the creative flair. _Dune Messiah_ was also a bit disappointing. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/5 "2003-03-30T19:33:00Z")
Larry Niven’s second sequel to his classic Ringworld was titled The Ringworld Throne, and it was a steaming pile of excrement. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/6 "2003-03-30T20:15:50Z")
Mostly Harmless. While I agree with ITR Champion that Life, the Universe and Everything was the weakest of the first four Hitchhiker books, it at least felt like Douglas Adams was still trying to entertain his readers. Mostly Harmless read to me like he wanted to get them off his back, as in “OK, I’ve written you another one, now all the universes are completely destroyed, and there’s no hope for another sequel ever!!! Now let me get back to my life…” ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/7 "2003-03-30T20:23:19Z")
All of the _Myth_ books by Robert Asprin after the fourth one have been overextended and underwritten pieces of excrement, with barely enough plot to fill a single comic book. ---
**Author:** ![Gilligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Gilligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilligan)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/8 "2003-03-30T20:39:47Z")
_Rama II_. I had only recently read _Rendezvous with Rama_ by Arthur Clarke, and couldn’t wait to read II. I didn’t get very far into II before realizing something was terribly wrong. I had to force myself to finish it just to see how it ended, and now have no interest at all in the other books in the series. Only after I finished, I looked again at the cover and read the forward to find that it was co-written with Gentry Lee, whom I hadn’t heard of before. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/9 "2003-03-30T21:20:27Z")
After reading and loving Orson Scott Card’s _Ender_ series of novels, I began reading his _Homecoming_ series. I really enjoyed the first three novels. The story was interesting (if a little soap-opera-ish) and the characterization was great. Card built up a LOT of tension between some of the main characters. Then, in the fourth novel, Card brings the characters back to Earth–the first humans to return to the planet in 40 million years. The story isn’t bad, but you don’t ever get the big payoff that you were expecting after reading four books! There is virtually no description of what the Earth is like after 40 million years except for the two new sentient species with which the humans interact. And the tension that builds even bigger between the two conflicting characters is never released! One of them simply takes his followers and leaves! No real resolution. Card got me to really like and care about these characters, and then he just has them fade away as kind of an afterthought at the end of the book. There is a fifth novel in the series (which I am reading now) that takes place 500 years later, and it isn’t especially good either. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/10 "2003-03-30T21:28:01Z")
Wow, nine posts and no one’s mentioned **Hannibal**? I waited for that sequel for eight years, and when it finally came out, I put aside a whole day off to read it. A huge flaming pile of suck. It didn’t wasn’t even “the bills are due” suckage. It was like Harris set out to write a piece of crap. Hey, Tom, I’m sure the publishing racket is a pain in the ass, but try not to take it out on the readers, OK?? ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/11 "2003-03-30T21:30:51Z")
**Gilligan** : I also opened this thread to suggest _Rama II_. You’ve impressed me though; I didn’t even make it past the preface. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/12 "2003-03-30T21:37:50Z")
Ditto to _Rama II_ and _The Ringworld Throne_. I’d have to say everything after the first two volumes of Farmer’s _Riverworld_ sucked. Also Jack Chalker’s series, after the first book about the world of hexagons that I can’t remember the title of. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/13 "2003-03-30T22:05:36Z")
Crichton’s _The Lost World_. It was so obviously written AFTER they figured out who would be coming back for the second movie. “Goldblum and Attenborough or the only one’s who signed up again? But I killed their characters in the first book. No, no, it’s not a problem…I’ll make up something.” ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/14 "2003-03-30T22:11:41Z")
**Dune Messiah** Fortunately, the next few in this series were great. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/15 "2003-03-30T22:15:17Z")
**Black House**. It’s hard to follow up on a book as good as **the Talisman** but God, you think that King and Straub could have put a _little_ more effort into thinking it through in the 20 years between books. Makes me wonder if they hung out with George Lucas… ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/16 "2003-03-30T22:26:42Z")
**Shadow Puppets** by Orson Scott Card. Ugh, this book is horrible. It’s like someone wrote it after looking at short descriptions of the main characters. What happened to the characters we all knew and loved? Like Bean or Petra? Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![MetalDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@MetalDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MetalDog)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/17 "2003-03-30T22:27:10Z")
The Black House. I loved The Talisman, but The Black House sucked like a Dyson. I stuck it out to the end, hoping like hell it would rescue itself and it never did. Hated the /constant/ Author intrusion. Hated the /total/ change in style from the first book. Hated the plot. Hated the chosen perspective. Hated the needlessly lengthy and detailed descriptions of the town. The one character in it I really, really liked got killed off. Bah. I’ve read most of the non Gunslinger stuff King has written and like most of it a lot, even Insomnia, which suffered from slight Gunslingerness, but not so much you couldn’t enjoy the basic tale. Not this, though. It’s like he and Peter Straub set out to break a ton of writing rules and succeeded in proving why they’re there to begin with. I’m sure the Gunslinger fanbois loved it. I loathed it. May it never darken my eyeballs again. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/18 "2003-03-30T22:36:50Z")
Another vote for Rama II.:mad: ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/19 "2003-03-30T22:41:00Z")
**Petty Pewter Gods** by Glen Cook. The first five of the series were so amazing. They blended fantasy and detective stories so well and DQL was alright but then this one just felt so different. Like he was trying to make it something it wasn’t to draw a larger crowd. FSH began to get things back on track but ALS just made it seem like DBZ. Everything has to keep getting bigger and more extravagant until it loses all touch with reality. I just want a detective story with Dark Elves, Ogres and boatloads of Redheads. **King Kelson’s Bride** by Katherine Kurtz. What had been, up until then, more then 13 books exploring this ficitonal magic world moved on to being a court piece with so-and-so of the house of this-and-that and the high and mighty whachamacallit of place-a-ma-bob. And many things made no sense. I hope she plans out the next series carefully. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246/20 "2003-03-30T22:56:56Z")
This one’s easy: “Son of Rosemary” by Ira Levin. Awe-inspiringly bad sequel to one of horror fiction’s greatest novels. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-book-sequel-disappointment/165246.md?page=2)