What authors have made your DO NOT READ list and why ?
David Ball
don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
caused them to feel that way.
-- David
John S. Novak, III
the time early in the frist book of his series where the leader of some
quasi-medievaloid village (and obviously and transparently in league with
the Big Bad from his very introduction) convinces his fellow villagers
that fire is *dangerous* and that they need to form a committee to
*study* the problem and come to some sort of regulatory conclusion....
All that because for some reason which I've forgotten (and wasn't very
clever in the first place) the Big Bad didn't like fire, either.
No, this was not a satire piece.
--
John S. Novak, III j...@cegt201.bradley.edu
The Humblest Man on the Net
Allan Griffith
There are a couple of authors on my Do Not Read Again List:
Dan Simmons, based on HYPERION (pointless and dreary) and CARRION
COMFORT (possibly the most bloated novel of all time). An object
lesson in how to take a reasonably good 40-page short story, and
expand it into a 956-page bloated mess of a novel.
Larry Niven, based on A WORLD OUT OF TIME - it was kind of like bad
Heinlein, but worse. If you're having trouble imagining something
worse than bad Heinlein, then you've got my drift.
Al
Htn963
Connie Willis, _Doomsday Book_. Midieval slumming for the yuppie crowd.
Coulda been an Oprah selection if Oprah liked SF. Also extremely overlong.
Thought about trying another of her fat novels, but I read slow and life is
short.
Paul Park, _Celestis_. Tedious and vile allegory on interstellar
colonialism and alien sex.
David Weber (by reputation only) -- not interested in Perfect Space
Heroines and unedited books.
Gregory Benford, _Timescape_. Tiresome, pointless "time-travel" tale
with a cast of self-centered, university twits and a cop-out ending. Also
extremely overlong.
H.P. Lovecraft -- call me heretic if you wish, but I laughed the first
time I read one of his stories. His style is that of a vampire host on the
late night horror movie show crooning "this is gonna be real scarry, kids..."
Not.
I'm sure I'm gonna come up with a bunch of other names right after I hit
send...but this should tie you over.
--
Ht
|Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore
never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
--John Donne, "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions"|
Rick
news:21hkrucvp0iu4r006...@4ax.com...
Stephen Baxter. The stage for his stories is immense, the timespans
incredible...and the characters utterly uninteresting.
Harry Harrison. I made the mistake of reading his book Star Smashers of the
Galaxy Rangers first...and then some alien invasion novel with a forgettable
title and an even more forgettable plot. I sort of kind of like the
Deathworld trilogy but not enough to make up for the first two.
Robert Jordan. The man loves to read his own words, apparently...he writes
so many of them
Matt Ruff
>
> H.P. Lovecraft -- call me heretic if you wish, but I laughed the first
> time I read one of his stories. His style is that of a vampire host on the
> late night horror movie show crooning "this is gonna be real scarry, kids..."
> Not.
Yeah, I find Lovecraft's imitators are almost all better than he was.
Have you ever read T.E.D. Klein's "Dark Gods"? Four long stories in the
Lovecraft mode that are actually quite good.
-- M. Ruff
Allan Griffith
> Connie Willis, _Doomsday Book_. Midieval slumming for the yuppie crowd.
>Coulda been an Oprah selection if Oprah liked SF. Also extremely overlong.
>Thought about trying another of her fat novels, but I read slow and life is
>short.
It was certainly extremely bloated, and not terribly exciting. The
only other Connie Willis book I've read is REMAKE, which is very short
and very very good.
Al
Lots42
I stopped reading his stories when he stopped writing them. (Naked chicks
encountering puns are not stories.)
Eric San Juan
Gentry Lee. Why? Rama II, Garden of Rama, Rama Revealed. 'Nuff said.
Piers Anthony. I read a slew of his books when I was a teenager, and for
the life of me I don't know why. One day, after slogging through
whatever the latest Xanth was, it hit me: I hadn't enjoyed a Xanth book
since the second volume or so, and hadn't enjoyed an Anthony book
*period* since the first volume of the Incarnation series. I will never
read him again no matter what he publishes (and I admit, he did
something a few years back about tracing a family through the history of
mankind or something that caught my eye. But I wouldn't bite)
Terry Goodkind. I actually bought the first four books in his series all
at once from the SF book club. Got them on a lark when I realized there
was some buzz about this guy, and figured I could wade into the latest
"mammoth fantasy epic!" all at once. (I have this thing about not going
into incomplete series, or series that don't have a significant portion
of them already done.) Then I actually *read* some of the buzz about
these books online and realized that I had just wasted a small amount of
cash. There was no way I was going to like this rubbish; I knew I'd be
wasting my time to even try them. I still own the books, never read, and
never will be.
Robert Jordan. I read the Wheel of Time series up to, errr, Crown of
Swords, I think, or Path of Daggers. Doesn't matter. I'm not going back
to that utter waste of trees ever again. 10,000 pages of women folding
their arms, sniffing and boxing ears while some brooding idiot talks to
himself for 4/5 of a book before doing something - a boring thing, mind
you - is more than enough. I thought the series took off really well and
looked very promising, but it began losing steam by the fourth book, and
by Lord of Chaos I was slogging through it out of some perverse sense of
obligation. "I started it, I have to finish it!" Nonsense.
One good thing about Robert Jordan, though. He taught me that it's okay
to just drop a book and never look back, even if you haven't finished
it. I used to feel like I had to finish all books I started, and I did
just that no matter how bad they were. No more. Robert Jordan taught me
a valuable lesson. My time is more valuable than that. Thanks, Robert.
Allan Griffith
>Stephen Baxter. The stage for his stories is immense, the timespans
>incredible...and the characters utterly uninteresting.
His characterisation is extremely poor even by Sf standards. And
don't forget the extraordinary dullness of his writing.
Al
Peter H. Granzeau
wrote:
There are several authors I have never read--John Norman and
Donaldson, for instance. Their books actively repelled me.
There are some I used to read, but now avoid completely: Jack Chalker
and Piers Anthony are two; a more recent example is Terry Goodkind.
Brenda W. Clough
Robert Jordan. Read ten pages of his first megafantasy, and realized No
Good could Come of This.
Stephen King. Read two pages of DOLORES CLAIBORNE and realized
finishing the volume would merely cause depression and angst.
Brenda
--
---------
Brenda W. Clough
Read my novella "May Be Some Time"
Complete at http://www.analogsf.com/0202/maybesometime.html
My web page is at http://www.sff.net/people/Brenda/
yabonn
"Allan Griffith" <agri...@bigpond.net.au> a écrit dans le message de news:
9Puu9.2411$jE1....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> David Ball wrote:
>
snip
>
> Dan Simmons, based on HYPERION (pointless and dreary) and CARRION
> COMFORT (possibly the most bloated novel of all time). An object
> lesson in how to take a reasonably good 40-page short story, and
> expand it into a 956-page bloated mess of a novel.
>
Hyperion? Not to read again list? How come?
I think i started to read scifi again because of that book
Saw it as a light and seducing literary game. Even foud it "borgesian" (does
that exist? anyway a compliment in my mind) at times, in an undefinable way.
Why pointless?
Crimso
An interesting question, David. I've never really given much thought to
the authors I avoid. I guess an off-the-top-of-my-head list would
include:
Piers Anthony - After 3 Xanth books, a couple of the Incarnations books,
the why-did-I-finish-it "Bio Of A Space Tyrant", I've had my fill of him.
Susan R. Matthews - Got halfway through "An Exchange of Hostages" and
realized I never wanted to see another of her books again.
Larry Niven - After not reading him for over 10 years, I bought "The
Ringworld Throne". Awful except for the fact that it convinced me not to
read Niven again.
David Eddings - Read the "Belgariad". Read it again except this time it
was called the "Malloreon". No more please.
