Authors You Wish You Liked

[rune]

I know, it's a strange question, but I'm sure others have come up against this problem too

There are authors I have tried that I just can't get away with because I feel there is something missing that means I can't engage with their stories. Sometimes it's the kind of fantasy they write, I personally like unusual creatures/characters and some kind of magic in my fantasy stories. There are good fantasy authors around but dont include these elements in their stories.

Then there are those who style I just can't seem to get away with. If I can't get a picture in my head of their characters and worlds, it end up just words on a page

The authors I wish I liked -

George RR Martin - i loved one of his horror novels, but when I tried the first book in Ice and Fire I was left lost. I just couldnt get into the plot at all. Too much politics for me and not enough of the elements I like. It's a close thing though, and if he wrote a more unusual fantasy series with the elements I liked, I'm sure I'd love it.

Ian Irvine - I tried reading The View From the Mirror, got 3 of the books read. I kept going because I felt the imagination in the story was very good. But what a complicated read It was hard work and in the end I couldnt face the last book. I good author, but includes too much detail for me.

Jacqueline Carey - I read Kushiels Dart and found her writing style easy to follow and liked her imagnative writing. Unfortunately though this book didnt have enough of the elements I like. No magic, not unusual creatures. I think if she started a different series with more of the things I like about fantasy, I'd give it a go

James Barclay - I read 3 books from Legends of the Raven series. It's got lots of the elements I like in a fantasy, so I was really confused as to why I didnt enjoy these books. This was one of those occasions when it was just words on a page for me. I couldnt see the characters or the world in my head. For some reason I couldnt engaging with this authors writing style, which was a shame.

David Farland - I've read 4 books from the Runelord series. Some elements of the series I did find disturbing. However, there was some good ideas, but again for some reason his writing style didnt sit easy with me. I struggled to get through these books and just couldnt seem to get into the stories

Kristine Kathryn Rusch - I've read one of this authors books - The Fey Sacrifice. For me this book was unbalanced, some of the characters seemed well written and others just brushed over. Again I felt I should be enjoying this authors work more, but there was just something missing

Raymond Feist - I loved the Riftwar Saga and the books in that series. Since then I've tried to enjoy his other books and just dont like them Every series he's written I've tried at least 1 book, sometimes more, but I think his theme of fantasy isnt to my taste. If he wrote another series like Riftwar Saga I think I'd enjoy it.

Sarah Micklem - I've read this authors first book - Firethorn. Very well written, I felt. But what a grim story So another author I wish I could engage with.

[Princess Ivy]

I must admit to the grrm books. i plodded through them, but with no real enthusiasm.
I've enjoyed Levins Boys from brazil and stepford wives (the film versions reaked, but the book was un put downable).
i've always wished i could enjoy tolkien. i loved the hobbit, but couldn't get into LOTR. It was just so dry.
azamov, because i feel i should, with him being the grand daddy of sci-fi. but i can't even skim him.
there are others of course, classics like dickens, and dracula etc...

[GOLLUM]

HMM.. that's an interesting topic you bring up Rune, unfortunately I either tend to like or dislike authors/series with no wish or desire to like a series if for me it's just simply no good and refuse to continue with it *Sighs*

I know you don't generally tend to like books that are overly complicated with heaps of storylines, politics, charaters etc.. whereas I'm the opposite LOL! For me the more complicated the book is (provided it doesn't literally fall over from it's sheer ewight of complexity) the better quite frankly.

Hence the fact Irvine and Martin are probably 2 of my fav authors. also read all of Feist's work and quite enjoyed it although it's not super complicated like my favs Erikson, Martin, Jordan etc..

Also a case in point started reading Farland's Runelords series (have first 4 books) but didn't enjoy Book 1 couldn't go any further just hated his writing style. Read some of Barclay's Legends books and enjoyed them more than Farland but didn't think they were anything great. Not complicated or layered enough for me!!

As you know I quite liked Sarah Micklem's debut novel enough said.

Not read Jacqueline Carey or Kristine Kathryn Rusch...

[zorcarepublic]

Weird, I know, but I wish I liked Tolkein/Rowling. Their books are supposed to be good, but I get intensely angry for some reason when I hear about them. Similar to the Patricians attitude to mimes, I suppose


LEARN THE WORDS

[Tikal]

Hey, I know what you mean, there are plently of authors that i wish that i could get into. I agree about George RR Martin, I find the politics a bit too much too handle. I keep going back to the book, hoping that i can get into it a bit more because i've heard alot of good stuff about them. Im hoping that since my interest in politics has grown since last I tried to read the book,. i'll enjoy it alot more.

Raymond Feist is a good author but I know what you mean. The books are the kind that I can only read once, instead of a few times-which i like to do, I always find something that I missed the first time, forgotten or just didn't understand before.

L.E. Modesitt Jr is a funny one for me. I've read all of the Spellsong Cylce and about 7 of the Recluse series, but i just cannot bring myself to sit down and read the rest, even though I have a few more, i always pick up anotyher book by another author instead, strange!

