The recent Gregory Maguire thread led me to think about authors I've stopped reading or 'given up' on.  There are some authors I seem to have outgrown such as Piers Anthony or Alan Dean Foster, but there are others whose work has lost its appeal or even just  declined in quality. Authors like Terry Brooks, Joanne Harris and Gregory Maguire come to mind for me.

Does anyone else have examples of authors once admired and enjoyed that no longer have appeal?

Patricia Cornwell for me. I used to love the Kay Scarpetta series. Then they just got more and more depressing. I hate the way some of the characters, including the main one, have developed.

Yes. Stephenie Meyer.

I have given up on Dick Francis....The ones he has written after the death of his wife have been lack luster.  They are no longer keepers. 10 LB Penalty (1997) was the last book he wrote that I have on my keeper shelf. 

Jonathan Kellerman, Jane Haddam, and Sue Grafton are the first names that come to mind.

Patricia Cornwell, Martha Grimes, Piers Anthony, Harry Turtledove, the Dune prequels by his son  (I read 6. Should have stopped with 4). There are more, but that's all that come to mind. Oh, Salman Rushdie. John Irving. Both of them keep telling the same story over and over. John Cheever.

Yup, both Kellermans and Sue Grafton.

Many times.  I often find the first book by author to be remarkable.  Then it seems the next one never lives up to it.  It's rare that I find an author who I enjoy throughout their writing.

Janet Evanovich is getting there.....

Wow! Some Here I'd forgotten I gave up on. Grafton I quit a while ago around about book N.  Jane Haddam after a couple and Evanovich after the 4 book. I know that she is hugely popular but I found myself just slogging through books 3 and 4, so I just quit.

Gregory Maguire came immediately to mind. 

John Grisham - The Appeal was not that great.

anne rice. interview was pretty good, but after that it was terrible. i have to admit i haven't read anything by her but the vampire chronicles. i don't feel too pressed to try though.

Patricia Cornwell.  Her later books were so depressing and ugly.   Tom Clancy's latest books.   Never did like Janet Evanovich but read the last 2 books of the number series, I will read No. 14, though..  They were okay.  Jude Devereaux.  Anne Rice.

Anne Rice, loved them all through the body thief and then they just got stupid .

Will not touch her latest Jesus books.

Stephen King. I loved The Stand and Salem's Lot but after a while plots seemed repetative. And the "product placement" started to wear on me.

Tamar Myers is just about reached her limit with me. I have read all but three of her Den of Antiquity series and only read them now as fluff between other longer, more complex novels. She repeats word for word some phrases in each book.

Grisham because all the plots were so similar, just a change of venue and character names.

I think Stephen King for me too.  His early stuff was great but his newer stuff...eh, not so much.  I also was going to say Danielle Steel but I think this is more of a hiatus than me giving up on her.  I think she has just become a once in a very great while author to me.

I second Anne Rice.  I read the first three vampire chronicles and after that they just got completely unreadable. 

woohoo, i'm glad to see people agree with me on anne rice. normally everyone freaks out when i say i couldn't get through anything but interview with a vampire. 8)

Anne Rice, Janet Evanovich, Dean Koontz, John Saul,

On the other end of things, the one author that I actually think gets better with every book is Charlaine Harris (so far), especially the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series.

Stephen King and James Patterson.  I used to like the Alex Cross series, but now it seems like all his books are written by him and someone else.  (Hmmmm...)

Grisham, the formula was the same in every book...it became boring.  

I was extremely disappointed in Geraldine Brooks' last book "People of the Book".. I loved Year of Wonders, thought March was ok....but totally hated the newest one. I haven't read any of her Dames and Daughters books though...and don't really feel like it.

Patterson, Grisham, hated Anne Rice, though Interview was well written she is simply not my cup of blood.

 What really ticked me off about Cornwell were the obvious tax write offs for wine and tomato plants and restaurants and watches and cashmere sweaters and and

Of course, everything she ever writes is largely autobiographical. What blew me away was all those 1990s IRL revelations when the FBI husband of her FBI lover went nuts and kidnapped her minister and stated he had a bomb attached to the minister and then he said he had a split personality. Wild. And I hated those NC mysteries where all the women in charge and the men are all evil or ball-less wonders.

David Baldacci - Used to love him.  Now its same old, same old!!

Patricia Cornwell, Dean Koontz, Michael Palmer