--
Dros da würdin de unsai steuhn da hündin.
Da zeühl sun kobaia.
Jon Boyer
Because he can't write.
Robin Hobb. (Fantasy...possibly I'm on the wrong list but...) because its
brilliant and it reduces me to huge, racking sobs every time I read it.
Craig Shaw Gardner. Because he only has two jokes, and they aren't very
good ones.
Jon
"David Ball" <db...@booksnbytes.com> wrote in message
news:21hkrucvp0iu4r006...@4ax.com...
GSV Three Minds in a Can
person Rick <sf.w...@verizon.net> said
<snip>
>Harry Harrison. I made the mistake of reading his book Star Smashers of the
>Galaxy Rangers first...and then some alien invasion novel with a forgettable
>title and an even more forgettable plot. I sort of kind of like the
>Deathworld trilogy but not enough to make up for the first two.
If you missed out on the (original) _stainless steel rat_ then you ought
to catch that, before you give up on him. However I agree, a lot of what
he wrote was not to the same standard.
--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
Konrad Gaertner
Tad Williams: Memory, Sorrow, Thorn
Guy Kay: _Tigana_
For both, I didn't respect the characters, I didn't believe the
worldbuilding, and I really HATED the plot resolutions.
I can't think of any others I've sworn off after only one story.
--KG
Sea Wasp
>
> On Sat, 26 Oct 2002 00:31:31 -0700, David Ball <db...@booksnbytes.com>
> wrote:
>
> >Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that you just
> >don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
> >people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
> >caused them to feel that way.
>
> There are several authors I have never read--John Norman and
> Donaldson, for instance. Their books actively repelled me.
How can they actively repel you when you haven't even read them? John
Norman doesn't sound like the kind of stuff I'd like to read, but
Donaldson's more diverse than that; Mordant's Need in particular.
--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
http://www.wizvax.net/seawasp/index.htm
Jon Boyer
pilgrim telling a story tat links with the overall theme, with each story
done in a distinctive scifi style.
Brilliant.
Jon
Jon Boyer
Smith, amongst others. The plot is meaningless, silly and filled with
loopholes becuase....so was the source material
Jon
Jon Boyer
of making rapists his protagonists, (or vice-versa), and forcing the reader
to deal with that.
The Gap series, in particular, I find spellbinding. Most of the characters
are, to one degree or another, repugnant, weak, or sell-outs. Yet I cannot
help but read straight through the whole series. The final book I find hard
not to finish at one sitting (and bearing in mind is at last 450 ages long,
that's kinda hard on the bladder).
Jon
Rande
brain just locked up.
My older brother said I started to late. He read HPL when he was around 12
or 13, the perfect age for horror stories.
David Ball
wrote:
>David Ball <db...@booksnbytes.com> wrote on 26 Oct 2002:
>
>> Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that you just
>> don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
>> people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
>> caused them to feel that way.
>>
>
>An interesting question, David. I've never really given much thought to
>the authors I avoid. I guess an off-the-top-of-my-head list would
>include:
The idea got started when we were discussing an author in another
group who has overused the gimmick of having characters change
gender, IMHO.
>Susan R. Matthews - Got halfway through "An Exchange of Hostages" and
>realized I never wanted to see another of her books again.
I read the first book in that series several years ago and it
definately wasn't for me, but it was the subject matter, not the
writing, that I had a problem with.
Have you read anything by her that isn't part of that series. Colony
Fleet sounds like it might be interesting.
-- David
Jason Maxwell
Robert Jordan - I don't have 5 years to give to him to read his books
Donaldson - Depressing
Gentry Lee - For all the rama books he was invovled in
Near the edge of my list:
Tom Clancy - When his books turned into soapboxes for his political leanings
Kim Stanley Robinson - Hated Red Mars, but I should try others
Jason
Chris Thompson
Jon Boyer <Jon....@virgin.net> wrote:
[...]
>The Gap series, in particular, I find spellbinding. Most of the characters
>are, to one degree or another, repugnant, weak, or sell-outs. Yet I cannot
>help but read straight through the whole series. The final book I find hard
>not to finish at one sitting (and bearing in mind is at last 450 ages long,
_Please_ tell me that was a serendipitous typo and not deliberate ...
>that's kinda hard on the bladder).
Chris Thompson
Email: cet1 [at] cam.ac.uk
Crimso
>
>>Susan R. Matthews - Got halfway through "An Exchange of Hostages" and
>>realized I never wanted to see another of her books again.
>
> I read the first book in that series several years ago and it
> definately wasn't for me, but it was the subject matter, not the
> writing, that I had a problem with.
The writing didn't bother me enough that I would notice anything wrong
with it. The subject matter, however, and the way it was presented left
me with a bad taste in my mouth.
>
> Have you read anything by her that isn't part of that series. Colony
> Fleet sounds like it might be interesting.
>
I swore off her stuff after page 150 of "An Exchange of Hostages".
Crimso
I've found that I like the idea of Lovecraft's stories, especially the
Cthulhu ones, more than I like their execution.
Tina Hall
> In article <21hkrucvp0iu4r006...@4ax.com>,
> David Ball wrote:
>> Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that
>> you just don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering
>> what authors people have had that experience with and what was
>> in the books that caused them to feel that way.
>
> Goodkind: Numerous offenses, but the most egregious among
> them being the time early in the frist book of his series
> where the leader of some quasi-medievaloid village (and
> obviously and transparently in league with the Big Bad from
> his very introduction) convinces his fellow villagers that
> fire is *dangerous* and that they need to form a committee to
> *study* the problem and come to some sort of regulatory
> conclusion....
Did you consider that the people might have been spelled? I found
that quite obvious from the context. There are worse offenses in
the series than wizards using magic to manipulate people. <g>
That you recognize that he's in league with the big baddie but
not the rest is rather puzzling.
> All that because for some reason which I've forgotten (and
> wasn't very clever in the first place) the Big Bad didn't like
> fire, either.
He's been burned badly by wizard's fire as a kid.
--
Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of an insane mind!!!!
(Apologies to Terry Pratchett.)
________________________________________________________________
Emails: <Tina...@railroad.robin.de> only.
Tina Hall
> "David Ball" <db...@booksnbytes.com> wrote in message
> news:21hkrucvp0iu4r006...@4ax.com...
> > Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that
> > you just don't want to read anything else by. I was
> > wondering what authors people have had that experience with
> > and what was in the books that caused them to feel that way.
>
> Terry Goodkind. [...]
> Then I actually *read* some of the buzz about these books
> online and realized that I had just wasted a small amount of
> cash. There was no way I was going to like this rubbish; I knew
> I'd be wasting my time to even try them. I still own the books,
> never read, and never will be.
How are you sure you'd agree with the comments without reading
any of the books at all?
Just curious, not trying to convert the heathens. I dislike a
great deal in the series too, but it does have the occasional
interestng lunatic to keep me reading. That the 'heroes' only
made a token appearence in the last book was as least as
enjoyable than the villain-of-the-book (and that token appearence
was still enough to be hugely annoying once again).
> Robert Jordan. [...]
>
> One good thing about Robert Jordan, though. He taught me that
> it's okay to just drop a book and never look back, even if you
> haven't finished it. [...]
Full agreement!
Some addition:
Janny Wurts, because I blame the parts I didn't like in the
Empire Series on her. Without a co-author Feist writes quite nice
stories (disregarding anything squeezed in between an already
finished series, which I refuse to read too).
Dan Simmons, actually finished the 4 Hyperion (and sequels)
books, but only to know how it ends. I'll never forget the 4
pages describing some irrelevant mountains, the theological mumbo-
jumbo was annoying, and never mind the Keats stuff that I didn't
want to read about either.
--
Tina
- An alien, obviously; nothing else makes any sense.
