And why?
For me, Stephen King and Anne Rice, both of whom were once my favorite authors.
IT, by Stephen King tore it for me. The "interludes" added absolutely nothing to the plot, nor did they contain any information that proved to be valuable to the team of protagonists. While reading IT, I decided that King had contracted "Elvis' disease" (my own invention), which is what happens when you become too big and successful for anyone to say "no" to you. The primary symptom is bloat -- Elvis' body bloated, King's novels bloated.
Some parts of IT were so annoying that at one point, I actually threw the book across the room in disgust. It was the part in which an old-timer tells about the Bonnie and Clyde-style shootout with 1920's gangsters. The old-timer compares it to a famous baseball game, which, after the fact, everyone in New York claimed to have attended. Only the shootout, which was attended by everyone in town, had everyone denying they were there, "...If you get my drift." The old-timer recites this analogy three times in two pages, each time ending with, "...if you get my drift." The third time, I threw the book across the room and yelled, "No, I don't get it! Why don't you beat me over the head with it???" I was not pleased.
Anne Rice's The Mummy finally convinced me that there was no longer any "there there." Although the constantly-changing POV (a new one for each chapter) was well-executed and showed tremendous talent, the story was so utterly predictable as to be completely devoid of suspense. Final straw: throughout the book, the mummy constantly whines and bitches about how awful it is to be immortal, without ever suggesting why. Oh, cry me the river Nile, whydoncha?
So how about it? What were your biggest letdowns and disappointments, even if they didn't sour you forever for that author?
For me, Stephen King and Anne Rice, both of whom were once my favorite authors.
IT, by Stephen King tore it for me. The "interludes" added absolutely nothing to the plot, nor did they contain any information that proved to be valuable to the team of protagonists. While reading IT, I decided that King had contracted "Elvis' disease" (my own invention), which is what happens when you become too big and successful for anyone to say "no" to you. The primary symptom is bloat -- Elvis' body bloated, King's novels bloated.
Some parts of IT were so annoying that at one point, I actually threw the book across the room in disgust. It was the part in which an old-timer tells about the Bonnie and Clyde-style shootout with 1920's gangsters. The old-timer compares it to a famous baseball game, which, after the fact, everyone in New York claimed to have attended. Only the shootout, which was attended by everyone in town, had everyone denying they were there, "...If you get my drift." The old-timer recites this analogy three times in two pages, each time ending with, "...if you get my drift." The third time, I threw the book across the room and yelled, "No, I don't get it! Why don't you beat me over the head with it???" I was not pleased.
Anne Rice's The Mummy finally convinced me that there was no longer any "there there." Although the constantly-changing POV (a new one for each chapter) was well-executed and showed tremendous talent, the story was so utterly predictable as to be completely devoid of suspense. Final straw: throughout the book, the mummy constantly whines and bitches about how awful it is to be immortal, without ever suggesting why. Oh, cry me the river Nile, whydoncha?
So how about it? What were your biggest letdowns and disappointments, even if they didn't sour you forever for that author?
