# when a favorite author goes astray



## trip (Dec 27, 2010)

I started Diane Mott Davidson's popular Goldie the Caterer series,and have always enjoyed the lightness of them, but, her newest one, Crunch Time, sets Goldie out on a much different story, one that I just decided to read no further. Maybe on a book on tape in the car,but I closed the book and reached for another.

Has a favorite author you enjoy, strayed from what she/he does best? At least in your mind...


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Oh yes.  And it can be really hard to skip a book and come back to them.  I loved the early Evanovich books, but they got sillier and sillier.  I sometimes wish she had stopped about book 8.  The newer ones are fine, but not something I can't wait to read.

Sometimes it's just a one-off and the books return to the good stuff.  I think it's hard for an author to keep writing the same character over and over.  Marcia Mullner is another author I used to LOVE...but stopped reading quite some time ago.  Maybe I outgrew the storyline.  Or maybe she did!


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## Plotspider (Mar 15, 2011)

trip said:


> I started Diane Mott Davidson's popular Goldie the Caterer series,and have always enjoyed the lightness of them, but, her newest one, Crunch Time, sets Goldie out on a much different story, one that I just decided to read no further. Maybe on a book on tape in the car,but I closed the book and reached for anioher.
> 
> Has a favorite author you enjoy strayed from what she3 does best? At least in your mind...


While I really enjoy Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller chronicles, in the second book, it does seem to get a little lost on occasion. The book goes for months at a time in weird directions. Not only this, but he seems to occasionally throw in conflicts to the extent where they get tedious (the reader goes: oh, here we go again). Otherwise, they're alright.


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## karenk105 (Jul 7, 2011)

I used to love the Regency romances by an author named Barbara Metzger. They were very light-hearted and witty. (Snowdrops and Scandalbroth comes to mind) But when she started writing commericial-length novels, and they were so serious. Her tone had completely changed.


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## ljcharles (Jul 6, 2011)

I'm with you on this.


MariaESchneider said:


> Oh yes. And it can be really hard to skip a book and come back to them. I loved the early Evanovich books, but they got sillier and sillier. I sometimes wish she had stopped about book 8. The newer ones are fine, but not something I can't wait to read.


The last really good JE was #12, in my opinion. I understand this #17 is supposed to be more like the "old" Janet, but I haven't read it yet. Too pricey for a Kindle download.

This happened to me with one other author that I loved. She wrote a fantastic mystery series, light, entertaining, very fun stories, and then put out a hard cover that was stuffy and moved very slowly. I was so disappointed that I only made it through the first page, and then chucked it into the Goodwill bag.

I hate when that happens. I'll still read her books, but I'm much more careful about checking the storyline before I buy.

L. j. Charles


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## Ursula_Bauer (Dec 12, 2010)

I just dropped Julia Spencer-Flemming. I reviewed her newest book in the bookstore and decided I couldn't follow the line any longer. The last book had set me up for that, I was pretty dissapointed in it. The main character (1) became almost a parody, and then I couldn't stand her in the next book, so I dropped the series.

I'm pretty dissapointed in another sure fire read author, but I think it's more the two characters from her ever growing universe of this small town w/big families that she decided to write about, so even though the book I just read (Marrying Daisy Bellamy by Susan Wiggs) was not up to her usual snuff, I'm going to say it was also my apathy for the characters that colored my perception. Her, I'll keep reading.

I think this happens in series a lot. it's almost like the author develops contempt for the series, the main character, sometimes I even feel it's for the audience clammoring for more, and I think it translates into the writing. And sometimes they run out of ideas and mine things that are thin, or forced, and it shows in the story. Othertimes, I think they take a creative departure for what ever reason. 

I loved Martha Grimes and Elizabeth George. For me, both took a creative departure. It worked for them, and for other readers, but I wasn't into it, so I kind of lost it w/ the series. I always get a hint, in one or two books, that the 'end is near'. Repetative theme, or outrageous plots, characters acting out of character, or sometimes, just a feeling I can't pin on any one thing, and I know: soon we'll part paths. I always give a shot at going back but so far that has not worked except on occasion w/George.


This writing duo of mother and son, who call themselves Charles Todd, was on the verge of stale/too silly sub plot, but they branched out by creating a second investigative series: same time frame, but done in first person vs. third, and a nurse instead of a DCI. That really did freshen things up, and I found myself enjoying the new series even though I normally turn my nose up at 1st person. 

Losing a series/author is vexing. I like to read an author and series I like heavily and if I dig an author, I tend to buy up what they have and then follow them for more.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Celeste Bradley's latest Regency romance broke my heart. She had the main character lock the heroine in an attic to get her to fall in love with him again. I suspend enough belief when I read these books; I don't need to completely set aside logic. I was so upset because I loved her Royal Four series. As someone who loves Regency but doesn't like romance, I have almost no books to read in that time period. Hers always have such great storylines (Royal Four was the best) and, then, the closet locking...

sigh.

I'm holding out that she'll make a new series and my faith in humanity will be restored again.


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## EliRey (Sep 8, 2010)

Sometimes I think and author just likes to try something new. Like Lori Foster in her fighter series. The were all realistic contemporary romance with her usual hard as nail alpha's. What I so love about her books. Then she goes and adds My Man Michael to the series. Personally I read it and didn't *hate* it. But I was blown away at how far she steered from her norm. She went total Sci-Fi!!You can see it in all the reviews her readers were NOT happy! Lesson learned I'm sure. The rest of the series did fantastic while that one book took and is still taking a brutal beating from the reviewers. I ain't mad at you Lori, I still love the cover.


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## Plotspider (Mar 15, 2011)

May God rest his soul, but once I was done with the first three books of the Redwall Series, I was done with Brian Jacques.  I got tired of the same story over and over again.


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## LunaraSeries (Jun 19, 2011)

I find that when writers do go astray, the readers point them back in the right direction with outcry and/or poor sales.  Writers like variety but they usually go back to what they do best in the long run.


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

This is happening for me right now with Nevada Barr. I've loved her mysteries featuring park ranger Anna Pigeon, but through the last few books it's as if she feels a need for each one to be darker and more gruesome than the last. The descriptions I read of her most recent kept me from even trying it.

I'm another one Elizabeth George lost in the last few books. I skipped the one where she went off the rails and have read everything since from the library. I'm not sure I'll even do that again.

*WARNING - I don't think the following is a spoiler, but some may.*

I read I think 3 of the Julia Spencer-Flemming books after getting one free, but the whole premise of this woman who is a minister carrying on with a married man just turned me off. I don't find it credible and it makes me dislike both characters.


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## karenk105 (Jul 7, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Celeste Bradley's latest Regency romance broke my heart. She had the main character lock the heroine in an attic to get her to fall in love with him again. I suspend enough belief when I read these books; I don't need to completely set aside logic. I was so upset because I loved her Royal Four series. As someone who loves Regency but doesn't like romance, I have almost no books to read in that time period. Hers always have such great storylines (Royal Four was the best) and, then, the closet locking...
> 
> sigh.
> 
> I'm holding out that she'll make a new series and my faith in humanity will be restored again.


Locked in the attic?! I hate that sort of plot device!!! I'll never understand why people enjoyed the book "Whitney, My Love." The hero rapes the heroine... and yet she falls in love with him? It makes my skin crawl!

Kidnapping, rape and abuse are not enjoyable in any form!


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## Casper Parks (May 1, 2011)

Not every song on a CD is going to be a hit. Keeping that in mind, some books by same author are better than others.


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## Tom_HC99 (May 6, 2011)

ellenoc said:


> This is happening for me right now with Nevada Barr. I've loved her mysteries featuring park ranger Anna Pigeon, but through the last few books it's as if she feels a need for each one to be darker and more gruesome than the last. The descriptions I read of her most recent kept me from even trying it.
> 
> I'm another one Elizabeth George lost in the last few books. I skipped the one where she went off the rails and have read everything since from the library. I'm not sure I'll even do that again.
> 
> ...


I feel the same way. I've been reading Elizabeth George for awhile and her latest ones really turned me off.


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## Todd Young (May 2, 2011)

I think Ruth Rendell is getting a little off her game. She is (has been) such an incredibly good writer, but with the past few books, I've felt she's starting to decline.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

This happened with Koontz for me about 20 years ago. Just about the time he was really becoming popular, I started to lose interest in his writing. Everything was the same ... the characters, the plots, even the wording in some instances. After staying away from him for decades, I gave him another shot last year and just wasn't impressed. Everything was just so generic.


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## Nancy Fulda (Apr 24, 2011)

I had a hard time with Lois McMaster Bujold's _Sharing Knife_ series. I adored the Vorkosigan novels and the Chalion books, but I didn't make it past the second Sharing Knife book. I think that's a case of the author's interests veering away from mine, though, and not a drop in quality, per se.


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## Joseph.Garraty (May 20, 2011)

Ty Johnston said:


> This happened with Koontz for me about 20 years ago.


I had the same experience. I really enjoyed some of his earlier books, but then it started to feel like he was phoning it in.

Brandon Sanderson started incredibly strong with Elantris, which I thought was just incredible, but every subsequent book of his has been worse. The last one I was able to read was Warbreaker, which read like a bad RPG, right down to the experience points needed to move up a level.


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

This happened to me with Jonathan Kellerman, and with Master and Commander. Maybe I'm just not cutout for series.


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## patrickt (Aug 28, 2010)

I don't know if they stray from what they do best but they start producing books I don't want to read. I read mysteries and one author I rather enjoyed introduced the niece of the protagonist. She was a lesbian FBI agent. Okay, in one book, mildly interesting. After the second book with her peculiar problems I picked up the third book, saw here there, and left the author.

Another author is one I really enjoy but one of his series began preaching about AA. I left that series.

Maybe it's in the nature of series.


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## Nancy Fulda (Apr 24, 2011)

Joseph.Garraty said:


> Brandon Sanderson started incredibly strong with Elantris, which I thought was just incredible, but every subsequent book of his has been worse. The last one I was able to read was Warbreaker, which read like a bad RPG, right down to the experience points needed to move up a level.


Really? I thought Warbreaker was pretty decent, and I loved Mistborn. The Hero of Ages faltered a bit. He spent too much time setting up Sazed's character arc, and I started getting bored.


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## The Big Glen (Jul 2, 2011)

Growing up, I loved Michael Crichton, and even though I tend to shy from such commercial blockbusters like him nowadays, I still admired a great deal of his books. It was soul-ripping hell to watch his descent into irate, right wing neoconservatism towards the end of his life with poo like 'State of Fear' and 'Next'. It was such a stain on his name, and a horrible way for him to exit the stage.


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## barbara elsborg (Oct 13, 2010)

I have a very favorite author who wrote lovely books but she combined forces with another writer and their first book was incomprehensible. Since he's a member on here, I'm not saying who. I DID read the second and it was better but not enough for me to continue to buy their joint effort. I do still buy her single author books.
I will name Patricia Cornwell - I grew tired of hers. I never really forgave her for killing a character and then bringing him back to life in the next book.


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## Nancy Fulda (Apr 24, 2011)

barbara elsborg said:


> I will name Patricia Cornwell - I grew tired of hers. I never really forgave her for killing a character and then bringing him back to life in the next book.


So... you're mad that the character got killed? Or mad that he came back?


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## barbara elsborg (Oct 13, 2010)

I was really disappointed she killed him off. But then to manufacture a reason to bring him back- that REALLY annoyed me. 
Something about killing off major characters - it's a tricky thing. I had to read the end of one of Karin Slaughter's twice to make sure I hadn't made a mistake!! I've forgiven her now!! I'm sure she's pleased.


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## Richardcrasta (Jul 29, 2010)

I think you need to give an author their autonomy, their freedom, and their humanity. 

I mean, it is not that we consciously don't, but authors have a right to disappoint us and go their own way; to choose not to repeat themselves; to have personal disasters that change their worldview, and affect their productivity.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Richardcrasta said:


> I think you need to give an author their autonomy, their freedom, and their humanity.
> 
> I mean, it is not that we consciously don't, but authors have a right to disappoint us and go their own way; to choose not to repeat themselves; to have personal disasters that change their worldview, and affect their productivity.


True.

And, as a reader, I have a right to decide to stop reading an author if he/she no longer gives me what I want. And to be disappointed about it.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

I think I have been pretty luck.  I cannot recall this happening to an author I really loved.  Then again, I seldom read books that are a series.  However, I have heard a lot of people are disappointed in the latest Robert R. McCammon book.  I haven't read it yet because of the reader reviews.


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## lib2b (Apr 6, 2010)

I used to really enjoy Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series in a fantasy escapist reading kind of way, even the ones that other fans thought were dumb, but I stopped reading them once I got to 

I just couldn't get over the main character being lifebonded (essentially in love with, but stronger than that) to his companion (essentially a spirit in a horse-like body) and the overall fact that main character just wasn't likeable or sympathetic at all.

I've read other books by her since, but no more Valdemar books, and I don't buy her books anymore until after I've read them from the library first and decide if it's worth it to have my own copy or not.


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

ljcharles said:


> I'm with you on this.
> The last really good JE was #12, in my opinion. I understand this #17 is supposed to be more like the "old" Janet, but I haven't read it yet. Too pricey for a Kindle download.
> 
> This happened to me with one other author that I loved. She wrote a fantastic mystery series, light, entertaining, very fun stories, and then put out a hard cover that was stuffy and moved very slowly. I was so disappointed that I only made it through the first page, and then chucked it into the Goodwill bag.
> ...


Have to agree, although I still liked everything up to #14 (or was it #15? I can't keep track anymore.) And I think that's the problem; once a series gets beyond a certain point, how can you keep coming up with ideas? (Kind of like TV sitcoms that run more than 3 or 4 years - they tend to get sillier and siller as the ideas run out.)


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## Joseph.Garraty (May 20, 2011)

Nancy Fulda said:


> Really? I thought Warbreaker was pretty decent, and I loved Mistborn. The Hero of Ages faltered a bit. He spent too much time setting up Sazed's character arc, and I started getting bored.


I liked Mistborn quite a bit, and I'd agree that The Hero of Ages faltered. I couldn't finish it--I also thought he'd spent too much time setting up Sazed's character arc, including whole chapters where nothing happened. I assumed some sort of Wheel of Time infection had occurred.


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## J.R.Mooneyham (Mar 14, 2011)

I agree with you, The Big Glen, about Michael Crichton. I think something similar happened to Larry Niven. I suspect that a lot of us begin losing our faculties with age, and our personality and demeanor change-- often for the worse.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

ellenoc said:


> This is happening for me right now with Nevada Barr. I've loved her mysteries featuring park ranger Anna Pigeon, but through the last few books it's as if she feels a need for each one to be darker and more gruesome than the last. The descriptions I read of her most recent kept me from even trying it.


As an ex-park ranger, I'm also a Nevada Barr fan...but I think you may be onto something. What bothers me is the author's need to attach her to a man...even get her married off (to someone she has so little in common with) and then for Anna to never actually be with him.

I'm not sure that she's gotten more gruesome, but her antagonists have gotten more 'sick' and their psychological issues more convoluted. (And so have some of the rest of the characters!)

Still love her tho...have one sitting on the bookshelf waiting (an actual paperback).


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

barbara elsborg said:


> I will name Patricia Cornwell - I grew tired of hers. I never really forgave her for killing a character and then bringing him back to life in the next book.


It's probably just me but I couldnt get thru the first and only Patricia Cornwall novel I tried...and I got about 4/5s of the way thru it.

It wasnt really her writing...it was some of the worst professional editing I'd ever seen in my life. I dont mean typos, I mean grammar and sentence structure and even storyline. It finally distracted my reading so much that I quit the book.


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## Alicia Dean (Jul 11, 2011)

I haven't really had this happen to me, but I haven't read the Evanovich series or J.D. Robb's Eve Dallas series. I've heard other people say that same thing about those two. I haven't gotten tired of Jonathan Kellerman's series yet, but I'm WAY behind, so that could be why.


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## Jeff Rivera (Jun 22, 2011)

There have been a few authors that have strayed from what they used to write, in my opinion anyway. Of course they've since come out with new additions to the series and while I may pick them up again sometime, they aren't very high on my priority list. It really is a shame because I enjoyed them once.


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## MarionSipe (May 13, 2011)

This happened to me recently.  I really love the author, so I'm going to continue reading the series, but I barely made it through the book in question.  It was so boring, which is the opposite of her usual work.  I have faith that the next book will be better, though, so I'm going to dig into it, as soon as I have time and maybe finish one of the other books I'm reading.  Hopefully, she'll set things back on track!


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

9MMare said:


> As an ex-park ranger, I'm also a Nevada Barr fan...but I think you may be onto something. What bothers me is the author's need to attach her to a man...even get her married off (to someone she has so little in common with) and then for Anna to never actually be with him.
> * * *
> Still love her tho...have one sitting on the bookshelf waiting (an actual paperback).


The marriage thing strikes me as silly too, but I didn't want to be piling on. My guess is it's something about an unmarried older woman not being sympathetic or something, but an atheist and a preacher? I'm certainly looking forward to the next one and hoping it's one I can read. She's an author I reread every few years. Firestorm is my favorite.

P.S. Then again, there's Carville and Matalin.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

ellenoc said:


> The marriage thing strikes me as silly too, but I didn't want to be piling on. My guess is it's something about an unmarried older woman not being sympathetic or something, but an atheist and a preacher? I'm certainly looking forward to the next one and hoping it's one I can read. She's an author I reread every few years. Firestorm is my favorite.
> 
> P.S. Then again, there's Carville and Matalin.


Hi Ellenoc! I just caught your name. I saw a post of yours in another thread, from months ago, and you named all sorts of authors and opinions that we have in common! I'm so glad you are still posting.

I saw that you write western historical fiction...I'm a big fan of the West, period (having been born in NJ and still aspiring to be a cowgirl...at 50). I want to check out your books.

I'll have to see if I can find the other thread but you mentioned Dick Francis as well.


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## Tara Maya (Nov 4, 2010)

One of my favorite writers has a sf series which alternates between mystery-oriented plots and more people-oriented plots. I prefer the people-oriented plots, but I stick with her during the mysteries. I would still never miss any book she wrote.

Another sf author that both my husband and I read started out as hard sf, and then started adding more romantic elements with each book until she was basically writing sci fi romance (even though it was the same series). My husband was baffled and disgusted but I have to admit, I was fine with it!


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## The Big Glen (Jul 2, 2011)

I was just looking at my post about Graham Greene on another thread, and it reminded me that, aside from Crichton's sad fall from fame, John le Carre really has been on a slow descent into disgrace. It's not that he's losing his faculties, as J.R.Mooneyham suggests (although on the whole I do agree that writers just get worse with age), it's that he's become so rabidly political, it spoils the book. I can't recall any late Twain that I've read (though I'm sure I've read something from the end of his career), but I've always heard he went out as an angry old sod. It's politics that ruin aging writers, I think.


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

There are a lot of writers who have elected to go in a different direction than my preferences, so I eventually become very careful about what I acquire or simply stop acquiring them altogether. Laurell Hamilton leaps to mind. I loved the early books in her vampire hunter series. Then she went all erotic and I dropped her completely. Victoria Holt is another--I loved some of her books--not so much others, so I went through them very carefully before I bought one. Of course the Holt ones were years ago.