____________________________________________________
Emails: <Tina...@railroad.robin.de> only.
Sea Wasp
>
> Donaldson's books are *very* difficult reading, if only because of his habit
> of making rapists his protagonists, (or vice-versa), and forcing the reader
> to deal with that.
And neither of these is true in "Mordant's Need", which I
specifically mentioned.
David Johnston
L. Neil Smith for his use of his writing as a political megaphone.
C.J. Cherryh for never writing about any character or event I care
about.
However I didn't reach that conclusion based on only one book.
I have never written off any writer based on one book.
Rick
news:y7Eu9.2512$W67....@newsfep1-win.server.ntli.net...
> Ummm....Star Smashers was a (very blunt) spoof, ripping the pants off Doc
> Smith, amongst others. The plot is meaningless, silly and filled with
> loopholes becuase....so was the source material
Really? Wow, thanks for the tip... (rolling eyes dramatically)
Thanks, Jon, but I figured out all by myself on the first reading that it
was a spoof...the problem I had with it was that it wasn't a FUNNY spoof.
Genevieve
> Piers Anthony.
>
> Because he can't write.
>
> Robin Hobb. (Fantasy...possibly I'm on the wrong list but...) because its
> brilliant and it reduces me to huge, racking sobs every time I read it.
>
> Craig Shaw Gardner. Because he only has two jokes, and they aren't very
> good ones.
>
I'll echo Piers Anthony (gee, I'm sure he'll crop up a few hundred
more times). I'll even echo Robin Hobb, but not for quite the same
reason (I still reread Willis' _Lincoln's Dreams_ and sob like crazy
afterward) but because she manages to profoundly depress me in a
non-productive way. _Cloven Hooves_ wrecked me, and not in any way
that made me want to put myself thorugh it again.
(slightly OT, being a mystery author) Michael Dibdin. I got into him
because of a passionate obsession with Italy, and his books are highly
praised. But...they seem so dreary and hopeless and futile. His main
character doesn't have that certain spark that attracts me.
It's a hard list for me to come up with because books that I actively
dislike go out the door very quickly - there's little enough space on
my shelves (and floor, and nightstand, and on the top of my dresser
and downstairs on the coffee table...) as it is.
Genevieve
Htn963
>Htn963 wrote:
>>
>> H.P. Lovecraft -- call me heretic if you wish, but I laughed the first
>> time I read one of his stories. His style is that of a vampire host on the
>> late night horror movie show crooning "this is gonna be real scarry,
>kids..."
>> Not.
>
>Yeah, I find Lovecraft's imitators are almost all better than he was.
The only deliberate imitations I ever read are parodies. I won't even
read serious imitations of authors I have enjoyed, no matter how good they
(the original author and/or the imitator) are.
>Have you ever read T.E.D. Klein's "Dark Gods"? Four long stories in the
>Lovecraft mode that are actually quite good.
No, but if by "Lovecraft mode" you just mean inspired by rather than a
deliberate imitation of H.P's style and language, then I'll keep it mind.
--
Ht
|Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore
never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
--John Donne, "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions"|
Htn963
>Htn963 wrote:
>
>> Connie Willis, _Doomsday Book_. Midieval slumming for the yuppie crowd.
>
>>Coulda been an Oprah selection if Oprah liked SF. Also extremely overlong.
>
>>Thought about trying another of her fat novels, but I read slow and life is
>>short.
>
>It was certainly extremely bloated, and not terribly exciting.
It certainly convinced me that the people on the award committes for that
year were brain dead. See, this is what comes of wanting mainstream literary
legitimacy.
>The
>only other Connie Willis book I've read is REMAKE, which is very short
>and very very good.
Ok. And come to think of it I haven't read any of her (acclaimed --
knock on wood) short stories so we'll see if they'll clear her deficit with
me.
Jonsa
"Rick" <sf.w...@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:w5xu9.3898$IU6...@nwrddc03.gnilink.net...
> > don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
> > people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
> > caused them to feel that way.
> >
>
>
> incredible...and the characters utterly uninteresting.
>
> Harry Harrison. I made the mistake of reading his book Star Smashers of
the
> Galaxy Rangers first...and then some alien invasion novel with a
forgettable
> title and an even more forgettable plot. I sort of kind of like the
> Deathworld trilogy but not enough to make up for the first two.
>
You should read The Turing Option by Harrison and Minsky. I think its the
best of the AI themed books so far written. (but what else would you expect
from Minsky).
Thucydides
Robert Jordan: Great first two megafantasy books....I actually read
all the way to the fifth one when I realized I don't approve of
polygamy and didn't care about his characters. Almost wrote off George
RR Martin because of Jordan.
Piers Anthony: Did we all enjoy 'Bearing and Hourglass' and read one
too many Xanth books? John-Tom was cute at the beginning but got very
stale quick...I read all the Xanth books BTW...I think there was even
a second series but that is where I stopped. :) Glad I bought them at
the salvation army for 3 bucks...
Stephen King: All his books up until Shawshank were pretty good.
Insomnia really really lost me and I haven't read anything by him
since...
There was this one book written circa 1993 I think that was positively
awful. I can't remember the author...but I remember thinking that this
guy had a friend who was the son/daughter of an owner of a publishing
house and they decided to write a trashy scifi war book because
'anyone' can do it....wish I had remembered that name...
Thucy
John F. Carr
David Ball <db...@booksnbytes.com> wrote:
>Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that you just
>don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
>people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
>caused them to feel that way.
An absolute "do not read" order is a hard thing to get out of me.
Allen Steele got on my "never again" list due to inappropriate
political commentary*. Tom Clancy worked his way onto that list
over the course of a few books due to bad writing. I decided
that _Mostly Harmless_ was the last Douglas Adams novel I would
read.
There are many authors whom I neither boycott nor plan to read.
These are a few that come to mind, either immediately or after
briefly scanning my bookshelf.
I got tired of David Eddings. If he writes something different I
might check it out.
I probably won't finish the recent Clive Cussler novel I got as a
gift, but a good review could persuade me to give him another chance.
About ten years ago I decided "no more Paula Downing" after giving up
halfway through _Flare Star_ because of the bad science (at a time when
I finished over 95% of the books I started). This year I decided to
give her a second chance. I got around 50 pages into _Fallway_ and put
it aside to finish at an unspecified future date; I suppose that is
like a commutation from death to probation.
When the ruler of the galaxy in a Sherri Tepper novel decreed that
henceforth everybody would be politically correct, I had to stop
reading. Again, I might give her a second chance because the rest
of the novel was promising, but I want to be persuaded that the
experience will be better next time.
I liked Melissa Scott up through _Dreamships_ but have since lost
interest.
* Steele took a gratuitous shot at Dan Quayle which set off the
mental equivalent of an allergic reaction. Contrast John
Cramer's _Einstein's Bridge_ which made a similar opinion an
important part of the plot. (If I had different political
opinions, some of Niven's recent work might have triggered
the same reflex.)
--
John Carr (j...@mit.edu)
comstar
yabonn wrote:
> "Allan Griffith" <agri...@bigpond.net.au> a écrit dans le message de news:
> 9Puu9.2411$jE1....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> > David Ball wrote:
> >
> snip
> >
> > Dan Simmons, based on HYPERION (pointless and dreary) and CARRION
> > COMFORT (possibly the most bloated novel of all time). An object
> > lesson in how to take a reasonably good 40-page short story, and
> > expand it into a 956-page bloated mess of a novel.
> >
>
> Hyperion? Not to read again list? How come?
>
> I think i started to read scifi again because of that book
For me it would be the sequals after the Fall of Hyperion. Never again.
Andrew Plotkin
years ago, in high school. It didn't impress me much. But in the past
few months I've been picking up Lovecraft collections, and they
interest me. Just bought another one.
