Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Robert Jordan ... yessss ... the man is sick now and he’s saying not to worry because he’s planning to write for thirty more years and I just keep hoping he doesn’t mean he’ll be writing this series for the next thirty years! I want the ending! Please!!!

And I’m still waiting for the end of Melanie Rawn’s Exiles trilogy ... how many years has it been?

Right now I am so very grateful I have not read any of the books in that series.

My fingers always hover over Black House, because The Talisman is one of my fsvorite books ever...I just wasn’t sure about the idea of a sequel, and the more I heard about it the more unsure I was.

Now I know I was right not to buy.

Robert Jordan kills kittens with his writing alone.

Truth ... but he hooked me young and I just want to be there at the end ... you know?

Hee. I read the first one. And the second. I think I gave up when I realized that the “relationships” in the books were nothing more than adolescent wish-fulfillment. Rand nails Min (who I loved!), Rand nails the princess, Rand nails the barbarian chick. Rand loves them all! I began to see a pattern.

I realize I didn’t address this topic, though. To be honest, I don’t do author loyalty. Certain authors become auto-buys for me because I have consistently loved their writing, but if they fuck up and disappoint me with crap, I may not buy them again. One stinker puts them on probation; two puts them on the “I used to like that guy / chick a lot” list.

I have to disagree with with Koontz, though. Someone listed him over on Bookseller Chick as having jumped the shark. They need to read Lightning, Odd Thomas, and Life Expectancy. Those are some seriously kick ass books and I didn’t even like his horror shit. I would say he’s getting better, not worse.

Ugh. Robert Jordan. You’re better off reading Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series. Goodkind’s a much better writer, in my opinion.

I’m not big on being a “fan” in most categories. If I like something you write, I’ll give something else you write a chance and if it sucks I’ll be wary the next time, but I’ll give something else a try if it sounds interesting. I’m the same with music and tv/movies. Though there have been a few musicians, writers, etc that have yet to let me down, so I kind of consider myself a fan, but I’m definitely not the rabid defender type. I like what I like until I don’t like it anymore.

While I agree that King has become a hit-or-miss author, I actually really enjoy the Dark Tower series, and was very happy to see him finally finish the main storyline.  I actually like to see the little threads of that story/world show up in small ways in his other books.

And I completely agree about Jordan.  Can you believe I actually kept up with the series until book 8?  Now, my husband skims them, I ask if anything interesting or productive happened, he tells me no, and I wait to see if the next book will finally be “the one”.

Diana Palmer loves me...I swear!! What’s--? Oh no, no, I just fell down some stairs--I’m really clumsy.

Shut up, our love is pure!

Noooooo! Not Terry Goodkind! I stuck with him for 3 books too many. That is to say, four books in total. The first one has an interesting/disturbing S&M digression which I thought was pretty cool. By the second book he had developed this into a major theme and it was obvious what he really wanted to write about—not to mention turning his kick-ass heroine into a simpering girly girl. By the fourth book it had completely devolved into some kind of Ayn Randian screed. I just picked up the back cover of his latest book (#6, #10?) and it seems his two main characters are STILL after umpteen books, separated and trying to find each other. Jeebus!

Also, Ken Follett. His first 3 books are great. Everything after that is lousy pulp fiction.

Stephanie Laurens. I swear there are more Cynsters in Regency England than Wayanses in Hollywood. After a while she even starts mentioning in the books that they’re all the same.

I couldn’t get through the second chapter of Black House. But King’s upcoming Lisey’s Story? I thought it was brilliant on too many levels to count.

Hit or miss, maybe. But this one was a whopping bull’s eye for me.

Kimber, I’m with you on Terry Goodkind. His writing comes off as misogynist to me; he writes female characters, but he doesn’t seem to like any of them. He’s no Louise Cooper, that’s for sure. My fantasy A-list consists of:

Richard Adams
Lloyd Alexander
Clive Barker (giving him a nod for Imagica)
Terry Brooks (he entertains me, he’s sort of a guilty pleasure)
Stephen Brust
CJ Cherryh
Louise Cooper
Charles de Lint
Stephen Donaldson
Dave Duncan
David Eddings (he veers into Jordan territory but I don’t hate him for it)
Raymond Feist
CS Friedman (Coldfire trilogy, mmm)
Neil Gaiman
Guy Gavriel Kaye
Katharine Kerr
Katherine Kurtz (I get these two ladies mixed up but I like both their stuff)
Tanith Lee
Ursula LeGuin
George R.R. Martin
Patricia McKillip
Sharon Shinn
Sean Stewart
Tad Williams
Connis Willis
Terri Windling
Roger Zelazny

I can’t believe no one has metioned Her yet. You know. . . Laurell? Maybe because no one is actually hanging in there anymore?

I’m not sure if I’m ashamed of this or not, but I hung in longer than most. Danse Macabre (the latest) is the first one I didn’t buy. But I made a clean break. Wasn’t even tempted. I just stood in the bookstore and sneered at it. You’re not taking me down this time, bitch. I’m saving my money for GOOD porn.

Okay, the truth. I’m still hooked on Merry Gentry.  :down:

I’ve never read Robert Jordan, but my father used to read him, and every time he sees a copy of one of his books, he launches into this thing about how he never stops publishing them, and it makes me want to keep a lookout for them so I can veer him away before he sees it. Or just keep saying “It’s okay, Dad, it’s okay...”

