I read a lot and often will pick up a book just because I’m familiar with the author. Rick Atkinson, Victor Davis Hanson, Marc Cameron, Bart Ehrman, and Daniel Silva are all writers who are still producing good works, as were others who have evidently retired or died.

But I sometimes start to have good experiences with certain authors only to become soured on them for one reason or another.

I really looked forward to Steven Hunter’s books until getting into The Bullet Garden, a novel set in Europe in World War II and therefore a setting that was somewhat different from his previous works. It had so many practical and historical errors that I could only wonder if it had been ghost written by someone else and Hunter had barely read it himself.

Technical errors and anachronisms are a big turn-off for me in general. The second(?) book of one series that was supposedly written by a former military sniper had the protagonist dodging bullets fired by an M14 rifle and whose shots were totally(!) silent because the weapon was equipped with a suppressor.

In one popular thriller series the hero used a TASER as a heart defibrillator, and in another the main guy had been a high-ranking member of an Army CID unit that never existed.

I liked the first Jack Carr books, but then they turned almost into sci-fi AI. I wanted to be reset with Cry Havoc, but I’m becoming much less tolerant of ignorant criticisms of our involvement in Vietnam. I see he has a new one, and I may try it, but deadly effective conspiracies in general have to be at least somewhat plausible even in fictional works.

Anyway, we have our preferences and hot buttons, so I’m curious what others’ are. What makes you say, “Nope, no more”?

I’m not as prolific as you. I paused Daniel Silva because of liberal perspectives entering his writings but I started again. In general, I’ve noticed his writing improve over time. Most others I’ve only stopped because they stopped writing (a particular series). There are a rare few that I stopped reading because they just became far fetched; probably similar to your sentiments above.

Harold Coyle. I used to read his novels when I was a teenager and young adult, but his writing style started to annoy me later on. It was too verbose.

Dale Brown. His B-52s became flying Death Stars.

Tom Clancy. He became too preachy and his later novels (that he was alive to write) were boring.

I read quite a few series, persevere through a bad book hoping for a comeback. Daniel Silva almost lost me but I loved his latest, "Ransom". Same with Craig Johnson and one or two of his more out there Longmire books.

@sigfreund, I know we have similar tastes, these all became available at my library on the same day. BTW, I put large print on my waitlist because they're available much faster.

When Stephen King opined maybe the military was a viable option for the illiterate.

I read Silva faithfully, something a couple (few?) years ago caused me to quit reading his books. Same thing with Baldacci. Maybe his books became too formulaic, or they just started to bore me; it’s been a long time. I also stopped reading Lee Child. His books always seemed to be up and down. One book would be good, the next, not good. I quit reading him too.

Get me to roll my eyes more than once in a book. They get one for free.

When it becomes a formula rather than a story the author is telling.
Lack of proofreading for spelling and story line errors.

quote:

Originally posted by sig operator:
Lack of proofreading for spelling and story line errors.

When I was about 12, I bought a cheap paperback at the airport, mainly due the the cover art.

Because it was so bad, that book taught me a great deal of appreciation for many books that would follow in my life.

Yes, some book series become very formulistic, and I’d even say that that’s almost inevitable based on the settings and characters. The question of course is what the readers think of that. Although I no longer remember the movie or actor, the star played a writer of mystery stories. Early on his agent commented that his readers thought the writer’s stories had become very predictable. That bothered the writer throughout the movie whenever he thought about it. Near the end, though, the agent clarified his remark by saying that predictability was what they liked about the stories: i.e., they knew how they were supposed to progress, they did, and they enjoyed that.

A writer I discovered a very long time ago was George Macdonald Fraser. Most of his books were the fictional “Flashman” series about a 19th century British army officer. Flashman was a bully, coward, and total reprobate who nevertheless managed to become viewed as a military hero due to his many misadventures. I’ve read the series several times, but even initially when I had read just the first few, I knew where a tale was going to take him: a lazy slacker who nevertheless gets involved in a dangerous situation despite his dishonorable and cowardly attempts to avoid it, and then manages to survive and maybe even gain approbation by sheer chance.

Fraser was a knowledgeable historian and kept the stories interesting by changing the events and settings; imagine surviving the Indian Mutiny, the charge of the Light Brigade, the battle of the Little Bighorn with Custer, and other military debacles, many of which I’d never even heard of, but which were based on actual events. Despite the desperate circumstances Flashman found himself in, I always knew he would survive. On the other hand, his (last?) book, Mr American, was completely different and, for me, hugely enjoyable as well. Although I have a hard copy someplace, it’s disappointing that it’s not available as a Nook ebook.

Another set of books I really enjoyed is the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian which is about a 19th century British naval officer and his physician friend. I just finished the 20-book series for the third or fourth time, and it had its formula as well: struggles, difficulties, success. Those books have a great deal of filler: the sailors’ mundane tasks, etc., but I find them interesting because again the author was a very knowledgeable historian who could describe life and actions accurately even when writing about a “mil” (boxing match) of the era.

So, I can tolerate some formulism if the rest of the story warrants it. The Gabriel Allon series by Silva was starting to get close to my limits, but I really enjoyed his latest, Ransom, and partly because some elements were not what I expected.

I’m always looking for something new, though. I see “Baldacci” mentioned. I could look it up myself, but what are they?

quote:

I’m always looking for something new, though. I see “Baldacci” mentioned. I could look it up myself, but what are they?

I mentioned Balducci. I stopped reading him so ago that honestly, I don’t recall if he had a reoccurring character like Allon, or not. I think he did, then expanded his cast of characters. It got to wwhere it seemed like he was releasing a new novel every 20 minutes or so. His novels ran to the action/espionage thriller genre. I seem to remember something about a character thumbing the safety on a firearm that doesn’t have one.

Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
I read Silva faithfully, something a couple (few?) years ago caused me to quit reading his books...

There was one book (possibly "The Order") where Silva took many unnecessary slams at DJT. I was angry, but to my relief his subsequent books have pretty much avoided US politics. I've read 23 of his 26 books featuring Gabriel Allon, will read the last three when I fly the UK in a month.

Yes, the plots are somewhat predictable, but I enjoy reading them. It's a plus that I have visited Israel and most of the European cities where the action takes place.

quote:

Originally posted by AllenInAR:
When Stephen King opined maybe the military was a viable option for the illiterate.

he got too leftist preachy, and too verbose, for me

what used to take him a page or 2, if that, took 20+ pages, or more,


sorry, a 600 page book that should have been 300,, is not worth my time