It's not, actually, that I find them great stories. I feel like they
could have been done *better*, and *that's* what's compelling. There
are these visions floating around in Lovecraft's head, and he tried to
bang them into words. I can understand why there are so many HPL
pastiches out there!
(I'm looking at those, too -- just finished a collection of Lin Carter
stories in the mythos, and I'm looking for Derleth. Again, it's a...
craftsmanly interest, not an expectation of great work.)
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
* Make your vote count. Get your vote counted.
Allan Griffith
>Hyperion? Not to read again list? How come?
>
>I think i started to read scifi again because of that book
I thought it was horribly bloated, meandering, pretentious and dreary.
He has a prose style that makes my skin crawl. I've read interviews
with Simmons, and I can admire his ambition to break down the barriers
between genre fiction and mainstream fiction, but he doesn't have the
talent to pull it off. His characters are annoying and detestable.
The structure of the book is clunky and amateurish. But it isn't the
worst book I've ever read. His CARRION COMFORT is much, much worse.
Al
Johnny1A
> David Ball wrote:
>
> Stephen King. Read two pages of DOLORES CLAIBORNE and realized
> finishing the volume would merely cause depression and angst.
>
> Brenda
DOLORES CLAIBORNE is rather unlike much of King's other work,
especially his more traditial horror stories. Mind you, I don't know
if you'd like his other stories any better or not, but DC is not a
typical example of King (or at least the earlier King).
Shermanlee
Allan Griffith
>I can't think of any others I've sworn off after only one story.
I've only read one Lois McMaster Bujold novel, MEMORY, and I've never
had the slightest desire to read another. It wasn't awful, but it
just didn't grab me at all.
I've only read one David Eddings novel, which was definitely one too
many.
Al
Allan Griffith
>Tad Williams: Memory, Sorrow, Thorn
>Guy Kay: _Tigana_
>
>For both, I didn't respect the characters, I didn't believe the
>worldbuilding, and I really HATED the plot resolutions.
Kay has improved enormously since _Tigana_. I disliked that one as
well, but loved _The Sarantine Mosaic_.
Al
Michael Lo
> don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
> people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
> caused them to feel that way.
>
I realize some of the following writers have been covered
before, so please bear with it.
David Weber and John Ringo-their stories aren't my cup of tea, just
not where my interest lies. I'll leave it to others to decide
Piers Anthony-does he need retirement money that badly? The man
just keeps flogging a dead horse and whatever interesting ideas
he came up with dried away in the eighties. He also writes as
if his audience were people in kindegarten who sat in the corner
wearing dunce caps.
David Gemell-probably unfair of me since I've only read a few of
his books but I find his stories tedious and the jumps between
genres seemed tacked on and could use some more better setting up.
Susan Cooper (?)-the Australian woman who made the Axis trilogy.
The writing is clumsy and very heavy-handed. Too much use of
deus ex machina as well.
Robert Jordan-epitomizes bloat. I can't see his series ending
well as he's put himself in a bind. On one hand, Wheel of Time
was mired and spinning its wheel so he's been forced to trim
on his latest novel. On the other he's been forced to condense
things so much in the most recent novel (I read excerpts in the
library) that it just seem anti-climatic. And I'm not going to
get into his characterisations and glossary. He's well on his
way to being like Piers Anthony if he isn't already there.
Terry Goodkind-I guess he took the criticisms of cloning Sword
of Shannara and Wheel of Time to heart. That said his story
seems all over the place with so little cohesion that it almost
seems episodic to me. Then there's the constant misty-eyed
reiteration of our heroes professing their love for each other.
The characters feel wooden and contrived, I'm not fond of the
protagonists and both big villains fail to make any impression
other than psychosexual sadistic lout. Nothing but a bunch of
ciphers.
Tanith Lee-I love her early writing but lately very little of
what she writes has that old spark. I can see glimmers of it
and I suspect that's a conscious move away from her early style
and story elements but it's a been a long disappointment.
Michael Moorcock-another Elric novel? The albino prince should
have stayed soul sucked. The Elric books worked best as episodic
short stories and the Stormbringer novel. The books after
Stormbringer have been pretty awful. I also haven't seen a lot
of the wit he displayed with Dancers at the End of Time and the
Jerry O'Connell (?) stories.
Anne Mcaffrey-the only Pern novel I like was Dragonriders of Pern
after that the series went downhill. To top it off personally,
I find the best characters to be the ones in Dragonriders but too
much of the series focuses on that gimp with the white dragon.
David Dyer-Bennet
> Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that you just
> don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
> people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
> caused them to feel that way.
Dan Simmons, _Phases of Gravity_
--
David Dyer-Bennet, dd...@dd-b.net / http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net
Dragaera mailing lists, see http://dragaera.info
David Dyer-Bennet
> Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that you just
> don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
> people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
> caused them to feel that way.
And a couple of more pop into my head --
C.J. Cherryh, _Downbelow Station_. Completely boring, characters
uninteresting, nothing whatsoever to recommend it.
Tim Powers. I read part of one book once.
Guy Kay, unfortunately. Bounced hard off Tigana.
Stephen Donaldson. Finished the first book only because it was the
first free promotional book I'd ever received. Ick.
David Eddings. Bounced hard off his first few pages.
David Dyer-Bennet
> Kim Stanley Robinson - Hated Red Mars, but I should try others
I hated the story Green Mars, myself, so I never got to the bigger
ones.
Mark Reichert
> David Eddings - Read the "Belgariad". Read it again except this time it
> was called the "Malloreon". No more please.
Took the words right out of my mouth..or should that be out of my fingers?<g>
kesi...@math.ttu.edu
: Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that you just
: don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
: people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
: caused them to feel that way.
I've got the usual suspects, like Anthony and Chalker that I Will Never
Read Again, and ones like Norman and Lackey for whom Once Was Enough,
but I recently decided to swear off David Weber, after his most
recent HH book. As for themes, I've developed a severe allergy to King
Arthur stories and retellings due to an overdose thereof a while back.
Oh, and vampires. Especially books about vampires in Camelot.
==Jake
John S. Novak, III
>> Piers Anthony.
>> Because he can't write.
>
> I'll echo Piers Anthony (gee, I'm sure he'll crop up a few hundred
> more times).
I'll echo him too, but not because he can't write. In fact, I'll
never read anything more by him because he *can* write, but seemingly
refuses to.
That, and I'm about 17 years past the age when it is seemly to give a
damn about the color of a thirteen year old girl's panties.
--
John S. Novak, III j...@cegt201.bradley.edu
The Humblest Man on the Net
John S. Novak, III
Tina Hall wrote:
>> Goodkind: Numerous offenses, but the most egregious among
>> them being the time early in the frist book of his series
>> where the leader of some quasi-medievaloid village (and
>> obviously and transparently in league with the Big Bad from
>> his very introduction) convinces his fellow villagers that
>> fire is *dangerous* and that they need to form a committee to
>> *study* the problem and come to some sort of regulatory
>> conclusion....
> Did you consider that the people might have been spelled? I found
> that quite obvious from the context. There are worse offenses in
> the series than wizards using magic to manipulate people. <g>
If *that many* people can be charmed to believe something *that*
blatnatly stupid, then the story should have ended on page twenty with
the Big Bad's victory march.
Besides, I kept reading. I actually finished the turkey out of sheer,
bloody minded peversity and perseverence-- among other things, I
didn't want to hear criticism that I hadn't finished the book I was so
righteously trashing.
It didn't get any better.
It actually got worse. Much much worse....
And then it took a turn into Susan Matthews-in-fantasy territory for
about a quarter of the book.
<Shudder>
>> All that because for some reason which I've forgotten (and
>> wasn't very clever in the first place) the Big Bad didn't like
>> fire, either.
> He's been burned badly by wizard's fire as a kid.
