You didn’t like Dune Messiah? I loved it. Well, at least we agree the series is uneven! 
Anne Rice’s Vampire series. The first three were great (Interview with the Vampire, Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned), the fourth was blah (Tale of the Body Thief), the fifth was interesting but too long (Memnoch the Devil) and I only read pieces of the last five…it was just really losing the magic of the early works.
If she had kept it to a trilogy like the Lives of the Mayfair Witches set it would have been better.
Similarly, the first and third Indiana Jones films are great, but the second is very weak.
I’ll nominate the From Dusk Till Dawn trilogy. The first one was great, the second one stunk, and the third one was actually my favorite of the three.
For sure. I came to specifically mention those. The first five are absolutely amazing. The last few have been terrible.
As for the Dark Tower books, “The Waste Lands” is actually my favorite. As for the final 3, the tone just changed so much that I almost don’t consider them a part of the same series.
But… I named Indiana Jones in the other thread! I like Temple of Doom a lot.
Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder novels. Most of them are pretty good, especially earlier on. Eight Million Ways to Die and When the Sacred Ginmill Closes, books 5 and 6, are the high points. Since then, quality has varied between pretty good and mediocre, with the last couple being the worst of the bunch. Everybody Dies, the 14th book in the series, was the last really good one.
Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch novels follow more of a downward trajectory – they peak early, then get worse and worse. I haven’t bothered reading the last few.
L. Sprague de Camp said of his own “Johnny Black” series that they failed in being nonuniform. The first has him saving the world. By the last one, hhe’s only saving his boss’ job.
And I’ll bet no more than one or two of you have even heard of this series.
C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet Trilogy.
I read OotSP in high school English, so I may have had a jaded view of it; interesting
in its own way, but nothing special.
Perelandra was excellent.
That Hideous Strength worked up a head of steam, gave a little toot on the horn, then went off to sleep about the time the elephants started rubbing trunks.
The Rama series. Rendezvous with Rama the first and written by Clarke, was great. The second, written by Gentry Lee, was just bad. After that they got abyssmal. All Lee’s fault, his solo book, Cradle based on an idea by Clarke, gives the good Rev. Fanthorpe a run for being the worst book ever.
The Uncanny X-Men - specifically Chris Claremont’s long original run as writer of the book. One brilliant, absolutely precedent-shattering issue would be followed by a pretentious, self-indulgent claptrap issue the next month. Genius plot-twists would give way to ludicrous contrived idiocy. And every time I thought the series had ‘jumped the shark’ (well, not in that specific term but that idea), the next issue would unexpectedly get better, than worse, than better…
The most uneven 2 movies in a series that I can think of are Star Wars and The Phantom Menace.
If it weren’t for a couple of repeat characters (c3po,r2d2,yoda) and a borrowed musical score they are totally different types of movies.
Star Wars had a very basic plot that a kid could follow, empire=bad rebels=good, destroy the bad guys death star and win.
Phantom just got so complex and convuluted with governments, trade unions, politics it’s nowhere near kid territory.
Star Wars had rough edges characters who were passionate about their roles in life and you immediately warmed to them no matter how corny their lines were.
Phantom had dead boring main characters that took themselves too seriously and delivered their lines like cardboard.
Star Wars was a matte painting/ scale model/ monster makeup/ costume extravaganza.
Phantom was a CGI extravaganza.
The Force in Star Wars was a spiritual faith based power.
The Force in Phantom was science based midichlorians.
Star Wars had some dark evil adult enemies. Strom Troopers, sand people, cantina bar patrons.
Phantom had lame kiddie enemies. Three stooges based battle droids?
Phantom had acrobat high style kung-fu light saber fighting.
Star Wars had old style light saber fighting remenisant of fencing.
Two movies that were hardly similar.
Another vote for Anita Blake. I love love love the first six. I read them and read them a second time within six months. Then the next two or three (which # is Obsidian Butterfly? Edward rocks), they were pretty good. Then came Anita and The Boring Overly Described Sex. I keep reading the books hoping for a return to form, but I don’t know…
Then there’s a series that started out mediocre…and got a lot worse from there! The Kelvin of Rud series by Piers Anthony & Robert Margroff. Dragon’s Gold wasn’t good, but it was a passable book. By the time I got to Chimera’s Copper’s - the third book in the series - I knew I couldn’t read the last two. I was afraid that they’d be the literary equivalent of an ice-pick lobotomy.
Robert Aspirin’s Phule’s Company books. The first was great. The second good. The third stank like shit on a stick.
It’s a really obscure, out-of-print trilogy, but Meridith Ann Pierce’s Darkangel series. The first book is astonishingly good. The second one, at least interesting. The third is all but unreadable.
Also, just about every gaming-setting series is astoundingly uneven – particularly any D&D series. Even by the same author, the books vary from pedestrian to aweful, with an occasional gem-in-the-rough. It’s like Russian roulette with books, really – and only one chamber is empty.
Great summary comparison, and I generally agree. But I did think the 3-way light saber battle in TPM was one of the highlights of the movie, and one of the better such sequences in the whole series. Just MHO.
I felt the same way. After #11, I wasn’t in any particular hurry to read #12. Then I saw it at a Half-Price Books, and when I read it, I was actually excited for #13. Haven’t bought it yet, but I’m eager to read it.
I agree 100% percent on this one.
I have found however that if you pick your author you’ll at least have better success than pure luck at getting a readable book. Personally I find I tend to enjoy **R A Salvatore’s ** writing, (if you get past his munchkin posterchild main character).
I also will chime in with Robert Jordan, With most authors who have a long running series, when a new installment comes out I’ll go back and reread the series before starting the new book. The last 3 releases of Jordan’s I didn’t bother doing that. I might in future though, because if the rest of the series picks up in quality like #10 did, It won’t be an exercise in stolid trudging to finish the book.
John Norman’s Gor series. The first three or four were pretty good from there he descended into the weird obsession with bondage, discipline and slave sex
I read it last night. … meh.
As for the Darkangel books, only the second is actually out of print. I don’t find the third unreadable, but the first is definately best.