Jim Henley proposes a “meme” about literature:
Adrienne Aldredge has a twist on Bookish Questions I’m herewith turning into a meme:
What authors have you given up on for good? And why?
I’m going to stick to authors who continue to produce work, and whom I used to follow eagerly, not authors I felt obligated to try and didn’t like once I did.
Jim offers Dan Simmons and Alan Furst as his choices (read his post to see why). Simmons would be an excellent choice, but, um, I bought both Ilium and Olympos in hardcover. (In my defense, I read Ilium from the library first, and it seemed like a return to form…)
Some thoughts below he fold.
It’s a little hard to come up with authors that I made a conscious decision to drop, as opposed to authors whose books I just stopped buying. For example, I have a bunch of old Greg Bear books, but I don’t own anything more recent than Darwin’s Radio, and I haven’t read anything more recent than Vitals. It’s not really that I’ve soured on his writing, though, so much as that he’s choosing to write books that don’t really appeal to me. He’s mostly doing technothrillers these days, and while they’re perfectly competent technothrillers, I’m just not interested in that genre. If he publishes something more in the vein of Moving Mars, or Songs of Earth and Power, I’ll probably pick it up and read it, though, so I wouldn’t say he’s completely off the island.
There are some authors I’ve consciously decided to take a hiatus from; Charlie Stross is probably the best example. After Accelerando and The Hidden Family, I decided that I’m not reading any of his stuff for a while. If he picks up a theme I like more, I’ll probably read that book, but Glasshouse looks excruciating, and I’ll wait for the paperback of The Clan Corporate, if I read it at all.
Probably the best example of an author I consciously decided not to read any more would be Robert Heinlein. Of course, he’s dead, so that’s a little bit of a cheat (the trunk novels that have been published recently probably provide a bit of a loophole, but not much). I haven’t read everything by him, though, and I’ve definitely decided that I’m not reading any more. In this specific case, I can even pinpoint the moment when I stopped, thanks to this old booklog post.
If you insist on a still-living author, a survey of the shelves in my office suggests James Morrow. I enjoyed Towing Jehovah, Blameless in Abbadon, Bible Stories for Adults, and Only Begotten Daughter quite a bit, but The Eternal Footman was a hard slog that I never finished, and his recent short fiction (that I’ve read) has been painfully shrill. The Last Witchfinder got good reviews, but it sounds like another crashingly unsubtle anti-religion book, with the bonus factor of a narrative conceit that’s too cute for its own good. I’m giving it a miss, and I’m really not likely to buy anything else of his.
I feel like I’m probably missing somebody obvious, but that’s all I’m coming up with at the moment. Are there authors that you’ve decided not to read any more?
Orson Scott Card. I liked Ender and the Alvin trilogy and tried a couple of other things afterwards which were atrocious so I am consciously done with him for good.
C. J. Cherryh.
It’s definitely a case of understanding why she’s respected, and knowing she’s a good author…but I’ve practically Eight Deadly Words-ed out on everything I’ve read. I bounced hard off of the style…so I’m not going to continue.
I might have said Stross if I’d only read Accelerando, but I picked up The Atrocity Archives, his modern fantasy/horror with a tech/IT twist, and they’re a lot better.
John Ringo, when writing alone…that’s largely political.
O. S. Card mostly, in that I’ll still read Ender work if he writes any more, but nothing else. Though his politics make my teeth hurt too.
One problem is, I have a bunch of people whom I haven’t bought/read recently, but I don’t know if that’ll stick…Bob Asprin, Fred Saberhagen, Spider Robinson, etc.
Spider Robinson. I was willing to forgive him Time Pressure (barely), but after whichever Callahan/Sally book it was that had Nikola Tesla rhapsodizing over a Macintosh, I decided that was it.
Jack Chalker. I’m not sure why I read as many of his books as I did. In my defense, I was young at the time. I still think a few of them are decent fluff, but I’m not re-reading most of his books that I bought, and I’m certainly not going to read those I didn’t. (While Chalker died several years ago, I had decided to drop him some time before that.)
Alan Dean Foster. Foster is another case where I am no longer sure why I liked his books in the first place. Being 12 probably had a lot to do with it. In fairness, he just has a very pedestrian style, and an inclination to introduce might-as-well-be magic advanced technology at the climax of a story, as opposed to Chalker’s and Robinson’s hobbyhorses which they started riding incessantly (Chalker – massive body alteration, humiliation; Robinson – coffee, Tesla, Apple, killing people you disagree with).
As for your examples, I have read little Bear (just Tangents, I think) and not a lot of Simmons (Carrion Comfort, Summer of Night, and Prayers to Broken Stones). I have other Simmons books on the shelves unread but none of his recent ones, and I haven’t heard anything about those that make me want to try them.
Heinlein I still like a lot, but only certain books – some of the better juveniles (Have Space Suit, Will Travel, Time for the Stars, Starman Jones, etc.), Double Star, and some of his story collections I still re-read every now and then. I stopped reading his later output after Job and don’t plan to read anything of his I’ve missed except possibly Revolt in 2100 (I also haven’t read Time Enough for Love, in addition to the later books).
