What are 3 Terrible Fantasy or Sci-fi Books You've Read?

[Greg]

We're all done it, so let's come clean. My name's Greg and I have a problem. When I start a book I have to finish it. This has led to many hours of agony when the book I've chosen turns out to be poor, if not unbearable. Here are 3 books that I despised:

#1
Evangeline Walton's Welsh Mabinogi books. If I had to choose 1 of the 4 it would be The Song of Rhiannon. Boy, why did I read all those?

#2
Downbelow Station. I really didn't like this book by C.J. Cherryh, even though it won the Hugo in '82. It was quite the slog.

#3
The Road of the Patriarch. I love R.A. Salvatore, but this trilogy just didn't do it for me. I'll single this book out, although not for any particular reason.

There are many more terrible books I've read. So how about you?

[Greyweather]

World Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Novel, The Gospel of the Knife by Will Shetterly, was lousy. Actually, the only good book nominated that year was his wife's, and it didn't even win!

[Trike]

I don't finish books I hate. There are only so many hours in your life, best not to waste them.

Books I hated:

Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh sounded good and the cover by Michael Whelan is gorgeous. I quit before the halfway point, because it was an early example of word processing find-and-replace. It's just boring medieval palace intrigue... except with aliens!

TNT is about some guy who survives a nuke and becomes super-powered, super-sexed, super-irresistible to women... such an awful, clunky Marty Stu that it was pathetic.

There was some terrible graphic novel by Doug TenNapel which was a ridiculous Christ metaphor which was so poorly thought-out and badly written that I literally threw it across the room. I can't even recall the title any more.

[Pickle]

Fantasy:
1. ive never read a book where i detest the main character more. Perfect at everything and right stupid part with drugging a dragon.

2. dull, bland, predictable.

3. dull main character, pages of dream sequences and nothing much happens. No big main battle that seemed to be hinted at. Dull

[Greg]

I agree that the dragon scene in the Name of the Wind was a bit much.

I sure did love the rest of that book though, and I think most people agree. Still, not everything's for everyone.

[[deleted user]]

Life's too short and there are too many good books out there to waste time wading through something you don't find interesting.
I usually give it about page 30 then drop the Eight Deadly Words and move on. For example, I love Iain M Banks but the style of writing in "Feersum Enjin" irritated me so much I gave up on it. Similarly Greg Egan - "The Clockwork Rocket" just defeated me.

Generally, if I do slog through a book it's been recommended so I feel like there must be something
worthwhile about it somewhere - which has resulted in an abiding hatred of "The Fifth Sacred Thing" by Starhawk, "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell, and "The Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell - all of which are well-respected by other readers, and which I would have no very strong opinion of either way had I followed my usual procedure of dumping after 30 pages of tedium.

[Pickle]

bad sci-ifi

1. Extro i love the 2 previous Bester books i read but this was horrible. Gave up 40 pages from the end as i no longer cared.

2. Lies, Inc. if you skip pages 73-173 is a brilliant book but that 100 page addition is absolute nonsense.

3. Revelation Space its probably a great book as i think the author has great ideas but i couldnt keep track of what was going on.

[Karina]

I'm a "If I started, I have to finish"-er, too.

I remember these as particularly painful:

The Stars, Like Dust As much as I love Asimov, this was just cringe-worthy. Heavy-handed, terrible romance attempt.


Hull Zero Three Bored to tears! Had a lot of neat stuff in it, but, ugh.

The Orange Eats Creeps I guess I thought I was going in for a sort of nicely written urban fantasy with vampires in it. Turned out to be more of a huge stream-of-consciousness-wad full of the word "fecundity". Not... not really my cup of tea. I don't want fecundity in my tea.

I also agree about American Gods. (And disagree to the extreme about some of the others mentioned, which makes it fun!)

[Lea]

Timeline by Michael Crichton lunges to the top of my list. I wasn't convinced by the villain, I was confused by the long-winded technobabble (and I enjoy Stargate, Star Trek, etc.), and more or less disinterested in the characters. I kept asking myself as I read, how did they get such a great movie from such a difficult book?
I thought of another one when I read the rest of the subject and noticed "fantasy." Deerskin, by Robin McKinley, is one I could never recommend or reread. I find that quite strange as I absolutely love her book, Beauty.

[Margaret]

Heh. You don't know "bad" until you've been in the publishing business. I'll leave aside slushpile reading since that's pre-publication. But a professional proofreader gets handed some real stinkers, too. Fortunately, one tends to forget...