Aww, how sweet.
The Big Bad now has a *hum* dimension.
And so, to remind us he's really the Big Bad, he also abuses children.
Feh.
The book is pure crap.
A.C.
> Donaldson's books are *very* difficult reading, if only because of his
habit
> of making rapists his protagonists, (or vice-versa), and forcing the
reader
> to deal with that.
>
characters
> are, to one degree or another, repugnant, weak, or sell-outs. Yet I
cannot
> help but read straight through the whole series. The final book I find
hard
> not to finish at one sitting (and bearing in mind is at last 450 ages
long,
> that's kinda hard on the bladder).
I liked the Covenant books, though I haven't reread them since teenagehood.
The one Gap book I tried I couldn't finish. I think he was trying too hard;
that essay at the end irritated me a bit, too.
--
nomadi...@hotmail.com | http://nomadic.simspace.net
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so
certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand
Russell
>
> Jon
>
>
> > > There are several authors I have never read--John Norman and
> > > Donaldson, for instance. Their books actively repelled me.
> >
> > How can they actively repel you when you haven't even read them? John
> > Norman doesn't sound like the kind of stuff I'd like to read, but
> > Donaldson's more diverse than that; Mordant's Need in particular.
Christopher Tong
thucyd...@yahoo.com says...
> I think we all dislike mostly the same guys...
<snip>
> Stephen King: All his books up until Shawshank were pretty good.
> Insomnia really really lost me and I haven't read anything by him
> since...
Shawshank? Wasn't that written in, like, the early 80s? He'd hardly
gotten into stride at that time. As for good (relatively) recent wrok
by King, I really liked _The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon_.
Chris
A.C.
news:apg0i0$16r41$1...@ID-100778.news.dfncis.de...
> In article <8cc8d21c.02102...@posting.google.com>, Genevieve
wrote:
>
> >> Piers Anthony.
> >> Because he can't write.
> >
> > I'll echo Piers Anthony (gee, I'm sure he'll crop up a few hundred
> > more times).
>
> I'll echo him too, but not because he can't write. In fact, I'll
> never read anything more by him because he *can* write, but seemingly
> refuses to.
Yep, I can understand writing pulp to gain a certain comfortable lifestyle,
but he's got to be up to the third mercedes by now, he might want to start
writing again.
--
nomadi...@hotmail.com | http://nomadic.simspace.net
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so
certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand
Russell
>
A.C.
news:apfnu...@enews4.newsguy.com...
Especially Celtic retellings, in my case.
Michael Grosberg
> > don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
> > people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
> > caused them to feel that way.
> >
>
>
> incredible...and the characters utterly uninteresting.
Gotta agree. I'll add that (judging from "vacuum diagrams") he also
lacks the descriptive ability and imagination to really pull off space
opera stories with omnipotent alien species and huge constructs. Niven
at least described the ringworld well, in breathtaking detail - the
lifeforms, the flora, planet-sized islands, floating cities. When
Baxter describes a xeelee planet in one of his stories, it's a bunch
of boxy buildings made out of ultra-thin grey metal. Like a garden
shed or something. And when one of his protagonists watches a xeelee
fleet dismantle a sun they do it by sitting in a spaceship's cockpit
and shooting out of the window with handguns (!) and then using
bucket-like ships to collect the material. Now buckets are not the
thing to take my breath away, mind you.
I was all too willing to read a book without good characterisation, if
the concepts were interesting enough, but baxter's prose and lack of
imagination just killed whatever story was there.
Allan Griffith
> It certainly convinced me that the people on the award committes for that
>year were brain dead. See, this is what comes of wanting mainstream literary
>legitimacy.
Looking back over the winners of the Hugo Award for best novel over
the last 20 years, it occurs to me that perhaps they've always been
brain dead? Apart from William Gibson, it's not a terribly inspiring
list of authors.
Al
Steve Taylor
> I've developed a severe allergy to King
> Arthur stories and retellings due to an overdose thereof a while back.
> Oh, and vampires. Especially books about vampires in Camelot.
How about libertarian space mercenary vampires in Camelot?
> ==Jake
Steve
Matt Ruff
>
> Matt Ruff wrote:
>
>>Htn963 wrote:
>>
>>> H.P. Lovecraft -- call me heretic if you wish, but I laughed the first
>>> time I read one of his stories. His style is that of a vampire host on the
>>> late night horror movie show crooning "this is gonna be real scarry,
>>> kids..."
>>
>>> Not.
>>
>>Yeah, I find Lovecraft's imitators are almost all better than he was.
>
> The only deliberate imitations I ever read are parodies. I won't even
> read serious imitations of authors I have enjoyed, no matter how good they
> (the original author and/or the imitator) are.
>
>> Have you ever read T.E.D. Klein's "Dark Gods"? Four long stories in the
>> Lovecraft mode that are actually quite good.
>
> No, but if by "Lovecraft mode" you just mean inspired by rather than a
> deliberate imitation of H.P's style and language,
Yeah, sorry, bad word choice on my part. By "imitator," I don't mean
someone trying to ape Lovecraft's style exactly, but someone writing in
the same horror mini-genre that he created: there are Dark Powers in the
world, some poor sap finds out about them, and bad stuff happens. What
makes the stories in "Dark Gods" so effectively creepy is that you never
get more than a glimpse of an actual monster -- it's all circumstantial
evidence and mounting paranoia as the Poor Sap slowly comes to the
realization that he's doomed.
> then I'll keep it mind.
Unfortunately the book has been out of print for a while, but you should
be able to snag a used copy somewhere.
-- M. Ruff
Arthur Green
wrote:
>Donaldson's books are *very* difficult reading, if only because of his habit
>of making rapists his protagonists, (or vice-versa), and forcing the reader
>to deal with that.
>
I read both Covenant trilogies as a teenager (back in the 1980s) and
thought them reasonably good. I tried to reread the first trilogy a
couple of years ago and bounced hard off it. Looking back at it,
Donaldson's work suffers from pointlessly angsty protagonists and
(above all) bad world-building, as well as a poor (IMHO) prose style.
- AG
The other day upon the stair
I saw a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I think he's from the CIA
David Cowie
>
> How about libertarian space mercenary vampires in Camelot?
>
How about lesbian libertarian space mercenary vampires in Camelot with
magic swords on a quest to save the world from evil by rescuing a magic
artefact from the Land of Evil and thereby assuming the throne which a
prophecy has revealed to be rightfully theirs even though they are of
lowly social status?
--
David Cowie david_cowie at lineone dot net
So high, so low, so many things to know.
Captain Button
Only the ones with kewl cyberware and telepathic animal companions.
--
American Express says I'm deceased. Boo! Consider yourself haunted.
Captain Button - but...@io.com
David Tate
> Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that you just
> don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
> people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
> caused them to feel that way.
Piers Anthony (yet again) -- weak plots, wooden dialogue, dumb
characters, appalling prose, obvious self-infatuation, and a complete
inability to tell the difference between a good pun and a stupid pun.
("Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln...")
Thomas Disch. There's something about the way he thinks and the way I
think that doesn't mesh. I can follow the plots, but they don't mean
anything to me. Probably my fault, but I don't have enough time to
waste on that sort of experience.
Manly Wade Wellman. Nothing to say, doesn't say it entertaingly
enough.
George Chesbro's "Mongo" books. I just can't take another novel in
which Mongo screws up, causing innocents to be tortured.
Per Wahlöö. Loved the Martin Beck mysteries, grim though they are,
but his solo SF (e.g. _Murder on the 31st Floor_) is just too
oppressive.
David Eddings. It was a stupid story the first time he told it; I
don't need to grind through it again and again.
Let me note in passing that I just read Eric Frank Russell's novel
_Sinister Barrier_, and I have to say that if that had been the first
EFR I'd ever run across, I'd have killfiled him instantly. What an
awful book. Fortunately, I read "...And Then There Were None" and
_Wasp_ before I got turned off permanently.
