I’ll third this. Wizard’s First Rule was one of the best fantasy novel’s I’ve read. I devoured the last 400 pages in an evening, something I’ve never done before. It was amazing.
By Faith of the Fallen I nearly burned the book in disgust. It couldn’t have been more heavy-handed had he dropped a character named Gorbachev right into the middle of the story. What was most insulting was that Goodkind took a carefully designed and defined character (Emperor Jagang) and completely warped his viewpoint to come up with this illogical rant in the form of a novel. I couldn’t read any more of the series after this.
Gabaldon’s Outlander series fizzled after the second book for me. I sort of flipped through the third book (Dragonfly in Amber, is it? Or was that the second?) and then after that I couldn’t be bothered to go on.
I don’t know how I feel about Haydon’s The Symphony of Ages series. I half wished it ended after the third book. Rhapsody gets more annoying as the Wheel turns (or as the Symphony plays, I suppose it should be) but Achmed is still interesting enough to make up for it. For me, anyway.
What about the Anne of Green Gables series? I loved the last book, but most of the books in the middle were not half as interesting as the first two. Except House of Dreams; my copy of that one is falling to pieces. But Anne’s time in university and her time as a teacher bored me to tears.
Heh-heh-heh, lastest. Definition, the most last.
Add L. J. Braun’s “The Cat Who …” books. There’s only so many murders you can have in a small town before it gets ridiculous.
Although I love Glen Cook’s Garrett series the last few just don’t have it. The problem I see it is Garrett’s too well off now. He’s no longer scraping by wondering if he should just give it all up and go investigate grafting at the brewery. Shame, the first 5 are just amazing imho.
I will speak Heresy and say that Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City” books started out great and then devolved into incredibly surreal and silly plots, two-dimensional characters and (much to my fury) turned one of the best characters in the first book into a self-absorbed bitch. And I say this as a true Maupin fan.
Many would probably say that the series never even got started, but IMHO, Niven’s Ringworld series has been a study in the art of downhill novelwriting.
I am torn about posting this here, maybe someone else can tell me if it should be here or in the other thread. Admittedly I haven’t read the last several books of the series because the 4th one just didn’t do it for me. Maybe it got back on track after that, maybe it got worse. Anyway, it’s Spider Robinson’s Callahan series. I loved the first 3 books, then I read Callahan’s Lady and it was just “meh”. So, has anyone else read the next 6 books? Did it fizzle or should I start reading it again?
Wile E - in the name of all that is good and holy, don’t read any of the more recent Callahan’s books - they’ll just piss you off, and make you start to hate the original stories.
mojave66 - Maupin’s major problem is a disinterest in bringing in new characters. Several times during the series, he just used an existing character but gave them a complete personality makeover because he wanted to use a plotline that wouldn’t quite fit with the existing ones. While that might maintain a sort of continuity, it isn’t really fair to your characters when they suddenly change sexualities, values, or personalities between books.
According to Maupin, he did this on purpose as a way of shifting the story from the outrageous but freedom-loving '70’s to the Me Decade. I think it makes sense, but I still hated it.
Not so much a series, but a trilogy. The Sevenwaters Trilogy by Maripillier (?).
I loved the first book–very well written and evocative. By book 3, I was gnashing my teeth and I finished it just to say that I had.
It got really melodramatic and disjointed and odd. I don’t mean suspensful odd or creepy odd–I mean characters changing and acting out of character for no reason.
bleh.
Battle Circle by Piers Anthony. By the time we get to the “Neq the Glockenspiel” stage of things, it is so bad that you wonder why Anthony’s publisher didn’t have him assassinated.
I have to second the Anita Blake series. It started as a good supernatural detective series and it’s devolved into vampire S&M porn. It pisses me off that she made Anita one of the monsters. It would have been much better if she had staked Jean-Claude around the third book. Maybe I’m just the wrong audience, seems like it’s written for pasty people who like to sit around their basement and pretend to be vampires.
I also have to agree with the Jack Ryan series. Hasn’t been the same since the end of the Cold War.
2nd page and noone has mentioned Jonathan Kellerman?
I haven’t read anything of his since the Murder Book or A Cold Heart (there might be one more after that I read) but he still tells the same. story.
Michael Connolly’s books are pap from book one onwards.
John Connolly’s Charlie Parker books are top class though. I can’t wait for the next one.
Of course it would be funnier had I not shelled out twenty five bucks for the most recent book, which is still sitting on my shelf. After waiting ten years for Ayla to give birth already, after Chapter 1 I found I no longer cared.
I also heartily concur with the criticism of Evanovich and Laurell K. Hamilton. Evanovich needs to end the series now while Plum has some semblance of dignity left. And while I do admire Hamilton for allowing Anita Blake to actually grow as a character and become more jaded as time went by (which was realistic), she went completely overboard with the sexual depravity and the series sank like a stone.
With Jordan, I’m not sure how much of it is true fizzling, and how much is “I grew up and developed better taste in literature”, but with Goodkind…blech! The anti-communism stuff was so bizarre and off-putting, I had absolutely no desire to continue reading after…I don’t know, what was it, the third book? Major disappointment, as I had been very much enjoying the series up to then. Moreover, everyone I’ve ever discussed this with had the exact same reaction. Makes me wonder how well the new books (saw one just came out in paperback recently) are selling.
After this sort of thing, I have my fingers crossed for George R.R. Martin. If he fails me too, I just might give up on fantasy, I can’t take so much disappointment.
