Book series that go on too long

[Captaindemotion]

I love Stephen Hunter's series of books featuring Earl Swagger (set in the 1940s and 50s) and then his son Bob Lee, which spanned from the 1960s to the present day. However, the last two with Bob Lee which I read, the 47th Samurai and I Sniper, just didn't meet the (admittedly very high) standard of the earlier ones.

Interesting to know as I've just started reading that series (the Bob Lee one).

Incidentally, I've just started reading the latest one, Dead Zero. Am hoping it will be a return to form. Hunter maintains virtually no internet presence (there are only fansites, no official ones) and his books get little coverage in review columns over here, so it's always a pleasant surprise for me to walk into a bookstore (especially a second-hand one!) and see one of his books on the shelves.

 

[JoeZhang]

I think maybe this is my favourite scene from those SOT books:

Nicci had no compunction about what she was doing. She knew that there was no moral equivalence between her inflicting torture and the Imperial Order doing what might on the surface seem like the same thing. But her purpose in using it was solely to save innocent lives. The Imperial Order used torture as a means of subjugation and conquest, as a tool to strike fear into their enemies. And, at times, as something they relished because it made them feel powerful to hold sway over not just agony but life itself.

The Imperial Order used torture because they had no regard at all for human life. Nicci was using it because she did. While at one time she would have seen no difference, since coming to embrace life she saw all the difference in the world.

See kids, as long as you love life, torturing people is the right and moral thing to do.

 

[Skywalker]

...How the hell did that series become so popular? And how the hell did enough people keep buying the books that Goodkind was able to write so many of them?

 

[Miss Chicken]

...How the hell did that series become so popular? And how the hell did enough people keep buying the books that Goodkind was able to write so many of them?

My son started to read the series as an adult. I had no idea that they were like this. I thought that they were ordinary run-of-the-mill fantasy and I am now quite surprised (possibly shocked) to find out that my son enjoyed these sort of books.

 

[ATimson]

...How the hell did that series become so popular? And how the hell did enough people keep buying the books that Goodkind was able to write so many of them?

We kept buying them because the first book or three were mostly clear of it (okay, there was that scene with Viola quoted above, but she was annoying and evil and I totally thought deserved it), and we kept hoping the series would get back to its roots.

Also, Zedd is awesome.

 

[JoeZhang]

...How the hell did that series become so popular? And how the hell did enough people keep buying the books that Goodkind was able to write so many of them?

We kept buying them because the first book or three were mostly clear of it (okay, there was that scene with Viola quoted above, but she was annoying and evil and I totally thought deserved it), and we kept hoping the series would get back to its roots.

Also, Zedd is awesome.

Yep, that's what happened to me.