[Rane Longfox]

I wish I liked Robert Jordan, because I know I'm gonna buy the rest of his WoT books anyway, so it we much better if I was a fan

Apart from that, Robin Hobb, probably. I just couldn't get into any of her books at all, but most people seem to count her among their favorite authors...

[Leto]

Isaac Asimov - I love his scientific vulgarisation article and like his short stories but I can't appreciate his novels : both the Robots and the Fondation series.

Apart from him, I've tried several time to read GRRM (mostly because of all the praises he seems to receive here), and I can't. His style bores me.
I've tried too with Dan Brown, but in this case the sheer amount of factual errors in the first chapter is a barreer I can't go through. But frankly I have no regret not to love them, just not my taste.

[Gary Wassner]

Brilliant thread! I think so many of us who love to read are familiar with authors whose books we wanted to like but just couldn't. When you want to like something you have expectations and they affect the read as well. Now you were talking about wanting to like them after you read them, right? So the expectation issue is a non-issue here. I tried and tried with Neil Gaiman and KJ Bishop, but no matter how much I wished I loved the books of theirs that I read, I didn't. I struggled through The Etched City and though I read American Gods straight through, I just didn't love it.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by caladanbrood

I wish I liked Robert Jordan, because I know I'm gonna buy the rest of his WoT books anyway, so it we much better if I was a fan

Apart from that, Robin Hobb, probably. I just couldn't get into any of her books at all, but most people seem to count her among their favorite authors...

Couldn't agree more Cal. Just couldn't see the fuss about Robin Hobb's books. They're quite well written but I just couldn't find that much in the actual storyline or characters for that matter.

BTW for any Hobb fans she'll be in Melbourne at Dmyocks book store on Friday 15th July at 12.30 PM for a book signing to coincide with her latest release. I might tag along out of interest, not sure if I'll bother chasing a signauture though..

Very glad to see you're OK after the London blasts...

Cairn,

You'll find the longer you're here, that Rune has a tendency to post a lot of brilliant threads...

[Princess Ivy]

Originally Posted by caladanbrood

I wish I liked Robert Jordan, because I know I'm gonna buy the rest of his WoT books anyway, so it we much better if I was a fan

Apart from that, Robin Hobb, probably. I just couldn't get into any of her books at all, but most people seem to count her among their favorite authors...

i enjoyed the first four or five jordan wot books, then started skimming. i'm now at the point where he's to boring to skim.
although i did enjoy the robin hobb books, she is not listed in my faves. they are pretty constant. and it takes quite a bit to get onto my list.

[red_temple]

Ernest Hemmingway. I've tried many times, and he's really an author I *should* like. Have not been able to finish a book by him yet. Does that make me a terrible person? I will keep trying, though.

[Jay]

I know what Rune is getting out, but I generally don't suffer from the same hang ups. This comes from a firm belief that if I don't like something, it's not worth liking That's why I avoid extremes, it's the difference between a masterpiece, a great book, a good book, and average book, a sub-par book, a bad book, a terrible book, etc, etc. Generally books I really hate are so, in my mind obviously terrible, I never feel any reason to think about it further (ie Dragonlance, Paoulini etc). Those are horrible works IMHO.

In regards to books that a lot of other people like that I didn't like, and what are my thoughts on those situations, well I just file it under rampant, popular-bad taste.

I'm not implying a significant level of veracity to this methodology, but it works for me.

[Gary Wassner]

Some books you just read for other reasons, regardless of the level of enjoyment we are talking about here. There are different degrees and types of enjoyment. Swan's Way is one of those books. Updike for me is another example of an author I read though I don't enjoy in the way I enjoy Isherwood, Mann or Bakker for that matter.

Sometimes I just latch on to a character and a world and I love it for reasons I don't even understand myself. When that same author begins another series in another setting, I often find that it just doesn't enthrall me the way the previous one did even though the style is the same and the author's voice has not really changed. I loved Donaldson's first Covenant series and I never got into anything else has written.

[Brys]

Well, there aren't really any which I hate but wanted to like, but there are quite a few I wish I'd enjoyed more:
Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series
Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy
Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon
JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun (Shadow of the Torturer and Claw of the Conciliator - I haven't read the others yet).

There isn't a great difference between what I expected and what I thought about these when finished, but these are the only ones really which fall into that category.

[Ailanna]

I'm constantly told I should like Lois McMaster Bujold, but I never really do, somehow. I've read several by her from the Miles series and The Curse of Chalion, and they don't quite rub me the right way. I don't tend to like her characters.

Never got through George R R Martin's A Game of Thrones, I'm afraid, or any Robert Jordan book. Nor does LoTR rank high on my list of favorites; I think it's very well written and thought out, but...I don't know.

Also, I thought I would love John Crowley's Little, Big because it was supposed to be quirky and whimsical, which is the way I like my fantasy generally--but I found it dull and rather less charming than it thought itself.