Re: Writers who jumped the shark

Dark Lensman wrote:
> Sean O'Hara <darkerthenightthebrighterthestar@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
message news:<MPG.19654ab75cdaccb5989cf6@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>...
> > In the Year of the Goat, the Great and Powerful 
> > tomcatpolka@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 declared...
> > > Has Terry Pratchett jumped the shark? I haven't read any of his
stuff,
> > > but I see he puts out a lot.
> > 
> > Apart from an occassional stinker (Jingo) Pratchett's been getting
> > better for the last decade.
> 
> And i think Jingo is amongst his best, feet of clay on the other
> hand.. - it just goes to show that he hasnt jumped the shark
> 

Jingo is one of my favourites too...but I also loved Feet 
of Clay...which just goes to show that he's just 
stretching a little further and a long way from the 
endless downward slide

I suspect that if he ever thinks he can't excite himself 
with a book he'll simply stop writing...he's not exactly 
short of a quid or two so he's not been writing simply to 
feed the bank for some while...and he's set himself a 
setting and several regular characters that can be used 
to tackle pretty much any standard plot and turn it on 
its head...so I don't see him running out of jokes

prolific authors I'm more worried about are Ian Rankin 
and Carl Hiaassen...both of whom seem to be painting 
themselves into a corner...Rankin because he keeps 
returning to a character (Rebus) who seems to be 
"developing" by going in circles...and Hiassen because 
there are only so many books you can write about hard 
bitten, disillusioned local re****ters before it starts 
seeming cliched...I suspect both need to stretch 
themselves a bit or they'll start getting very dull

-- 
eric
www.ericjarvis.co.uk
"Hey Lord don't ask me questions
There ain't no answer in me"