Your thoughts on authors who aren't very good anymore?

[PeterPan09]

I've got to disagree. Greg Iles is another one that I think isn't as good as he used to be. Once he started 'franchising' the main character (Cage? Something like that), those books became total formula with gratutious violence. He used to write a GOOD story.

That brings up something that I've noticed with other authors as well. As soon as they start writing a series, the quality slowly starts going downhill. The longer the series, the greater the decline.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

That brings up something that I've noticed with other authors as well. As soon as they start writing a series, the quality slowly starts going downhill. The longer the series, the greater the decline.

Agreed - once they have to meet contract requirements, the quality drops off. The best works take years to write. Robert Jordan (pen name) is a perfect example - he took 6 years to write the first two books of his "Wheel of Time" series, and cranked the rest out like pamphlets. The novels grew worse and worse by the year...

 

[AKL_Megs]

Don't know if this was posted already, but...

Janet Evanovich and the Stephanie Plum series.

I stopped reading when she introduced the monkey somewhere around the 11th book. How much more fake can you get?

Her books were so great up until about the 9th book, then they started to get SO far from reality.

 

[bicker]

Robert Jordan (pen name) is a perfect example - he took 6 years to write the first two books of his "Wheel of Time" series, and cranked the rest out like pamphlets.

I'm not sure where you got that idea:

1. The Eye of the World (15 January 1990)
2. The Great Hunt (15 November 1990)
3. The Dragon Reborn (15 October 1991)
4. The Shadow Rising (15 September 1992)
5. The Fires of Heaven (15 October 1993)
6. Lord of Chaos (15 October 1994) Locus Award nominee, 1995
7. A Crown of Swords (15 May 1996)
8. The Path of Daggers (20 October 1998)
9. Winter's Heart (9 November 2000)
10. Crossroads of Twilight (7 January 2003)
11. Knife of Dreams (11 October 2005)

The novels grew worse and worse by the year...

That's also not true. They got better while he was writing one a year, until book #6, and then they started getting progressively worse, as he took longer and longer between books, then they started getting better again starting with book #9, though, until book #12 (finished by Sanderson) they hadn't reclaimed the level of the first several books.

In Robert Jordan's case, what damaged his writing was not speed, but the fact that he put too many irons in the fire and was trying to tell too big of a story.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I'm not sure where you got that idea:

1. The Eye of the World (15 January 1990)
2. The Great Hunt (15 November 1990)
3. The Dragon Reborn (15 October 1991)
4. The Shadow Rising (15 September 1992)
5. The Fires of Heaven (15 October 1993)
6. Lord of Chaos (15 October 1994) Locus Award nominee, 1995
7. A Crown of Swords (15 May 1996)
8. The Path of Daggers (20 October 1998)
9. Winter's Heart (9 November 2000)
10. Crossroads of Twilight (7 January 2003)
11. Knife of Dreams (11 October 2005)

That's also not true. They got better while he was writing one a year, until book #6, and then they started getting progressively worse, as he took longer and longer between books, then they started getting better again starting with book #9, though, until book #12 (finished by Sanderson) they hadn't reclaimed the level of the first several books.

In Robert Jordan's case, what damaged his writing was not speed, but the fact that he put too many irons in the fire and was trying to tell too big of a story.

And bicker is outed as a far bigger Robert Jordan fan than one might imagine. So let me ask you, who killed Asmodean?

 

[bicker]

I'm a traditionalist... I think it was Lanfear.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I'm a traditionalist... I think it was Lanfear.

Agreed.