Books Series that Jumped the Shark
The internet is for hate watching and reading. This is something that I have always thoroughly disagreed with and if you want to go hear someone talk about how they despise a book, show, or video game then you have plenty of other choices on the internet. However, there's times when you feel like someone should probably give you a warning that a series that starts off very promising goes in a direction that you absolutely can't deal with. As such, I have decided to give a big old STOP sign for those who might want to be checking out some of the books that start strong but go off the rails.
5. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter by Laurell K. Hamilton
I thought I'd open with a series that is dear to my heart that jumped the shark in a very funny way. My wife and I met on the Anita Blake forums and we've always loved Laurell K. Hamilton as a person. However, this book series is rather infamous for changing from being a horror mystery urban fantasy series to porn. No, I'm not exaggerating. It starts about investigating murders in a world where vampires and werewolves lives openly and then in Narcissus in Chains is about how the heroine is cursed to need to have sex four or five times. No, that's a plot point. Ooo boy, talk about a tonal shift. Sadly, that kind of gets rid of the mystery element for the series thereafter. Reverse harem is harmless fun, just like the regular kind, and is apparently very successful for LKH but I still am sad that she didn't just make another series for it.
4. The Legend of Drizzt by R.A. Salvatore
I feel terrible about putting this on the list as I'm still fond of books as well as the author. The Legend of Drizzt is as much a part of my childhood as the Star Wars Legends series. Indeed, it is how I became aware of what a fetish for drow women is and why I had one. Okay, this is going to be a weird list, isn't it? Nevertheless, the series jumped the shark not because of Bob Salvatore's own work but because of editorial mandate. The Spellplague caused the setting to need to jump ahead one hundred years and this, obviously, screwed up every single plotline as well as bit of character development the author was working with. As such, if you're looking for a jumping off point, then you should probably do so with the Hunter's Blade Trilogy. The Spellplague was just a bad idea and changed the realms too much to be salvaged, let alone by Bob.
3. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force by Troy Denning, Karen Traviss, and Aaron Allston
The Star Wars Legends series is my high school years and it's something that I felt gradually knocked me out of love with the franchise. Given what complete and utter fanatic I was for the series, that is an impressive accomplishment. Sadly, I blame this series and its handling of one of the surviving Solo children. Basically, after being set up as the hero of the New Jedi Order, they decided to make Jacen Solo fall to the Dark Side and become a Sith Lord. Really, it just wrecked the legacy of the franchise after the New Jedi Order had already trashed the galaxy. Sadly, it's one of the things they kept for the sequels.
2. Honor Harrington by David Weber
Another book series where I absolutely love both the author as well as the first ten or so books. Honor Harrington is a series that suffers from power creep more than anything as Manticore goes from being a backwards nation in the boonies of the galaxy to becoming the most powerful military force in the galaxy within the span of about twenty years or so. So much so that they annihilate the previous largest military power in the galaxy in every battle to the point the only concern is running out of ammo before they win. David's original plans were that his main character would die in At All Costs and while I'm glad Honor survived, she feels kind of superfluous after this point.
1. The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind
This is probably a bit of a cheat because I am not actually that fond of the Sword of Truth books. However, I didn't dislike the first two novels. I thought they were silly and borrowed perhaps a bit too much of The Wheel of Time. Yes, borrowed. However, increasingly, the stories were influenced by Terry Goodkind's Objectivism that warped the narrative. Politics have their place in fiction but at one point he has a couple based on the Clintons kill each other with weaponized STDs. Also, that pacifists have to be ridden down because they threaten good. Oh, and communism is defeated by the power of an awesome statue (because communism and statues are antithetical). There's also an evil chicken but I don't know if it's Objectivist.