[Julia]

I give up on books, ~page 50, rather than continuing to read a book I hate. But I haven't always done this...

The Road Dystopias are fine, but without even a glimmer of hope or characterization what's the point?

A Scanner Darkly It's about Dick's drug experiences. The movie is more enjoyable, which is not something I often say.

The Magicians Overhyped, overrated, underwritten.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*]

I hated, hated, hated Lord Foul's Bane. God, the MC was painful to read.

I also hated The War of the Flowers but i refused to finish that one. *ugh*

The last one is a toss up between Sing the Four Quarters and The Wayfarer Redemption. I hated both of them.

[[deleted user]]

MrsJoseph wrote: "I hated, hated, hated Lord Foul's Bane. God, the MC was painful to read.

I also hated The War of the Flowers but i refused to finish that one. *ugh*

The last one is a toss up between Sing the ..."

The majority of scifi and fantasy no-so-good books I read would qualify as mediocre rather than terrible, but I would have to agree with Lord Foul's Bane. Somehow it is not fun for me to read a book with MC whining non-stop taking up around 75% of the book content.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*]

Evgeny wrote: "The majority of scifi and fantasy no-so-good books I read would qualify as mediocre rather than terrible"

I agree. The majority of them are just mediocre. Sadly. I went through my library and realized I had a ton of books I felt "meh" about but no strong emotion.

[Mark]

hated these,but i love all his later books i have read.

[Greg]

I liked his book Byzantium. Never read any of his others though.

[Wastrel]

I read a lot of TSR when young. That's a LOT of terrible books to pick from.

[Greg]

Ha! That's for sure. I'm a bit more biased to Forgotten Realms myself.

TSR Terribles:

Anyone remember this awful series of 9 that came out in '96 or so?


Seems like David Zeb Cook had a lot.

[Mark]

never read the double diamond series.

some of the early Games workshop/black libraries novels were terrible. Trollslayer these were bad.

[John]

Worse than slogging through a bad book (and I've done a few of those) is reading a book you really like that leaves you with a "cliffhanger" ending (conflicts unresolved, characters stranded in desperate situations, etc.)... and then the promised sequel never appears. I'm not ready to forgive David Weber and Linda Evans for abandoning the Hell's Gate collaboration. It wouldn't have been bad if the two books (published in 2006 and 2007) had been complete stories; but both of them were nothing more than build-ups to a promised final conflict that never came.

So here's my two:

[carol.]

I hated, hated Prince of Thorns.

I thought Vellum was a complete mess, and is one of the few books I've abandoned since joining Goodreads, which usually steers me in a good direction.

Sadly, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West was also a disaster for me. I can't bear to think of seeing the musical because the book was so awful.

[Stan]

I HATED "Wizard's First Rule" by Terry Goodkind. HATED.

I couldn't get past the first 50 pages of "Dragons of Autumn Twilight" by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman. The dialogue was simply ridiculous.

"City of Bones" by Cassandra Clare was so bad I couldn't finish it.

[Wastrel]

Greg wrote: "Ha! That's for sure. I'm a bit more biased to Forgotten Realms myself.

TSR Terribles:

Anyone remember this awful series of 9 that came out in '96 or so?
[bookc..."

Missed those. Some FR that springs to mind are the Netheril Trilogy (I must have quite liked them, since I read all three, but more for the setting than the characters or plot, both of which i've completely forgotten, let alone the writing), some of the Drizzt novels (I think it would have been around 8-9 time - I only made it to 11, I think), and Spellfire (which I actually weirdly liked, even though I knew it was rubbish).
Outside FR, there were a lot of bad DL novels, all those prequels and 'what else was happening' novels about gully dwarves forming living catapults and whatnot. One that I have and quite like is Dark Heart, the book about Kitiara's childhood - I like it because of Kit, but the actual writing is just appallingly terrible.
The only Dark Sun book i've read so far is The Darkness Before the Dawn. It's really bad. I really liked it. [Hang on, this is becoming a theme, isn't it? I think it's that normally I'm highly critical of what I read, but there comes a point of badness where the critical side of you just gives up in despair and stops bothering you anymore, and you can just enjoy the cheesy romance and the psychic insect-people and the cliche gladiatorial contests and whatever]

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*]

I hate the GR notification system! :(

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*]

Carol wrote: "I hated, hated Prince of Thorns.

