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When do good writers go bad?

D

Dark Pickle

Fucked Off
So I'm working my way through Again, Dangerous Visions, and I noticed a story by Dean Koontz, and one Piers Anthony.

I've always thought of these writers as fair at best, but definately not great. I never even thought of Koonts as SF, frankly. I thought he was more in the suspense/horror line.

Both of these stories were damn good, even chilling (esp. the Anthony).

So, my question is: where did it all go wrong?

Did they somehow lose most of their talent?

Did they decide they'd rather make tons of money entertaing people instead of being respected artists and critical darlings?

I also noticed that none of Bradbury's later work (90's and after) could even touch the old stuff...is it just an age thing?

Or did they sell out?
 
Koontz has always been pulp.. but he has written a few gems, imo. Most of his stories are feel good horror (that doesn't even make sense). The main character always survives and good always prevails. My mom or my sister gave me a paper bag full of his books years ago, and I enjoyed most of them, but none of them required any heavy lifting.

Piers Anthony is awesome, I loved the Xanth series when I was a kid, and his Incarnation of Immortality Series. Recently I read some of his Geodyssey Series and it was pretty good. He has written so many books, that it would be impossible for some of them not to be crap.. don't even bother reading Firefly, it's fucking creepy.
 
Dark Pickle said:
I also noticed that none of Bradbury's later work (90's and after) could even touch the old stuff...is it just an age thing?
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um, in that case though, I just think it was age. Alas.


OTOH, there are many writers who have continued to write wonderfully; seemingly undiminished by age, whose passings I've mourned as my own loss. ( because I've selfishly wanted them to keep writing their stories forever).

that was a grammatical mess, but you get what I mean.
 
Reading a collection of Koontz's short stories right now, (which contains both horror and SF) and it might just be that I like him better as a short fiction writer...

Most of his novels are absurdly easy to read, so that by the time I'm a few hundred pages in, it feels like I've just started. Most of them seem too similar to each other as well. I often can't tell which I've read and which I haven't just from the titles.

By contrast, his stories, being shorter and more to the point, are more striking and memorable to me. Even if it's just a standard EC comics morality tale, like The Black Pumpkin or Snatcher.

NeonMercuryASH said:
I like Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions, better.
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Hmmm, tossup. The first one has Phillip Farmer, Robert Bloch, Phillip Dick, and the man himself; but the second has Ursala Lequin's The Word for World is Forrest, A poem from Bradburry and a story by the guy that wrote the script for Star Trek's The Trouble with Tribbles...
 
You'll have to tell me what you think of The Word for World is Forrest, haven't read that one yet.
 
Dark Pickle said:
Reading a collection of Koontz's short stories right now, (which contains both horror and SF) and it might just be that I like him better as a short fiction writer...

Most of his novels are absurdly easy to read, so that by the time I'm a few hundred pages in, it feels like I've just started. Most of them seem too similar to each other as well. I often can't tell which I've read and which I haven't just from the titles.

By contrast, his stories, being shorter and more to the point, are more striking and memorable to me. Even if it's just a standard EC comics morality tale, like The Black Pumpkin or Snatcher.



Hmmm, tossup. The first one has Phillip Farmer, Robert Bloch, Phillip Dick, and the man himself; but the second has Ursala Lequin's The Word for World is Forrest, A poem from Bradburry and a story by the guy that wrote the script for Star Trek's The Trouble with Tribbles...
Click to expand...
With a finger in my I, or was that When Harlie was One?
 
Dark Pickle said:
Reading a collection of Koontz's short stories right now, (which contains both horror and SF) and it might just be that I like him better as a short fiction writer...

Most of his novels are absurdly easy to read, so that by the time I'm a few hundred pages in, it feels like I've just started. Most of them seem too similar to each other as well. I often can't tell which I've read and which I haven't just from the titles.
Click to expand...


fair point. I fell out of reading him (the novels)for that very same reason. But I never tried his short stories so maybe I should.
 
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