Novel series that you can't stand.

[Lurks-no-More]

Has anyone ever noticed that there is a lot more bad fantasy than bad SF around (and there's enough bad SF to make a neutron star)?

My personal guess is that, to write SF, you need if not actual ideas (which are only slightly more common in the genre than in general), at least the ability to confuse the reader into thinking you really do have an idea.

To write fantasy (of the bad, pseudo-epic wandering variety, especially), you just need to be able to stick to the format. The closer you stay, the better (ie. worse).


Anyhoo, to the specifics:

Eddings:
I liked Belgariad, and I liked Belgarath's "autobiography". Malloreon was tolerable, although a total rehash of the B (with built-in explanation for it; talk about brazening it out!), and the rest I have left untouched. Probably for the better of all.

Jordan:
Sixty trillion flies cannot be wrong, and so on. The first two or so were pretty readable, but afterwards... things just don't go anywhere, plus the main characters are dense as neutronium.

Just about all TSR / WotC novels:
Hack-writing for fans of the games. There are exceptions, of course (the original Dragonlance trilogy was fun, the Icewind Dale trilogy is quite readable, and I must be the only person on the planet who liked the Avatar trilogy), but life is too short for finding them.

 

[Sixchan]

Harry Potter -- Just can't stand it. Don't wizards realise how stupid the word "muggle" sounds? Seriously, who on Earth could ever come up with such stupid names in reality? Oh, and magicians use wands. Wizards use staffs (and they don't even need them anyway). Like the movies though.

Lord of the Rings -- YAWN. I've never managed to get Frodo to the council yet. Again, like the movies. The Hobbit is one of my favourites, though.

The Great War Trilogy -- For those who don't know, this is an Alternate History novel set during the Great war where the South won the ACW. The prequel, How Few Remain, was another very good novel, but Turtledove's style just didn't work for me in the later books. (OTOH in the World War series, where Aliens invade during World War II, his scene-changing style worked very well for me, but that was probably because the premise was more interesting).

 

[WizarDru]

One of the worst? Ironically, it's from an author who's work I generally like, but the Overman series from Lawrence Watt-Evans....well, lets just say it was his first series, how about that?

Goodkind's work started out OK, but by the second book, I was trying to figure out if it was a ripoff of Jordan, or an homage to porn movies. And, as PC, mentions, everyone gets stupid. Worse, he uses the phrase "You are a rare man, Richard Cypher." somewhere on the odds of every fifth line of dialogue. Yeesh.

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.

There are others.

 

[Mallus]

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.

Its been ages since I read them, but doesn't Covenant feel some remorse, once he actually starts to believe The Land is real? For a painfully long time TC thought he was in some sort of dream, or delusional state.

He was the Unbeliever after all...

 

[Black Omega]

Its been ages since I read them, but doesn't Covenant feel some remorse, once he actually starts to believe The Land is real? For a painfully long time TC thought he was in some sort of dream, or delusional state.

He was the Unbeliever after all...

A tiny bit of remorse, yes. Given everything he did, it's not much. A classic theme is what would some people do if they felt they could get away with anything without any consequences. In Covenant's case, it's a free hand to be a mean spirited bastard. Hannibal Lector is more of a hero.

 

[Storm Raven]

A tiny bit of remorse, yes. Given everything he did, it's not much. A classic theme is what would some people do if they felt they could get away with anything without any consequences. In Covenant's case, it's a free hand to be a mean spirited bastard. Hannibal Lector is more of a hero.

In Covenant's case, it is also "what people might do if they felt they were in a hallucination and experiencing physical sensation for the first time in years after having been robbed of that by leprosy."

 

[Hand of Evil]

WoT by Jordan has gone down hill, first couple were good if old hat but after that crap for the most part. What is bad about it is that I still pick them up expecting/hoping they get better. :

Trumps of Doom or whatever the additional Amber books by Zelazany were called. There was no passion in them, and I think hurt the story as a whole.

Every Drow novel! While the Shard (3) books were good they were about an adventuring group, after that freaking drow this and that, players want to be one, two swords. ARRRRRRRR!!!!!

 

[Sonikal]

Harry smegging Potter...

DAMM Him and his evil ways!!!...If I get my hands on him I'm gonna...

...(ahem), sorry... What I meant to say was I 'dislike' Harry Potter.

 

[Ryan Koppenhaver]

Another vote for the Sword of Truth series, here. I actually started reading in the middle of the series, with Temple of the Winds, which I thought was tolerable, but not great.

The next book in the series that I read was Faith of the Fallen.

Oh. My. God.

I've read books with political messages before, and liked plenty of them, but Faith of the Fallen simply redefines the word heavyhanded. Goodkind makes Ayn Rand look subtle and realistic.

Ok, Ok, I get it already! Communism is bad! It makes people lazy and stupid! But you can snap them out of it with some impressive statuary!

Sheesh.

 

[Bagpuss]

That Middle Earth stuff Tolkien writes - Interesting setting but boy can that guy waffle on.

Anne McCaffrey's Dragon books - it takes you longer to figure out which is first in the series than actually read the book.

Frank Herbert's Dune series - he should have stopped after the first one.

Oh yeah and the Bible, good opening but then it really drags, and the final book is a pit too fantasical.