I thought Vellum was a complete mess, and is one of the few books I've abandoned since joining Goodreads, which usually steers me in a good direction.

Sadly, Wic..."

I think your review warned me off of trying this, lol.

I've been giving Sweet Silver Blues the side-eye since I read your review, too. But I also grabbed my copy last night and realized I got 13 chapters in and stopped. :-\ (Yes, I do own waaaaaaay too many bookmarks, lol. I grab as many as possible at every opportunity.)

[Rich]

I'm usually try not to hate books--authors put a lot of work into them. I might not like them, but I like to think I don't hate them. I'm sure that every book that one person really hated, was loved in as equally powerful a way by someone else. I don't like eggplant, overcooked zucchini or Michelle Bachmann, but I don't actually hate any of them.

However, I can really say that the closest I've ever come to hating a book, is by Tom Kratman. It's just a nasty excuse for preaching hate and intolerance. Ick. Pure bile.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*]

Rich wrote: "I'm usually try not to hate books--authors put a lot of work into them. I might not like them, but I like to think I don't hate them. I'm sure that every book that one person really hated, was lo..."

I can't say that at all, lol. I actively hate books on a regular basis. I don't really see what the work of the author has to do with my feelings towards the book. I don't hate the author.



Wow. This book looks horrible... O_O

[Hank]

I think I only have two on my hate list right now. My anger/hate tends to fade pretty quickly and I forget how much I disliked a book but...

Jonathan Strange

Dull, never ending boredom of a book

and

Flashback

I wanted to like Flashback but the political rants made the plot unintelligable and the ending was something a Junior High writer would have done better at. Deus ex machina at its best (worst?).

[Rich]

Yeah. Flashback was a real rant-fest. I really had to work at it to get around the anger.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

1) The End by Lemony Snicket


Hated, hated, HATED!

The series started well enough. Entertaining enough and funny in places. It got pretty formulaic after awhile, though, but I stuck with it because I'd gotten invested in the series and the characters, and there were all these sub-plots left open...

And then it ends... with them still left open. Half the book was all about how, in real life, things aren't tied up neat and so, well, it's not gonna be in this series, either.

Ruined the entire series for me and it was one of the first times I wanted to throw a book across the room.




2) The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova


I was hesitant to include this one because I'm not sure it's really fantasy, but I gotta say I hated this book. It was soooooooo boring. Pages and pages and pages that read like a travelogue.

But the worst part was just the writing style. First person narrative, written in letter form, with perfect recall of things that happened 30+ years ago - to such extent as which shoulder someone wore her purse! - and written while on the run and fear of their life, and yet inundated with an insane amount of pointless detail.

And the ending. Oh my god, the ending. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO stupid.


3) The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells


I wouldn't say it's terrible, per se, but it was kinda a snooze fest, but this one gets me ranty because so much of it was preposterous. The plan was overly complicated, and then a backup plan gets slapped together in days.

And there were just so many convenient coincidences and just stupid shit that I sort of wanted to toss it across the room on multiple occasions.

There were some things I liked about it, though, but those are over-shadowed by how much I hated the ending.


Honorable mentions. Again, I wouldn't say they were

Magyk by Angie Sage


Just pretty standard and kinda dull for a kids book, and I hated the tone and the Magykal words.


The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue


I don't remember much about it other than it bored me to tears, but I forced myself to finish it 'cause I'm insane.


Boneshaker by Cherie Priest


Another snooze fest.


Divergent by Veronica Roth


I think this one was a case of over-hype, and I just didn't get it. The world made absolutely zero sense, and the protag was annoying.

[Betty]

"Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins. I liked the rest of the series a lot, and I get what Collins was trying to do -- make a statement about war and what it does to people. However, the book was a mess. The concept was sound. It just wasn't well executed.

[Betty]

On "Divergent," I'm still reading it, but I have to admit the concept of 5 "factions" based on different virtues seems very unlikely.

[[deleted user]]

Wow, that Divergent sounds like it would be truly horrible

[Steven]

I don't know, once you get over the over hype of "Divergent" it isn't that bad. Good action mixed with themes from "The Giver" I actually kind of enjoyed it for what it was, but then again I wasn't expecting much.

[Tess]

Wow. Hated, but read, Fall of Ossard. Also the Poison Study trilogy. And HATED the Hunger Games series.

