On a related note

[james_davis_nicoll]

What should go on a Top Ten "In retrospect, what the hell were we thinking" list of once-popular SF?

Comments

[blpurdom.livejournal.com]

Actually, I already know adolescents who have had their Twilight WTF moment and stepped away from the books; in turn, they had a fabulous laugh at the antics of the die-hard fans who staged revolt in the form of ranting online and returning their books to stores after the fourth book came out and was a huge disappointment to most people. (Those who had already jumped ship proclaimed that this should NOT have been a shock to anyone, and they had a point.)

I liked Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and know others who did too, but I've also seen it on lists of books that people bought but never managed to finish reading. It may have been "popular" as far as book sales went but I don't think it ever garnered much of a real audience. A shame, too, because on rereading I appreciated it even more and also enjoyed the collection of short stories in the same universe.

[blpurdom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really don't get the appeal of Twilight for older readers. My daughter was into it from the age of 10-11 and then came to her senses. And you're not wrong about the abusive relationship thing, from what friends have told me who read the books purely for sporking purposes. It's so horrendously bad that people who enjoy sporking have been having a wonderful time with it! But taking it seriously just makes me all WTF?

Publishers will say almost anything to hype a book. Stephen King, however, jumped all over the statement that Clarke's book was "Harry Potter for grownups," responding that "Harry Potter is Harry Potter for grownups." JSaMN is absolutely NOTHING like HP, so if anyone bought it believing that hype I can completely understand why they might not have finished it. I thought of it more like--what if Jane Austen had lived in a world with magic and fairies? And had been concerned with the Napoleonic wars more than who married who? But that probably wouldn't have sold as many (unread) books.