I’m currently re-reading one of my favorite books of all time: The Rook by Danial O’Malley and it got me thinking how Mr. Danial struck lightning in a bottle with this one.
The story is original, the world building is fantastic, the whodunit aspect is engaging, the book is charming, witty and teeters the line between silly and serious very well and then you read the sequels and while they’re great books, they just don’t compare.
The best character in the series was always the protagonist of the first book, yet they are relegated to the sidelines in the second book and is basically an afterthought in the third. The subsequent novels also seem to have unnecessary side plots that add nothing to the overall story and seem to break the pacing often.
Who’s your favorite author known for their inconsistent works?
by throwawayhelp62525
9 Comments
I loved Catch 22, but I don’t care for anything else Heller wrote.
Elena Kostova. I loved loved loved The Historian, was underwhelmed by The Swan Thieves.
I absolutely adore Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt, and 12 years later I’m still waiting for her to write something else!
Don’t report me to r/fantasy for this but Tasmyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth>Harrow the Ninth. Loved the first but the sequel had so much obfuscation and narrative incoherence that it makes Gene Wolfe look like Hemingway.
Loved *Water for Elephants* by Sara Gruen but was very disappointed with *At The Water’s Edge.*
Loved *The Time Traveler’s Wife* by Audrey Nifenegger but didn’t really like *Her Fearful Symmetry.*
Super unpopular opinion, Cormac McCarthy. *Blood Meridian* is one of the best books I’ve ever read but *Child of God* reads like a Cormac McCarthy ripoff.
Not keen on any Card after Ender’s Game.
Ernest Cline. I absolutely loved Ready Player One and have reread it multiple times, but I was incredibly disappointed with the sequel, Ready Player Two, and Armada, his other sci-fi work. Like you said with O’Malley, I think Cline simply caught lightning in a bottle.
Walter Moers (German author). He is so consistently alternating between top and flop that I’ve started to look only into every second book he publishes. Lol