Synopsis better than the book

[Quasqueton]

What books "sounded" great when you heard or read a synopsis of them, but were disappointing/boring/just-not-all-that when you actually read them?

How about movies?

Quasqueton

 

[Mercule]

Pretty much any Stephen King book. For some reason, his style just doesn't do anything for me. It may be heresy, but I've pretty much universally preferred the movie versions of King stories.

 

[Jamdin]

I will have to agree about King's books being a disappointment. I also do not like any book that does not have a synopsis but just qoutes from critics and other writers saying how great the writer is.

I finished reading The Bard of Sorcery by Gerard Daniel Houarner last night and was very disappointed. Great concept but the writing style could have been better.

 

[jonesy]

I've mostly had opposite experiences, where the book turns out to be better than the synopsis, and have stopped reading back covers because of it.

But I do have to third the King books. There would be in the synopsis something like "even the innocent shadows exude hidden menace" and I'm reading the book and trying to stay awake. Yawn. :\

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Nearly every book I've read in the last 3 or 4 years.

 

[Crothian]

Wheel of Times and its books comes to mind

 

[WayneLigon]

How about movies?

Man, don't get me started.... :/

I've heard dozens of movie premises that sound just amazing but fell flat or were just plain terrible.

Uwe Boll's stuff especially. We saw the first trailer (but not the next two which our theater never ran; I understrand they laid bare some of the suckiness) for his first film and we couldn't wait. It sounded very cool. Well, you know how that turned out. Then for 'Alone in the Dark'... one of the better trailers I've ever seen, giving you a sense of mystery and menace. Man, that was just false advertising. Same thing for 'Darkness Falls', 'The Village', and a few others I have mercifully blanked from my memory.

I'd hate to have to be the advertising guy that was given Boll's movie and told 'Make this look great'.

 

[jonesy]

I'd hate to have to be the advertising guy that was given Boll's movie and told 'Make this look great'.

On the other hand you could afterwards point to the movie and then point to the adds/trailers and say:
"I made that look like that."

 

[Vonlok The Bold]

The John Marco book, the Eyes of God.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

As far as movies go, the first ones that spring to my mind are "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones". The trailers for those had my hair standing on end... by the end of the films, I was let down.