Wait! I’m better than that. I didn’t read Micah. I repeat: I did not read Micah. Yeah!

I didn’t mention Laurell K. because she’s so, well, obvious. She’s the queen of bad but addictive books. She’s the patron saint of “why does a tiny flicker of hope spark in my soul when I see that you’ve published a new book?” That flicker is always quickly doused, of course. But it’s always there.

Another reason I didn’t mention her is that I have given up on her. I don’t buy her books anymore. I don’t even get them from the library. Life is to short, Laurell! Too short!

I am proud to say I have never, ever read a Laurel K. Hamilton book. But I caved on Janet Evanovich when stranded in Elmhurst, IL this July. (whispers) It made me feel dirty but I kinda liked it.

Ugh, Robert Jordan. I got sucked into that never-ending series back in college, summer of 1993 or so. I read the first four books and realized I’d read about 3200 pages and jackass hadn’t even declared himself the Dragon Reborn yet. I promptly gave away the paperbacks and washed my hands of the whole business. As I said to my friend, “There’s Epic, and there’s Get Over Yourself.”

I swear to god Stephen King has some kind of mystical power over people.  I’m thinking he’s researched so many creepy crawlies he found the ultimate reader-enchantment spell.  I do happen to like the Dark Tower series and I re-read them lately. . . and then bought another King book.  Because he still has the gift, right?  Um...maybe not.

I hung on with Anne Rice for a looooong time too.  My poor Mayfair Witches.  Gawd she fucked up Mona. 

As for romance?  Jude Deveraux is my crack.  I wanted to boot Darci of the Forever series in the head.  Yet I still buy.

Oh, GAWD, the Forever series. WHAT WAS THAT?

As for Stephen King, I’ve sort of gotten over him. For now, anyway. But The Stand haunts the attic that is my mind. It pops into my head all the time. Every single time I drive through a tunnel, for instance. And I live in the mountains, so that’s a lot of tunnels. God, that was good shit.

My poor Mayfair Witches.  Gawd she fucked up Mona.

Oh God yes.

Anne Rice should be publicly paddled for the steaming heap that was Lasher.

Oh The Stand!  I went to Vegas recently and at various points I kept thinking “Ceeeeebbooooollllaaa”.  Not even sure if that’s the right phrase exactly.  (What that firebug screamed as he ran through the streets.)

You know, I’ve had a recurring nightmare involving rats because my Sophmore english teacher (who even looked eerily like King) read us the short story “Night Shift” in class one day.

Anne Rice should be publicly paddled for the steaming heap that was Lasher.

She’d probably like that too much.  Reference the Beauty books.

BTW, how do y’all do that quote thing?

Ya know, I’ve always been able to drop authors when they bore me.  I might give them one chance past the suckfest that was but not one has ever redeemed themselves.

I’m very good at dropping boyfriends as well.

I just like to pretend that they are dead and don’t exist anymore.

I’m with you guys on the Mayfairs ... but I have to make a confession ... I picked up Danse Macabre at the library ... *sobs*

As for Jordan, I have an enabler at home. The man was also hooked early and we enable eachother. It’s all so very co-dependant.

Danielle Steele...haven’t read her in years but just checked out her latest from the library and skipped thru it in about 30 minutes. Ghastly. Did no one ever tell her “show, don’t tell?” How can she continue to be published? Cardboard characters. Clueless.

Can’t do Stephen King anymore, altho The Stand remains a favorite.

Johanna Lindsay. I canna read the lassie nae more.

Have lost track of which alphabet letter Kinsey Milhone story I should be reading...surely the English alphabet is just too long. Blocking on author’s name.

No more Dan Brown. Never, never, no matter how many upside down and backwards puzzles he sticks in there.

Now, if we were gonna list our must-buys, that might make some interesting reading....

you do the [ brackets with quote between them to start and /quote to close it out.

It’s pretty hard to find books in English here in Mexico City so I picked up a book by Danielle Steel called ImPossible. I think I had read something by her, years ago. And from what I can tell, her formula appears to be:  young woman marries man who provides her with monetary security and paternal love, but no passion, man dies, she gets it on with a hot guy.

This book was really no different, except she made her heroine a bit older. To reflect her life better? I dunno. The book was dreadful, though. It ran 300+ pages of nonsense just to have the protagonists decide that an older woman / younger man relationship is possible. Say what? Duh. We already knew that.

I do it the html way. (Like that matters)

Oh, I got it!!!
Look!

You have to actually WRITE the word Quote between the [ brackets! Cool. I have always wanted to do this. Always. Thank you SmartBitches. *wiping a tear from my eye*

Oh, I got it!!!
Look!

Me too!

And I will also take this opportunity to admit that I still have signed copies of Lasher and Servant of the Bones. 

You know this all feels kind of freeing.  Like standing up in an AA meeting, I imagine.

When I get done with my current WIP about Samoans, penguins and hot sex (not necessarily all in the same scene), I’m gonna write a nonfic called “All I Ever Needed to Know about HTML I Learned on Smart Bitches.”

My list of Never Again authors:
Danielle Steele. I just...just can’t do it anymore! No more heroines who I yell at saying “ Well no shit you dumb bitch! “

Sue Grafton: Kinsey Milhone drove me Crrrrrazy! Bitch had some severe OCD! Always washing peoples dishes and freaking out about smelling like smoke! I don’t care for it either yet I don’t run home and wash my hair after I walk through a puff of it.

Johanna Lindsay: After I lost my virginity and saw the reality of sex I just could’nt read them with a straight face any more!

Stephanie Laurens: Read my lips! NO MORE CYNISTERS!!! That and i’m still pissed off that she never wrote Eric’s story (that was SL right?)

Laurell K. Hamilton: How she would describe what the heroine was wearing Always ALWAYS the little pom-pon or the tiny strip in that bitches sock would match the swoosh in her Nike shoe! Fuck-me!

Patricia Cornwell anyone?  “Trace” sucked so bad I don’t know where to begin.  I used to like Kay Scarpetta.  She knew her shit, kicked ass, and her personal life was always just screwed up enough to make her interesting.  She has been going down hill slowly for quite some time.  Cornwell took what I thought was a pretty big risk with “Blow Fly” when she changed the format of the series.  She changed from 1st person narration with Scarpetta to multiple POVs.  I thought it worked because there was a lot of stuff going on in that book that Scarpetta could not know about.  I was hopeful that this signaled a positive corner she was turning.  Hah!

She has gone entirely too far now.  The only characters in “Trace” who don’t have a POV are the dead ones and I seriously kept expecting the next paragraph to begin.."Gilly didn’t like being in a body bag.  It was cold and it was dark.”

The worst part was the ending.  It is as if she used all of her writing and investigative skills to purposely write the most anticlimactic ending in the history of modern literature.

I have no doubt I will buy her next Scarpetta novel because I just keep thinking, surely she knows. Surely she will do better.  She can’t be satisfied with how she has left things.  Maybe she and Laurell K. Hamilton need to do some group therapy on how not to destroy perfectly awesome characters. 

Don’t even get me started on LKH.

LKH.  Sue Grafton.  Piers Anthony.  LKH.  LKH.  I read one Stephen King and thought it kicked sand. Rhonda Nelson.

Authors who are no longer an autobuy and I get the library copy: L.K. Hamilton, Janet Evanovich.  I’m still buying Linda Howard, but it’s been hit-or-miss.  Jude Deveraux’s feeling more and more like a guilty pleasure.

Christine Feehan (not sure if that’s how you spell it cause I sold all her books at a yard sale and I felt really bad about it, too, because I’m not sure the person I sold them to realized it was the same book over and over and over).  And she does more than one series.  And they’re still the same book over and over and over.  First book was interesting and I’m thinking, “hey! how interesting!” and it took me a few books to realize she never changes anything except the names.  The way she describes her heros is the same each book, the women in her books are roughly the size of sixth grade school girls, which gives off this weird vibe like the hero is getting a leg over with someone who is underage, every single damn time, and no matter what color their hair is it’s long, luxurious, and gets in their eyes...A LOT!  I think this writer has a writing program that asks her to fill in the blanks.  Her characters and plots are interchangable and then suddenly she’ll do something that’s original and brilliant (very rarely) only to ruin it by going right back to the formula.  She needs to get a clue or be stopped.

I can’t believe no one has metioned Her yet.

I so outtie on Her. How can that much sex be that boring? When it’s bland-goth-wanabe-pseudo-porn. I mean, I’d still be reading if only it was GOOD pseudo-porn, but when I’m flipping past 2/3 of the damn book cause I just don’t care how big Schlongo’s magic dick is or how much Anita/Merry likes to take it up the ass I start to feel cheated . . .

I’m also WAY over Amanda Quick, which really bums me out, cause I loved her books (and I still like her writing). I just can’t take the Varna crap ever again. Bad pseudo-history just chaps my (and not in a good way). If I want to read fantasy, I’ll buy a fucking fantasy book, ‘kay?

I’ve also fallen off the C.J. Cherryah wagon (heresy, I know!).  I just don’t care what happens to Bren (though I’m still hooked on Banachi . . . maybe if she wrote a whole book about him?).

Amen on Patricia Cornwell.  She needs to quit her pet projects (Jack the Ripper, the Hunley) and concentrate of writing a decent Scarpetta novel.  I’ve finally broken myself of the habit of buying her books and wait for a library copy now.  Every time I think about what she’s done to the Marino character I see red. 

That said, I liked the last 100 pages of Predator a lot.  Before that - uhhh, not so much LOL

Oh, I forgot Christine Feehan. And Patricia Cornwell. *sigh* This is making me sad.

But you know who still makes me happy? Charlaine Harris! Okay, I feel better. Then again, my favorite show Deadwood is ending soon. *sigh* Why do only the good die young?

Has anyone read the definition of “Jumping the Shark” at wikipedia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark

I could never quite get the meaning until I read the origin. The accompanying explanation of “Growing the Beard” is even funnier.

I so outtie on Her. How can that much sex be that boring?

Exactly! How can that much kinky sex with powerful/strange/midnight-blue/tentacled/silver-haired/blood-thirsty/lycanthroped/dead men be boring? I mean tentacles, people! Jesus, you got to work hard to make that a yawner. Good God, I wanted a piece of that pitch-black half-stallion muthafucka. *sigh* *weep*

I’ve yet to read Anita Blake, and I’m way behind on Amanda Quick, and I’m only up to number 8 of Evanovich, so I’m still living in fairy tale world, I guess.  I’ve read maybe 4 Feehan books and loved them all - but may be prejudiced bcause she sat next to me at an RT booksigning - my first! - and I thought she was an amazing human being who was kindness and light and joy and I would read her grocery list.  I confess, however, to resisting recent Laurens books.

Re: series books with one character…

You can always pray their house will chop the head right off the character by showing the author the door.  Lotsa series Bombshell Babes runnin’ around headless right now.  Although I don’t think any of them were around long enough to get annoying.  I hope not anyway.

Stef, dressed in black, mourning Pink, eyeing vodka while questioning decision to give up alcohol.....

Life is to short, Laurell! Too short!

(Okay, to be truthful she hasn’t done the tentacled guy yet, which is why I’m still hooked on Merry Gentry! HA!)

Beware then, it seems very likely that she’ll get to him in Merry 5. But maybe not? No, it’s the addiction speaking, it’s not me!

The Stand is far and away my favorite King book. Lisey’s Stort (I did a review at the request of Amazon--and that is Hard Work)and it jumped straight to second place.

Just saying.

Now you guys will probably hate it, and blame me.

Uneasy lays the head of a book pimp.

I’m still enjoying Cherryah’s series enough to be curious as to how it all comes out (I love the alien cultural background tapestry she’s created), but I have to admit that my addiction to Stephanie Plum’s repeating nightmare of a life is almost to the point of eating that last slice of pizza, even though you’re sick stuffed and you don’t like black olive/pepper anyway, just because, like, it’s there sitting out on the counter. that and the teasingly danced-around potential for hot Ranger sex.

I gave up on Kathleen Woodiwiss, even though I love A Rose in Winter.

I too gave up on Anne Rice, but her Cry to Heaven is one of my favorites.

Robert Jordan is on my TBR pile but I don’t want to start them till I know the series is finished.

I tried to read a LKH story in a J.D. Robb anthology (go Nora!), but just couldn’t get into it-now I am glad after reading all the comments about her books.

Now to pimp a great fantasy author check out Lynn Flewelling- her Nightrunner series stars a bisexual hero, and her Tamir trilogy deals with some serious gender issues.  Great reads.

J. Deveraux went the way of the Dodo, for me, with the Forever books.

C. Feehan went way back when.

I’m done with Brockmann, C. Coulter, S. Drake, J. Garwood, (with a caevet, because if the news about the newest historical is true...) K. Hooper, I. Johansen, S. Johnson, S. Kenyon, and J. Quinn.

The biggest surprise to me is I’m waffling over Linda Howard’s books. Didn’t ever think I’d want to give up on reading those.

I know there are more, but I’d be here forever.

As for LKH...No rocks, if you please. I’ll hang my head in shame, and, sure, I’m enabling her to continue to write books, but...Yes, I bought DM. Yes, I bought Micah. Yes, I will buy Mistral’s Kiss. I Can’t. Help. It. It’s a habit. I’ve got to find out what happens. *sob* *wail* *moan* *whimper* *etc.* I’m just not ready to give up yet. Sick, I know. But truth.

Great topic, ladies.

I think that whenever people who have read Robert Jordan meet each other they need to rant. The frustration is unbelievable. Add him to the growing pile of fantasy authors that started out good and then realized they could make more money off the epic franchise. Goodkind has too much goddamn rape. Brooks went down the tube after the Children of Shannara series. Feist killed it for me after the first few books of the Serpent War Saga. Rice jumped the shark with all the spinoff vampire books.

I can’t believe Stephen R. Donaldson has revived the Thomas Covenant series.

I suppose I’ve never really been that much of a groupie. Once an author starts to suck I drop him/her immediately. Nora Roberts under her Robb psuedonym is perhaps the only exception. I still enjoy her In Death series but they’re not quite good enough for hardcover. However I can’t resisit the urge to buy it immediately so I usually buy it, read it, then return it. :) If I really enjoyed it I can then patiently wait for the paperback.

I’ve been reading LKH since Blue Moon came out and I glommed the backlist. These days I don’t buy hardcovers anymore, so I only borrowed Danse Macabre.  But it was my last LKH.  Anita pretty much spends the whole book on her back.  The books have turned into Anita getting pimped out to all the supernaturals that come through St. Louis.  Can’t she take care of the ardeur with a vibrator and get back to interesting things?

Sooo, for an LKH Anita Blake virgin, what’s the recommend?  Should I go get the first book, or spare myself the frustration I’m reading here?  She clearly got something right, at least in the beginning - her fans are legion.

I always feel so clueless.

(if anyone snarks on that, I’ll killya, see?)

Oh, you think we don’t want to get you hooked on the junk too, Stef? Come on. There’s good people here. Join us. Look. . .  everyone’s doing it.

You should definitely start with the first Anita Blake book. The first few were GREAT. Hell, I loved the first half-dozen. You’ll do fine, because you are fully informed of what’s ahead. No wide-eyed innocence for you, my girl! There’s bears in them thar woods. And giant crowing cocks too.

Not having read LKH, I wouldn’t recommend anyone else start. I mean, say the first few books are awesome, you fall in love with the character and then she crashes and burns. I’d be pissed.

As a sidenote, I think I’ve got my blog just about ready for public habitation and I’m looking to increase my blogrolling blingage. If anyone wants to exchange links, feel free to get in touch with me.

It’s probably bad karma for me to say this, but Stephen King hasn’t been Stephen King since he got sober.  As a person, I’m happy for him, but as a fangirl...well, I still have to be happy for him, but the books really started sucking.

Ditto many of the authors you’ve mentioned above, and after the ultimate bad experience --

Dara Joy gets added to my “dropped author” list.

I’m sheepishly admitting that I bought That Familiar Touch with hopes of catching a glimpse of the Dara I knew and loved,

but I’m downright ashamed to admit that after reading that trainwreck I somehow found myself clicking the keys to order Wildcat Arrows.  And the computer must’ve been laughing at me because for once it didn’t crash during a purchase.

What an utter waste of my money & a smidgen of my time (I flipped through a few random pages and decided that wasting money was bad enough without turning it into wasting time AND money).  My sympathies go out to those who ordered, paid and never received their books.

It’s bad enough when an author betrays you with poor writing, it’s quite another when you have to beg and beg and you may or may not see the book you paid for.

You should definitely start with the first Anita Blake book. The first few were GREAT. Hell, I loved the first half-dozen. You’ll do fine, because you are fully informed of what’s ahead.

Oh yes, the first six were incredible, back when Anita was a kick-ass heroine who had her own life, made her own decisions, and bore some semblance to a realistic heroine. Now she’s a big ol’ walking orifice. I gave up on LKH too…

It’s always saddest to watch the good ones crash and burn.

I still buy Amanda Quick, but wait till paperback, but I’ve dropped Suzanne Brockmann, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Stephanie Laurens.

Oh Robert Jordan, but I only made it to book 6.

I’ve given up on John Irving. I worshipped A Prayer for Owen Meaney and The World According to Garp, but the Fourth Hand was terrible, and I haven’t been tempted since…

It’s probably bad karma for me to say this, but Stephen King hasn’t been Stephen King since he got sober.  As a person, I’m happy for him, but as a fangirl...well, I still have to be happy for him, but the books really started sucking.

This comment made me snort herbal tea out my nose...quite painful. I don’t recommend it. But I remember thinking exactly the same thing about Scott Weiland and the Stone Temple Pilots. Gee, I’m happy you’re off the smack, but your songs really suck, now!

J. Deveraux went the way of the Dodo, for me, with the Forever books.

C. Feehan went way back when.

I’m done with Brockmann, C. Coulter, S. Drake, J. Garwood, (with a caevet, because if the news about the newest historical is true...) K. Hooper, I. Johansen, S. Johnson, S. Kenyon, and J. Quinn.

The biggest surprise to me is I’m waffling over Linda Howard’s books. Didn’t ever think I’d want to give up on reading those.

You also listed some writers I stopped buying a long time ago.

So here’s my question to EVERYONE --

What makes you give up?

So here’s my question to EVERYONE --

What makes you give up?

I give up when the author starts phoning it in, watering it down, or regurgitating semi-liquid servings of the same old mush for brand new high prices.

I give up when authors start thinking of themselves as artistes, and of their editors as enemies.  I give up when writers believe their own hype - or, worse yet, the ass-licking sycophancies of their most rabid fans.

Conversely, I also give up when authors lose their joy in writing, but type on anyway, hungry for a royalty check and frightened of their deadline.

To be blunt, I give up when the author gives up. Why stay on the line when there’s no one at the other end of it?

Lynn Kurland. I loved her books so much, but she’s written so many in the same pair of families now that each new one lately seems like a by-the-numbers parody of her own style. She’s also developed so much history that she can’t keep her continuity straight between books, which is not helpful when she constantly references time travel and ghosts.

I give up…

when I find myself skipping ahead in a book by an author whose every word I used to devour.

when I keep reading the author’s catch phrases over & over again.  “Been there, done that”.  Right now I seem to be encountering the word “hissed” a lot in what I’m reading.  I still haven’t met any “part snake” people IRL who hiss while doing it.

when the author’s “world” becomes a burden to keep up with.  I don’t want to have to go back & re-read every other book the author published just so I can get the “inside jokes” and references to the past. 

on authors who take too long between books.  I really dislike having to wait over a year to read part 2 of a trilogy knowing that part 3 isn’t coming out for another year AFTER that.  (If I really want to read it, I’ll jot a note and once all three parts are out I’ll take another look & see if I’m still interested).

on author’s who started out in one genre and are now writing in an area that doesn’t interest me.

I’ve dropped Suzanne Brockmann, Sherrilyn Kenyon

Um, yeah, so Monday?  I got a package from Amazon.com.  In it were both Brockmann and Kenyon’s newest hardbacks.  So far I’ve read Into the Storm and I have to say, I did like it.  It’s not what she used to write and it won’t make my all time favorites but it was good in a different way.  Though IMHO Jules’s only appearance being in that shit-ass excuse for a short story at the end was a goddamned cop-out.  I’m currently praying she hasn’t bowed under the anti-gay pressure.

As for what makes me give up on authors, I’d have to say boredom.  I can normally hang through a shift in genre or even having the characters change behaviour but if I ever get bored I’m done.

Nicci French has made it onto my clean-break list after the most recent release. Well, perhaps not a clean break. But I refuse to spend any more money on buying the books. “Catch me...” was just… ugh. And I can smell almost all plot twists from miles away.

Maeve Binchy is walking a very fine line. But not fine enough to stop me from buying her most recent release. Perhaps she will redeem herself. She will, won’t she? I mean, this HAS to be true love.

For some reason I got hooked on Iris Johansen even though her writing style is like a series of dot points. No more.

Amanda Quick no more either, even though I find my hand reaching out for her latest then pulling back.

And I am reading a Stephanie Laurens now. What can I say? I like them. But I’ve always found Kay Scarpetta irritating.

And the lastest series from Robyn Hobb? Unreadable.

I’ve given up on LKH...I’m still wavering on Cornwell but haven’t read Predator yet...and I don’t think I will ever forgive Elizabeth George for the ending of With No One As Witness. The very idea of making readers wait five years for the birth of a particular baby only to have...that...happen...urgh!

LKH, I can only echo what everyone else has said. Some people believe their hype a little too much. Some people think we want to read the dullest sex scenes with the most same-y, insipid dialogue ever. Some people base their characters on their husbands and so make them idealized, irritating yes-men. And then, some people implement the craziest rules ever on their message boards--you’re forbidden to say “Mary Sue” in any context, or to say you hate a certain character, or whatever. Arrogance like that doesn’t deserve my continued loyalty.

Cornwell...ugh. They used to be so good! So exciting and involving, and I even believed the crazy conspiracies and stuff because she made me believe it. Then she wrote that completely unconvincing Ripper book, and changed POVs, and everything just fell apart. And Lucy is one of the most irritating characters ever.

Funny how, in my opinion, JK Rowling seems to get better from book to book and now uses ideas I’ve rarely encountered to ideas I’d read dozens of times before.

Why does Janet Daily keep writing?  Why does Janet Daily keep getting published?  Why have I ignored her since the early eighties?

One of my favorite writers is Robin McKinley but she wrote Sunshine three years ago and it begs, begs, begs for a sequel!  Are you reading, Robin! cause I want another book.

Like Stephen Kings short stories.  Books not very good.  He grew up reading Lovecraft.  Explains a lot.

I read and was fascinated by Patricia Cornwell’s Jack the ripper book, because like Jack stories, but I’ve never read anything else she’s written and don’t plan to.

I “discovered” Amanda Quick just like Columbus “discovered” America, thousands of years after everyone else did.  As I read her books I was delighted by her characters, at first, especially one where the woman thinks the man is drop dead beautiful and is jealous of every woman around him, but the plot points and quirks she hits over and over began to grow too frequent.  She had a passion for certain words that were inconsequential but became glaring the more I read her books, so I quit reading them and feel better for it.

I got tired of the word “lush” a long time ago.  It seems to pop up in every romance novel.  I will call it the “lush law”, passed by the publishing industry after an exhaustive double blind study to determine what word can be used to describe the entire anatomy of a woman and all her non physical attributes as well.  Please stop with the lush! unless you are describing a drunk because every time I come across it I feel like I’ve been slapped in the face, again.  I can get pretty bruised up by some writers.

What makes me stop reading a writer’s work?  Complicated, cloying dynasties, complete with children who belong on the Disney Channel.  I like picking up a book without a legacy.  A trilogy is fine but when it gets beyond two digits...stop, drop, and roll even though the fire went out about seven books ago.  I know people fall in love with an idea or a family but sometimes you’ve got to move on or you run the risk of getting maudlin, boring, and lazy.

I’m almost ashamed to admit that I’ve read and own every single LKH book (tho only paperback in the Anita series - Merry is still good enough for HC). 
If Feehan would ever come up with a new story, I’d read her again. 
Piers Anthony has gotten absolutely silly! 
I’m wary of Charlaine Harris at the moment as well - all her characters have run together in my head and I have a hard time keeping them straight when I’m reading. 
Orson Scott Card has gone the way of the dodo (looney toons, I mean)-NO MORE ENDER’s BOOKS PLEASE!!!!!!
John Saul used to be really good then he became a Scientologist, and well… what more can I say. 
Jayne Anne Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle, and what ever else she calls herself, I can’t even look at her books any more. 
Elizabeth Peters… love the characters but what something besides egyptology (I know she’s getting old, but I really want another Barbara Michaels). 
And last on my current list, Michael Crichton.  I think he’s finally loosin it.

I find it hard to make a clean break with once favourite authors. I went cold turkey on Janet Evanovich - I was so addicted I was buying US hardcover editions but increasingly I just got frustrated waiting for Stephanie to make up her mind. Hadn’t read the last few until I was stuck at Atlanta airport and the latest one called to me. In my case absence has made the heart grow fonder...And now of course I’m going to have to go back and read the few I missed…

I have a love-hate thing going on with Patricia Cornwell - love the early books, think things went wrong when she ‘killed’ off a major character and then spent the next few books trying to bring that character back. And with every book I retain that glimmer of hope that she’ll recapture the glory of the early years…

Oh, James Patterson is another on my list. I used to love the Alex Cross books and would buy one every holiday - this year I ended up donating my copy to the hotel library. (And usually I find it very hard to let books go...)

Love Bytes at Piatkus

I’ve been on the SK Sucks bandwagon since whatever book came after Pet Sematary--his last great read, as far as I’m concerned.  All the subsequent ridiculous monsters, precocious kids, bloodied neighbors yadayadayada caused me major hair loss by my own hands.  Anne Rice, who had potential for true greatness, should have quit or gone on to a variety of offerings after Interview and Cry to Heaven, both genuine masterpieces.

BLAME THE PUBLISHERS.  BLAME THE EDITORS.  They’re the ones who keep the same old same-old assembly line running.  They’re the ones who, once an author becomes a cash cow, refuse to say, “Listen up, Steve.  You’re beginning to plagiarize from yourself.  That means you’re pushing my yawn button.  Plus, this fucker is so rambling and discursive it makes Gulliver look provincial.  Shave off two-thirds of that rancid fat, and we might just have us a digestible hunk of meat here.”

Read Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House if you want a good case of the creeps.  And when it comes to romance?  Hell, I’d rather revisit The Great Gatsby over and over again than take a chance on more recent stuff.  Oh, and The Madness of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, which came out in the early 1980s.  Not THAT is a true modern classic.  There are many used copies to be had; read one!

I don’t think I will ever forgive Elizabeth George for the ending of With No One As Witness. The very idea of making readers wait five years for the birth of a particular baby only to have...that...happen...urgh!

I so agree with you on this! My mother told me after she’d read it that she wouldn’t have if she had known what was going to happen at the end. I immediately knew what that meant and the book still sits, unread, on my shelf. I refuse to read it and won’t.

On another topic, I have liked every book of Tony Hillerman’s I ever read until this last one (Skeleton Man). Very disappointing. I haven’t given up on him yet, but he’ll have to win me back with his next one.

I finally am cured of the LKH thing. I used to have it with Christing Feehan, too, but that one is cured as well.  I haven’t even looked at either one of them in two years.

But I keep buying Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books even though I could basically tell you what happens before reading (the wackiness changes but everything else is always the same).

I keep reading Sandra Brown even though I always end up throwing the book at the wall.  And Linda Howard.  And I haven’t enjoyed a Heather Graham book since before Dead on the Dance Floor but I keep reading those too.

With regard to Dan Brown: Did anyone else think Angels and Demons was, like, 100 times better than DaVinci Code? I read A&D first (in preparation for a trip to Rome) and thought it strained credibility but had such a wonderful sense of place. DVC was such a letdown after that!

Wry Hag I was JUST wondering why writers let themselves go the way those mentioned have.

I suppose editors/publishers are the problem, but I’m not sure Laurell K. Hamilton can make that excuse.  A recent offering of hers, not Danse Macabre or poor, poor GINORMOUS penis Micah (I didn’t read it, heard about it from some majorly disgruntled folks.  I gave up on LKH after Obsidian Butterfly), but an Anita novel before them had so many errors--I’m talking misspellings/typos/grammatical issues due to laziness--that I kept thinking to myself, “okay wait, at the very least most books get line edits, don’t they?  What the hell kind of kerfuffle went on here that they/she couldn’t take the time to run a spell?”

I know editors can be relentless, i.e. a certain formula makes money so they want the author to stick with it, but isn’t there something an author can do, some bit of magic or a quick commune with the devil, to make the dreck they’re forced to write be less dreck like?

I mean, most of the books mentioned here are part of a series which once was good.

I guess I’m wondering why an author would just give up.  Baring time constraints, rabid editors, and chronic poverty, why do some writers just let themselves go?

Oh and I may need an intervention for John Irving.  The last two I read were the Hotel New Hampshire and the Fourth Hand, and I HATED them.  Now I’m coveting Until I Find You...please please let it be good!

I generally give up when I can skim the back of the book and tell you everything that happens.  Or when the writing degenerates to the point of being ridiculous.  When the author gets too repetitive like LKH or Sandra Brown. Essentially, when it gets boring. 

John Irving is different- I hated Hotel New Hampshire for some basically ridiculous squickiness.  The Fourth Hand was just depressing and there seemed to be no point (and yet it dragged on and on...)

I suppose I’ve never really been that much of a groupie. Once an author starts to suck I drop him/her immediately. Nora Roberts under her Robb psuedonym is perhaps the only exception. I still enjoy her In Death series but they’re not quite good enough for hardcover.

I see it the other way; the paperbacks are, IMO, just better books—edgier (and I’m not talking about Eve getting a little softer, either), fresher, cleaner in terms of the writing and the editing.  The hardcovers are a scandal in the copyediting area, too, IMO. 

Otherwise, I guess I don’t read enough books of enough authors to really get to the point where I’ll suffer bad books.  I actually still do enjoy the Evanovich series, but I only started it last year, so maybe no time yet for burnout.  Oh, and I’m fascinated by the fact that I think Evanovich has written herself into a corner where Joe and Ranger are concerned; it’s become a perverse pleasure to watch her try to work her way out of the dilemma without pissing off a whole bunch of readers (and FWIW, I think she’s on Joe’s side, but no one will heed the warnings about Ranger; she may need to actually get Stephanie involved with him to show how much more controlling he would be than Joe). 

