It’s About Making Babies!

Booking Through Thursday asks:

Have you ever fallen out of love with a favorite author? Was the last book you read by the author so bad, you broke up with them and haven’t read their work since? Could they ever lure you back?

Piers Anthony comes to mind. Macrospcope was an eye-opener for me. I really enjoyed it. Then I read a couple Brass and Amber books – and found nothing left for me.

The big name is Robert Heinlein. I loved his early work, and I still re-read Moon is a Harsh Mistress. The imagery, story, and values in Door Into Summer still matter a lot in my live. But Stranger in a Strange Land marked a change in direction, an interest in stuff that went way far from anything I am interested in.

Lois McMaster Bujold flipped from science fiction and my beloved Miles Vorkosigan stories, to Avalon and historical fiction and horror. Oops. She can go that path without me.

On the other hand, Kelley Armstrong was bored with her Ladies of the Underworld series, a loosely connected series of werewolf, witch, and vampire adventure novels (Hastings bookstore mis-shelved a couple of titles in the SF sections – what a wonderful discovery!). Only her last book is a .. mundane? .. detective story. Not enough insight, character, to hold my interest, and certainly not a storyline that interests me. I will look forward to her return to the paranormal adventure, but she can go her own with anything like ‘Exit Strategy’. Yuck.

Speaking of Kelley Armstrong and her paranormal adventures, I tried one of Laurell K Hamilton’s of a similar genre. Yuck. That one seems a shallow cover for soft porn with a morbid focus. Two other authors working in that genre, though, really come through. Anne Bishop with her Dark Jewels trilogy, The InVisible Ring, and her other works are great – the world building is delightfully solid with enough intersection with our world to surprise and relate to. Bishop’s work is intense, and may be written for an experienced reader, certainly not a ‘hook the child’ reading level. Then there is the fun Patricia Briggs. Her Mercedes Thompsen books – Moon Called, Blood Bound, Iron Kissed – are great reads. I have re-read even the newest at least three times (anything worth reading is worth re-reading, right?).

Back to the Topic. Sherri S. Tepper. I loved her novels of the True Game – Mavin Manyshaped, Kings’ Blood Four, etc. Then came Grass. I got lost and bored. The book may have been a ‘deep’, introspective work, but it wasn’t fun for me. I did wade through ‘The Door To Women’s Country’. Yuck. Again, Tepper has a right to go her own way. May she go in peace, and with thanks for the early works.

Carol Berg. Her ambitious Bridge series started quite well. The second book got tedious, and I never finished the third of the four. I doubt I will be picking up anything more under her name.

Jane Auel. The honeymoon is over – she hasn’t written anything better, in my mind, than Valley of Horses. That one is a favored re-read. Valley of Horses is so good, that because of it I still re-read the prequel, Clan of the Cave Bear, and the follow-ons, Mammoth Hunters, Plains of Passage, Shelters of Stone. I expect there may be another coming, I will probably pick it up, but the real fun – Valley of Horses.

Mercedes Lackey writes wonderfully of her Valdemar universe. Except she veered off with the White Gryphon nonsense. That story line for some reason went from unappealing to off-putting. So I watch each book that comes out, and stick to the story lines she has done well, for me. She does a wonderful ‘Fairy Godmother’ version.

Well, I started Agent of Change again, Steve Miller and Sharon Lee. This has been a long honeymoon, and hasn’t come to the end, yet. The only bobble was Local Custom. For some reason that one was a sour note for me. The plot, characters, premise were all consistent with the others of their works that I love, I just found it disturbing. On the other hand there is Conflict of Honors. The joy of the crew of Priscilla and Dutiful Passage is a precious gift to delight time after time.

Anne McCaffrey. Her novels of Pern through the White Dragon kept me company for years. Her collection of short stories Get Off The Unicorn includes the incredible ‘A Proper Santa’. I even followed her to the romance ‘A Stitch In Snow’, and her early ‘Mark of Merlin’ – with delight. Then came the tedious Dinosaur Planet. Oops. I first found Anne McCaffrey with The Ship Who Sang. And it was delightful how that story line branched out to other authors. Acorna was a bit less successful. The first book was OK, but the next .. I think I finished it, but I haven’t picked up any more of that story line. Dinosaur Planet, though – really, really disappointed me. I recall how disappointed I was with each revelation of a couple more titles that she had returned to that initial, disappointing theme in Dinosaur Planet. And her Pern stories have branched. But frankly, I haven’t been interested in the books since White Dragon. Another case of checking the story line, since she has branched off into a couple of dead ends for me.

Anyway, I am headed back to Agent of Change. Enjoy!