Alan Dean Foster. Loved his stuff as a kid… until I noticed that he has a bad habit of writing his characters into a dilemma, then solving it by suddenly introducing an alien race native to the planet that no one has really noticed yet, and they’ve got magic powers, and blah, blah, blah…
His short stories are pretty good, though.
I’m not sure about being “hacks”, but I did notice on rereading stories from my youth that the authors were far less original than I thought them at the time, simply bwecause I hadn’t read enough to know otherwise.
Robert Sheckley was one. One of the first science fiction books I read was his The Status Civilization, which I read as a straight adventure story. I had no idea how completely tongue-in-cheek it was, and how much it used science fiction cliches and institutions, since I wasn’t aware what those were. But Sheckley knew what he was doing, and did it consciously, I’;m convinced. Hackwork in the service of humor. I’ve said before that I think the movie Total Recall lifted an awful lot from other SF than Philip K. Dick’s, especially from Sheckley’s Status Civilization, so a lot of other people have experienced his intentional hackwork secondhand.
Another of the first stories I read was Otis Adelbert Kline’s a Swordsman of Mars. Since I hadn’t read Burroughs, or even heard of his Martian stories, I didn’t realize how much of a ripoff this was. Knowing what I do now, it seems to me this was imitatiove hackwork.
I have to agree about the Tarzan books, mentioned above. I set myself the task of reading all of them in one summer, and couldn’t do it – it was like trying to live on a diet of creampuffs. Buroughs kept copying his own plots with the occasuional new idea tossed in to give it a little leavening (medieval knights in Africa! Ant Men!) I finally read them all, but I had to take a break. hat said, not all of the Tarzan boioks are such hackwork. I especially recommend the first and sixcth books.
You need to read other works in the Savage Chronicles. He started out very weak (although he *punches out a shark * in his very first book, which is far, far cooler than breaking the polar bear’s neck in a later story) and I think the series ran about three years too long, but some of the middle stuff is good. A bit formulatic, but good.
Person found unusually dead in New York City. Doc Savage slightly intrigued. Generic bad guy says “We’ll be able to pull this off if we can keep that Savage bird off our backs.” Generic bad guy kidnaps one of Savage’s men (or cousin, or pig). Savage chases them to exotic destination, and generic bad guy falls victim to his own death trap. Savage studies bad guy’s mechanisms and may release information about it to us some day.
It all got better after he stopped killing the bad guys, but they never had enough dirigibles or sumarines for my taste…
Ouch. So they were.
Good point. 
I’m trying to remember if it was this series were the pistols kept changing between automatics and revolvers. I’m being somewhat more carefull after the Manly Wade Wellman fiasco.
Anne McCaffrey, and now her son, Todd MacCaffrey.
Alan Dean Foster.
L. E. Modessitt jr. All right, I still read him, but it’s like comfort food. Terrible dialogue, silly characters…
Robert Heinlein. I don’t mean all his stuff, just that after I ceased to be a teenager, some of his later novels really disappointed upon re-reading. I Will Fear No Evil, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, for a start.
I think when you re-read a book you loved as a child, it’s hard to tell how much nostalgia boosts your enjoyment as an adult. I still like Heinlein’s books, but they are a bit silly to me now, and I don’t remember thinking they were silly when I was a kid. I can’t tell if I would like them if they were new to me.
I don’t think Asimov was a hack, just that his fiction doesn’t age very well. I read his enormous autobiographies a few years ago and really enjoyed them.
I still like reading the early Dragonrider books, but I don’t like the newer ones or any of McCaffrey’s later works, so maybe nostalgia is a big factor for me here.
I loved Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover books, but those were already a little dated when I read them as a kid, and they don’t hold up well for me now.
I used to think Star Trek novels were pretty good.
I loved those books! I am reminded of them everytime I hear the song Sloop John B. I still have a copy at home but I’m afraid to re-read them and ruin the memories.
Of course, a lot of that has to do with her being long dead and yet somehow still writing new books. She really did write Flowers in the Attic and a few others, but the rest were ghost-written from plot outlines she purportedly left behind when she died.
I’ve got a bunch of other dittoes: Piers Anthony, David Eddings, Anne Rice and the Sweet Valley High dreck. Loved them all, once upon a time.
We only wish he was kidding. The book is called Memnoch the Devil, in case you want to avoid it.
Some of them are. And others cause actual physical pain (Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, I’m looking at you!)
Well, the plotlines she left behind are amazingly alike. I started a thread sometime ago about how prolific an author she still is.
Fair enough. If I run across any more of the books, I may give it another shot.
Many of the authors of our youth wrote a few good books, and then- pushed by $$$- turned hack.
Asimov: Foundation Trilogy- still good. Rest in series went from acceptable to dreck.
Piers: first few- enjoyable light read: rest- went to drecktown in a hurry.
McCaffrey : more or less the same, but never quite hit bottom like Anthony did.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Piers Anthony - I found his Xanth and Incarnations of Immortality books entertaining as a teen, but the last time I read one of his books I realized he is a completely sophomoric hack. All women are sluts, hags or bitches. Lots of bosoms bouncing and skintight dresses. Total shite.
Anne Rice - It’s hard for me to say she’s a hack, when she’s been doing it for so long I’ve finally accepted it and can enjoy it for what it is. The vampire books have gone from bad to hilariously bad. One of them was basically gay porn - “Armand” I think. Lestat’s adventures are getting lamer and lamer. She should stick to cheesy erotica.
V.C. Andrews, Sweet Valley High, read 'em and loved 'em as a child - became totally bored with them by the time I got to high school.
Also, Judy Blume - she’s kind of a one trick pony herself.
Your teen daughter’s stalker, more like! 
Ditto Terry Brooks’ and Marion Zimmer Bradley’s.
It’s even worse if you try to read it out loud. I was really disappointed to find that I don’t like this book anymore. I’m scared to try Many Waters again because that was my absolute favorite.
Your six year old daughter’s stalker, more like.
Mine would have to be Tanith Lee. “Silver Metal Lover,” anyone?
On a slightly different note, I bought a mess of ancient paperbacks at a garage sale a couple of summers ago, with old stories by many famous authors, and I was amazed at just how good some of them are. I mean, “I can’t put this book down until I’ve read it cover to cover” good. There is a reason that many of those old farts were given the Grandmaster of Sci Fi title.
I must disagree. She has branched out into adult fiction, and who can forget the surreptitious passing around of Forever?