Thread: SF/fantasy books that turned into series, and shouldn't have
View Single Post
Old 11-06-2009, 01:41 PM   #42
EatingPie
Blueberry!
EatingPie puts his or her pants on both legs at a time.EatingPie puts his or her pants on both legs at a time.EatingPie puts his or her pants on both legs at a time.EatingPie puts his or her pants on both legs at a time.EatingPie puts his or her pants on both legs at a time.EatingPie puts his or her pants on both legs at a time.EatingPie puts his or her pants on both legs at a time.EatingPie puts his or her pants on both legs at a time.EatingPie puts his or her pants on both legs at a time.EatingPie puts his or her pants on both legs at a time.EatingPie puts his or her pants on both legs at a time.
 
EatingPie's Avatar
 
Posts: 888
Karma: 133343
Join Date: Mar 2007
Device: Sony PRS-500 (RIP); PRS-600 (Good Riddance); PRS-505; PRS-650; PRS-350
A thread that beats me to the punch on BOTH books I was going to list!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Slite View Post
Oh goodie!

Another thread I can say Wheel of Time in

He really, REALLY should have made that one book only and then gone on and done something else!
Who keeps saying "or just not written the first book at all"?

I liked the series and characters enough to make it to the middle of 9, where 100s of pages are spent on describing walking through the snow. Then I heard God stepped in and said "enough is enough" and whisked Mr. Jordan away.

But even God doesn't get the last laugh. The guy who took over the last book is now turning it into three books!

Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by GJN View Post
Dune...Dune...Dune...Dune...Dune...Dune...Dune...

Great book poorly served by each successive sequel/prequel/whateverquel
...
I didn't realize they were written as one book, but my opinion still stands. Dune was great, Dune Messiah not in the same class, Children of Dune better than Messiah but still not comparable to the original in my opinion. Everything afterwards shouldn't have been written.
That was about what I thought, and I mostly agree. Dune Messiah wasn't as well thought of when it was first released, either, but the weakness was generally ascribed to being the middle book in a trilogy. For structural reasons, those are almost always weaker than the other volumes.
I believe Dune Messiah inspired Robert Jordan. Two million pages on walking into a throne room, when the book itself is only two hundred pages!

Anyway, the badness of Dune Messiah has obviously been mis-ascribed. It was a terrible book, plain and simple... nothing at all to do with it being a middle-of-the-trilogy (infinite-ology). See Empire Strikes Back as proof that that's no excuse.

I have never been able to understand Herbert. He wrote one absolutely astounding work of science fiction. And every single follow-up, including Children of Doom, was not just bad, but absolutely horrible. How did he do that? (I'm even more shocked to hear that Messiah and Children were part of Dune originally.... I find that super hard to believe because the quality drops off so heavily.)

-Pie
EatingPie is offline   Reply With Quote