What makes an Amazing, Great novel to you? (Persiphone Hellecat, could you also answer this?)?

Question

If you look at all the amazing book series and novels written over the centuries and in the past few years, what makes an amazing book to you? Consider the characters, setting, plots, styles of writing...what truly makes a great novel (in your opinion)? Word structure, opening and closing lines of a book, character personalities, genres....it's all important, but what matters to YOU?

Answer 1

To begin with, the first sentence. You should be able to tell by the first sentence if the book is going to be great or not. We had a question I put here a while ago asking what people considered the greatest first sentence ever in a book and we got some fantastic answers. Read the first paragraph of Lolita. I defy anyone to tell me that doesn't just drag you into that book.

As for word structure, a great author understands that each word has its own sound and that together there is harmonic convergence. Some words sing together. You can choose two words that mean exactly the same thing, but one word fits beautifully and the other lays there like a dead fish. Great prose sings to you. William Faulkner sings to you. Toni Morrison sings to you. Cormac Mc Carthy sings to you. I could go on and on.

The characters of a book should be people you always remember. Holden Caulfield, Odd Thomas, Benjy from The Sound and the Fury, Lenny and George from Of Mice and Men. Brilliant characters that just find a way off the paper and into your heart. The Creature in Frankenstein does that for me. The Boy in Cormac Mc Carthy's The Road. So many do. They are full, rounded people. People you want to know more about. People who are vulnerable, alive, flawed, vibrant ... and their creators have made them that way.

The setting - again, something memorable and something that the author has taken the time to RESEARCH. I cannot stress that word enough. I have written about places I have never been. However I have spent months researching them down to the finest detail. The same thing goes for period in history. I once spent months researching Paris 1750 right down to the names of streets on old maps. There wasn't a thing I didn't know.

I am a firm believer in research. I researched the book I am working on now for about 6 months before I started it. And STILL things come up that I am having to research. Only tonight, I spent an hour on the phone with a retired Marine learning about Marine funerals. I conduct interviews. I have a large team of people I go to when I need answers. Doctor, Lawyer, Police Officer, Gun Expert. I also have a large research library including those fantastic Howdunit books from Writers Digest. I don't write anything I am not 100% sure of. Once I found out how to go to the US Weather Bureau and find out what the weather was on any given day for the past 100 years in any place in America. I had to make sure it was snowing in NYC that day.

I recently read The Fig Eater and found out in the back that she spent nine months researching that book. The detail of Austria at the turn of the century was amazingly rich and beautiful.

As for the ending, I was once told that your ending should leave your readers satisfied but a little bit sad that there isn't just a little bit more.

As for genre, that is subjective. Personally, I read all genres. I mostly write in murder mystery genre, though the book I am writing now is done in the Faulkner stream of consciousness style and it not a murder mystery at all. A first for me.

Lastly, nothing I hate worse than holes in a plot. Keep going back. Make sure you have continuity. I hate it when you say to yourself. "How could he be here when he was just there a second ago?" Plug up those holes. Make sure everything is logical. Sometimes I even have to draw little floor plans to place people in scenes and make sure they can move around like I want them to.

That is because I write cinematically. I am always visualizing my scenes like movies before my eyes and hearing dialogue in my ears.

Hope that helps.
----
They're, Their, There - Three Different Words.

Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.

Pax - C

Answer 2

I like a world to be opened to me that I was unaware of before, or that I knew only slightly, or knew only from my tiny viewpoint.

I know, huh; that could be a lot of books. I do read a lot! The books I find the most "amazing and great" however, are those that open up another world to me.

First among those books was "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and with his writing (which I only recently learned has been called "magic realism") and the location of the epic story (Colombia), I was truly 'sent.'

The first sentence grabs the reader-- [and I can't find my copy right now so it's very approximate!] "As Colonel Aureliano Buendias faced the firing squad the thought that entered his mind was of the day his father took him to discover ice."

The rest of the novel keeps up and sometimes surpasses in wonder, lyricism and also practicality... someone had to keep house for the dreamers of the family depicted! It's great from beginning to end.

Another is "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry, which has a first sentence of "When Augustus came out on the porch the blue pigs were eating a rattlesnake--not a very big one."

This book is set in south Texas in the days when men could still run cattle-- which did happen, all the way to Montana --and such a crew of men! Such a bunch of cattle! Such a view of Indians and 'countryside' and life and death; it was, again, new to me.

What matters to me in these books and many more is that the genre be treated well, characterization complete (even if it's a passing glance at someone; a few well-placed words can let us see that person too), and I have always very much appreciated being put into the middle of action right away, by description and dialogue.

That also means there is to be action; something that can be found even in a book that is slow and gentle, if it is done right. I hope you know what I mean by all this.

I like closure, but it doesn't have to be locked down... some space for my own imagination is important to me, too.

You asked for Persiphone, so perhaps she will log on sometime and answer this for you, if she hasn't already. I can only give my answer! So I'll star this, so she is sure to look quickly. Luck!--

Answer 3

I'd say, something unique and well written.

The setting, if not based on the real world, would have to be complex and interesting, with histories and myths, containing global and local conflicts.

The characters wouldn't be the average stereotypical, simplistic, melodramatic commonality that you find in most books these days. They'd be different, oddly connected, and realistic.

The writing is the hardest part for me to find. It needs to have individuality and variation. They'd have to latch words together like a chain. Simalies would make you think of anything in such clear detail you'd know exactly what was going on. The word choice would be exact- nothing thrown in because just it sounds nice.

The opening would drag me in and get me interested. I love foreshadowing at the beginning of a book.

The end would wrap the whole thing up in one neat little package and leave me feeling full and comfortable. I'd be sad, but not very, because it's just perfect.

As for genre, I'd read anything, but I'm personally most interested in fantasy, romance and vampire books. If it's romantic, it can't be a 'fell-in-love-from-page-two' thing. There has to be conflict and denial and anger. I like it when you're not sure exactly who the main character's gonna be with until the little remarks and start popping, and you can't prove it, but it's sort of that between-the-lines feeling of certainty.

That would be my perfect book. ^_^

By the way, the closest to perfect I've ever found was Sunshine by Robin McKinley! It's a great book if you ever get the chance to read it!

Answer 4

I'm sure there's a literary term for what I'm talking about, but here's what I like. A detail that seems insignificant when it's introduced at the beginning of the story reappears near the end, forming a neat circle and providing a particularly satisfying resolution. If the author introduces that detail in the first sentence and the last sentence of the book, I'm just blown away.

Answer 5

Definitely, I need to care about the character. To get into his skin and become him.

A great protagonist also needs a great antagonist, or some challenge (conflict) that keeps me turning pages.

A writer's style should be nearly transparent, so that I forget to evaluate the quality of writing as I am reading, because I'm so caught up in the story.

Answer 6

I want the voices to be real. I want to hear each character as he or she speaks. I want to know who's talking by how they talk. Or think, if the dialogue is internal.

If I can believe in the people, then I can believe in the story, and that's what makes it great.

Answer 7

For me it's quite simple. If I can't put it down it's a great novel. It's like how I feel about art, I don't know art I just know what I like.

Answer 8

I like romance and comedy and action all in the same book(Twilight and harry potter have those qualities that is why i love them)