Too right, without real jeopardy for the characters when they are most vulnerable, the story is defanged. The best recent horror for me was the Dr. Who "The Empty Child" storyline, no dripping gore but creepy and disturbing, a good idea well executed. Back on topic, my overrated author would be Heinlein. The later works were, err, rubbish to be honest and took way too long to plough through.

-LS

I'm going to take a guess at this that a lot of you are very young, and don't have much patience Anne Rice realize on creating an atmosphere, and setting the mode to tell a story. It is a very old style of story telling it is most definitely not for every one. In her later books she gets away from that writing style. In her later books, but over rated authors like Stephen King I hate everything he wrote, but there are some more that have her writing style like Homer, Plateau and Dante. Most authors today have no real style and it makes for a easy read so no one has a taste for a talented author, and it is because every bit of originality has been edited out of there work to make it accessible to Joe public that may be a lot of the reason that I have not gotten a new book in years. I have two degrees, a Bachelors in English Literature and an Associates in Literary History. This has been a rising trend in the last ten years of authors sacrificing their artistic integrity for book sales this explain why there hasn't been any really great book written in the last 10 years.

Any Book or Author? Since she has not been mentioned yet I will have to say that I think that, when it comes to Pagan books, Raven Silverwolf is utterly overratted.

Also, for the romance department I would have to say that I am completely sick of hearing and seeing Nora Robert's name everywhere, though it is not as much lately as it has been in the past.

Also not the biggest fan of Robert Frost....

also (and please no one stake me with this) I think that the bible -in general- is a bit overrated.

I agree with Steven King, I have never liked his books, I much prefer Dean Koontz.

Also for as much as I like the A&E BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, the book did not spark my emotions near as much.

And...

I think (most) everyone is in agreement with the posting of Stephenie Meyers and her twinkling vampires.

I have to agree with a lot of you because I never really liked Stephen King either. I don't like any of the Dean Koontz books, but the author that is under rated is Brian Lumly.

I like Stephen King, but I feel the man desperately needs an editor to tell him when to tighten his work up, and he's gotten big enough that he can sell books without having it edited first, which I view as a big reason for the decline in quality over the years.

Personally, though, I don't think much of any writers who believe they don't need editors (and here I admit that I sometimes stick stuff on the internet without having it edited first, but I'm not asking anyone for money when I do that). I feel that a second set of eyes are very important with something like this. Mind you, some of these people are still very good, over all, but the moment a writer gets big enough that they can declare they don't need an editor is, to me, the moment a writer (or their ego) has just gotten too big.

I greatly dislike Chuck Pahlaniuck(sp?) because he seems like exactly what you're talking about!

i couldnt agree anymore..i mean seriously? *"sparkling"* vampires?!
can someone start a thread and list what a classic vampire is.....pwease

I am so glad that I'm not the only one who doesn't like Anne Rice! I struggled through Interview...and when I started The Vampire Lestat, I gave up halfway through. I am not a quitter of books by nature, I love books, so it pains me to have to put one down. I gave it to a friend who I know will struggle to the very end in an attempt to appear more gawf than me, and decided just to take pleasure out of the fact he's going to want to dash his brains on the wall . I think she's uninspiring and boring, and just a bad writer. I remember flicking back several pages through the Vampire Lestat and thinking "hey, something actually happened here, but I missed it because it was SO boring, when it should have been interesting!"

I hear people say Harry Potter is overrated a lot...I actually think that its very enjoyable. Yes its a bit twee and predictable, but I don't think the writing is actually bad, and its not difficult to read; I think people forget that its aimed at such a wide age-range that anything too difficult wouldn't be picked up by younger kids. I think Harry Potter is something most people enjoyed as youngsters and grew up with, or else read to their children and couldn't help but enjoy it.

I don't think challenging reads are bad reads at all, but if your writing doesn't flow, and makes the person feel like they are struggling to turn a page, then how can it be entertaining?

I actually greatly enjoyed most of the Vampire Chronicles. I just couldn't deal with the Armand book and after. Marius is an ancient pedo.

um...yeah, that...ugh, I detest Twilight with a passion

Also, John Steinbeck, Pearl S. Buck, Anne Rice (although I liked her first two or three books, I think her writing went downhill afterwards but those weren't that great to begin with), Mary Shelley (but not for her writing style, mostly for her misplaced sympathies and character development).

-- Sun May 30, 2010 8:41 pm --



ha ha ha! That's wonderful in my opinion...not being sarcastic, I really think it's great that you said that.