The Books That Could Have Been...

[Sagan Darkside]

Salutations,

As I was Reading Enforcer's post in the Riverworld thread, I was thinking it is a shame there are some books out there that have a great premise, but a lousy execution.

What books come to mind for you?

For me:
Darwinia
In the 1910's, Europe disappears and is replaced by a jungle continent. The world is of course left scrambling- and now has a new "alien" continent to explore and colonize.

However- the book changes gears halfway through and becomes a cosmic mess that has little to do with the initial premise.

SD

 

[Mallus]

David Zindell's...

... Requiem for Homo Sapiens [The Broken God, The Vild, The War in Heaven].

I still think they're worth reading. The first first novel set it that universe, Neverness, is one of my favorite SF of all time. In terms of world-building I think it rivals, if not surpasses, Dune. So many ideas, and interesting characters/language/dramatics.

But the following 3 fail to live up to the initial promise; growing ever-increasingly wordy --no mean feat, either--, didactic, and slack. Hmmm, kinda like the Dune sequels. They're all worth reading, but I can't imagine reading them without heavy skimming.

And in a similar vein, The Starbridge Chronicles by Paul Park. Loved the first [Soliders of Paradise], then lost interest in the two others [Sugar Rain and The Cult of Loving Kindness]. I may re-read them, there's certainly a lot of beautiful language and audaciously satiric and strange stuff in them. But for the life of me I couldn't find what was supposed to provide the drama in the last two books...

Or were you looking for single novels, SD? Beacuse I think Neverness and Soldiers of Paradise on there own are two of the finest SF/F novels in print --except I think there both out-of-print now...

 

[Sagan Darkside]

Re: David Zindell's...

Or were you looking for single novels, SD

I just wanted to talk about books.

They interest me more then movies.

Plus- I figured it would be a good topic for farming ideas.

Requiem sounds interesting- any book that is put up against Dune is worth a look.

SD

 

[Capellan]

Iron Dragon's Daughter.
Not that it isn't a good book - it is - but there are just so many great ideas in the text that never get the chance for full development. I'd love to see a sourcebook dedicated to the world it was set in.

The Wheel of Time Series
If Jordan could have finished this in 3, or even 5, novels, I would have counted it one of the best fantasy series around. But instead it's become the biggest train wreck of the genre, to my mind.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

Iron Dragon's Daughter.
Not that it isn't a good book - it is - but there are just so many great ideas in the text that never get the chance for full development. I'd love to see a sourcebook dedicated to the world it was set in.

I am not familiar with these books- what are they about?

Thanks
SD

 

[Capellan]

I am not familiar with these books- what are they about?

This review is a good place to get an idea of Iron Dragon's Daughter:

http://home.golden.net/~csp/reviews/irondragon.htm

Basically, it's a dark, industrialised fairy tale, with some elements of 'high fantasy'. Really, it's only weakness as a novel is that it has so much good stuff in it, I found myself continually saying "wait, I want to know more about that", but the story had already moved on.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

The whole Wheel of Time series after "The Dragon Reborn".

Talk about a pointless, meandering slog... after the first three volumes of a series that was, up until "The Shadow Rising", the best fantasy epic since LotR. Of course, it seemed to me that the series was out of steam at that point anyway.

 

[jonesy]

The Darksword saga. I stopped reading it
when it suddenly turned into quasi-scifi.

 

[WizarDru]

"Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" by Tad Williams. Great ideas, the promise of something happening, but ultimately an ending so bad that I was actually angry for having wasted days reading the darn thing.

I once considered the Wheel of Time series to be my favorite...but I haven't even gone out to get the new book, yet. I probably will, at some point, but the magic's gone. Jordan's lost control of the monster he's made, and until he reigns it back in, I'm not as interested. Martin has taken his place in my heart.

 

[Zaukrie]

Gotta agree with WizardDru. The first two books were to great, great books. And the writing is great, but the ending disappointed me greatly.