Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Sookie Stackhouse Book 11 - Dead Reckoning

Book number 11 in the Sookie Stackhouse series, Dead Reckoning, has just come out.

Even though, I’m on a waiting list for the book at my library I am ambivalent about what to expect.

The last two books were really average and the last book, Dead in the Family, was a major disappointment.

At what point do you give up on a series? When has an author ‘jumped the shark’?

I’m edging toward closing the book on the Sookie Stackhouse series. I think that Harris has exhausted all possible and interesting storylines.

She has had the competing boyfriends issues (Eric and Bill), romance with a werewolf and discovery of fairies relatives.

Now, the characters just seemed to be treading water. In fact, I found Sookie quite annoying in the last two books as all she seemed to be doing was bleat on about wanting a nice boyfriend to settle down with. Ugh!

So, why do authors do it?

Sure, there is a fan base to satisfy and of course the money, but at some point I wish someone would step in and say ‘enough already’.

Don’t they realise they just destroy the legacy of their own work.

A prime example I’ve previously blogged about is Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series. I finally stopped at Book 15: Scarpetta Factor.

And I just checked her website and I can’t believe that she is bringing out another Scarpetta book this year!

News flash: Emperor of All Maladies won the 2011 Pulitizer Prize for general non-fiction.

2 comments:

Tamsyn said...

As soon as I read your opening paragraph I immediately thought of Patricia Cornwall's Scarpetta books. They very quickly went from being my favourite books to almost unreadable.

So sad that the Sookie Stackhouse story is going the same way :(

Book Boy said...

Hey Tamsyn, yes it's so sad when characters you love like Scarpetta get totally dudded.

At least Harris has announced that she's ending the series:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/16/true-blood-southern-vampire-mysteriesGood thing is that