I recently realized that I don't read as often as I used to. This is sad, but true. I love to read and gain a lot from it. But as a consequence of my non-reading, by spelling, vocabulary, and grammar have all sufferred. I think reading is essential for keeping up with language skills. And once too often lately, I've been having to reach for a dictionary. So, I decided to end this phase of my life with a trip to the library.
While I like trying new things, I did gravitate back towards familiar authors; I figured that I might as well start in safe territory. And so I picked up the next chapter of a Peirs Anthony series I had read on and off, 'Incarnations of Immortality." I also stumbled across the Clive Barker section (best know for the 'Hellraiser" series) and decided to check something out (I LOVE LOVE LOVE "Theif of Always"), So I grabbed "The Great and Secret Show." And, being a Redwall Nut, I grabbed the next in a growing list of novels in the series I haven't read yet.
I had also grabbed some other books, but these three were the ones I was most excited about. So I pull out the "secret Show" and begin to read. It sounded awesome. A serect art, magic (Maybe) a secret language being spread across the country through dead mail, it was great. Then, to my astonishment, I came across a LDS character in the book. Being LDS myself I was pretty intrigued, until I found that the leader of the local "Mormon Group" in the book was a man called pastor John. And the facts just went downhill from there. While I was interested in the story, after awhile the incorrect facts about the church became to glaring, to huge for me to keep reading. It's sad, I had over a hundred pages invested, but I finally had to throw the book down and move on.
The next book of "Incarnations" was about the same. while the first book, "On a Pale Horse," was awesome, the follwing books just started to fall short. The series itself is a cool concept (human beings filling in for deitys, such as death and mother earth and father time) but the only real book to pull it off is the first one. And, so, sadly, I put the fifth book, "Weilding a Red Sword "(about mars the god of war) aside as well. I'm disapointed, but it is by Peirs Anthony, and one wonders about the quality of writing one is able to achieve when they pump out 5 books a year.
The Redwall book, as always, has been a delight, and i look forward to catching up. I also picked up a trade paperback of "Midnight Nation" by the author of Babylon 5, and I must say I was really impressed.
It's really frustrating to me when I find a book or author that I like, and then the follow up work isn't on par. It doesn't seem hard to me to just do the first thing over again. Brian Jauqes does it all the time with Redwall. While variety may be the spice of life, every once in awhile it gives me heartburn.
And so, I will be going back to the library a little disapointed. While I like series, it's getting harder to find ones worth my time. I guess I'll just limit myself to the kids section. It seems that they, at least, have standards.
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I totally agree. Piers Anthony started out great with several series, but it was an effort of will power to complete most of them. I think we get spoiled by a few authors who can consistently pump out the good stuff (I started #5 of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series, which has taken him about 2 decades to complete, so I think it's safe to say that he's been pretty consistent throughout his career), so when we run into an author who should have just left off with one book, it tears our hearts out. John Ringo did that to me. "A Hymn Before Battle" was incredible, striking, awesome. But I haven't been able to finish (or even really start) Hell's Faire. It'll take a week off at Christmas with nothing else to do to get me through it, I'm sure. There's always hope, though, because sometimes the author catches themselves after a book or so and returns to the original luster. Not often enough, though.
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