So, I’m a little, ok, massively late with this, but I really wanted to answer the 2/14 Booking Through Thursday question.
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?
For me, this is Mercedes Lackey. I’m actually glad she stopped writing books in the world of Velgarth, because I think I would be boycotting by now if she hadn’t.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I envy her ability to pump out the sheer volume of writing that she’s able to. Hell, I can’t even complete one measly novel that I’ve been working on on and off for the better part of twenty years, let alone the dozen or so she seems to put out. But I’m not sure it’s that great an idea to put out that many books if the quality goes down, and the stories seem to be getting more and more derivative (and I say this having talked to a number of fans that agree with me).
I’ve also learned to avoid anything that she co-wrote with another author. I suspect she’s just supplying the ideas for those series, and the “co-author” is doing the lion’s share of the writing. Haven’t read a single one of those that I like (well, with the exception of the Darkover book she co-wrote, but that’s a little different).
The saving grace, and the reasons I haven’t abandoned her books completely, are the Elementals and 1000 Kingdom series. I suspect it’s the fact that these series are both made up of stand alone stories that has kept them fresh. It’s also that both series have fairy tales as their source material, and if that’s fortunately a pretty deep well that shouldn’t lead to derivative stories. So, I do still read her books, but I definitely think twice before tackling something new.