We probably all got a case of that : an author delivers a great book, maybe a great series, but for some reason never attains that same height of quality. And this doesn’t even need to reflect on their quality as a writer, most writers struggle all their lives to make masterpiece.
For example I don’t want to dish on Zafon too hard because I quite enjoy The Angel’s Game, but he never reached that height he did with The Shadow of the Wind. I don’t know why, he never got there again. Also, after reading Marina I realize that his style was very anchored and constant his whole career as a writer, The Shadow of the Wind was simply the apex of that approach. I don’t know, just what I think.
But in France, we have a commercial novel writer, Bernard Werber. This example actually makes me pissed. He wrote the Ants trilogy, amazing, brilliant books, great passageway between young adult books and more mature stuff. It explores the organization of ants’ societies through a sci-fi story, dips into sociological and maybe even philosophical concepts, loved it as a teen. Then, everything else I read after by him was sort of total shlock. He wrote another trilogy, the Gods one, pretty much an entertaining mess with a horrid ending. This week I checked out a new novel by him and it actually feels like his prose got WORSE ? like, what ?
Anyway, there, felt like venting my frustration, interested in hearing other examples.
by Dontevenwannacomment
2 Comments
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown was a book I thoroughly enjoyed and I looked forward to reading more of his stuff. Until I actually went through Angels and Demons and Deception Point and realized it’s familiar plot with similar plot twists. It felt like I was reading a reworded copy of the Da Vinci Code.
Homer could have bothered finishing his trilogy