Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
Actually, I was wanting to have a discussion on how few authors pan out rather than look for recommendations, but I guess when the moderator, for some inexplicable reason, moved the thread from general discussion to recommendations, people thought I was looking for recommendations.
While I always appreciate a good recommendation, that's not where I was going with this thread.
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I hope this is accepted as a comment about your thread rather than a comment about moderation...
When I read the OP I immediately thought to recommend the trilogy I am reading now (but decided to wait until I was finished the last book). This did strike me as a thread in which recommendations (or condemnations) would happen. I think it's a difficult conversation to have without getting into specifics.
I'm surprised how many new-to-me authors turn out to be at least okay. It seemed to me to be the nature of the beast that only a small number of authors are going to hit that sweet spot of writing a good story in a way that appeals to me. But, of those books that make it past my pre-filters, I am surprised how few end up getting only 1/5 or 2/5 scores, and even that low score is not necessarily a guarantee I won't be back...
Some recently new-to-me read authors that definitely didn't hit that sweet spot include Max Gladstone, Yoon Ha Lee and Guy Gavriel Kay. And yet each write well enough that I will probably give each of them another chance (in fact I have books lined up for this purpose). There others that missed the spot by a wider mark and won't get a second chance.
But in the last six months there have been several that did hit the sweet spot, including H.G. Parry, Alix E. Harrow and S.A. Chakraborty - I'm definitely looking forward to finding more from all these. And I have quite a long list of others that made 4/5 that I'm definitely watching. I guess some of these may not "pan out" in the longer term, but it still a pretty good list to start with, or so it seems to me.
Yes there are many that fall into that grey-land of 3/5 - that were merely okay. Mostly these fall back into the well where they must compete on almost equal terms with everything else trying to get my attention.