2) The Stand.
The first half of the Stand is absolutely stellar.
The calamity, the recovering from it, the survival. people finding each other, and all that jazz is just awesome reading. There are alot of characters and so its sorta slow going trying to get to know them all but its well worth it because of all the sheer surviving thats getting done and all the various ways folks do things. You see good, you see bad, you see morality done away with just to survive. Its awesome.
** spoiler omitted **-S
Just the opposite here.
I liked the apocalypse and such, but then it moved into a mythical Good vs Evil story and the importance of following faith in a post rational world. I loved every bit of it.
The books from him I just couldn't stand - Tommyknockers, Dreamcatcher, Cujo. There were more but those three I couldn't finish.
I've never been able to finish a King novel. The man has great ideas - as is evident by the movie adaptions. He's just not a good writer.
2) The Stand.
The first half of the Stand is absolutely stellar.
The calamity, the recovering from it, the survival. people finding each other, and all that jazz is just awesome reading. There are alot of characters and so its sorta slow going trying to get to know them all but its well worth it because of all the sheer surviving thats getting done and all the various ways folks do things. You see good, you see bad, you see morality done away with just to survive. Its awesome.
** spoiler omitted **-S
Just the opposite here.
** spoiler omitted **The books from him I just couldn't stand - Tommyknockers, Dreamcatcher, Cujo. There were more but those three I couldn't finish.
I loved The Stand. And the 2nd half is not a total departure from the 1st. Randall Flagg appears before the superflu. I also liked the other 3 books that you listed, though.
I do think that Cell sucked, though. And I found the last Dark Tower book a great disappointment.
Michael Moorcock's Elric (I have an omnibus with about 6 stories including Strombringer) and the dreadful Skreyling Tree (the only book which I started and haven't red). I find Elric fatalism boring, his actions are predestined, and his doom is lame. Also doom-plots are advertised throughout the books. Skrayling Tree is confusing, so-called-philosophy about "Chaos" is unbelievably unbelievable, and million incarnations of Eternal Champions are simply confusing.
Also, Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time (I red first three). While the story IS compelling and the writing is really good, the characters are IDIOTS. Especially women, who are as a bonus irritating beyond belief.
Patrick Rotfuss Name Of The wind, and Wise Man's Fear are also example of pretty good storytelling, but lame/idiotic character.
so Jordan, Eddings, Brooks(early stuff not so bad) and Goodkind are ones to avoid. This certainly jibes with my experience. My list of favorites generally avoids mention barring Tolkien and Erikson ( the latter's books really need to be read in a rush to keep track of details)
Who is going to compile the meta-list from all this data??
Then there is Michael Crichton - his books have great ideas, and a good plot... but he can't end his novels at all.
Sara Douglass's stuff. Started with the much-hyped Wayfarer Redemption and went on and on and on.... I couldn't even make it through the first book in the series. I did try to read some of her later books, just to see if it was a fluke, but no joy.
Sara Douglass's stuff. Started with the much-hyped Wayfarer Redemption and went on and on and on.... I couldn't even make it through the first book in the series. I did try to read some of her later books, just to see if it was a fluke, but no joy.
I much preferred the Axis trilogy, which was the one that led to the setup of The Wayfarer Redemption. I certainly found The Wayfarer Redemption much harder going, though that's not to say that I didn't enjoy it. I just found it to be far more heavy handed when it came to the religious symbolism.
Haven't read The Troy Game quartet, haven't read all of the Darkglass Mountain trilogy or the individual novels yet (apparently a few of those tie into the setting for Axis, Wayfarer Redemption and Darkglass Mountain), but I did quite enjoy The Crucible trilogy.
What have I actually found disappointing though... hmmm...
Honestly, my tastes are fairly forgiving when it comes to story telling. I tend to be fairly generous when it comes to movies, television shows and novels, and will often enjoy them a lot more than my friends because I'm willing to just go with it. That said, I can think of a few:
- Everything by David Eddings that I've read except for The Belgariad and The Redemption of Althalus. I loved the Belgariad, moved onto the Mallorean, and suddenly felt like I was reading almost exactly the same story again.