I have no problem with authors going in other directions. They grow as writers and sometimes that growth takes them in a direction that doesn't appeal to you. It happens. They get new fans, and I've generally been able to find other authors that write books that appeal to me.

I'm lucky in that I never remember an author's name anyway (with a few exceptions) so it's not like I "follow" an author and automatically buy anything he or she writes. I tend to just scan for genres or subjects that interest me and I buy regardless of who the author is or isn't. I guess I'm not a very good "fan".


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## trip (Dec 27, 2010)

With one of my favorite authors, Sue Grafton, she started her alphabet series,and she knew where she had to end up...maybe Z will be, Zenough already

When an author locks into a character, her setting, her family and friends,etc,and, does not write any stand alone books inbetween, I wonder if it is just hard to come up with fresh ideas. In my comment about Diane Mott Davidson's book..It maybe really good book.I just wish she made it one with, a different set of characters. People come to know an author's style,and enjoy it, so, when they go off in, as in this case, a darker style of writing, with lighter characters we have come to know and love, its'a jolt, so that's why I just put it down

My librarian ladies,all told me Smokin Seventeen was a yawn. NO surprise, and, same old same old..I will read it for sure, but I understand what they mean..


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## Julia444 (Feb 24, 2011)

Oh, I absolutely agree with the Patricia Cornwell example.  I loved POSTMORTEM when it came out, and I loved the three that followed it.  After that I felt she lost her sense of pacing, and the books became boring to me.

I also agree that Janet Evanovich is no longer appealing; I read all the way up to book 7 and thought they were hilarious and fun.  But then all of a sudden I was bored.  It might have something to do with the stories my local bookseller told me about how rude and unpleasant she was at a signing, but I just sort of stopped liking her.

Julia


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

9MMare said:


> Hi Ellenoc! I just caught your name. I saw a post of yours in another thread, from months ago, and you named all sorts of authors and opinions that we have in common! I'm so glad you are still posting.
> 
> * * *
> 
> I'll have to see if I can find the other thread but you mentioned Dick Francis as well.


Maybe it's not surprising we agree on some things - I was born in NJ also - left for Colorado at 19, and I'm a horse person (Morgans). I never gave up on Dick Francis - stayed with him to the end. IMO he never lost it, but when his son butted in (and IMO took over), that was the end of that great run.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

karenk105 said:


> Locked in the attic?! I hate that sort of plot device!!! I'll never understand why people enjoyed the book "Whitney, My Love." The hero rapes the heroine... and yet she falls in love with him? It makes my skin crawl!
> 
> Kidnapping, rape and abuse are not enjoyable in any form!


*cough*

I was told in the Writers' Cafe that romance authors never do this but if they do it is perfectly all right. (Got yelled at a lot when I said, "No, it's not")

Mmmm... A matter of opinion, I think you'll agree

I agree that sadly Francis, Muller and Cornwall got stale. I heard (and reading her books I thought it might be true) that Cornwall decided she was much to good for an editor to touch her precious prose. She wouldn't be the first author to make that mistake.


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## Straker (Oct 1, 2010)

The Big Glen said:


> I was just looking at my post about Graham Greene on another thread, and it reminded me that, aside from Crichton's sad fall from fame, John le Carre really has been on a slow descent into disgrace. It's not that he's losing his faculties, as J.R.Mooneyham suggests (although on the whole I do agree that writers just get worse with age), it's that he's become so rabidly political, it spoils the book.


I agree completely about LeCarre, but he's benefited from the fact that leaning to the far left will garner you a lot less criticism than leaning to the far right.


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## Straker (Oct 1, 2010)

JRTomlin said:


> I heard (and reading her books I thought it might be true) that Cornwall decided she was much to good for an editor to touch her precious prose. She wouldn't be the first author to make that mistake.


