So I stopped by the library after work today and did a quick skim and grab from the paperback shelves. One of the books I borrowed was Magic by Tammy Hoag. I’ve read a handful of her other books and have enjoyed them. Easy reads–mostly thriller/suspense/crime with a romance in the background. Nothing deep or particularily artful, but good reads nonetheless. But this one—Ugh!–it reads like a sixth grader’s overly romanticized fantasy. Immediate, overwrought descriptions of “dewy eyes” and “pinkened lips beckoning like a siren’s song”. A setup so transparent I can already predict how it’ll end and I’m only 20 pages in. I already know I won’t be finishing it and, in a lifetime of voracious reading, I’ve only ever not finished a book I’ve begun on a half dozen or so occasions. It’s really that bad.
So, has anyone else ever been deeply dissapointed by a book they thought for sure they’d enjoy by virtue of the author’s other works?
When I was in high school Ken Follett came out with The Key to Rebecca. I loved it, and really liked the follow-ups I read, namely Tripoli and The Pillars of the Earth.
So last year I pick up the paperback Code to Zero. What an execrable piece of crap that was. Now I won’t pick up another Follett book. And it makes me wonder how good those earlier ones really were.
I always liked Peter David’s comic books, and as a kid his Star Trek novels were my favorite junk reading. So I found a novel by him called “Knight Life” that was apparently his first published work. Looking around on the web, it seems to be a hit with many readers too.
I hated it. I absolutely couldn’t stand it. If it hadn’t been Peter David, I wouldn’t have finished it. I don’t know if I outgrew his writing style somehow (it’s been a while since I’ve read anything by him) or if the book just hit me wrong somehow.
“Abduction” by Robin Cook, who usually writes pretty good medical thrillers.
This one was about researchers getting sucked under the ocean into an Atlantis-type city, where people lived forever and a whole bunch of other crap like that. It was incredibly godawful.
The Patricia Cornwell novels featuring Judy Hammer and Andy Brazil (Isle of Dogs, Hornet’s Nest, Southern Cross).
I enjoy the Kay Scarpetta books, but, honestly, who is writing these?? It seems like PC is just renting her name out to some sad git who couldn’t sell books without the big author name. Sheesh, even Cornwell’s heroine shows up in these books, and if you can feel a fictional character’s embarrasment, this would be the case. Kay Scarpetta seemed ill-written, and longing to get out of such a shite book.
Are you talking about the first original version of Knight Life, or the just-released revised-and-expanded version now in stores? I’ve only read the original, and while I enjoyed it, it is definitely an uneven work from a fledging writer.
As for the OP, I’ll toss out two:
A Rock and a Hard Place, by the afformentioned PAD. Just couldn’t get interested in it at all – deadly dull, boring stuff.
Dark Side of the Sun, by Terry “Discworld” Pratchett. It tries to be a parody of classic Asimov, but it doesn’t really click – the characters are forgettable, the situations are forgettable, the humor is barely present. Noses ahead of Pratchett’s Strata only because Strata had a (slightly) more interesting plot and some relatively memorable characters.
Mortal Fear by Robin Cook. It had the exact same plot as Coma! Absolutely worthless. I knew what was really going on, who was in on it, and how it would end before I was at the halfway point.
Hunted Past Reason by Richard Matheson. What a stupid book.
Like Ramsey Campbell, he’s really good at short stories, but when it comes to novels, it’s difficult for him to sustain the suspense. Hunted Past Reason was a quick read and not boring, but it WAS lame and Matheson shamelessly used really weak literary gimmicks to expand the story - a story which has an intriguing premise, but Matheson failed to really use his imagination to develop the characters well or to devise believable scenarios, which is close to unforgivable, IMO.
I’m with MrSarcasticus. Stephen King disappoints me time and again. Yet I remember the good old days, and keep trying… I’ll nominate The Dark Half as a big pile o’ suck.
Sheri Tepper, who’s a favorite sci-fi author of mine, is profoundly uneven. Her good books are great – thought-provoking premises, page-turning execution – but they alternate with truly disappointing efforts. Just last night I finished her latest, The Visitor, which I’d been devouring voraciously – and it all fell apart in the last 50 pages.
Regulators didn’t bother me. The Dark Half was Ok, I kind of liked the Jekyl and Hyde vibe. But Dreamcatcher? There’s a story not worth even a third of the time it took me to read the damn title. Dreck. And I say that as a huge fan.
I can only hope his forthcoming installments of the Dark Tower manage to rise above the monotone he’s been developing for the last few years. I’d be devestated to have a story I’ve gotten so invested in end poorly.
For some reason, I could never get into The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King. I’ve tried reading it numerous times, but cannot get through with it. So I’ve given up. That’s never happened to me with a Stephen King book besides that and Desperation. Then again, I’ve stayed away from most of his newer stuff because of those two books.
Oh, ain’t it the truth? Good lord, those books are horrendous! I did read her book about Jack the Ripper, and while it is dry, at least it isn’t embarrasing!
I was also very disappointed by James Patterson’s See How They Run. I am not a fan of Nazi-themed and politacal intrigue books, and I’m ashamed to say I read this based only on my appreciation of Patterson’s other work. I finished it out of a sense of obligation to finish what I start, but I didn’t enjoy any part of it.
Michael Crichton - Sphere - what the hell was he thinking. The shittiest payoff in his entire body of work.
Robert Heinlein - love most of his stuff but (as I posted in another thread) The Number of the Beast and The Cat Who Walked Through Walls were utter dreck. Avoid at all costs.
BethCro and singular1 have it, hands down. That “series” is badly written, trite, implausible, pointless, and juvenile. I can’t for the life of me, figure out who those books were written for, and like BethCro, I think were written by a friend’s kid.
Heh, Sphere. I actually read that book twice. I had absolutely no recollection of having read it the first time until I reached that ridiculous and suddenly familiar ending and nearly threw the book across the room in frustration. I couldn’t believe I’d wasted another bunch of hours of my life reading a crappy book for the second time. Talk about forgettable…