Books everyone seems to love, but you just can't

[GreyLord]

A lot of people rave about the Thomas Covenant series. So I read Lord Foul's Bane. I forced myself through it to see if it would ever pull me in but the protagonist was so irritating, I couldn't pick up another book in the series.
People here are talking about dropping out in the 5th Harry Potter - but Covenant is a far more annoying and despicable character than Harry acting as a petulant (and developmentally appropriate) teen.

I actually didn't read LFB until after I had read the rest of the series. I started with The Illearth War First. That was actually an awesome book with Wars and Battles and everything else an epic fantasy could contain. However, it also points to the very obvious idea that this series is STILL a Lord of the Rings Knockoff (for all the junk that people toss at Terry Brooks Sword of Shannara, the Thomas Covenant Chronicles, at least the first trilogy, deserve all of that AND MORE). That said, the best book of the first trilogy IS the Illearth War. I'd say that Lord Foul's Bane is probably the weakest book of all of them.

He IS an Anti-hero though, and supposed to be a particularly disgusting anti-hero in the beginning. Various theories and thoughts have gone into this, and some of these theories are indicated to be the correct one after reading the LAST Quadrology of the Series (for example, the Land is actually a reference to the body or soul of the individual, in this instance, Thomas Covenant. Thus Lord Foul is symbolic of the evil Thomas Covenant already has and is actually Thomas Covenant himself...as is also the creator. Thus, Thomas Covenant is both the protagonist and the antagonist of the series at the same time. How is this possible, because it is beyond the boundary of law...hence he is not just the foundation of creation, but the wild magic that forms it all. HE, himself, is wild magic, because he is what everything is to begin with...etc...etc...etc).

That said, I still enjoyed the writing of LFB, so if one didnt enjoy the character of LFB, there may be a good chance they might not enjoy the other books of the trilogy.

I enjoyed the Second Trilogy a lot more than the first trilogy.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Oh boy... so many...

Ones that sucked from the get go:
The Name of the Wind. I read one chapter. Utter drek. I think BookTenTiger has summed it up beautifully above.
Malazan Books of the Fallen. 3 chapters. Just did not grab me. Also couldn't help thinking the guy was setting up some seriously misogynous story telling with the way the empress is portrayed.
Confederacy of Dunces. 5 or 6 chapters. My wife LOVES this book. I don't see why.
Eragon. Half a chapter. Just... wtf is this? I think Lessons From Bad Writing explains its flaws very well. Here's a link: Lessons From the Terrible Writing of Eragon
Dragonlance. Okay, it seems unfair to pick on these out of all the DnD novels, all DnD novels are average to bad. But these just suck with a sucitude that outsucks the rest of the suck.

Shark Jumpers:
Wheel of Time. Look, it started out a perfectly adequate, stock standard bildungsroman fantasy. The characters seemed to get more boring as time went along and the plot wandered off into its own butt somewhere in the middle there. Also the gender politics are... confused to say the least.
Dune. Love the first one. Enjoyed God Emperor, but didn't love it. Everything else is bad to terrible.
Harry Potter. Good kids books. About book 4 Rowling realised she had adult readers and tried to write for them. She did not succeed.

Ones that I liked when I was 13-15years old but not now (and I kinda want to kick my teenaged self in the arse):
Magician. I have in fact re-read it recently. Did not enjoy this time around. Someone above described WoT as the campaign outline of the worst DND campaign ever. I would like to suggest that Magician outdoes WoT in this regard.
David Eddings. Just everything is so cute. No dramatic stakes. Just cuteness.
Thomas Covenant. Yeah there is no reason to include a rape in this story.

Thanks, that was therapeutic.

 

[Zardnaar]

Seems I'm not the only one who liked God Emperor of Dune.

I was 14 when I first read Eddings loved him.

Read alot he gets repetitive.

Elenium is probably his best work.

 

[Eltab]

Turtledove's alternate histories are not bad if you read only one series. If you read multiple series you start to recognize certain characters (personalities not names) are dropped into multiple worlds and set to do their thing in it, sometimes in rather similar circumstances even if the location names have been changed.

 

[Gilladian]

Try his Eyes of the Dragon. I got the kindle version on a whim because I was interested to see what a fantasy novel by Stephen King would be like and it had good reviews. I was happily surprised. I found it very well written, much better than the few books of his I've read in the past.

I dislike Stephen King, and I thought Eyes of the Dragon was an utterly boring pastiche. Never read Jordan, didn’t care for Eddings, and found Sanderson‘s female characters unrealistic. I liked Name of the Wind once, but not on the second read. On the other hand, I like the Dresden Files, Harry Potter until the last book, and Taran Wanderer. I reread LOTR every year or two. Most Great Literature bores me, though I do like Austen.

 

[Zardnaar]

Turtledove's alternate histories are not bad if you read only one series. If you read multiple series you start to recognize certain characters (personalities not names) are dropped into multiple worlds and set to do their thing in it, sometimes in rather similar circumstances even if the location names have been changed.

He's like Eddings. Formulaic.

 

[MGibster]

I have this weird dissonance between the idea of "I just can't get into them" but reading through seven books. It took nearly 6000 pages to figure out you didn't really like it?

WoT is kind of a special case. Part of it is the sunk cost fallacy. "Oh, I've already read so many books in the series I might as well finish." Parts of Wheel of Time are absolutely brilliant; the Battle of Emond's Field, Dumai's Well, and Mat kicking the crap out of Gawyn and Galad. And then you realize the only thing you remember happening from one of the books is that Elayne took a bath and what the hell? Mat isn't even in this book?! Jordan really needed an editor who wasn't his wife. I admit that I only finished the series because I had sunk so much time into it. I first read WoT when I was 14 or 15 and the final book when it was released as I was 38.

I can't seem to work up any enthusiasm for Ready Player One. However well-targetted the book is for me, the flaws so thoroughly overwhelm whatever pleasure there may be found in the work.

I was able to turn my brain off and enjoy it as I read it. But once I finished it I realized it had nothing of substance just nostalgia. I didn't bother with the movie and I doubt I'll ever read the book again.

 

[MGibster]

Outside of genre works, just about everything Hemmingway and Steinbeck wrote springs to mind.

I love The Old Man and the Sea!

 

[MGibster]

I'm mixed on Neil Gaiman, too. I keep enjoying the setup of his stories but every single ending I'm left sort of shrugging. (I've read some Sandman, American Gods, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, listened to Neverwhere's BBC radio drama, and watched Coraline.)

I don't care for Gaiman's work other than a few short stories I've read. Which is odd because Gaiman is a very good writer. I just can't connect with him.

 

[Umbran]

I was able to turn my brain off and enjoy it as I read it. But once I finished it I realized it had nothing of substance just nostalgia. I didn't bother with the movie and I doubt I'll ever read the book again.

I have never gotten through the book. But, by description, many of the issues I would have had... were apparently fixed in or just dropped from the movie, which I rather enjoyed.