The only kind of piracy I cared enough about to write...

[Gwen Morse]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

I got the same impression when I read Centaur Aisle. I never touched one of his books after that turkey.

Piers Anthony is a strange creature . I most of his books in paperback and paperback and some in ebook. I was a fan of his in middle school and high school.

His EARLY EARLY stuff is really good. Then, he hit this point where he had a bunch of good ideas but only the first book in each series was reasonably well-written and then things sort of fell apart. Finally, he got to the point where even the first book was bad.

I don't think he's total trash...there's two trilogies he wrote that I really liked, and my adult uncle liked at the same time:
Orn/Ox/Omnivore and Var the Stick/Sos the <something - rope?>/Neq the Sword.

The same couldn't stand any of PA's Xanth books .

[jeffcobb]

I think this is the book that soured me on his work:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/...f/esp-worm.htm

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Another one who's early works were great was the late David Eddings. After a while, though, it seemed he ran out of ideas and just kept repeating the same basic theme.

[Ravensknight]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Another one who's early works were great was the late David Eddings. After a while, though, it seemed he ran out of ideas and just kept repeating the same basic theme.

I've actually read [though I can't point to it right away] that Eddings was deliberately writing the same story tropes over and over to try to prove a point about fantasy books and the genre overall. If he wasn't doing that, he was a terrible writer after the Mallorean and his separate Elenium series ;-)

[MrPLD]

Still, a lot of people like the "same theme" with new scenes, characters and such - often it's what draws people to keeping with the same author.

[lene1949]

Originally Posted by MrPLD

Still, a lot of people like the "same theme" with new scenes, characters and such - often it's what draws people to keeping with the same author.

Yes, that's true... I do that a lot... It's like coming home.. You're very comfortable.. I do the same with some movies...

A long time ago I read a series of books, and they appealed to me so much I read them again and again... I even played the same cd's while reading them... Whenever I now play the cd's I think of the characters in the book...

I never had much money for books, so re-reading was essential... in those days..

[MrPLD]

Originally Posted by lene1949

Yes, that's true... I do that a lot... It's like coming home.. You're very comfortable.. I do the same with some movies...

Yes, similar here. I remember reading a few of the Eddings books about a dozen times.

Paul.

[Krystian Galaj]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

I've actually read [though I can't point to it right away] that Eddings was deliberately writing the same story tropes over and over to try to prove a point about fantasy books and the genre overall.

Since people notice, it appears that he disproved his point then.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

I've actually read [though I can't point to it right away] that Eddings was deliberately writing the same story tropes over and over to try to prove a point about fantasy books and the genre overall. If he wasn't doing that, he was a terrible writer after the Mallorean and his separate Elenium series ;-)

Not all of his books use this common plot, though. My favourite Eddings book, "The Redemption of Althalus", is a completely different story.

I'm pleased to see that what looks to be Eddings' entire output is available as eBooks (in the Amazon UK Kindle store, at least).

[Timoleon]

Originally Posted by MrPLD

Still, a lot of people like the "same theme" with new scenes, characters and such - often it's what draws people to keeping with the same author.

Aren't there only about nine plots out there, anyway? Everything else is just a variation on the theme...

[Gwen Morse]

Originally Posted by jeffcobb

I think this is the book that soured me on his work:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/...f/esp-worm.htm

Just the blurb sounds painful.

I'm reading "If I Pay Thee Not In Gold" right now, it's a fantasy book he co-wrote with Mercedes Lackey, about a woman in an amazonian-type society who comes to respect men. The best I can say about it is that it feels like it could have been _SOOO_ much better.

It actually started out okay (meaning: at least it was readable) but turned into a "road trip" story where the trip is boring. When I'm not reading that, I'm re-reading Jack Chalker's Four Lords of the Diamond series (4 books total). It's probably a telling point that I'm 1/3 of a way through the third 4L book, while only having moved about 20 pages in the amazon book.

That's one of the many joys of a kindle -- you can leave a book and then go back to it seamlessly. No fumbling for the last page read, no dog-earing, etc.