I was just thinking earlier today how much I hate the Stainless Steel Rat. I only read the first book, but the fact that the primary plot twist hinged on the reader making sexist assumptions turned me off on the series.
I notice that SF/Fantasy series are heavily represented in this thread. For me, it’s Herbert’s Dune series. The first novel was excellent, but the series went pretty steadily downhill from there.
Dragonsblood is the latest Todd M. book; you might be thinking of Dragon’s Kin, which he co-wrote with his mother. Kin is an awfully slight effort and not one of the better installments, but IMO Dragonsblood was just great. A few clunky sentences here and there, but generally well-constructed and the plot (if you’re a regular follower of ern, anyway), made for some truly gripping drama.
I don’t remeber Dolphins very well, but I think it was an admirable experiment to try to break out of the formula. Skies of Pern was pretty strong, I thought, dealing with the predictable fallout of the Pernese industrial revolution. I agree that Masterharper left something to be desired – generally those kinds of retcon experiments don’t turn out that well. But I’m right and you haven’t read Todd M.'s Dragonsblood, I encourage you to give it a shot.
–Cliffy
Sorry, last sentence should be “But if I’m right…”
–Cliffy
Clive Cussler’s series with Dirk Pit. The first few were really good, but kinda degenerated afterward. Many, many books later, it was suck-city.
Hear, hear!
Gor
Definitely Robert Asprin’s Myth series. The first, say, three were pretty entertaining but after that they started to read more and more like business management textbooks.
As far as Anthony is concerned, the only series I ever read all the way through was Incarnations of Immortality. “On a Pale Horse” was good and the others weren’t too bad, although by the time he got to Satan and God I had a pretty good idea of the command set he’d built into his computer to generate books for him. And don’t get me started on his self-aggrandizing author’s notes at the ends of the books. :rolleyes:
I read the first if his Mode (dimension-shifting) books and wrote off that series as potential good money badly spent. Thankfully that first book had been a gift.
I was so disappointed by Mostly Harmless that all of Adams’ books have been tainted in my mind.
I half-agree with JerH about the Dune books. The first three (through Children of Dune) make a nice trilogy. *God Emperor of Dune * is such a waste of time and paper I almost didn’t bother reading the last two. When I did I found they didn’t stink nearly as much as I expected. They’re completely different from Dune though, so no fan of Dune should feel obligated to read them. The same goes for the new “prequel” novels by Herbert’s son and Kevin Anderson; not bad, but not Dune.
Actually, you are right, Cliffy – it was Dragon’s Kin I read. BTW, you are the second person I’ve spoken with who gave the thumbs up to Dragonsblood, so maybe I will give it a try.
For all who’ve mentioned the Myth books – another good choice for the OP. I quite liked the early books in the series, and some of the middle ones. The last books were just about unreadable. Now Asprin has teamed up with Jody Lyn Nye to write the series. The results have been spotty, but much better than the last few Asprin-only books. I just got the latest (Class Dis-mythed, I think – it’s in the other room and I don’t remember for sure), but haven’t started reading it yet.
i’m on the plum bandwagon. still very funny books. just today i read some of one for the money. grandma and the chicken… still funny.
i lost interest in the spenser books, the alphabet is for ? books. those i haven’t read in a while. others i’ll catch up after 5 or 6 books have gone by, then ignore again.
ms ujest, have you tried anne george or donna andrews?
Lotta stuff I agree with above!
Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series.
She writes a good story, if you don’t mind “beautiful magical horsie will be my friennnnnnd” sort of tales, but she continues to write the same story over and over, just casting it from different angles, IMHO.
It hasn’t kept me from continuing to read her Valdemar books, tho. Just surreptitiously! 
Jack Chalker’s Well of Souls series. Midnight at the Well of Souls was quite good, but each succeeding book became increasingly hackneyed.
Dare I say Discworld? The most recent one was very dull indeed.
Hm. And to think I found it profoundly enjoyable.
Oh well, to each his own.
Awww, forget that! Heretic! Blasphemer! Persecute! Maim! Burn 'im!!!
Let’s see…44 books (and counting) and you found one that was dull.
Yep. This is the end. Lights out. Bring down the curtain. Nothing to see here anymore. On your way.
I had always thought the Incarnations of Immortality series fizzled out after the second book. Having just re-read On a Pale Horse a few weeks ago, I can honestly say it fizzled out before he even began it.
There is nothing more annoying than a Three-Second Idiot plot that goes on for over 150 vapid pages. If everybody hadn’t been idiots, the plot would have lasted three seconds: they could have told the limp protagonist “don’t worry, Satan can’t stop you, just do what you think is right” and the story wouldn’t have been necessary. Instead, his allies are cryptic and noncommital and say things obliquely that he can’t be expected to understand. Instead we’re treated to insipid prose and Anthony’s personal politics about religion and the right to die while Zane The Easily Pushed Around does absolutely nothing until the last 3 pages, when he finally groks what everybody should’ve said to him on page 30.
Sheesh. To think I once thought it was a decent book… back when I was 16.
Add the Xanth trilogy to that. Yeah, there’s multiple books worth of writing, but there’s only 3 books worth of plot (if that). Heroes X Y and Z set out for location A (usually Good Magician What’s-is-Name’s Place) at which they arrive after 75 pages of pretty much nothing important happening. They conduct 1 page of plot-related business. Then they’re off to Point B, hell and gone from here, where the arrive after 60 more pages of pointless rambling, whereupon the story ends in a grand climax of nothing much important. Heroes X and Y have a child, who will star in the sequel with the child of Z.
Jack Chalker’s stories could be boiled down to about 20 fetishes and stirred at random (fetish #16: a Giant Computer controls everything, fetish #3: somebody gets their head shaved, fetish #11: somebody gets a bunch of tattoos). The first story in a Chalker series has some modicum of original presentation, then quickly drifts into the usual cliches.
I’m gonna submit Zelazny’s Amber series, and then I may just pop over to the “what series never fizzled” thread and argue the opposite (if someone hasn’t beaten me to it). The first five, starring Corwin, are among my favorite books ever and I re-read them every couple of years. The second set of five, starring Corwin’s son Merlin, are entertaining in their fashion but they lack the epic sweep of the first five. The reliance on magic is too heavy and, with the introduction of the spikard spell-ring thing, veered far too much into Bat-shark-repellant territory (just as Batman always happens to have the one thing he needs in his utility belt no matter how esoteric, Merlin with the spikard always has the needed spell literally at a finger tip).
Poul Anderson’s Gateway series. First one was inspired, futuristic psychotherapy about a truly conflicted but loveable guy. One of the best taglines I’ve read:
The computer psychotherapist says “You ask rhetorically, ‘Do you call this living?’ My response is ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I call living.’ And in my most hypothetical way, I envy it very much.”
But downhill from there.
In fact, Poul Anderson got so bored with the series he had Frederik Pohl write it for him.
And am I the first one to bring up Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series?
Frederik Pohl. Er. Right. :smack: