The Ultimate Author Bashing/Defense Thread

[Werthead]

Ah, Michael Crichton. The first writer I'd ever read who had somehow managed to create one-dimensional characters. Remarkable achievement in mediocrity.

Whilst Pratchett is great, he does eclipse a rather funnier British fantasy author, Robert Rankin, but other than that he is generally pretty good and Small Gods is a genuinely great fantasy book. And if it wasn't for him that Robert Jordan would be the biggest-selling 'secondary world' fantasy author in the world today, which would be mildly depressing.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Kevin Anderson should die the deaths of a thousand knives for sullying the memory of a great author like Frank Herbert.

Die Kevin Die!!!!

[Maid Sansa]

*hands Ser Scot a couple of rusty, jagged knives*

Here, Ser Scot, you missed a couple of spots under his ribs, and there's still some knives here.

The three Dune prequels are an abomination against all that is Herbert and ought to be regurgitated by an enraged sandworm. Haven't even bothered with the Machine crusade et al. after them.

[emberling]

There are other authors who are generally good that have written bad bad books...Brook's later books

Are you attempting to imply that Terry Brooks' earlier books were good? Barf.

I wouldn't know about any decline in quality in the later books, because after reading the absolute suckitude of Sword of Shannara and the completely mediocre direct sequels, plus the Magic Kingdom of Landover which has to be among the absolute worst writing I have ever encountered, you could not get me to touch a later book with a ten-foot Pole.

[Stilgar]

Michael Stackpole gets props for defending RPGs and for getting Lucasarts to hire Aaron Allston (Wraith Squadron is easily the best Bantam-era Star Wars novel and is certainly in the running for best EU work ever). Of course, he also gave us the abomination that is Corran Horn, so it sort of balances out.

Virginia Woolf is unreadable. I have a strange loathing for Bernard Malamud, even though I can't pinpoint why. Most Star Wars novelists suck horribly.

[Arakasi]

Sword of Shannara has its charm, even though its a ripoff. Elfstones I still think is a genuinely good book. Wishsong is alright. Better than Swords, although it lacks its charm. Brook's Scions series is actually a pretty decent series. Not the greatest fantasy ever, but good enough. Everything after that is pretty much crap.

Aalston is fine and I enjoy him, and I do agree Horn got a bit out of hand recently. But if you compare the first 4 X Wing books to the next 4 (the Aalston ones), I think the Stackpole ones are easily superior.

[Stilgar]

Stackpole got old to me very quickly. How many times can you read "juked and jinked" before you want to throw the book away? And Horn pissed me off from the beginning. He was always the main attraction in Stackpole's books, and his huge revelation was stupid, predicatable, and reminisicent of cheap pulp fantasy. Largly because of that, the rest of Stackpole's characters got shafted. Allston made you care about everyone in Wraith Squadron, a singular accomplishment in Star Wars books.

[Lord Qwerty]

I want to add my voice to all those who've bashed the Anita Blake books. Supernatural, sex and violence... I could live with the supernatural and the violence, but the sex part just gets more and more embarrassing, book by book.

Read her Romantic Manifesto. I'm not making it up.

And the Anita Blake books ARE awful.

[Rhaco]

I haven't read Stackpole's Star Wars stuff, but his fantasy is generally decent. Once A Hero and the current Age of Discovery series being the best.

I'll join Katran in bashing Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel. It reads like the screenplay of a cheap, late-night Cinemax movie.

[Eponine]

Stephen King's Dark Tower... overrated. Villians set up to be badass earlier in the series & in other books die without a whimper. Political correctness gone overboard (everything Susannah). The author's own appearance. And the awful, awful ending for everyone but Roland. The first book was so good, then it all went to hell.

I hate Jane Austen and all her snieveling bitchy heroines.

[jesic]

Hope Mirrlees, you blow. Thanks for making Lud-In-The-Mist so damnably hard to read. Cow.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Whilst Pratchett is great, he does eclipse a rather funnier British fantasy author, Robert Rankin,

Rankin is definitely funnier (and closer in style to Douglas Adams than Pratchett), but I think on the whole Pratchett is the better writer. Rankin relies heavily on running gags (Pratchett does too, of course, but nowhere near as much) and his characterisation, based on what I've read so far, is very thin indeed.

[Vagrancy]

Uh, I'll try to defend Jacqueline Carey (Well, the Kushiel books, at least; I haven't read The Sundering yet).

Um, her prose is lyrical and lovely, she does political intrigue pretty well, and I like the spin she put on a lot of myths/legends of many different places and faiths. I'm not all that well-travelled, but her construction of the many different pseudo-cultures that she used in her books have a really authentic feel to them; I like that too. I like the way that she constructed her characters, and though her potential Mary-Sueness is pretty apparent, I thought Phedre was awesome. I liked the fact that she was constantly at war at herself, though she didn't drown in the angst. And I liked the fact that not all that many punches were pulled when it came to Phedre's masochism, especially in book three. And even though a lot of the subject matter was rather serious or dark, I liked the fact that it was balanced out with nice, light-hearted scenes (especially those with Joscelin in them; the Perfectly Sea-Sick Companion ).

So...yeah. In conclusion, I really really liked these books and I really suck at defending my favourite authors

[Lord Qwerty]

Oh - one more thing.

I find Douglas Adams to be NOT FUNNY.

[Eponine]

Oh yes, I forgot the heresy of all heresies. I HATE Dune.

[Maid Sansa]

*makes a sign of the cross in the direction of Eponine*

Honestly, in the defense of Frank Herbert, he has a pretty Martinesque (or Martin has a Herbertesque) honourable nobleman-hero who dies early on, and some of the most morally ambivalent and sometimes downright reprehensible manipulators for good guys (Bene Gesserit, God Emperor Leto).

[Asa]

Kevin Anderson should die the deaths of a thousand knives for sullying the memory of a great author like Frank Herbert.

Die Kevin Die!!!!

Agreed.

Frank's son should have never touched the series.

Oh yes, I forgot the heresy of all heresies. I HATE Dune.

You.

*Hiss*

Seriously, though, why do you hate Dune?

[Martin Silenus]

Oh - one more thing.

I find Douglas Adams to be NOT FUNNY.

Thank you for saying it. Now I don't have to.

Hating on Piers Anthony is too easy, but I must do it. Xanth and The Incarnations of Immortality were my introductions to fantasy lit. (I was a child, I didn't know any better). It was an education in bait-and-switch, or more precisely, bait-and-suck. It was a scam perpetrated on me again through Dragonlance and The Sword of Truth: write one good (or at least half-decent) first book in a new series, and the suckers will fall for the rest, no matter how poorly written or cynically churned out for cash.

When it happens to me nowadays I think "They pulled a Piers Anthony on me." Again.

[Eponine]

I guess that I hate Dune for the same reason that other boarders dislike Tolkien (whom I like). Even though I recognize the skill involved in it, nothing about the characters, plot or prose engages me. By the middle of the book, every character could have been killed and it wouldn't have bothered me at all (whereas I was quite upset when Ned died). In general, I don't like "messiah" type plots. I don't care if all the threads come together in the most beautiful, creative way, the main thrust of the prophesied messiah does nothing for me. I don't like fantasy very much anyway.

I thought of another author I hate... Emily Dickenson. Way overrated.

[emberling]

The Incarnations of Immortality...write one good (or at least half-decent) first book in a new series, and the suckers will fall for the rest, no matter how poorly written or cynically churned out for cash.

I don't see how the one applies to the other. Incarnations had a fairly consistent level of quality throughout the entire series. Perhaps you are referring to how the concepts are extremely intriguing, but the actual story and writing are poor. But all that means is that Anthony is a bad writer

I ended up reading a whole ton of Anthony books before finding books that were actually good, and I'd have to say that doesn't apply to anything of his that I read except Xanth, which I recall him stating in some author's note or another (in a different series) he was basically forced to write by his publisher.

I can't hate the guy - he's pretty good at coming up with concepts for stories, and his writing is very easy to read and keep reading, even if it isn't anywhere near good per se. Overall, an excellent introduction to F/SF for a young child that would much rather read cool ideas than serious issues. (I think Harry Potter would be the best version of this now, because it starts out light-hearted with whiz-bang and 'hey, cool' things for a kid, but develops into something darker that does touch on serious issues somewhat. If I'd had that kind of thing when I was the right age, I might have started reading quality books much sooner, and been able to escape reading Goodkind.)