David Tate
Mike Schilling
"A.C." <nomadi...@removethistomailmehotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6xMu9.49634$Up6.10...@twister.nyc.rr.com...
> "John S. Novak, III" <j...@concentric.net> wrote in message
> news:apg0i0$16r41$1...@ID-100778.news.dfncis.de...
> > In article <8cc8d21c.02102...@posting.google.com>, Genevieve
> wrote:
> >
> > >> Piers Anthony.
> > >> Because he can't write.
> > >
> > > I'll echo Piers Anthony (gee, I'm sure he'll crop up a few hundred
> > > more times).
> >
> > I'll echo him too, but not because he can't write. In fact, I'll
> > never read anything more by him because he *can* write, but seemingly
> > refuses to.
>
> Yep, I can understand writing pulp to gain a certain comfortable
lifestyle,
> but he's got to be up to the third mercedes by now, he might want to start
> writing again.
That's like "Now that she's set for life, she can give up being a call girl
and go back to being a virgin."
Captain Button
"David Cowie" <david_co...@lineone.net> wrote:
>On Sun, 27 Oct 2002 11:10:56 +0000, Steve Taylor wrote:
>
>>
>> How about libertarian space mercenary vampires in Camelot?
>>
>How about lesbian libertarian space mercenary vampires in Camelot with
>magic swords on a quest to save the world from evil by rescuing a magic
>artefact from the Land of Evil and thereby assuming the throne which a
>prophecy has revealed to be rightfully theirs even though they are of
>lowly social status?
Don't forget that they have to be ethnically diverse and lead by
Belisarius.
Andrew Maizels
> Jon Boyer wrote:
>
>>Donaldson's books are *very* difficult reading, if only because of his habit
>>of making rapists his protagonists, (or vice-versa), and forcing the reader
>>to deal with that.
>
>
> specifically mentioned.
His two collections of short stories, "Daughter of Regals" and "Reave
the Just" are also worth a look.
Andrew.
--
Google fthagn! Google fthagn! Ia Google! Ia! Ia!
Andrew Maizels
> In article <MSGID_2=3A2433=2F888.111=40fidonet...@fidonet.org>,
> Tina Hall wrote:
>
>>Did you consider that the people might have been spelled? I found
>>that quite obvious from the context. There are worse offenses in
>>the series than wizards using magic to manipulate people. <g>
>
> If *that many* people can be charmed to believe something *that*
> blatnatly stupid, then the story should have ended on page twenty with
> the Big Bad's victory march.
Sounds good to me. Then I could have torn out the remaining 600 pages
and used them for notepaper. The "fire bad" bit was completely absurd.
> Besides, I kept reading. I actually finished the turkey out of sheer,
> bloody minded peversity and perseverence-- among other things, I
> didn't want to hear criticism that I hadn't finished the book I was so
> righteously trashing.
I kept reading through sheer bogglement. Surely something was going to
happen that would make this, if not worthwhile, then less than a total loss.
> It didn't get any better.
Oh no.
> It actually got worse. Much much worse....
> And then it took a turn into Susan Matthews-in-fantasy territory for
> about a quarter of the book.
Not only that, but even the heroes of the book are actively nasty
people, and could easily be the bad guys in the hands of a real writer.
Example: the hero gets his revenge on a nasty princess by kicking her in
the chin so hard that he shatters her jaw and she bites her tongue off.
And what his girlfriend does doesn't bear repeating.
> <Shudder>
Twitch.
> The book is pure crap.
It's a really good counter-example though. Want to write fantasy?
Don't do this!
The one positive thing is the first rule itself: people are stupid.
Yeah, we bought the book.
Mark Hanson
news:21hkrucvp0iu4r006...@4ax.com...
> Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that you just
> don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
> people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
> caused them to feel that way.
I've never decided to Not Read an author without first Actually Reading
him/her/it. It's just more seemly that way, I think. You know, the whole
"passing judgment" thing and all.
I too will add my own to the Usual Suspects: Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffery;
and those decisions only reached through long, painful lessons. The first 3
Pern books are pretty good, and worth reading for anybody, but she just went
to the well too often after that -- like, maybe 10 times too often after
that.
I read about 3 pages of Goodkind's first book, and offered it back to the
friend who had recommended it. It was like someone's badly-written AD&D
campaign.
Stephen Donaldson, which is kinda too bad, because he was my god in high
school when I began writing. I'll still probably read Mordant's Need again
one of these days, but all I had to do was slog through the first 2 books of
the execrable Gap Into series to cross any future scribblings off my list.
Maggie Furey -- "Aurian" was a horribly-written first book of a trilogy that
had some promise.
Umberto Eco -- oh, how long I'd wanted to read "Foucault's Pendulum"...oh,
how bad it was...
Non-Janny-Wurts Raymond Feist -- apparently she was more then just the other
name on the cover.
And then there's the "what once was good, but now is lost" crowd (which
includes Donaldson): Harry Turtledove (read my why here:
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~mdh5d/novels/turtledove.txt), Tom Clancy
(his bad stuff is so much worse than his good stuff is good). And, though
I'm loath to admit it, Sherri Tepper and Dan Simmons. For Tepper, books like
"The Gate to Women's Country" and "Grass" and "Raising the Stones" were just
*so* good; and for Simmons, reading things like "Hyperion" and "Summer of
Night" and Phases of Gravity" -- but both have written nothing since then
ever half as good, and I don't even pick up their new stuff any more. I'm
sorry.
As for themes... Well, I was never remotely interested in reading the
Dragonlance books which came out when I was in high school and already
reading fantasy. Orcs-n-elves-n-stuff just annoys the hell out of me. It's
like the author took an uncreative writing course.
I hate dystopias. Always have, always will.
King Arthur stuff. Blech.
Characters being made to forget what happened, as a plot device to keep the
"secret" from becoming known. Always a sign of a lazy and/or unimaginative
author.
Vampires, which is interesting as I'm *writing* a book about a vampire.
Maybe I hate other people's vampire stories. Or maybe it's vampire cliches I
hate, since I'm busting most of them in my own story.
Hey -- how about a list of stuff I like, and why? That wouldn't be as
depressing.
Mark
starblood
> >Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that you just
> >don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
> >people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
> >caused them to feel that way.
Poppy Z. Brite: I'm tired of reading about angsty homosexual goth boys.
Richard Laymon: The first book I read was the literary equivalent of a
b-movie, and the second was a murder mystery that made no sense whatsoever.
The third was better, but his style still irritates me no end.
Specifically, his dialogue. In BITE, one character tells two others to shut
up already with the stupid small talk and I had to laugh because someone
finally said what I had been wanting to say to them all along. It's
positively maddening.
Bentley Little: More b-movies. At best, they should be short stories if
anything at all. Sometimes I wonder if Mr. Little's literary oeuvre is
merely an ongiong attempt to get back at all the people and groups who have
annoyed him over the years. THE MAILMAN? THE STORE? What's next? THE
RESTAURANT? THE PIZZA DELIVERY GUY?
Piers Anthony: same reasons as everybody else, really. Quit the
Incarnations after the first few because I was tired of reading the same
story over and over again. And his writing style began to irk me more and
more.
Alan Dean Foster: Used to like him a lot. Read a ton of his older work.
But the last two SPELLSINGER novels were lousy and I finally began to notice
a formula in the last few independent novels I'd read as well. Maybe it was
there all along but I was enjoying myself up to a point.
Nicholas Ryan
> don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
> people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
> caused them to feel that way.
>
Robert J. Sawyer. Read his 'Far-Seer' book some years ago, regretted
it. A juvenile dinosuar fanboy wet-dream that reads like it was banged
out by some precocious 12-year old on a weekend with nothing better to
do. The fact that this guy gets the recognition that he does
absolutely mystifies me.
