Books that exceeded expectations

[MemoryTale]

So a while back I found a novelisation of Batman Forever in a charity shop. The film's not my favourite by a long chalk - a lot of scenes happen for no reason, and what could have been a very dark story about obsession was marred by some very cartoony acting and lurid visuals. Buuut I'm a sucker for seeing how different books are from films, so I picked it up.

What I found was a very welcome surprise. Peter David not only swapped some scenes around and combined scenarios so that they made more sense, he did his level best to fill in plot holes, expanded on character motivations, made Chase a more believable psychologist, made

Spoiler

Two Face's

death a lot better and even had a good go at bringing the frankly murderous Batman from Batman Returns more in line with the "never take a life" Bat we all know and love today.

So what books did you pick up not expecting much, only to get a very pleasant surprise?

 

[BAYLOR]

The Eisenhorn Trilogy by Dan Abnett . I picked it up with no expectations and was pleasantly surprised by how terrific it was. It got me hooked on Warmhammer , Warhammer 40k and Horus Heresy novels. Ive discovered alot writers , books and stories as result.

 

[Vince W]

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I hadn't heard much about it when I bought it, but it was a fantastic read.

Most recently The Martian by Andy Weir. Not without its flaws, but still far better than you would expect.

 

[Randy M.]

The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll. I'd read a couple of short stories by him and heard how good this book was, but really didn't expect much beyond an entertaining read. This turned out to be a touchstone book for me, one that I use to measure the effectiveness of other novels.

Randy M.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I've found dipping into bestsellers from other genres I would not normally expect to read has been very eye-opening.

For example, I thought to read a couple of thrillers, just to see how they were structured as writing research, but now I'm a big fan of the genre.

I also read the romance Me Before You, and the Western short-story collection Grub Line Rider, and enjoyed both immensely against all prior expectations.

 

[Vince W]

Anything by P. G. Wodehouse. His books and stories have no right to be that good.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll. I'd read a couple of short stories by him and heard how good this book was, but really didn't expect much beyond an entertaining read. This turned out to be a touchstone book for me, one that I use to measure the effectiveness of other novels.

Randy M.

A superb book.

 

[Bick]

Most recently The Martian by Andy Weir. Not without its flaws, but still far better than you would expect.

Why? As in, I daresay it's great, but why did you expect it would be relatively poor?

I've had trouble coming up with any books for this thread, because I read only books I've had recommended to me in one way or another. I'm therefore never surprised if they are very good. Now and then they don't meet expectations as tastes vary, but I never start a book thinking, I bet this will be a bit crap, and then find to my surprise it's much better than expected.

 

[Vince W]

Why? As in, I daresay it's great, but why did you expect it would be relatively poor?

I've had trouble coming up with any books for this thread, because I read only books I've had recommended to me in one way or another. I'm therefore never surprised if they are very good. Now and then they don't meet expectations as tastes vary, but I never start a book thinking, I bet this will be a bit crap, and then find to my surprise it's much better than expected.

I think it's because I read it at first because it was being turned into a film. I was expecting some sort of mediocre action type story (as film makers usually go for), but there was far more humour and warmth to the story. Especially in the latter half of the book.

 

[J-Sun]

Most recently The Martian by Andy Weir. Not without its flaws, but still far better than you would expect.

I have The Martian in the pile but I've already seen the movie. That is very unlikely to exceed expectations for me now since I expect a book to be as good or better than the movie and I loved the movie. But the movie, itself, exceeded expectations. I'd never have expected anything from the book when it first came out, either.

I feel like there's some major work that came out of the blue that fits perfectly but can't think of it - may just be my imagination. All I can think of are relative things.

I knew George R.R. Martin as an excellent writer of short fiction but had never gotten around to reading any of his novels and didn't expect much from his debut, so was really impressed by Dying of the Light and how fully realized and tangible and dense (in a good way) it was.

I'd read a story or two from Jack McDevitt but didn't like the first novel I read by him (The Engines of God) or an interview I read in relation to it. So then I was twice surprised in that I really enjoyed the next novel I read by him (A Talent for War) and then still didn't expect to enjoy a sort of post-apocalypse novel (Eternity Road) because it's not my kind of thing - I just picked it up along with dozens of others at a library book sale - but it was really good and enjoyable.

Maybe a mild kind of reverse exceeding occurred in that I'd always loved Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat, so was disappointed when I read his other most famous comic novel, Bill, the Galactic Hero (not awful but just kinda meh). Since Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers was less lauded, I couldn't have expected much from it, but I really enjoyed it.

Finally, just recently, I read the first couple of James White's Sector General books and was fairly ambivalent and then read a collection I didn't even really like but I'd bought a bunch of White books at once, so went on with All Judgment Fled and that blew me away, becoming one of my favorites. Sure didn't see that coming based on the earlier three.

 

[hitmouse]

Books I picked up randomly in jumble sales as a kid, having never heard of beforehand (and therefore no expectations at all) which made vivid impression:
Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith
Tiger Tiger by Alfred Bester
The Drowned World by JG Ballard
Conan by RE Howard
My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl