MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

bhartman36 · 12-23-2010, 06:10 PM

I absolutely think that a popular novel can be badly written. Dan Brown's books are a good example. He can drive a story along fairly well, but on technical grounds, the books aren't good. And worse, the books are the <i>same</i>. With a few set changes, if you've read The Da Vinci Code, you've read all his books. And the female love interest is always fairly shallowly-drawn. Much of Brown's popularity comes from the controversy of the ideas in his books, rather than the writing.

Also, look how popular "trashy" romance novels are. Is Danielle Steel a great writer?

12-23-2010, 06:10 PM	#55
bhartman36 Wizard Posts: 1,323 Karma: 1515835 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: New Jersey, USA Device: Kobo Libra Colour, Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (2021)	I absolutely think that a popular novel can be badly written. Dan Brown's books are a good example. He can drive a story along fairly well, but on technical grounds, the books aren't good. And worse, the books are the <i>same</i>. With a few set changes, if you've read The Da Vinci Code, you've read all his books. And the female love interest is always fairly shallowly-drawn. Much of Brown's popularity comes from the controversy of the ideas in his books, rather than the writing. Also, look how popular "trashy" romance novels are. Is Danielle Steel a great writer? Last edited by bhartman36; 12-23-2010 at 06:13 PM.