In article <34e2d56d.0306261227.690eed1d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
purple_bovine@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Larisa) wrote:
> aalucard@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote in message
> news:<29485-3EFA844F-32@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>...
> > What writers do you think have jumped the shark.
> >
> It pains me to say this, but I will anyway: Carl Hiaasen. I fervently
> hope that "Basket Case" was just an isolated occurrence and not a
> harbinger of things to come.
>
> LM
While Hiaasen is truly funny, I think he's gone to the well once too
many times. That field of wacky Florida authors is getting a little
thick. They all come off as Elmore Leonard's goofy kid brother.
Let's see, you've got Hiaasen, who peaked with Native Tongue, IMHO.
Stormy Weather, Basket Case, Sick Puppy & Lucky You were only so-so.
Then there's Dave Barry, who writes the same (somewhat funny) column
over & over, and has now branched into the same vein of novels. I
actually liked the movie Big Trouble more than the book. I've got his
other one in the 'to read' pile.
There's also Tim Dorsey. His books have a wickedly funny, almost cruel
streak that surfaces every now & then, but overall the books are just OK.
In other genres, Gerald Browne, who wrote many novels about Beautiful
People committing jewel/cash heists jumped the shark with 18mm Blues.
Clive Cussler (Dirk Pitt series) jumped the shark when he started
inserting himself as a character into his own novels. Amusing the first
time, but got really old after that. (Someone in another thread
mentioned something about shattering your suspension of disbelief.)
Tom Clancy lost it (if he ever had it...) with Debt of Honor. Grisham &
Crichton lost it with the first novels they wrote strictly as fodder for
screenplays.
ObSF - For Skiffy/Fantsy authors, I agree wholeheartedly about Robert
Jordan having jumped the shark. The only other author that comes close
to Jordan's diarrhea of the keyboard was L. Ron Hubbard (or whatever
Scientology committee wrote that 10 volume set.) I read the 1st three
books of Jordan's Wheel of Time and got started on the 4th, but then the
Eight Deadly Words set in.
Others that have gone past their expiration date...
(putting on flameproof suit for this one... and YES, I know he's dead...)
Douglas Adams - anything past Restaurant EXCLUDING Dirk Gently stuff.
Piers Anthony, Terry Brooks, Simon R. Green, Katherine Kurtz, Joel
Rosenberg & the Weis/Hickman conglomerate will have to come up with some
pretty unique material before they get any more of my money.
Your Mileage May Vary...
El Capitan
--
A rose by any other name would be "deadly thorn-bearing assault
vegetation."
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