Whats the worst you've ever read? Scifi/Fanstasy

[Cthulhudrew]

One more that I just thought of- Timeline. Terrible story, with terrible characters. The absolute worst part of it is that the entire story is based on a premise that the story itself invalidates as a possibility within the first couple of chapters. I love some of Crichton's work (Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure, Airframe), but he really dropped the ball on this one.

 

[Lazybones]

Ha! I was thinking about the topic while waiting for the page to load, and takyris hit my yuck-champions. I totally agree on Rhapsody, Sara Douglass, and Terry Goodkind's WFR. I'd also add Kushiel's Dart, which admittedly I could not finish.

Also, Eddings's The Redemption of Althalus was just plain bad. It was a carbon copy, at least in terms of tone, of his earlier books, but it just lacked the same spark. My first Eddings book was Belgarion the Sorcerer, which I enjoyed, so it's not like it's just his style that puts me off. RoA was the same book, only less.

 

[Starman]

Also, Eddings's The Redemption of Althalus was just plain bad. It was a carbon copy, at least in terms of tone, of his earlier books, but it just lacked the same spark. My first Eddings book was Belgarion the Sorcerer, which I enjoyed, so it's not like it's just his style that puts me off. RoA was the same book, only less.

This was also the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title. I try not to put a book down without finishing it and it was very painful with this book. I'm not sure I've ever read another book where the antagonists were so painfully stupid and pathetic. The protagonists just breezed through the whole story with nary a challenge. Just plain horrible.

Starman

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series - I haven't actually completed even a chapter of one of his novels, for the simplest of reasons: I don't read writers who can't write in good, atmospheric English, and I've rarely encountered a more widely-read and less-capable writer of prose than Jordan.

Even Tolkien, whose raw skills as a writer of English I frequently disparage, is more palatable than Jordan.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

I've started reading a lot of books that I regret not finishing. But the only book I regret STARTING was "Lord Foul's Bane" by Stephen Donaldson. Thomas Covenant is the most reprehensible lame-o piece of crap main character I've ever had the misfortune of reading about. There's a line between "complex anti-hero" and "protagonist whose face you want to liberally apply a Louisville Slugger to", and it's not a fine one.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Edding's 'The Belgariad'
Anything by Kevin Anderson
Any Dune past 'Messiah'

 

[CCamfield]

I've probably blotted out the very worst, and I screen out a lot of junk (I think) but I did read Dawnthief, by James Barclay, when I was on a real "fantasy mercenaries" kick, and thought it was atrocious. Indistinguisable characters, ... aaaaugh, just bad.

 

[James Heard]

Everything by L Ron Hubbard and I forget what the name of the series was, but Lawrence Watt-Evans - a guy I normally like very much in a fluffy way - wrote a series a long time ago that I truly, deeply regret reading all the way through.

 

[Filby]

I've started reading a lot of books that I regret not finishing. But the only book I regret STARTING was "Lord Foul's Bane" by Stephen Donaldson. Thomas Covenant is the most reprehensible lame-o piece of crap main character I've ever had the misfortune of reading about. There's a line between "complex anti-hero" and "protagonist whose face you want to liberally apply a Louisville Slugger to", and it's not a fine one.

I second that. I loathed Thomas Covenant. He was a reprehensible person. I only got about six chapters into the story before giving up. I just didn't get it. He finds himself transported to a magical land, miraculously cured of his leprosy, and his first impulse is to rape an innocent young woman?! I must have missed something.

The worst sci-fi novel I ever read from beginning to end, though, was Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams, the fifth and last book in the "increasingly innappropriately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy". It was like Adams was saying, "Here's your effing sequel, I hope you choke on it!" I finished it in despair for the utter loss of everything that had made the other books great.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

I second that. I loathed Thomas Covenant. He was a reprehensible person. I only got about six chapters into the story before giving up. I just didn't get it. He finds himself transported to a magical land, miraculously cured of his leprosy, and his first impulse is to rape an innocent young woman?! I must have missed something.

And I third it. Read 250 pages and then put it down.

The worst sci-fi novel I ever read from beginning to end, though,

Hmmmm, for book I actually finished....I don't know....there are so many bad ones. Any novelization of a movie (Susannah Sparrow's Dawn of the Dead) or lame book that just made an even worse movie (Stephen King's Cujo). Crappy sequels (Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums in Anne McCaffery Pern series).

Maybe Herbert's second Dune book (Dune Messiah?). I still don't believe it was written by the same person who wrote Dune.

The last book (well, most recent; more are planned) in Orson Scott Card's "Alvin Maker" series, Heartfire. The first one (Seventh Son) was so good. Each successive novel slowly got worse. But Heartfire--ugh. If I graded them, they'd go: A, B, C, D, and not F, but 0 (zero). Well, maybe a 1 out of 100 since it was made of paper.

OK, Herbert's Dune Messiah wins. The Card book is a 4th sequel, so it's to be expected. But, the first sequel? To be that bad--to be that unlike the first one in level of talent and writing? Sorry, Frank, you win my "worst ever" award.