Author's habits?

[Lady's Human]

I know there's a book thread floating around here somewhere, but it's early and I haven't had enough coffee, and it's very difficult to be patient with a tennis ball getting beaten into my thigh.


I'm reading a couple of sci-fi books at the moment, and a couple of things popped into my head.

Jack McDevitt cannot end a book.

The last 20 pages drift on and on, looking for a point. It eventually gets there, and his books are very readable, but I notice myself struggling to read the last few chapters every time.

David Weber has somewhat different habits.

The beginnings of his books can be tedious, but if you've read his work before, you know you have to read thoroughly, as there's a detail in there somewhere that you'll be looking for later. He also tends to get into Dickensian descriptions of tech/activities that he's familiar with. (I've accused Dickens of taking 4 pages to describe a room when only one small piece of that description is actually important)


Any odd observations on your favorite authors?

[redbird]

Danielle Steele , I like her books and have read many of them. The one thing I don't like is she does keep repeating herself and that gets a little boring. Other than that her stories are pretty good. My favorite author tho is James Patterson, now his books are never boring.

[RICHARD]

Stephen King - He was excellent about 7 books into his career and then 'it' got to be the same basic story, over and over.

Dale Brown - a good 'cold war' story teller, until he began to run out of countries to fight with?

Clive Cussler - A GREAT mystery/history writer that was able to turn spinoffs from his franchise into decent adventure series.

Harold Coyle - good writer - made the jump from modern war to the Civil War.

Larry Bond - Another 'war' writer that picks fights with some old and new enemies. He also has gone into the spinoff/series mode that kinda got tired after a while.

[Karen]

I love Neal Stephenson's books, but one HAS to slog through the first couple chapters before it picks up. All that stuff is necessary, mind you, but I get a little impatient sometimes!

[Vette]

Nicholas Sparks. he has a habit of killing just about every main character in the end. what it feels like anyway LOL

[smokey the elder]

George R. R. Martin. All his characters are villains to a degree, and get killed off left and right! (Game of Thrones)

[Cataholic]

Danielle Steele , I like her books and have read many of them. The one thing I don't like is she does keep repeating herself and that gets a little boring. Other than that her stories are pretty good. My favorite author tho is James Patterson, now his books are never boring.

I was an avid reader of Danielle Steele years ago (and still read her stuff), but noticed that her plots repeat, but more annoying is the near same sentence or thought repeats! I caught it in the last book I read of hers and actually went back and verified that she does say the same thing over and over again in the same chapter. But, it is still nice, light reading.

Ah, James Patterson. I do like him a lot, and you are right, his books are never boring. Though, there was a glitch in his Alex Cross series. He originally had Cross's wife killed off in a different way in one book, but another way a few books later. :-0