Breaking the Author/Reader Contract.

[capn_frank]

I'd like to nominate the "Chung Kuo" series of books by David Wingrove.
The Chung Kuo series consists of eight novels about a future in which the Chinese have dominated the world, rewritten history, and built enormous indoor continent-spanning cities three hundred levels in height.
I loved the first 4 books and read them several times.
I finally got books 5-7 and liked them too.

Book 8 was published in England in hardcover and had one very limited print run in paperback in the US, but has been out of print since 1999.

I found a copy of book 8 in a used bookstore in London on a trip in 2002 and read it on the plane ride home.

Then I had to read it again to confirm my first impression.

It totally pulled the rug out from under everything that occured in the first 7 books. It seemed to be from a totally different series altogether, with the characters acting differently and an ending that was totally unsatisfying.

It was like a middle schooler's paper that ended with the words "And then he woke up."

I read recently that it was going to be 9 books but the publisher made him finish it in 8 but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

I would recommend the first 7 to anybody though, it's well worth your time and could very easily be translated into a d20 Future campaign.

Frank

 

[takyris]

How about Weiss and Hickman's third Darksword book? When I first read it, I felt utterly dissatisfied with the ending. I might feel differently now -- I read it in the 8th grade and, well, I'm nearing 30 these days, so maybe the destroy-it-all antihero aspect would appeal to me...

Still, at the time, bugged me batty.

 

[Severion]

A few examples of this come to mind. The first was the Hickman & Wies Death Gate series; the labrynth was described as a truely awful place where only the absolute most powerful sorcerers had even a chance of surviving and even at that it took several generations to get to the exit, come to find out it was fairly benign and one flying boat could navigate it at will.

Another was "The Wizards First Rule" (forget the author). The main charecter spends the better part of the book lost in a strange land cut off from his homeland for millenia. His friends from back home never seem to have much trouble finding him.

The last was the re-release of the Elric Saga by WW where a major charecter (Moonglum) was written out. that was just wrong

 

[ShadowX]

The Death Gate Cycle has a horrid ending, but that seems par for the course with Weis and Hickman.

Now about Thomas Covenant, I have heard a few people say they could not read past the rape scene and I never understood why. Maybe you can help me understand.

 

[mmu1]

Now about Thomas Covenant, I have heard a few people say they could not read past the rape scene and I never understood why. Maybe you can help me understand.

I've tried reading it a while ago, but as I remember it, the beginning of the book is mostly about a lot of self-pity and bitterness, which culminates in a rape, followed by more self-pity and self-loathing... Why is it surprising that people don't want to read about a bitter, angry, lonely rapist?

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I don't necessarily agree with the premise that a contract exists between the author and their readers - however, it takes a very talented author to pull a bait-and-switch of any kind off effectively and pleasingly.

Robert Charles Wilson is not that author; his Darwinia pulls off the worst bait-and-switch I have ever had the misfortune of reading. It's a shame, because I kinda liked the story I was reading.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Kevin J. Anderson.

I don't care how good your shields are, NO SHIP SHOULD EVER BE ABLE TO FLY THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF A STAR AND NOT BE DESTROYED.

EVER.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Now about Thomas Covenant, I have heard a few people say they could not read past the rape scene and I never understood why. Maybe you can help me understand.

I can think of very few things I consider more despicable, horrific, and vile than rape. Nobody capable of commiting rape has any business as a "hero." Ever.

Any book that asks me to sympathize with a rapist gets put down, quick.

The fact that I found it relatively boring and uninteresting even before that point probably didn't help, either. But the rape scene guaranteed that I wasn't about to give it another chance.

 

[James Heard]

I think that Card's Ender universe basically got bazooka'd by Card right when he decided to not leave well enough alone and write a second book. The first book was perfect. The rest? When they weren't putting me to sleep they mostly made me angry at Card for writing them in the first place and ruining the perfection of the original book.

And while I'm at it, even though he had nothing to do with it I hate whatever unhappy accident allowed the studios to get a hold of Starship Troopers and put someone who hadn't read the book or understood it to push out that garbage. At least with Star Wars I was pretty prepared for it to be mediocre, with Starship Troopers it was like hoping beyond hope that I was wrong - and then not being wrong but actually underestimating how low they could go.

I also liked the Covenant series though, though I thought the second series wasn't quite the same because the main character had suddenly failed to be quite the self-interested evil villain that he was in the first series.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Kevin J. Anderson.

Thank. You.

I just can't stand KJA. I can't stand his work and it's completely beyond
me why he keeps gettin' such high-profile work. He's terrible!