[Greg]

Rich wrote: "Yeah. Flashback was a real rant-fest. I really had to work at it to get around the anger."

I liked the Historian. I thought there were some good edge-of-your-seat moments. It made me want to go and read Dracula, which I had never done at that point.

[Lou]

Mmmm

[Lou]

Odalisque by Fiona McIntosh, just a brutal mess of a book. Learned more about making eunuchs than I ever needed to know.

[Lou]

Across the Face of the World, by Russell Kirkpatrick. Like maps? Like travelogues? Not as much as Russell Kirkpatrick, who fills this story with so much minutia about the hazards of travel in a medieval setting that you soon forget that none of the characters ate the least bit like-able nor do you have a clue why exactly they are traveling across the world.

[K. G.]

RED MARS and THE YEARS OF RICE AND SALT. I couldn't finish the former and barely made it through the latter. What is it with Kim Stanley Robinson? Great premise, terribly boring execution. I also hated GHOST FROM THE GRAND BANKS. Sometimes with Clarke, I get 2/3 of the way through it and wonder if I should finish. With CHILDHOOD'S END, that last 1/3 was brilliants. With GHOSTS, the question was why did I waste my time?

[Kim]

I couldn't get far through Red Mars. So very boring.

[Greg]

I have a different take on Robinson's Mars series. I liked the first one, thought the second one was alright, and didn't really care much for the third in the series.

[Olga]

I'm surprised that people jumped so readily to comment on this thread. Are we all so spiteful, so happy to condemn the writers who wrote those books? Yes, there are lots of mediocre novels out there, but I don't think we should shout out loudly "This book is so-o-o bad!" After all, even if someone dislikes a book, others might like it. Example: MrsJ named Sing the Four Quarters, but I really liked that book. I re-read it several times over the years and always enjoyed it, though not recently. Even if I can't finish a book I'm not ready to say "this is a terrible fantasy novel." Instead, I'd say: "it's not to my taste."
This entire thread feels mean, unworthy of GR, which is in general a friendly community.
Sorry for rambling.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Yes, it's very friendly to scold people for having opinions which differ from yours... including the opinion that it's a-ok to share ALL opinions, including negative ones, about books.

Besides which, no one is condemning authors. We're saying we thought certain books were terrible. Opinion on a book =/= personal attack of author.

[Lou]

Olga, your concern is noted.

[Olga]

Colleen, I'm not scolding. I apologize if I offended you. I'm simply expressing my opinion here, as everyone else does, although in my case it's not the opinion of the writers and their books but of the readers. Still it feels uncomfortable, when you think it might pertain to you, doesn't it? It feels even worse for those writers whose names appear in this discussion. I just feel sorry for them.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I'm not "uncomfortable" cause someone scolded me for being mean and spiteful, I'm irked at being net-nannied. Not the same thing.

[Deedee]

Finished and hated:
(glorifies violence)
(misogynist)
(smugly sexist)

Tossed:
(repellant magical system)
(gross and incomprehensible)
(the main female character is stupid!)

And, yes, I know that "After all, even if someone dislikes a book, others might like it.". Obviously somebody must like the above-mentioned books because each author has published several novels. I, myself, didn't like them and the authors are all on my do-not-read-again lists. For anyone who is offended by my opinion, just insert a IMHO in front of each item.

[Betelgeuze]

The worst fantasy book i've ever read. The plot is predictable, it has numerous cliches and it's misogynistic.

The main character is used to preach the authors favourite philosophy. As a result it's so boring it can be used as an alternative for sleeping pills.

Deus ex machina. (view spoiler)[Turning a character into a god to defeat the antagonist is the worst possible ending. (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

Olga wrote: "Colleen, I'm not scolding. I apologize if I offended you. I'm simply expressing my opinion here, as everyone else does, although in my case it's not the opinion of the writers and their books but of the readers. Still it feels uncomfortable, when you think it might pertain to you, doesn't it? It feels even worse for those writers whose names appear in this discussion. I just feel sorry for them."

Feel sorry for them all you want but it's part of their job. They're going to get bad reviews. It happens to the best of them. If they're "uncomfortable" with readers not liking their work then maybe they shouldn't be putting their work out there for public consumption.

Is it a hard job? Yeah, probably. But that doesn't mean as a reader/consumer I have to sugarcoat my own god damned feelings about their work just so that they don't end up being "uncomfortable".

If they can't take it, fuck 'em.