David Craig's Blog - Posts Tagged "love-writing"
Books you know the author loved writing
You can tell, can't you, those books the author in question just loved writing, the enthusiasm jumping off the page. Especially when you read their later works that may be more technically proficient, better structured, but just lack that special something.
Off the top of my head I can think of three books that fall into this category:
Magician, by Raymond E Feist. His first novel, and you can tell he enjoyed writing it, especially compared to later novels in the series that felt more by the numbers.
The Sword of Shannara, by Terry Brooks. This novel is rather infamous in fantasy circles, written in the late '70s, selling a lot of copies, and bearing certain similarities to The Lord of the Rings.
I mistakenly read the prequel novel, First King of Shannara first, written years after Sword and its early sequels. First King was nothing special, certainly was readable, but when I then read Sword of Shannara, I immediately felt the reader's love for the book. Brooks clearly enjoyed writing it, and that enthusiasm allowed me to forgive the similarities to LOTR.
Star Wars: Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn. This book is largely cherished by Star Wars fans, and in my opinion slightly more than it deserves, given some of its flaws. Namely the author's own characters tend to overshadow the main SW characters such as Luke, Leia and Han somewhat. But what is undeniable is that you can almost sense the author thinking, "I'm writing Star Wars!!!" That enthusiasm for the work is evident throughout the book.
What books have you read that you just felt captured the author's enthusiasm?
Off the top of my head I can think of three books that fall into this category:
Magician, by Raymond E Feist. His first novel, and you can tell he enjoyed writing it, especially compared to later novels in the series that felt more by the numbers.
The Sword of Shannara, by Terry Brooks. This novel is rather infamous in fantasy circles, written in the late '70s, selling a lot of copies, and bearing certain similarities to The Lord of the Rings.
I mistakenly read the prequel novel, First King of Shannara first, written years after Sword and its early sequels. First King was nothing special, certainly was readable, but when I then read Sword of Shannara, I immediately felt the reader's love for the book. Brooks clearly enjoyed writing it, and that enthusiasm allowed me to forgive the similarities to LOTR.
Star Wars: Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn. This book is largely cherished by Star Wars fans, and in my opinion slightly more than it deserves, given some of its flaws. Namely the author's own characters tend to overshadow the main SW characters such as Luke, Leia and Han somewhat. But what is undeniable is that you can almost sense the author thinking, "I'm writing Star Wars!!!" That enthusiasm for the work is evident throughout the book.
What books have you read that you just felt captured the author's enthusiasm?
