# One author, two books. One you love, one you hate **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2005, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129 "2005-10-27T05:37:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![soulmurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2005, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/41 "2005-10-27T23:54:44Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Just to nitpick, the book’s title is _Good As Gold_. So it is. I like _Good as a Steaming Pile of Liquified Doggie Doo_ even better. Like Gold was one of the oft-used catchphrases of the book… that’ll teach me to post without getting up and verifying. ---
**Author:** ![Orual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orual)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/42 "2005-10-28T00:15:02Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > I’ll give The Silmarrillion a pass as it was posthumously cobbled together and not submitted for publication by Tolkein. For all I know, it eventually becomes excellent, but I’ve never gotten past the first 40 pages. It stops being the Bible and starts being adventures and battles around about page 80. It took me many tries to make it that far. But now, I love it. As for the OP: **Phillip Pullman** Love: _The Golden Compass_ Really engaging, interesting alternate world fantasy with fun characters. There’s a civilization of armored bears living in the Arctic, what’s not to love? Hate: _The Amber Spyglass_ The universe is saved by two 13 year olds having sex. Oh, and religion is stupid. I was … let down. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/43 "2005-10-28T00:24:00Z")
I have another, John Fowles. I couldn’t put down _The Collector_, _The French Lieutenant’s Woman_, or even the evil, convoluted _The Magus_ But, _The Ebony Tower_, and _Daniel Martin_, thanks for playing, better luck next time. Oh one more Larry McMurtry His westerns are joys to behold. Even the Texas series, _Terms of Endearment_, _Cadillac Jack_, _Texasville_ and _The Last Picture Show_ were enjoyable, but _Somebody’s Darling_ and _All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers_ are vapid and truely, IMO, pass-worthy. (Although, I love the last title, I’ve felt that soo many times in my life.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/44 "2005-10-28T00:25:31Z")
Robert Charles Wilson: Liked: The Harvest Not so liked: The Chronoliths - Long way to go with no payoff ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/45 "2005-10-28T01:11:58Z")
> [@ArrMatey!](#): > > Stephenson. His early work? Loved it. **Zodiac** and **Snow Crash**? Could read them endlessly. Even liked **Cryptonomicon** , but… It was there he started to turn. The boy needs an editor, and he needs it badly. Crypto would take these long detours into the land of math and probability and computers that, while somewhat plot-important, didn’t need half-chapters devoted to them. > > Then came the Baroque Cycle. > > Read the first book, tried to read the second. Hoboy. It was no longer half-chapter detours into arcane mathematical subjects. It was now entire -chapters- about these subjects, punctuated with (I’m not exagerating) one line of dialogue between characters. Ouch. > > And I really wanted to keep liking his stuff. ☹ Huh. I adore the Baroque Cycle and thought Zodiac pretty much sucked. Matter of taste I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/46 "2005-10-28T01:53:06Z")
My, we do read a lot of sci-fi, don’t we? I loved loved loved Harry Harrison’s **A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!**. **The Stainless Steel Rat** , on the other hand…blah. ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/47 "2005-10-28T02:01:58Z")
Robert Jordan’s _The Wheel of Time_ series - Books one through five are my favorite fantasy writing _ever_; I like them better than Tolkien, Lewis, MacDonald, Dunsany, etc. - and then number six and onward have been _unreadable_. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/48 "2005-10-28T02:03:24Z")
Charles Dickens: _A Tale of Two Cities_ was a wonderful story of a man making the ultimate sacrifice in the name of love. _Oliver Twist_ was ostensibly a political comment on the morality of using capitol punishment on children. In reality, it was an early treatise on bipolar disorder. To summarize: “Oh, I’m so miserable! Alas, it is my lot in life to suffer!” “Oh, I’m so happy! My life will be wonderful and happy and full of trees and flowers and chirping birds and…” “Oh, woe is me! Why do I suffer so?” “Oh, joy! This surely must be what heaven is like!” … ad nauseum … ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/49 "2005-10-28T02:35:22Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > Tad Williams: I loved _Tailchaser’s Song_ and \* Memory, Sorrow and Thorn\*. I got to page 55 in _Otherland_ It needs a nice door to stop. It took me alphbetising my bookshelves to realise that the author of that derivative, predictable dreck that was _The Dragonbone Chair_ and sequals was the very same person who amazed me with the _Otherland_ quartet. (I was sixteen at the time, I think. Now I’m just lukewarm about the both of them.) ---
**Author:** ![CatsCradle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cab0a1/32.png) [@CatsCradle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatsCradle)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/50 "2005-10-28T06:41:38Z")
Niven and Pournelle: Loved _The Mote in God’s Eye_, hated _The Burning City_. I can’t even remember if I finished it or not. What happened to the guys who wrote _Footfall_ and _Legacy of Heorot_? Oh, and I’m somewhat reversed from the OP: I loved _Neverwhere_, but was a bit ambivalent about _American Gods_ (it just seemed to drag a bit in the middle bits). Of course, I’ll still read _Anansi Boys_ (I’m next on the queue in my public library! Yay!) ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/51 "2005-10-28T06:46:27Z")
John Ralston Saul. His philosophy books - _Voltaire’s Bastards, The Doubter’s Companion, The Unconscious Civilization, Le citoyen dans un cul-de-sac, Reflections of a Siamese Twin, On Equilibrium,_ and _The End of Globalism_ - are incisive, lucid, and engaging looks at a society where systems determine values and not vice-versa. His novels? Are so not worth the effort it’s not funny. ---
**Author:** ![CartesianDaemon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@CartesianDaemon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CartesianDaemon)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/52 "2005-10-28T11:16:30Z")
I liked Neverwhere and Dalemark (though only once I reread them), if not as much as some other books. I heard a nice story about Joseph Heller. Apparently he was being interviewed about one of his less good books, and the interview says “I’m afraid, everyone wants to ask: how come you still haven’t written a book as good as catch 22?” and he replies leasurely “Well, mister, not many people do, do they?” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/53 "2005-10-28T13:53:07Z")
James Patterson. It’s weird that the guy who wrote such scarey shit as “Kiss the Girls” would turn around and write such a great love story as “Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas.” ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/54 "2005-10-28T14:12:09Z")
**Spider Robinson** _Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon_ funny and original. _Callahan’s Key_ absolute dreck. The death of the Callahan series. **Douglas Coupland** , my favorite author and major crush. _Generation X_, _Hey Nostradamus!_ and others are terrific. _Girlfriend in a Coma_. Not so terrific. In fact, I wish he’d never written it so it wouldn’t be in my memory. He’s still cute, though. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/55 "2005-10-28T15:33:16Z")
I really like The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell but the sequel Children of God? Not so much. Anybody read her A Thread of Grace? Any good? ---
**Author:** ![EmeraldGrue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dc4da7/32.png) [@EmeraldGrue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmeraldGrue)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/56 "2005-10-28T17:28:14Z")
Came in here just to mention Neal Stephenson. **Snow Crash** rocked, but I couldn’t even finish **Quicksilver** , let alone the whole Baroque Cycle. And there’s not many books so unreadable I can’t finish them. Read Tad Williams several years ago. **Memory, Sorrow and Thorn** …his lousy Tolkien ripoff, waste of time. I thought **Otherland** was fantastic, though, even if it was way too long. To each their own. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/57 "2005-10-28T17:32:36Z")
> [@VCO3](#): > > Robert Jordan’s _The Wheel of Time_ series - Books one through five are my favorite fantasy writing _ever_; I like them better than Tolkien, Lewis, MacDonald, Dunsany, etc. - and then number six and onward have been _unreadable_. Have you read book 11, **Knife of Dreams**? I would have agreed with you entirely, EXCEPT that book 11 is suddenly, inexplicably, good again. (And book 9 wasn’t awful, although book 10 was SO BAD that thinking about it makes my hair hurt). I nominate: **Ken Follett** He’s written some fantastic thrillers ( **The Eye of the Needle** ) and interesting and compelling historical epics ( **The Pillars of the Earth** ), and also some of the worst books I’ve ever read ( **Jackdaws** and **The Third Twin** ). ---
**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:** [October 28, 2005, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/58 "2005-10-28T17:38:14Z")
J.K. Rowling: Love: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Hate: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I’m amazed at the difference between these two novels. Order of the Phoenix is poorly edited and has a very weak narrative line. Rowling’s editing skills improved incredibly for Half-Blood Prince, which I think is the best in the series. I know there are some crazy conspiracy theories that say Rowling stopped doing the actual writing after book 2 and while they are not true, these two books show me why people think it. It’s like Rowling wrote Order of the Phoenix and she gave an outline to a superior ghost writer for Half Blood Prince. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/59 "2005-10-28T17:59:10Z")
**MaxTheVool** beat me to the nomination of Ken Follett. _Pillars of the Earth_ is (IMHO) a masterpiece and I’ve read it five or six times. I just can’t reconcile this with the utter insipidy that is _Night Over Water_. ---
**Author:** ![Corii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Corii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corii)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129/60 "2005-10-28T18:44:01Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I really like The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell but the sequel Children of God? Not so much. I liked both books, but I will concede that The Sparrow was by far the better of the two. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-author-two-books-one-you-love-one-you-hate/328129.md?page=4)