Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
Number 5 (Foxglove Summer) was the beginning of the end for me. I bailed after number 7 (Lies Sleeping). The ever intensifying barrage of lengthy architectural descriptions and overuse of police argot/acronyms eventually wore me out. As did the "mastermind manages to slip through his grasp at the very last second" theme. But in all fairness to Aaronovitch, I rarely make it much past book 5 in any series these days. Complacency on my, and often the author's part, always seems to set in about then.
If he ever does anything outside of the Peter Grant/RoL universe, I'll probably check it out.
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Yeah, it's kind of a bummer. Publishers (and self-publishers) have found that series make money, period--but you're right, they wear out and the authors are either woefully uninspired or...not sure what. I was reading some series about a modern-day druid that was 1,000 years old or 2, whatever, and it started out pretty good and then it really bobsledded into a very lousy ending, which started (and was clearly broadcasting that it was going downhill) a number of books earlier, when suddenly plot was replaced with lectures on climate change, how humans all suck, a secondary character's "revenge" on her stepfather, who is (of course) an evil (of course) capitalistic exec in an oil company...man, talk about trite.
I didn't mind the architectural stuff that much, but making Peter more and more the center of the story, with the dreaded Beverly, and omitting Nightingale, et al...I mean, what's the point there?
It's a shame--the ROL really started out pretty good, other than that nails-on-chalkboard thing that he does with "me and so-and-so" (instead of "so-and-so and I," that is) in the MC's speech.
Hitch