David Bilek
Yes, Asimov, Cherryh, Bujold, Vinge, Stephenson, Haldeman, Gaiman,
etc. You're so right. What a bunch of hacks.
-David
Brenda W. Clough
>"Brenda W. Clough" <clo...@erols.com> wrote in message news:<3DBADC4C...@erols.com>...
>
>>David Ball wrote:
>>
>>Stephen King. Read two pages of DOLORES CLAIBORNE and realized
>>finishing the volume would merely cause depression and angst.
>>
>>Brenda
>>
>
>DOLORES CLAIBORNE is rather unlike much of King's other work,
>especially his more traditial horror stories. Mind you, I don't know
>if you'd like his other stories any better or not, but DC is not a
>typical example of King (or at least the earlier King).
>
> Shermanlee
>
Also I don't like horror. And it has been many a year (since
POSSESSION) since I have admired a book that was on the best-seller list.
Brenda
--
---------
Brenda W. Clough
Read my novella "May Be Some Time"
Complete at http://www.analogsf.com/0202/maybesometime.html
My web page is at http://www.sff.net/people/Brenda/
michael mccoy
stories, very interesting.
Thomas Yan
> Konrad Gaertner wrote:
>
> >I can't think of any others I've sworn off after only one story.
>
> I've only read one Lois McMaster Bujold novel, MEMORY, and I've never
> had the slightest desire to read another. It wasn't awful, but it
> just didn't grab me at all.
Geeze, why'd you start with that book? Maybe Bujold isn't to your
taste, but at least you could have tried a book that didn't derive so
much of its emotional impact from the accumulated weight of the
previous books in the series.
-snip-
Brenda W. Clough
>On Sun, 27 Oct 2002 11:10:56 +0000, Steve Taylor wrote:
>
>>How about libertarian space mercenary vampires in Camelot?
>>
>How about lesbian libertarian space mercenary vampires in Camelot with
>magic swords on a quest to save the world from evil by rescuing a magic
>artefact from the Land of Evil and thereby assuming the throne which a
>prophecy has revealed to be rightfully theirs even though they are of
>lowly social status?
>
Only if they are overly-endowed and wear brass bikinis.
David Bilek
>Sorry....I cannot agree. I find his material, novels and short
>stories, very interesting.
?
Quoting is your friend.
-David
erilar
> How about lesbian libertarian space mercenary vampires in Camelot with
> magic swords on a quest to save the world from evil by rescuing a magic
> artefact from the Land of Evil and thereby assuming the throne which a
> prophecy has revealed to be rightfully theirs even though they are of
> lowly social status?
I do believe you've got it!
--
Mary Loomer Oliver(aka erilar)
Erilar's Cave Annex:
http://www.airstreamcomm.net/~erilarlo
Del Cotter
Captain Button <but...@io.com> said:
>"David Cowie" <david_co...@lineone.net> wrote:
>>> How about libertarian space mercenary vampires in Camelot?
>>
>>How about lesbian libertarian space mercenary vampires in Camelot with
>>magic swords on a quest to save the world from evil by rescuing a magic
>>artefact from the Land of Evil and thereby assuming the throne which a
>>prophecy has revealed to be rightfully theirs even though they are of
>>lowly social status?
>
>Don't forget that they have to be ethnically diverse and lead by
>Belisarius.
Don't forget the talking spaceship and the exploding horse.
Sorry, I meant the exploding spaceship and the... on the other hand, the
first idea is starting to grow on me.
--
. . . . Del Cotter d...@branta.demon.co.uk . . . .
JustRead:evelationSpace:GregEganQuarantine:KimStanleyRobinsonTheYearsOfR
ice&Salt:BenJeapesHisMajesty'sStarship:BrendaWCloughTheDoorsOfDeath&Life
ToRead:LoisMcMasterBujoldDiplomaticImmunity::RobertCharlesWilsonBios:Guy
erilar
keep taking over good live people that goes on and on and on and on
downhill, but I not only will not buy any more of his, I gave away the
ones I had NOT to be returned, which I don't recall having done in the
past few decades.
I started to read that free Jordan, did not find it interesting and
didn't even finish, in part because it was going to turn into a series
which I have since seen extend far beyond my direst expectation.
If Samuel Delaney wrote anything after Dahlgren, a truly incredibly
boring book I bought because I had liked his earlier ones, I would not
buy it. I crossed him off my buyable authors list with that book.
Steven King.
Anne Rice(that is the woman who writes those vampire books, isn't it?)
Stewart Robert Hinsley
<d...@branta.demon.co.uk> writes
>
>Don't forget the talking spaceship
Muddlehead?
> and the exploding horse.
>
Rod Gallowglass's robotic sidekick? (well, it seizes up, rather than
explodes)
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley
Nix
> Looking back over the winners of the Hugo Award for best novel over
> the last 20 years, it occurs to me that perhaps they've always been
> brain dead? Apart from William Gibson, it's not a terribly inspiring
> list of authors.
_A Deepness in the Sky_ *certainly* deserved its Hugo, I think.
--
`The library at my secondary school was there for punishment, I think. I
did liberate a number of books because I felt sorry for them.'
--- Marna Gilligan
Nix
> You should read The Turing Option by Harrison and Minsky. I think its the
> best of the AI themed books so far written. (but what else would you expect
> from Minsky).
Shame about the characterization, and the plotting, and the
predictability. I read it to the end because... surely... the plot can't
be *that* obvious, can it?
Alas, it was.
Nix
> Robert J. Sawyer. Read his 'Far-Seer' book some years ago, regretted
> it. A juvenile dinosuar fanboy wet-dream that reads like it was banged
> out by some precocious 12-year old on a weekend with nothing better to
> do. The fact that this guy gets the recognition that he does
> absolutely mystifies me.
It seems to mystify everyone else, as well; there's at least one other
thread going about this in this very group right now.
Ross TenEyck
>yabonn wrote:
>>Hyperion? Not to read again list? How come?
>>
>>I think i started to read scifi again because of that book
>I thought it was horribly bloated, meandering, pretentious and dreary.
>He has a prose style that makes my skin crawl. I've read interviews
>with Simmons, and I can admire his ambition to break down the barriers
>between genre fiction and mainstream fiction, but he doesn't have the
>talent to pull it off. His characters are annoying and detestable.
>The structure of the book is clunky and amateurish. But it isn't the
>worst book I've ever read. His CARRION COMFORT is much, much worse.
I thought _Hyperion_ was evocative and intriguing and several other
good things; and that _Fall of Hyperion_ was one of the biggest let-
downs I'd ever experienced. I never bothered with the next two,
since I think I have yet to hear anything good about them.
--
================== http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~teneyck ==================
Ross TenEyck Seattle, WA \ Light, kindled in the furnace of hydrogen;
ten...@alumni.caltech.edu \ like smoke, sunlight carries the hot-metal
Are wa yume? Soretomo maboroshi? \ tang of Creation's forge.
Konrad Gaertner
>
> mcco...@webtv.net (michael mccoy) wrote:
>
> >Sorry....I cannot agree. I find his material, novels and short
> >stories, very interesting.
>
> ?
Checking the message he's responding to, I assume he's talking about
Stephen Baxter or Harry Harrison (Robert Jordan doesn't write short
stories).
> Quoting is your friend.
Agreed.
--KG
David Dyer-Bennet
> Sorry....I cannot agree. I find his material, novels and short
> stories, very interesting.