Ah, I forgot about Robert Asprin. I used to like the “Myth” books when I was a teenager, but they don’t appeal much now. I do still like the comic he and Phil Foglio did of the first book. I haven’t read any of his other books.
I also forgot Terry Brooks, whom I have dropped twice. I liked Sword of Shannara when I was 11 or so, even though it was obvious to me even then that it was, er, templated from LotR. (I think part of the reason I liked it was that it was shorter than LotR.) I read the next two Shannara books, but didn’t like them much, especially the third, so I stopped reading them. I gave him another chance with the first “Magic Kingdom” book, for reasons which elude me, but it was enough to get me to drop him permanently.
And then there’s Piers Anthony, but if I think about him too much I will need to pour bleach in my ear.
I’ll tell you right now, you will not like Glasshouse. You’d have more fun stabbing yourself in the eye with a spork.
I’ve just about given up on Guy Gavriel Kay. If I want to experience the thrilling world of 21st century humanities professors and grad students dressed up in medievaloid costumes, I’d go join the SCA. I’d say given up entirely, except that his next book looks like a significant break with what he’s been doing for the last half dozen books. It doesn’t look like thinly disguised alternate/fantasy history.
James P. Hogan. I liked some of his earlier stuff; the Giants trilogy, or at least the first couple of books in it, was quite good. I really enjoyed reading some of his other stuff too. He always has a point of view; there is the “James P. Hogan Utopia,” which is where there is no money or currency, but the currency is respect; it’s a resource-rich utopia, where nobody has to starve and nobody does. People respect each other so long as they contribute, whatever they contribute, and they don’t get in the way of each other. There are minimal laws, because everybody is a good and rational libertarian. Everybody is happy. Of course, this would never work, because it requires a differnet sort of human nature than exists, but it’s appealing.
More recent books have gotten out there, though. The libertarian political philosophy becomes a hammer that he beats you over the head with, and it becomes an annoying diatribe. There was another book where he was all about the Velikovsky view of the electric solar system, and couldn’t stop pounding “mainstream” scientists for ignoring it. Sure, fine within the context of the story, but it got just a bit much. Despite how much I enjoyed some of his earlier novels (Code of the Lifemaker was a great one), I’ve given up on reading anything else from him.
It didn’t take me long to give up on Piers Anthony…. I read a couple of Xanth novels, and they were fun, but I never got sucked into that. Some friends in college told me I had to read the “Cluster” novels. The first one, as best I could tell, had a plot that was a thin excuse so that the hero could change into the bodies of as many different alien species as possible so that the act of sexual intercourse could be described in as much loving detail as possible. No thanks. Piers Anthony is on my off list, and has been for a long time.
Dean Koontz. He writes technothriller/horror type things. I went on a Dean Koontz book a while back (as in 15 years ago, or perhaps more), but after a while they all seemed the same, even though settings, plots, and premises were all different. The first few I read were very enjoyable… and while I think they may have been among his best (Watchers and Lightning), I also suspect that whichever were the first two of his that I read would have been among my favorites…. I haven’t read one of his books in a decade.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez jumped the shark with “Autumn of the Patriarch.” That was Good Literature, in the sense of the word that it was completely unreadable. I really liked some of his other stuff (One Hundred Years of Solitude being the obvious example), but this book… yipers. I was supposed to read it for a seminar class in college. I was getting tired. I decided to get to the end of the chapter and quit. After a little bit, I decided, heck with that, end of the paragraph. After a little bit, I decided, heck with that, end of the sentence. Finally I paged forward a few pages and couldn’t find a period. I gave up and never went back. It was completely unreadable. Even that fraction of it that I read, I only “read” it in the sense of having looked at the words.
I only stopped reading Charles Sheffield because he died and stopped writing books 🙁 That isn’t to say that some of his were borderline stinkers (“The Sphers of Heaven,” for instance, wasn’t for me), but he wrote a lot of books I really enjoyed.
I like Wil McCarthy’s stuff, in general, but I’m finding myself not motivated to keep following the books in the “Collapsium” and “Wellstone” series. There’s at least one more out there (squeezing the moon or some such), but I don’t know if I’ll read it or not.
I should have stopped reading Robert L. Forward’s stuff, but didn’t. Rocheworld was great. The sequels were a monotonic downward trend, and it’s not really clear to my why I didn’t stop before I got to the end. (If I did get to the end; they became less memorable with time, and I don’t remember how far I got.)
I am sometimes embarassed to admit that I read much (all?) of the brodbingdagnian “Mission Earth” series by that cult leader L. Ron Hubbard. They were space opera adventure tounge-in-cheek things, and they were TERRIBLE. I had a complete set that my uncle had given me, and they were easy reading… and I kept thinking, despite all evidence to the contrary, that they were about to get better. They were almost good. You could see where they would be fun fluff. But in the end… yipers, I should have given up on that one fast. I really don’t know what I was thinking.