- Pandaemonium by Christopher Brookmyre. I love Brookmyre's work, I like the black humour and the characterisations. Pandaemonium, while an enjoyable read, was a disappointment to me as the mixing of sci-fi with his usual "tartan noir" crime-comedy writing felt kind of off (YMMV of course). I haven't read any of the stuff he's released since then, though I keep meaning to.
- Twilight. The weird thing here is that when I initially read it, I loved it. My ex gave me the whole series to read while I was stuck at home ill for a week, and I ripped through them... tried to re-read them a couple of months later and couldn't figure out why I had liked them so much. Putting it down to fever.
- Most of R.A. Salvatore's stuff. I find his writing style off-putting for some reason, I cannot stand Drizzt Do'urden (mostly due to a saturation of players wanting to play him in my early groups).
- I feel weird admitting this one... but the original Dragonlance Chronicles novels. I loved them when I was in high school, but when I went back to them recently I found them quite difficult to get into. It's not that I don't like the setting anymore, because I really enjoyed The War of Souls trilogy. Not sure what it is
John Dies @ the End by David Wong.
Dragonlance Chronicles were written by pretty inexperienced authors. War of Souls had far more experienced writers.
King...his stories are becoming boring now (I used to love his work, IT and the Stand are 2 of my favorite books)...I swear this guy will still be dishing books out of his coffin in a thousand years time. So much for retiremnet and I can't write as fast as I used too...since when? Lead up to xmas very year, oh look another King book pops up. Groan
Shadow Moon was painful. Still, I would say the true mistake was making it a sequel to Willow. Even if the bookization of Willow was vomitous, the movie was good.
Regarding Death Gate, I rather liked it, though the ending was a bit lackluster, I'll admit.
Of the death gate cycle, first four were much better than later three, IMO. On my "to read again" list.
"Fire", sequel to "Eight" by Catherine Neville. Eight was a "Da Vinci Code" like mystery, in form of secret hidden in Charlemagne's chessboard. Fire is a pale copy with lame characters and lame message.
Indeed. The DaVinci Code set a standard for mysteries that has seldom been met.
Exceeded, yes... but seldom met.
True. Essentially, every piece of that kind of mystery writing was completely deconstructed by Umberto Eco in "Foucault's Pendulum".
I really don't know why the Da Vinci Code was so successful. It was an okay read. Far fetched in a sort of fun way but the "twist" wasn't all that twisty and only controversial if you're religious in a Christian sort of way. It wasn't exactly the first time I read or heard the theory central to the mystery.
The Ghost King by R.A. Salvatore. Worst book i ever read, got it hardcover the day it came out because i loved The Pirate King so much (and the orc king was pretty good too) after i was done reading i immediatley put it where it belonged, the trash can. I will never read another new Salvatore book again!
The Ghost King by R.A. Salvatore. Worst book i ever read, got it hardcover the day it came out because i loved The Pirate King so much (and the orc king was pretty good too) after i was done reading i immediatley put it where it belonged, the trash can. I will never read another new Salvatore book again!
To be fair, I heard he forced by his publishers to write the book. Something to promote 4th ed realms if I recall.
Never read it..read the synopsys on wiki and said, ugh, no..
That's pretty much been Salvatore period for years, at least with the Drizzt books. Too popular to allow him to stop writing them, and Salvatore himself not willing to let WOTC hand the character over to someone else if he doesn't.
The Ghost King by R.A. Salvatore. Worst book i ever read, got it hardcover the day it came out because i loved The Pirate King so much (and the orc king was pretty good too) after i was done reading i immediatley put it where it belonged, the trash can. I will never read another new Salvatore book again!To be fair, I heard he forced by his publishers to write the book. Something to promote 4th ed realms if I recall.
Never read it..read the synopsys on wiki and said, ugh, no..
also Cadderly dies at the end and becomes........wait for it......... Davey Jones?, ushering the dead souls into the afterlife.
yeah, not a good book, i won't even read the synopsis of any after that, terrible stuff!
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I can't think of any disappointing books I've read since last time I checked in, thank god.
Oh, that reminds me, actually. The Book of Kings. All Solomon does is threaten to chop a child in half and build shiznit. Bohring.
As mentioned in another thread: "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy". I tried twice to make it through. The first time, in my teens, I got to "42". The second time, a few years ago, I gave up after about 20 pages.
The books is a disjointed mess that repeats variations of the same joke about the civil service over and over again. It may be kind of funny the first time, but after the third, it just gets boring. Adams seemed to have had exactly one idea and ran with it.
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As mentioned in another thread: "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy". I tried twice to make it through. The first time, in my teens, I got to "42". The second time, a few years ago, I gave up after about 20 pages.
The books is a disjointed mess that repeats variations of the same joke about the civil service over and over again. It may be kind of funny the first time, but after the third, it just gets boring. Adams seemed to have had exactly one idea and ran with it.
I actually really liked The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and still re-read it on a regular basis. The first four books are some of my favourite reads when I need a laugh, along with Terry Pratchett.
The fifth book on the other hand... Mostly Harmless nearly killed that whole series for me. It started off quite funny, then just became depressing. I haven't even bothered with the sixth book that Eoin Colfer wrote for the series.
I really don't know why the Da Vinci Code was so successful. It was an okay read. Far fetched in a sort of fun way but the "twist" wasn't all that twisty and only controversial if you're religious in a Christian sort of way. It wasn't exactly the first time I read or heard the theory central to the mystery.
One of my biggest problems with the Da Vinci Code was that the beginning of the book sets up the main character as very tired after a long day of lecturing, or whatnot. Then, the action kicks in and never stops the whole book. Shouldn't fatigue have set in about halfway through the narrative? Never mind all the conspiracies-within-conspiracies and coincidences throughout...
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It actually makes me nostalgic for the days when an author had the right to kill off his character when he wanted to.
Hardly new. Ian Fleming killed off James Bond in From Russia With Love, before being badgered into writing nine more Bond novels.
Ditto, Sherlock Holmes, killed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who resisted public pressure to write more Holmes stories for eight years, before relenting.
Yeah, even Adams felt bad about Mostly Harmless. He planned to fix things (somehow), but - well, you know the rest.
I disagree with Fabius' judgement of the first book, but I must admit that Adams' frustration with bureaucracy was a running theme. Still, anybody who quits early on will miss out on the Circling Poets of Arium, the tax benefits of being dead, the other reason* that 'cricket' is a sport found on no other planet, an important lesson in galactic economics, the secret of independent flight, the secret origin of the Earth, the even more secret origin of the human race, the stupendously secret identity of the man who rules the Universe, and the not-merely-secret-but-totally-obscure fate of the joint galactic assault force of the Vl'hurg/G'Guggvunt Alliance.
* The first reason is that it's dull.
If I have to fight the text to get to those points, then it's not worth knowing about them.
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If I have to fight the text to get to those points, then it's not worth knowing about them.
Eh, just goes to show how different tastes can be. I didn't even consider the early parts to be a struggle. I like the recurring gags and the bureaucracy jokes, I liked them even when I was a student, and I enjoy them even more now that I work in a bureaucracy.
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The Bible.
The Bible.
I agree. I know you're not supposed to read it for its story-telling and narrative and characterization, but I often sigh to myself and wonder how, say, Homer would've handled the material.
Although, to be fair, I'm only up to Chronicles.
Mira Grant's zombie stuff. 'Feed' was a massive letdown. I get the idea that bloggers have inherited the world, but as a Zombie apocalypse book... meh.. not enough zombie apocalypse for my tastes.
I really don't know why the Da Vinci Code was so successful. It was an okay read. Far fetched in a sort of fun way but the "twist" wasn't all that twisty and only controversial if you're religious in a Christian sort of way. It wasn't exactly the first time I read or heard the theory central to the mystery.One of my biggest problems with the Da Vinci Code was that the beginning of the book sets up the main character as very tired after a long day of lecturing, or whatnot. Then, the action kicks in and never stops the whole book. Shouldn't fatigue have set in about halfway through the narrative? Never mind all the conspiracies-within-conspiracies and coincidences throughout...
I actually threw my copy of Da Vinci Code across the room when the main character, who was supposed to be an expert in early Christian writings and so on, was confronted with English written backwards and was like, "Oh, this is clearly Semitic..."
Um, dude, it looks nothing like any existing Semitic script. Which a guy who TEACHES ABOUT TEXTS IN HEBREW AND ARAMAIC WOULD KNOW.
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The Swiss Family Robinson. I spent that whole book just waiting for the pirates to show up; as it turns out, that was an invention of the movie.
Black Company Southlands. I read the first Black Co. series and loved it even if I was depressed the entire time. It was so different from the usual high fantasy stuff I read. Then I tried to read Southlands and just gave up part way through. Too much angst and failure.
Oh! Speaking of killing off characters, has anybody mentioned A Game of Thrones yet? Individually the books are pretty good, but the progress of the series was... sub-glacial. George R. R. Martin has a long-standing habit of creating dozens of characters, ranging from bad people to absolute monsters, and then shoving randomly selected ones into a mincing machine.
Yes, I would add to this all of the what I call "modern fantasy Robert Jordan clones." These being authors that take a cool idea then stretch it beyond all recognition with dozens of main characters, separate plot threads and 5 + books which don't manage to advance to plot even a little. In this group I put Jordan, Martin and Goodkind. I don't mind if you write lots of books about the same characters ala Feist or Eddings but your books must advance a main plot not simply follow 30 different plots for 1 chapter each.
The Swiss Family Robinson. I spent that whole book just waiting for the pirates to show up; as it turns out, that was an invention of the movie.
That'll teach you to see the movie before reading the book! It is easier to read the book then be disappointed with the movie.
Monster Planet by David Wellington. Third book in a zombie apocalypse trilogy. I really liked Monster Island, Monster Nation wad also good though starting to get a bit weirder with the idea that if you could keep oxygen supplied to your brain when you areanimated you'd be done some kind of supezombie...the third book had some cool stuff in it, and the story wasn't bad, but it became kind of a freakshow with all the different liches (super zombies) and their weird supernatural powers (a soldier who became one can suddenly throw energy blasts, another one controls fungus and mould and so on). Just didn't appeal to me as much.
His vampire trilogy I've really enjoyed so far, though I've yet to see if the third book will disappoint again. 13 Bullets and 99 Coffins were excellent. Vampire Zero is next on my list of stuff to pick up after the latest Pratchett book. EDIT: Turns out there are 5 vampire novels now, Vampire Zero is followed by 23 Hours, then 32 Fangs. Looks like he wrapped up that series at 5 and moved onto werewolves, with two novels so far, Frostbite and Overwinter
On the topic of Pratchett... Unseen Academicals. Probably the most disappointing Discworld novel for me. It felt disjointed in terms of how it told the story somehow. It's not that I'm not familiar with the concepts the book was based around, I'm a big follower of footall (real football I mean - go St Mirrens!) and know all about the hooliganism associated with it... It just didn't click the way the others have. Initially I thought it was due to his early onset Alzheimer's, but Snuff was released afterwards and is one of my favourites in the series. Still, Pratchett's worst novel is still an excellent read, so I'll probably give it another chance sometime soon.
The Swiss Family Robinson. I spent that whole book just waiting for the pirates to show up; as it turns out, that was an invention of the movie.That'll teach you to see the movie before reading the book! It is easier to read the book then be disappointed with the movie.
Oh, I never would have watched the movie if I had read the book first. It was like a boring version of Robinson Crusoe, with some icky marriages tacked on the end. Seriously, one of the sons married his cousin, while the other married a missionary's widow they met who was something like twice his age.
The Swiss Family Robinson. I spent that whole book just waiting for the pirates to show up; as it turns out, that was an invention of the movie.
I didn't even get that far. Page after page of them finding stuff to eat...bohr-ing! I didn't even get to treehouse. Assuming there even was a treehouse in the book...
On the topic of Pratchett... Unseen Academicals. Probably the most disappointing Discworld novel for me. It felt disjointed in terms of how it told the story somehow. It's not that I'm not familiar with the concepts the book was based around, I'm a big follower of footall (real football I mean - go St Mirrens!) and know all about the hooliganism associated with it... It just didn't click the way the others have. Initially I thought it was due to his early onset Alzheimer's, but Snuff was released afterwards and is one of my favourites in the series. Still, Pratchett's worst novel is still an excellent read, so I'll probably give it another chance sometime soon.
Firstly, I agree with your last sentence.
I didn't have problems with Unseen Academicals, but Raising Steam probably is Pratchett's worst novel since The Colour of Magic. The pacing is off, the dialogue's in the first half are sub-standard and I didn't care for the characters. He gets back to his usual form in the second half, though. The inside cover lists his wife as co-author, but I don't know how much work she actually did.
On the topic of Pratchett... Unseen Academicals. Probably the most disappointing Discworld novel for me. It felt disjointed in terms of how it told the story somehow. It's not that I'm not familiar with the concepts the book was based around, I'm a big follower of footall (real football I mean - go St Mirrens!) and know all about the hooliganism associated with it... It just didn't click the way the others have. Initially I thought it was due to his early onset Alzheimer's, but Snuff was released afterwards and is one of my favourites in the series. Still, Pratchett's worst novel is still an excellent read, so I'll probably give it another chance sometime soon.Firstly, I agree with your last sentence.
I didn't have problems with Unseen Academicals, but Raising Steam probably is Pratchett's worst novel since The Colour of Magic. The pacing is off, the dialogue's in the first half are sub-standard and I didn't care for the characters. He gets back to his usual form in the second half, though. The inside cover lists his wife as co-author, but I don't know how much work she actually did.
I haven't read Raising Steam yet. I was happy to hear it had Moist von Lipwig in it, less happy about the fact that it wasn't a pure Moist adventure in civic engineering. Loved Going Postal and Making Money, was really hoping for the hinted at book about tax reform to finish the set off. Ah well, can't have everything we want.
EDIT: I didn't realise he was writing with his wife helping out. If anything I thought it'd be his daughter, Rhianna. Based on her work on the Overlord games, she seems to share his sense of humour. She's also working on adapting Good Omens and The Wee Free Men as scripts (Wee Free Men is apparently a feature film, not sure if Good Omens will be a film or mini-series), and The Watch, a fantasy police procedural following cases that the Ankh-Morpork City Watch deal with.
In regards to his earlier stuff, I tend to cut some slack for the first 3 books, as he was still working out the setting. So I tend to not judge The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Equal Rites the same way I do the others. Honestly, until Unseen Academicals, my least favourite of his works was probably Jingo. I dunno why, because any of the Sam Vimes and the Night Watch stories are normally automatic hits for me, but it just never caught me in the same way the others did. Again, I didn't dislike it, I just didn't rate it as highly as the rest of the series.
Hogfather, Night Watch, Soul Music, The Fifth Elephant, Carpe Jugulum, Lords and Ladies, Making Money and Going Postal are my favourites, and can't really be ranked (though if I had to name one as the top, it'd be Night Watch I think). The Last Continent is up there too since I just love the way it portrays my country. Hehe, drop bears. Can't believe we still get people to fall for that... I scared a guy from our Washington office so badly he was staring warily at trees for days before I let him in on the joke.