I can find, through tracing references, the article you may have been
replying to -- if your newsreader put the right references in the
right place. I'm doubtful that it did, because the article I found
had one paragraph each on three different authors. *This* is why
quoting (and bottom-posting) are the normal practice on Usenet; so
that people have some slight hope of figuring out what you're talking
about.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, dd...@dd-b.net / http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net
Dragaera mailing lists, see http://dragaera.info
Orac
"Rick" <sf.w...@verizon.net> wrote:
> "David Ball" <db...@booksnbytes.com> wrote in message
> news:21hkrucvp0iu4r006...@4ax.com...
> > Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that you just
> > don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
> > people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
> > caused them to feel that way.
> >
>
>
> Stephen Baxter. The stage for his stories is immense, the timespans
> incredible...and the characters utterly uninteresting.
Not familiar with his stuff.
> Harry Harrison. I made the mistake of reading his book Star Smashers of the
> Galaxy Rangers first...and then some alien invasion novel with a forgettable
> title and an even more forgettable plot. I sort of kind of like the
> Deathworld trilogy but not enough to make up for the first two.
I kind of like Harry Harrison, especially his Stainless Steel Rat books.
Silly, yes, but most are quite entertaining.
> Robert Jordan. The man loves to read his own words, apparently...he writes
> so many of them
Alas, it took me reading through eight books of the Wheel of Time series
before I finally gave up and admitted that the plot was going nowhere.
Unfortunately, he sucked me in with the first three books or so
(especially the first one), which were all quite good.
--
Orac |"A statement of fact cannot be insolent."
|
|"If you cannot listen to the answers, why do you
| inconvenience me with questions?"
Orac
"Jon Boyer" <Jon....@virgin.net> wrote:
> Donaldson's books are *very* difficult reading, if only because of his habit
> of making rapists his protagonists, (or vice-versa), and forcing the reader
> to deal with that.
It's not just that.
> The Gap series, in particular, I find spellbinding. Most of the characters
> are, to one degree or another, repugnant, weak, or sell-outs. Yet I cannot
> help but read straight through the whole series. The final book I find hard
> not to finish at one sitting (and bearing in mind is at last 450 ages long,
> that's kinda hard on the bladder).
I loved the Thomas Covenant series, but I absolutely loathed the Gap
series. Not most but pretty much all of the characters are repugnant,
and Donaldson seemed to wallow in their violence and depravity. I gave
up reading it after the second book. I'm amazed I made it that far.
Orac
"Jon Boyer" <Jon....@virgin.net> wrote:
> Piers Anthony.
>
> Because he can't write.
Damn, I wish I had put it that succinctly! ;-)
Keith Morrison
>>There are several authors I have never read--John Norman and
>>Donaldson, for instance. Their books actively repelled me.
>
> How can they actively repel you when you haven't even read them?
Norman books have an aura of antipathy. People of sufficient sensitivity
get nauseous merely upon approaching the "N" section of the bookshelf.
--
Keith
Orac
"Mark Hanson" <mark.h...@attbi.com> wrote:
> Vampires, which is interesting as I'm *writing* a book about a vampire.
> Maybe I hate other people's vampire stories. Or maybe it's vampire cliches I
> hate, since I'm busting most of them in my own story.
Which brings me to Ann Rice. The first three Vampire Chronicle novels
(Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned)
were ripping good reads. After that, I only managed to read two more of
her Vampire books (The Tale of the Body Thief and Memnock the Devil)
before deciding to swear her off forever, due to crappy storytelling and
writing. Since then, I see she's put out several more Vampire books. I
shudder to think how bad they've gotten now.
BTW, nearly every author who writes a vampire tale claims he's busting
the cliches in his book. ;-)
Orac
erilar <erila...@SPAMchibardun.net.invalid> wrote:
> I started to read that free Jordan, did not find it interesting and
> didn't even finish, in part because it was going to turn into a series
> which I have since seen extend far beyond my direst expectation.
Indeed. I seem to recall seeing interviews with Jordan early on in the
series, where he thought the series might go five or six books. Number
10 is coming out soon, with no sign that the story is going to be
resolved any time soon.
> If Samuel Delaney wrote anything after Dahlgren, a truly incredibly
> boring book I bought because I had liked his earlier ones, I would not
> buy it. I crossed him off my buyable authors list with that book.
This reminds me. I haven't seen a thread here for the most overrated
books in a while. Years ago, when I was in college, I read Dhalgren
because of all the acclaim and people telling me what a masterpiece it
was. "Masturbatory piece" would have been a better description of this
novel. Long, meandering, and pointless, it managed to make even the sex
scenes dull.
A.C.
news:Orac-C124E1.1...@rcache2.srv.hcvlny.cv.net...
> In article <w5xu9.3898$IU6...@nwrddc03.gnilink.net>,
> "Rick" <sf.w...@verizon.net> wrote:
>
> > "David Ball" <db...@booksnbytes.com> wrote in message
> > news:21hkrucvp0iu4r006...@4ax.com...
> > > Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that you just
> > > don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
> > > people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
> > > caused them to feel that way.
> > >
> >
> >
> > Stephen Baxter. The stage for his stories is immense, the timespans
> > incredible...and the characters utterly uninteresting.
>
> Not familiar with his stuff.
>
>
> > Harry Harrison. I made the mistake of reading his book Star Smashers of
the
> > Galaxy Rangers first...and then some alien invasion novel with a
forgettable
> > title and an even more forgettable plot. I sort of kind of like the
> > Deathworld trilogy but not enough to make up for the first two.
>
> I kind of like Harry Harrison, especially his Stainless Steel Rat books.
> Silly, yes, but most are quite entertaining.
His early Rat books were fun, but the later ones got a little dull. Too
many high-tech devices, not enough wit.
--
nomadi...@hotmail.com | http://nomadic.simspace.net
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so
certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand
Russell
Orac
Allan Griffith <agri...@bigpond.net.au> wrote:
> Looking back over the winners of the Hugo Award for best novel over
> the last 20 years, it occurs to me that perhaps they've always been
> brain dead? Apart from William Gibson, it's not a terribly inspiring
> list of authors.
You find William Gibson inspiring? I find him overrated for the most
part.
John F. Carr
Michael Lo <Iwillnev...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Piers Anthony-does he need retirement money that badly?
I think he likes getting fan mail.
--
John Carr (j...@mit.edu)
Mark Hanson
> > Vampires, which is interesting as I'm *writing* a book about a vampire.
> > Maybe I hate other people's vampire stories. Or maybe it's vampire
cliches I
> > hate, since I'm busting most of them in my own story.
>
> Which brings me to Ann Rice. The first three Vampire Chronicle novels
> (Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned)
> were ripping good reads.
I struggled through "Interview With the Vampire" and vowed it would be my
last. It was years ago, so I can't even recount a good reason why I didn't
like it, other than maybe Louis is the single most irritating character I've
encountered in a novel since Arthur Dent.
> BTW, nearly every author who writes a vampire tale claims he's busting
> the cliches in his book. ;-)
Yeah, well I'm *really* doing it! :-)
Mark
Paul
<agri...@bigpond.net.au> wrote:
>Konrad Gaertner wrote:
>
>>Tad Williams: Memory, Sorrow, Thorn
>>Guy Kay: _Tigana_
>>
>>For both, I didn't respect the characters, I didn't believe the
>>worldbuilding, and I really HATED the plot resolutions.
>
>Kay has improved enormously since _Tigana_. I disliked that one as
>well, but loved _The Sarantine Mosaic_.
>
>Al
Personally I felt that the Sarantine Mosaic was the worst of his
works. To each his own I guess.
Paul
Paul F. Dietz
> Occasionally you encounter an author ( or book theme ) that you just
> don't want to read anything else by. I was wondering what authors
> people have had that experience with and what was in the books that
> caused them to feel that way.
Mary Gentle. 'Ancient Light'
This sequel to 'Golden Witchbreed' took the previous book (which
I liked) and completely fucked it. To hell with you, Ms. Gentle.
Paul