Books you like but get a lot of criticism or hate

[TheSword]

I’m always surprised by how much hate Wheel of Time gets. For me it is the best fantasy series in existence, better than Tolkein, better than any others. It is the most epic of all epic fantasy.

There are more ‘moments of awesome’ in this series than pretty much as very other fantasy book I’ve read combined, and pretty much every main character becomes ace during the series.

Genuinely don’t understand how people can say the books are slow. Perhaps compared to Harry Potty. For me it’s world and character building that pays out big.

I guess for those who can’t make it through there is a TV series coming out.

 

[SehanineMoonbow]

I liked the early Shannara books, but I stopped at the Genesis trilogy. Stopping had nothing to do with me considering it a Tolkien rip-off though.

Hmm...I guess the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks. The books are popular, but they also get a lot of criticism, with Weeks' fans saying Lightbringer is a better read, with NA being "rough", like you could tell it's a first book. I never felt that way, and I loved the NA trilogy, whereas I don't like Lightbringer nearly as much. It has some cool concepts with color, but I can't stand Kip at all lol, and it just doesn't grab me the way NA did. I still need to read the last book.

 

[dragoner]

Asimov probably, I know a lot find his stuff dry, though he is another stem person, and it shows.

 

[Ath'kethin]

I loves me the Weis & Hickman Dragonlance books, especially the first six. No work of art, literature, or film had a greater impact on me and my mental or creative development before or since.

I'm reading the Chronicles now to my 7yo, and luckily I have them mostly memorized so I can do quick edits on the fly. I have no real issue with the couple lying sweatily together in a cave, for example, but I'm not sure I need my 7yo repeating any of it.

I'm also a huge fan of Lovecraft's work. The man himself was a despicable waste of resources, and when he started he could barely string together a coherent sentence, but much of his later work is incredible in its imagery and atmosphere. And his focus on slowly building terror as the characters' knowledge and understanding grew is a wonderful subversion of educational expectations.

 

[Blue Orange]

Dunno about books but it definitely happens with films for me. I think I generally like films more than most people do.

One of the things I've realized is that critics have much less tolerance for cliches, because they watch hundreds of movies.

That twist you thought was original, they've seen in a bunch of older movies. That cliche you've seen once or twice and notice as a trope, they've seen ten times and are sick of. That cliche you've seen ten times and roll your eyes at, they've seen hundreds of times and it drives them up the wall.

So critics vastly overvalue originality compared to the general moviegoing population. Same is true for books, I'd imagine, particularly in genre fiction where the general public often wants more of the same.

 

[Blue Orange]

Back to the original topic, I rather enjoy a lot of bargain-basement 70s-80s era fantasy. The books are shorter (useful for those of us with limited time) and pulpily enjoyable. Robert Vardeman seems to be one of those forgotten authors who made worlds one could easily mine for a D&D game.

 

[turnip_farmer]

Asimov probably, I know a lot find his stuff dry, though he is another stem person, and it shows.

I can't help but notice that the 'books you hate that everyone likes' and 'books you like that everyone hates' threads are both listing all of the same books. We're doing something wrong here.

 

[GreyLord]

Another vote for Shannara and the entire series of the books with it.

Another vote for the Dragonlance chronicles (though even more so for Legends).

I also like the multitude of Forgotten Realms books that came out many decades ago, and I even like Greenwood as an author! (now that last part is bound to be controversial with many).

 

[Zardnaar]

Another vote for Shannara and the entire series of the books with it.

Another vote for the Dragonlance chronicles (though even more so for Legends).

I also like the multitude of Forgotten Realms books that came out many decades ago, and I even like Greenwood as an author! (now that last part is bound to be controversial with many).

I liked Spellfire but he's not great.

 

[Blue]

Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. It's a superhero deconstruction. There's some really cringy parts with poor pacing, and more deux ex machina than I like - but I keep coming back to it.

The Honor Harrington series by David Weber - up to a point. Yes, she's a complete Mary Sue, in a Star Kingdom of Mary Sues. But I like the combination of space navel battles with interesting limitations on them, and the author playing "break the Mary Sue" and putting her into situations she's ill equipped to handle.

Though I've re-read that series multiple times, it does jump the shark when the whole Star Kingdom of Manticore itself becomes whatever the equivalent of Mary Sue is for space-fairing nations. Or maybe when there became a lot of side books, also filled with Mary Sues, that impacted the main HH line. Either way, while I've read them all, on last read-thru I stopped at a particular point - early in one of the books - saying "it goes downhill from here". But the first N books are still ones I enjoy that others complain about.