Or, "Goddammit you took too long to climax"
For those who haven't heard of/read the webserials Worm and Pact, well, this post'll involve many spoilers, but I think it's an interesting subject to discuss anyways. Should totally read the two, as they are fantastic in general, but this goes through the beginning of worm explicitly, so it'd best to read it (or just skip the first two paragraph) if you haven't read it.
Now to the topic at hand. So recently (a couple months ago) rediscovered worm, and began reading it. It starts phenomenally, with introducing a character pretty much everyone can identify with, but one who isn't a literal blank slate. Taylor is bullied at school and wants to be a super hero. So she does the only reasonable thing, and attempts to take down one of the major villains in The City, Lung. And, with some minor complications, absolutely wrecks the bastard, almost killing him. And this is just the beginning. It's awesome. It's crazy. I couldn't read the pages faster. And the way Taylor slowly loses contact with the only really good person she knows is phenomenal. The Undersiders, every single one of them, are phenomenal. I took an instant liking to everyone, severely hated (that) Bitch, and it was great.
This continues, obviously, and the author (whose name escapes me) keeps upping the scales. The next sections climax is also great, where you really start to know the Undersiders the Wards, and the family of superheroes, and, yet again, it's absolutely phenomenal. As the climax for this segment, they farking crash a party run by the most powerful supers in the area. It's badass, that's what it is.
Now, here's where the problem truly begins. The author keeps kicking up the scales. Cthulu like monsters! Epic Mastermind Villain! More Cthulu like monsters! Super AIs! Slasher Movie villains who are even scarier then the Cthulu monsters! More Cthulu like monsters! Copies of the most dangerous villains playing a game of death with the world at stake! THE SERIES' (almost)GOD ATTACKS!
And then I got tired. The series keeps upping the scales. And upping it. And upping it. The finale is a battle against the source of all goddamn powers, and I could barely look at the book. It went too long, too epic. Too overwhelming. The worst villans got hundreds of clones, but it got too much. The rise just kept going on. Pact does much the same thing. I couldn't even finish Pact, and Blake may be one of my favorite characters EVER, and I'm rping one slight ripoff from the series, and creating one who's inherent essence is the same as Blakes. But I just couldnt finish it. I got bored.
To the point. When going on rollercoasters, part of the fun is the buildup. The slow trudge upwards, until you reach the top, and then it STOPS, and then you go down, fast. That's what makes rollercoasters fun. With books, stories, and anything involving the written word, I feel that it's the same thing. If the slow trudge goes too long, you aren't interested in the drop. (Quite like this post, I suspect, ha ha). I think that's perhaps the biggest flaw in some comicbooks, tv shows, and (obviously) book series, that they can't quite finish. Which upsets me. Sometimes it seems like in order to make something amazing, the author goes too far, and it just gets too much.
For the readers here, any other examples? For those who read Worm or Pact, did you feel the same way? Why not?
For the writers, do you think this is an issue in your works? How do you guys manage to avoid it?
