Inspired by @carrps. I have loved Christopher Moore since finding him maybe 15 years ago. Practical Demonkeeping was from 1992, and all those early books were silly, sexy and awesome. I really think he hit his height with Dirty Job–so poignant, so weird. And then he started to decline, I feel. I liked the Fool books, but they started to get a little sour. I REALLY didn’t like Razzmatazz and Noir. I hope he gets back on his game, although he’s aging like all of us. Thoughts?
I think he hit his peak with Lamb. I hope not, but I too haven’t been too fond of his last couple of books.
I’ve been avoiding the later books based on comments like these. I don’t want to spoil my memories with clunkers.
This is my reaction to him also. I really haven’t bothered keeping up with him lately.
I actually think Sacre Bleu is the best.
I was looking at some amazon reviews, and there was one from the UK for Dirty Jobs IIRC. The guy gave it one star and hated it. But he just had to mention the “atrocious Pratchett,” so I know not to pay attention to anything he says.
I agree.
lamb is another high point. If you liked that, read the first Chapter of Dirty Job and see if it doesn’t grab you the same way.
Have to disagree. I love pretty much everything he’s ever written. Agree that his style has changed over time but his weird mashup of unrelated genres - zombies with Christmas stories; aliens with a Mickey Spillane-esq backdrop - is just genius. Nobody else can pull this off like he can.
I’ll second this. I don’t think he peaked with Lamb. His recent books aren’t his best, but they’re not bad.
It was a disappointment that Practical Demonkeeping was optioned but never produced. It would be a great film.
My first Moore book was Stupidest Angel and I was hooked from then on. Personally, I liked Noir and I finished Razzmatazz over Christmas. Not his strongest books I’ll admit but I still really liked them, being a fan of the whole noir genre.
Fwiw, I wrote him when I was reading Sacre Bleu a couple of chapters were missing from the hardcover I had bought. I half-jokingly contacted him and asked where they might be. He (snarkily, big surprise) replied saying he was very sorry the pages were missing and that he can’t be watching everyone all the time, which was great! He then sent me the pages as a pdf from his manuscript! My respect for him went up greatly that day!