I can’t imagine giving up on Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series, but you never know.  I prefer to remember a series and an author fondly than have a bad taste in my mouth after too many spoiled experiences.

The most interesting answer to this question on Bookseller Chick’s blog, though, was, IMO, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Good points about Janet Evanovich. I’m not sure what she’s trying to do with the love triangle. Maybe she gave in to fan pressure? I can definitely see why, as I find him a lot more interesting than Joe, myself.

I loved the Sookie Stackhouse books, but she lost me at the end of the one where there was so much going on with Eric and then he just forgot it all and turned into a prick again. That was too much like the infamous, “It was all a dream!” defensed mounted by that really craptastic season of Dallas. I haven’t read her since, but I’m giving her another with the new series with Harper and her step-brother. Ordered Grave Sight off Amazon last week.

I too gave up on Anne Rice, but her Cry to Heaven is one of my favorites.

Cry to Heaven was beautiful. It’s one of my favorite books. I gave up on her not long after The Vampire Lestat. I really liked that book and the ones after just didn’t really measure up for me.

I’m still into Kurland and Kenyon. The Dark Hunter books. I’m a bit of a sucker for vampires.

I picked up Danse Macabre at the library. I guess I just keep hoping that the old Anita will resurface, you know? She’ll get thi ardeur thing under control and get her stuff together. Kind of like I keep hoping my sister will get her shit together and leave that abusive airhole she’s with. It just never quite seems to happen.

Dang it! I meant to hi the preview button instead of submit!

Sookie’s been kind of hoping from supe to supe lately and that’s a bit annoying, but so far, I’m still hooked. I’m liking that weretiger fellow ... he’s hot stuff. I was cheesed about the whole Eric thing, but mostly because I liked him better when he was sans memory.

I’ve given up on Anne Rice and Stephen Kingl. But I can’t give up on Robert Jordan. Not yet. I’m so hooked.

Wow, lessee:

-Robert Jordon: I got hooked on him, too, but I dropped out after book six. Since everyone knows what’s going to happen (it’s been in the freakin’ prophesy since BOOK ONE), and the characters become more repetitive with each volume (Nynaeve + constant braid pulling = baldness), it just wasn’t worth plugging through twelve 600+ page doorstops.

-Laurell K. Hamilton: My mum has just jumped off the bandwagon on those. Before I turned seventeen, she wouldn’t even LET me read the series past the third book. Now, she says, they’re all about the porn. Porn, porn, porn. Animal porn, shapeshifter porn, faerie porn. No more, she says!

-Robin Hobb: Absolutely, hands-down, one of my favourite writers - her three trilogies (Liveship Traders, Farseer, Tawny Man) were all brilliant. But I have to agree that her new Shaman series did not have a very good start. I’ll still get the second volume, but in paperback.

-Tad Williams: Ana! I love him too! But his last book (Shadowmarch) seems like a major rehash of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. We already had a story of how the elves want their land back, and how a redheaded boy with mysterious potential can save the world! Give us something else! (but read his upcoming short story collection Rite, I had to review it and it’s very good).

-Melanie Rawn was another author I had to dump. Her Sunrunner series started out good, but then the main characters started doing genuinely creepy and immoral things (like, um, stealing babies from women they’ve stabbed and set on fire, and raising them as their own) and explaining them away far too easily (yeah, like, the mother we stabbed and set on fire was totally evil, y’all - no matter that she was naked, unarmed, and weakened from childbirth when we killed her).

Man, are there any instances of authors whose books have become increasingly BETTER with time, instead of the opposite?

I had to laugh reading through these comments. Yep, gave up on her, yes, that one too, nope still read that one…

Dara Joy, her earlier works I must admit fall under the guilty pleasures category. I can’t bring myself to read her last self-published work, even though I managed to actually get the copy I paid for. Never again. (can we drop an author that will likely never be published again?)

Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick. Used to love her stuff but more recent works had me skimming through them. The characters/plots just didn’t catch me. As petty as it sounds, in some of the last ones I read, I kept going back over the beginning chapters trying to figure out what the characters looked like. (hair eye color even?)Did I miss it completely somehow?
Still go for the Jayne Castle stuff, just wish it came out more often then every couple of years or so.

Johanna Lindsey, a library read, maybe.
What happened there? Her earlier works still captivate me.

There are others, so long ago, that I can’t remember their names. I believe in buying new when I can to support my favorites, in the hopes that they keep on publishing. For the ones that don’t make the grade anymore, my book buying dollars are sadly limited, and I can only spend on those who don’t let me down.

Lindsay, check. Deveraux, check. Kenyon, check. LKH, check (stopped at Micah, and haven’t touched her since). Evanovich, check. Palmer. Sigh. Oh, the humanity. I’m with E.D’Trix on the Palmer. Although after my most recent adventures in Palmerville (there’s your monogrammed hankie clew, Candy) I think I may finally be onto a saturation cure. You have to read, like, six of them in a row. That works. So far. But heaven knows what’ll happen when I finally get near a bookstore that actively sells romance.

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