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Growing the Beard/Literature: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
* The early ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'' books (at the latest, up to ''Small Gods'') felt far different than their latter counterparts. Particularly glaring within the separate section of the Disc mythos: compare and contrast the Granny Weatherwax from ''Equal Rites'' to the one in ''Carpe Jugulum''. Or the Lord Vetinari in ''The Colour of Magic'' ([[Word of God]] had to step in and confirm that it was the same Patrician, and not one of his thoroughly insane predecessors) to the [[Magnificent Bastard]] of the Moist Von Lipwig books.▼
** Likewise, the first two ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'' books are straight parodies of [[Sword and Sorcery]] fantasy. The series began to grow its beard in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Equal Rites|Equal Rites]]'' and ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Mort|Mort]]'', where it went from a parody of fantasy settings to using its fantasy setting to parody everything else. ▼
▲* The early ''[[
* ''The Dragonbone Chair'', the first book in [[Tad Williams]]' [[Doorstopper]] fantasy series, ''[[Memory Sorrowand Thorn]]'', tends to drag on and doesn't introduce the main antagonist until several hundred pages in. Once the series gets going, it's very good, but you still have to get through much of the first book to get to the good stuff.▼
▲** Likewise, the first two ''[[
▲* ''The Dragonbone Chair'', the first book in [[Tad Williams]]' [[Doorstopper]] fantasy series, ''[[Memory,
** This seems to be the case with most of [[Tad Williams]]' [[Doorstopper|doorstoppers]]. The protagonists only know that their lives are going to hell; they don't know why, there are webs within webs, etc. Awesome characters, storytelling, worldbuilding, and prose keep this from becoming the problem it would be in the hands of a less capable author. But it's a given that you will have no idea what's actually going on until the last five hundred pages or so.
** Incidentally, the main hero grows a literal beard in the course of the story, symbolizing his significant maturation from a lazy kid into a worthy {{spoiler|king}}. The cover art makes the difference especially striking.
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* David Brin's novel ''Sundiver'', the first set in his ''[[Uplift]] Saga'' universe, is poor, and it is usually recommended that readers skip to the second, ''Startide Rising'', instead. This is made easier by the second book being set 300 years after the first, featuring a totally different cast and having minimal references to the first book.
* The ''[[Aubrey-Maturin]]'' series picks up considerably with 3rd and 4th books ''HMS Surprise'' and ''The Mauritius Command'', after being given command of the titular [[Cool Ship]] and heavily reducing the land-based romantic storylines of the 2nd book ''Post Captain''.
* Robert Jordan's "The Eye of the World", the first in his ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' series, cops a lot of flak for its "borrowings" from ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. The second book, "The Great Hunt", takes the story in a completely different direction and is much better, and the beard is completely grown in the third book, "The Dragon Reborn". However as is common even when this trope shows up, a reader can't really skip the first book because it introduces so much of the setting and characterization.
** [[Word of God]] stated the first book was written to intentionally resemble then-contemporary fantasy fare, which the series would then take into a new direction. The second direction is clearly better, even though [[Long Runners|the series has been running so long]] this [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|no longer seems unique either.]]
** The series may have the unusual distinction of growing the beard twice. After [[Author Existence Failure|Jordan's death]] in 2007, young author Brandon Sanderson took up the reins using Jordan's notes, and his ''The Gathering Storm'' has another slightly different direction and is awesome in a refreshing new way.
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** Harry Potter's continuous beard growth was highlighted by ''Order of the Phoenix,'' when Harry's character flaws lead to fatal consequences, and he finds out {{spoiler|his father, who was thought to be a saint by Harry, was a vicious bully, completely arrogant of his flaws, and often rather cruel. Granted, his father also committed great acts of heroism, but humiliating the schools resident geek in front of the entire school and the person he loved most in the world was still a [[Kick the Dog]] moment. At the same time, of course, said resident geek was well on his way to joining the magical equivalent of the SS whose primary goal was the annihilation of the ethnic group his love was a member of. Nothing is cut-and-dry in this series.}}
** Dumbledore [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this in the sixth movie.
{{quote|
* ''The Eyre Affair'', the first book of the ''[[Thursday Next]]'' series, isn't bad, per se, but features disappointingly little use of the series' central gimmick of the title character being able to enter works of fiction and a comparatively conventional "stopping the bad guy" plot. Starting with book two, ''Lost in a Good Book'', [[Jasper Fforde]] really went to town with the concept with nods to all kinds of different literature. Also, while some important plot threads are introduced in book one, the second really begins the series' fascinating juggling act between all its different subplots that frequently collide or call back to events several books previous in unexpected ways.
* ''[[
** It's telling that the only book in the mid-to-late range that is generally well-received by fans is a take on "The Enemy Within" which is also the only book not ghostwritten until the final two.
* A surprising leap in style occurred between books six and seven of ''[[
* Ian Rankin, acclaimed Scottish author of the ''[[Inspector Rebus]]'' novels, started out the series with quite straight forward serial killer and murderer hunts. The fourth novel, ''Strip Jack'', had a change in tone in dealing instead with the sordid life of a (fictional) British politician. Afterwards, the series began to focus more on the morally gray world of big business and British politics, and the relationships between the two. The series was much better for it.
* In Terry Brooks' ''[[Shannara]]'' series, the second book Elfstones of Shannara is often cited as the best starting point, due to the first book, ''Sword of Shannara'', being [[Follow the Leader|very very similar, and even downright identical in places]] to [[The Lord of the Rings|a certain other fantasy series]].
* ''Lord Foul's Bane'', the first book in Stephen R. Donaldson's ''[[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]'' series, isn't very good. The series improves dramatically in the second book, titled ''The Illearth War'', and stays that way.
* The first couple of ''[[Dresden Files]]'' books are pretty good, but not amazing; it's only really during the third that it picks up, beginning the tradition of [[World of Badass|totally over the top]] [[Crazy Awesome|levels of]] [[The Dresden Files
** According to Jim Butcher the first book was written to show a creative writing teacher how bad her method of writing was.
* A moment like this for ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' appears in ''The History Of The Lord of The Rings''. We see several early drafts of the beginning of the book that would become ''The Fellowship of The Ring''. They are all very similar, in construction and tone, to ''The Hobbit''. The original villain of the piece was always intended to be the Necromancer mentioned in ''The Hobbit''. However Tolkien's original interpretation made him a fairly light-hearted, almost mischievous villain. However, somewhere along the line (in a moment which, sadly, Christopher Tolkien could find no record of) Tolkien changed it so that the Lord of The Rings was actually Sauron, the villain from his Numenor legend. Tolkien then saw that the legend of the rings could be used as a way to explain how Sauron survived the destruction of Numenor. With the Smaug-like villain replaced by a character who was, for all intents and purposes, Satan, the book became more grounded and the story got much, much darker; growing into the legendary saga we have today.
** Note that the Necromancer [[Retcon|was explained to have been]] an alias of Sauron.
** Arguably [[The Lord of the Rings]] never grew the beard, always staying a cookie cutter story fashioned after older stories.
* By book five in the [[Lemony Snicket]] [[A Series of Unfortunate Events|series]], the formula has started to feel a bit tired. While the characters remain strong and the events remain unfortunate, the end of ''The Austere Academy'' is the first time we hear the letters [[Arc Words|"V.F.D."]]. From there it escalates from a [[Deconstruction]] of children's adventure novels to "My [[Fun
* The first two ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' novels were huge hits in their time but many Holmesians agree that the Holmes and Watson that everybody remembers fondly didn't appear until "A Scandal in Bohemia", the first in a series of 56 short stories.
* The first ''[[
* The ''[[Uncle
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