Novel series that you can't stand.

[Inez Hull]

Likewise. I really enjoyed the Crystal Shard and have read it a number of times as a quick enjoyable dose of fantasy. However, the rest of those drow books were ludicrously bad. Man I thought it was bad when Arnie punched out the mule in one of those Conan movies, but one of those Salvatore books has the barbarian punch out a camel and then proceed to PICK IT UP AND THROW IT. Plus some rubbish fight scene with Drizzt where he hits an opponent 15 times before it even realises its dead or some crap like that.

Also, another vote for Terry Goodkind.

I agree with the comments earlier in the thread about Julian May's Galactic Millieu series. The Saga of the Exiles was pretty cool, but the "rebellion" in the later series was a complete non-event. Very disappointing.


In defence of Ursula Le Guin and Michael Moorcock, I personally found the Earthsea books and Elric respectively, to be some of the weakest novels by either author. Ursula Le Guin's Haininsh sci-fi novels are fantastic and I much prefer Moorcock's novels that deal with alternate earths such as Von Bek or Bastable.

 

[ergeheilalt]

Originally posted by WizarDru
And let's not forget the series I nearly burned in disgust, Thomas Covenant. If I want to read about rapists, I'll pick up the daily paper, thankyouverymuch. I've met enough real jerks in real life, thanks. I mean, at least Elric felt bad when he'd kill his friends and loved ones.

I felt the same way. I read the entire series hoping it would somehow get better, improve. I read these in eigth grade - you should have seen the face of my teacher when I described the "protaganist" (my mom got a phone call after class ). Putting aside the TC, the Land had great potential for a great novel. I was even more disappointed by the second series, talk about crazy.

I'm a big SOT fan, but the last book was a waste of paper. They stunk to high heaven - there was no involvement of the main characters until the *very* last chapter.

Erge

 

[reddist]

What about Gor?

Three pages and I'm surprised nobody has mentioned John Norman and his Gor books. I remember picking the first one up as a teenager, thinking "wow, there are 40 of these, they must be good. This will keep me busy for years."

At first I thought it was a nicly thought-out universe, full of rich detail. But then I realized reading those books will WARP YOUR MIND. I have NEVER since come across books that are so full of misogyny and badly written soft-porn.

Also... I liked Anthony's Apprentice Adept books for a long time. I considered them some of my favorites for years, until I re-read them as an adult. Consider the hero, someone who has trained his entire life playing in the "Games." Whatever the situation, no matter how difficult or ludicrous, he has done it before while playing. Anthony used this method to create a hero who essentially had his"god-mode" turned on. He was incapable of failing.

Other dislikes already mentioned: WoT, SoT, anything by Salvatore.

-Reddist

 

[Ycore Rixle]

I did not like the Hobbit, although the trilogy is a different matter.

Not a series, but I can't stand Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. I just posted a rather lengthy rant about that novel in this forum.

 

[S'mon]

Re: What about Gor?

Three pages and I'm surprised nobody has mentioned John Norman and his Gor books...

-Reddist

Gor kinda 'goes without saying'...
Interesting world, tedious misogyny, incredibly bad writing.