30 Days of Books - Day 7

Day 07 – Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise

I piss and moan about Deus ex Machina (for anyone who isn't sure, this means 'God from the machine'. It started in Greek dramas, when the hero was in a completely unsolvable situation. A chariot or some other machine would be brought out on stage and a God (or Gods) would sweep the hero out of harm's way. In modern literature, it can be as simple as an uninvolved person interrupting an evil mastermind to, uh, the flu. I'm going to continue to bitch about it because it's a cop-out, just not right now.

Another one that gets to me is when the book ends just like it begins. Stephen King, I'm looking in your direction. You seriously pissed me off. Not quite enough to stop reading your books, but damn. 20 years and you give me that crap? What the fuck, man? You're still writing books, so obviously your idea supply has not run completely dry. In a way, it's worse than 'it was all a dream', or someone seeing the future and then coming out of their trance to see nothing has changed and everything's a-ok again. Even an ending where the main character dies a noble death is better than what you did to your Constant Readers. Did our ill-fated hero truly deserve that?

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