I too gave up on Heinlien. I really liked some of his “Juveniles.” I really liked Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Lots of his later stuff just became flatulent. It ended when I put down an 80%-read “Number of the Beast,” because it had started to seem so pointless. I think I read one late-Heinlien novel after that (“Job”, if memory serves). I have re-read Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Starship Troopers, but I will probably never pick up anything from his late flatulent phase.
Piers Anthony I deliberately didn’t mention. I’ll never read another Xanth book, but friends have told me that his “Incarnations Of Immortality” series are much, much better. When I get around to it, I’ll pick up the first one and see. If I like it, I’ll go on, else Anthony hits the end.
But there’s a well-defined upper limit (7, which is the number of “Incarnations” books) on Anthony.
I’m not sure if Robert Jordan counts. I intend to finish the series if he ever does, but until then I’ve decided not to bother keeping up.
Does Eddings count? I haven’t bought the most recent 30 books in the Belgariad setting, but it’s not like I haven’t read the story.
I put Jordan on probation, but the last book was enough to buy. Maybe my standards are getting lower.
Asimov for me falls into the category of Heinlein for some of the others above – his late stuff was garbage, and I think I outgrew what appealed to me in the earlier works.
If Anthony starts a new series, I might, maybe, consider reading the first third of the first book – find out what his one idea is, then bail before he beats it into the ground.
Otherwise, my tastes seem to run with the rest of this crowd. I’ll keep reading GGK though.
Steven Erikson for me. I like big fat fantasy epics, but he takes it to the extreme. Midnight Tides was my breaking point when I discovered via the Dramatis Personae that I didn’t recognize any of the characts, except for one (Trull Sengar I think, not sure on the spelling) and once I started reading it was apparent that this book took place (at the least) before the previous book. I like stories that move forwatd, so I put the book down and have yet to pick it back up. I’ll think about it when he finishes the series, but at the moment I have no desire to.
The first Incarnations book wasn’t bad, but descriptions of the later ones have dissuaded me from reading them. Dave Langford relates a scene from one of them here.
The first book (Death) of the Incarnations of Immortality series is definitely the best one, IMO. Books 3 (Fate), 4 (War), and 6 (Evil) are pretty good, book 2 (Time) is OK, book 5 (Nature) isn’t that great, book 7 (Good) is a little creepy. Mr. Anthony’s fascination with underaged sex definitely becomes more apparent as the series progresses, let’s put it that way.
I’d say Katherine Kurtz is an author that could fall into this category for me. I really like the Deryni stuff she’s written, but the last two from that world haven’t been all that good. She’s also been writing a lot of knights templar stories which don’t really interest me.
How soon they forget. Two words: Stephen Donaldson.
Philip K. Dick. I liked Clans of the Alphane Moon, many short stories, probably a couple of his other novels I can’t name offhand, but I found Valis so disturbing, I didn’t even pick up the second volume in the trilogy.
Robert Asprin. The Myth novels started losing me sometime after he split the series, and his other stuff hasn’t appealed to me.
Joel Rosenberg. The Guardians of the Flame series lost me with Not Exactly the Three Musketeers, by which point the original characters had been killed off or backgrounded.
A series called The Menagerie, by two authors, I can’t recall (probably blocked them out). Worst fantasy scenarios I’ve ever seen — they read like bad summer movies, but the most violence is done to the mythic background…. 😉
Some I do still like:
I quite liked most of the various Anthony series, though I did give up on Xanth by book 7 or 8. That’s OK, apparently he’d gotten tired of it himself, but the readers kept sending him puns…. I will say that both the Incarnations and Cluster series ended “just in time”, and I never followed the Proton/Phaze series past the third book.
I’m still game for Jordan’s Wheel of Time, but I wish Knife of Dreams would show up in paperback already. I may have a weakness for “fantasy by the pound”, but I don’t have money or shelf space for hardcovers!
Chuck Palahnuik – after the short story about the guy who gets his intestines sucked inside out by the pool filter and has to chew thru them to keep from drowning. I never liked “Fight Club” as much as it seemed like I was supposed to, and I thought “Choke” was fairly unpleasant, but “Guts” was the last straw.
Stephen R. Donaldson – immediately after finishing White Gold Wielder and humming it across the room. There was a lot in the Covenant Chronicles that had already turned me off, but his writing was (to me anyway) so good that I kept coming back until he tapdanced on my last nerve in the final book. Haven’t picked up a single thing he’s written since.
Tom Clancy – I really liked his early books, but as he got more and more famous, and less and less edited, they just kept getting worse and worse.
I’d agree, except that I actually like Mordant’s Need, which was written after the Second Chronicles. I didn’t read the Gap series, nor am I reading the Third Chronicles, but I am willing to read something he writes in the future that sounds more appealing.
Michael Crichton – I liked his early stuff, like Eaters Of The Dead, read Jurassic Park before the movie, but his latest, “Global Warming Conspiracy R Us” book, and his cozying up to G Dubya ruined him as an author to read for me.