Three letters:

J K R


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## Keira Lea (Apr 15, 2011)

I think it's interesting how some authors slowly change style or lose direction in a long series while others seem to change overnight. As a reader, I don't cope well with change. I want my favorite authors to be consistent. If their books are too much alike, though, I get bored and stop reading them. As a writer, I don't want to feel limited.  I guess it's all a matter of trying to balance the familiar with the fresh, whether you're reading or writing.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> I heard (and reading her books I thought it might be true) that Cornwall decided she was much to good for an editor to touch her precious prose. She wouldn't be the first author to make that mistake.


Thank you for mentioning that. It literally got so distracting that I never finished the book. And I've never gone back to her. So her publisher might take note...either the editor or the writer need some remedial work! (or my ego might...thinking that the publisher cares about my opinion!)


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

ellenoc said:


> Maybe it's not surprising we agree on some things - I was born in NJ also - left for Colorado at 19, and I'm a horse person (Morgans). I never gave up on Dick Francis - stayed with him to the end. IMO he never lost it, but when his son butted in (and IMO took over), that was the end of that great run.


LOL no kidding? Yes I escaped west a long time ago....it was meant to be. Morgans/Quarter horses (what else does a cowgirl ride?) Rotties/Chessies....and now my first foray into blue heelers...also a rescue.

I agree about Dick Francis & son, but still found them worth reading. I still have the last one waiting on the shelf.....edit: ok, some of that is probably sentimental.

Shameless plug....I ordered Sing My Name. Other authors should note that love of horses and dogs goes a long way............


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## barbara elsborg (Oct 13, 2010)

No, I never went back to Cornwell either. Once she'd lost me, she'd lost me. Same with JE - but I do have sympathy with writers locked into series. I think the pressure from their publishers to keep churning out books in the same world, that they know will sell, must make it hard to break into something else. 
I think all series have the potential to become boring. I can't think of many I keep buying. Well, I buy them and then grumble.


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## The Big Glen (Jul 2, 2011)

Straker said:


> I agree completely about LeCarre, but he's benefited from the fact that leaning to the far left will garner you a lot less criticism than leaning to the far right.


It might benefit his critiques, but sales? I don't know. The vast majority of bestsellers in the espionage / thriller in the U.S. are these extreme right-wing things like Brad Thor, mostly because they get more coverage. Conservative talk radio and Fox News give them more coverage, while left-leaning fiction is on the whole ignored. Why? Many reasons, and guessing at them in a public forum would be like poking a sleeping grizzly in the nose. But left or right, politics rarely benefit a novel's artistic intentions, mostly because the author, licensed by creativity, will mold plot and characters into unrealistic players of propaganda. But politics, left or right, will definitely help sales. It's a sad truth.


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## Ursula_Bauer (Dec 12, 2010)

9MMare said:


> As an ex-park ranger, I'm also a Nevada Barr fan...but I think you may be onto something. What bothers me is the author's need to attach her to a man...even get her married off (to someone she has so little in common with) and then for Anna to never actually be with him.


I completely agree! I had started reading the series and dropped it because in addition to the same-ness the the freaky factor / gore increase everyone's mentioning, the attach-to-dude thing wears thin fast. It was weird because it came off as forced after a while.


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## RuthMadison (Jul 9, 2011)

karenk105 said:


> I used to love the Regency romances by an author named Barbara Metzger. They were very light-hearted and witty. (Snowdrops and Scandalbroth comes to mind) But when she started writing commericial-length novels, and they were so serious. Her tone had completely changed.


This issue is why I actually write under three different names! I want to divide what I write by what my readers expect. If I write some non-fiction spiritual essays under the same name that I use when writing short romantic stories, there will be some confusion and disappointment!

I also hope that the more I write, the more I will improve. I'm determined not to get lazy and think I've already learned it all! It would be a tragedy, in my opinion, if every book I wrote was not better than the last.


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