Kevin J Anderson - Is he any good?

[J-WO]

I haven't read any of those prequel/ sequel books but the one thing that winds me up is all those titans/ super AI stuff. From Dune, I got the sense that the Butlerian Jihad was more a schism between human factions (Herbert describes the streets as running with blood, not engine oil or whatever) over whether to allow the existence of artificial intelligence rather than a second rate Matrix impersonation in space.

I'm not saying AI didn't exist before and during the Jihad but the idea of galactic robo-overlords is just absurd, crude and unfitting. No one mentions them at all in Dune; you'd thing such a thing would.

 

[iansales]

It's embarrassing what they did to Dune. If Frank were alive, he'd probably disown his son. Mind you, if Frank were alive, we'd have a proper Dune 7...

 

[Zorn]

No, I am not, nor have any affliation to KJA, I just like his books and found the DUNE books by Frank Herbert, with the exception of the 1rst book, rather long winded and short plotted. All of his esoteric meandering led to a very difficult struggle to read them all. They were not terrible but certainly not outstanding. Again I think the prequels read better than the originals. I will say though that the first DUNE was a terrific book. But that was the only one.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

All of his esoteric meandering led to a very difficult struggle to read them all.

Why did you, then? And more than that, having struggled through the original books, why go on to read the prequels? Life is too short to read books in a series you have come to hate.

He could be KJA.... or his publicist... or someone who works for him... But it does smack of desperation...

No, KJA is so busy writing umpteen books a year and raking in the profits from being so prolific, he wouldn't have time to read forums like this one. His publicist, if indeed he has one (with all those franchise books, it hardly seems necessary) wouldn't bother either.

 

[Zorn]

I read them because the original DUNE was a terrific book. I have read only a handful of books more than once, but have read DUNE 3 times. So when the back stories were started by KJA and B. Herbert, I started reading them and found that they were much more entertaining than the original series. Therefore I have read them all with the exception of the last two, Paul and Winds of Dune. To be fair I have read nothing else but the DUNE series by F. Herbert, so I do not know how his other books compare.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I read them because the original DUNE was a terrific book. I have read only a handful of books more than once, but have read DUNE 3 times.

OK, so I can understand why you would read a couple of the sequels after that. The second book in the series after thinking that it would be as good as the first (I agree that it wasn't), and the third in the hope that he would return to form ... but five sequels when you hated them all?

I know people do that sort of thing, but I have never been able to understand why. I would have been so burned out on the whole series, supposing I had gone that far (and struggled through them), that I would never have gone back for more punishment with the prequels.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Hear that sound? It's the voice of reason speaking.

 

[Zorn]

Lets call it an uncontrollable obsession to finish what I start, at least when it comes to books. I at least want to know how something ends.

 

[dask]

I doubt I would have stuck with it for five books but this whole situation got me wondering. I've never read KJA so I don't know what kind of writer he is but with so much competition in the field I find it difficult to believe a truly bad writer could achieve such an attractive publishing track record. And I wonder, is it fair to judge a book by the book or books that came before it? Will book five be bad because books 1-4 were bad? Wait a minute! Before you jump down my throat, let's look at it the other way. Suppose there were four books in a series you just loved to death and couldn't wait for the fifth. When it came out you were the first in town to buy and read it. And hated it. Wouldn't you be just as guilty for prejudging a book to be good before you read it as a person would be for prejudging a book to be bad before they read it? I Maybe this is why some people stick with a series when all evidence indicates the downhill slope is getting steeper by the page.

 

[AE35Unit]

He wrote Hopscotch, which I abandoned halfway through because it was so badly conceived and written. So, yes, I'd say he's avoidable even without Brian Herbert (whose Garbage Chronicles rivals Hopscotch in my personal list of the most unreadable things I have been subjected to) to help drag him down further.

Oh I thought Brian Herbert's The Garbage Chronicles was great fun! Much more so than his dad's books, but thats just me!
Kevin J, havent a clue. All I know is noone on here likes him!

 

[Rodders]

I've read quite a bit of KJA (The Saga of the Seven Suns, the Dune Prequels and Sequels as well as the X-Files and Star Wars offerings) and whilst i can understand the negativity with regards to his writing style, his books are easy to read and as i've said before, this makes them ideal for the journey too and from work.

I think that rather than writing really bad books, KJA's style of writing is still aimed for teenagers. Somebody, somewhere is buying a lot of KJA's books.

 

[iansales]

KJA's books are the Big Macs of genre fiction. No one would ever say a Big Mac is good for you, or even remotely sophisticated food, but a lot of people still eat them. You could draw similar analogies with Supermarket-brand lager and other beers. Or indeed anything aimed at the lowest common denominator

 

[Interference]

Do publishers actively seek out poor-but-prolific writers? And how do they find them?

We will never solve all the mysteries of life and this is just one of them.

 

[iansales]

Publishers seek out writers who sell. Gone are the days when they could "nurture" a good writer in the hope they might one day break out...

 

[Boneman]

Maybe this is why some people stick with a series when all evidence indicates the downhill slope is getting steeper by the page.

Yeah... I finished The Sword of Truth Series, hoping against hope that they would get better. But the last three I waited until they had it in the Library so I didn't give him any more money.

With KJA, because he was desecrating a universally well-loved series, that won numerous awards, it's just unforgiveable, and I gave him enough chances with a few of the sequels, but gave up in disgust. I don't even want to know if he finished the story.

 

[iansales]

He hasn't finished it. He and Brian Herbert are still milking it for every penny...

 

[Connavar]

He has still not stopped violating Dune ?

He is one of those authors i think i would read only after hell freeze over. What he and BH did to Dune is so infamous and this thread reminds his other works isnt better.

Why bother when there are so many rated authors i havent read yet!

 

[PrinceAshitaka]

I tried to read the Dune-based books, but I'm afraid I very quickly classified them under the "attempt to cash in on a far superior creation" label.



Each to his own taste, of course, but assuming you're referring to the Gormenghast trilogy, I'd be interested to know what you consider so bad about it that it merits such a sweeping dismissal...

Ok - Well it was a pretty blunt dismissal. And given the author's condition when writing the last part I suppose it can be a harsh judgement..
All of that aside, a good story needs a good ending. And the last book in the Gormenghast trilogy was too different than the others, and in my opinion provided quite a weak ending.. I did like some of the characters in the previous books, the twins, Fuschia, all those cats, which just ceased to exist, essentially..

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I did like some of the characters in the previous books ... which just ceased to exist, essentially.

Yep, that tends to happen when characters die. Well ... perhaps not all the cats, but Titus left home at the end of the second book, and he could hardly be expected to take them along.

I agree that Titus Alone isn't as good as the first two, but then it's unfinished. I don't like what there is of it very much, either, though I suspect that has less to do with the fact that it's an early draft than it has to do with my personal taste.
.
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[iansales]

He has still not stopped violating Dune ?

The final volume of the last trilogy has apparently been postponed, and their publishers are now pushing a new original series. The first novel is Hellhole, and it sounds like a cross between their Dune novels and KJA's Sage of the Seven Suns. I shall be avoiding it...