Apropos of this thread…
How about books that you were waiting for for ages on the basis that you really enjoyed an author’s previous work, and which turned out to be… well, really bad?
My nomination would be “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson. His previous books, notable “Neither Here Nor There” and “Notes From a Small Island”, were absolutely superb. Boy was I disappointed with AWitW, though. The Australian one was a bit of a return to form, though.
David Eddings.
Can you say Hannibal?
With most best-selling authors, once they get their formula down, the quality tends to suffer, and the things that drew me to them in the first place come up missing.
The Island of the Day Before
I loved The Name of the Rose, and Foucault’s Pendulum is one of my favorite books – I re-read it frequently. So I was really looking forward to Eco’s next book. But I found The Island of the Day Before boring and unpleasant. It totally turned me off Eco, and I’m not even interested in reading his latest book.
I’ve always disliked Bill Bryson, though.
Michael Crichton/Robin Cook.
Loved The Andromeda Strain and Coma and one or two of the books each author followed up with…but since then they have both degenerated into formula – Cook rather worse than Crichton, but not by much…
Since WordMan beat me to that heinous crime against literacy known as Hannibal, I nominate The Regulators. Oh what the heck, take Desperation too.
Since WordMan beat me to that heinous crime known as Hannibal, I nominate The Regulators. Oh what the heck, take Desperation too.
First double post! What do I win?