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

[Kesh]

Moon Dance, by S.P. Somtow. The concept of Eastern European werewolves conflicting with Native American werewolves in pre or post Civil War America sounded pretty cool. I never could actually bring myself to finish it.

I finished it. The ending was laughably predictable.

Spoiler

The female protagonist becomes a werewolf, and takes control of the packs. ie., Queen of the Werewolves.

There were some nice visual moments, including a few disturbing ones, but overall I thought the characters were pretty silly. As was the plot.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Pick a Gor book. Any of them. Ick.

 

[velm]

For my 'horrible' list, anything by Ed Greenwood. I found just about ALL of his FR stuff to be a chore to finish. I think I from after a certain point, whenever I saw his name on the cover, I just left it there.
I was never able to get into the stories he did. They just seemed so dry.
Other than Ed, I am unable to think of a any other bad books. I have not gotten any books in years due to seeing the high prices of something I am probably only going to use once.
But I have skimmed thru a few books at our local library, and I try to take ones that seem interesting, and have been lucky so far.

 

[Orius]

It looks like everyone forgot to mention Rose Estes' godawful Greyhawk books, so I'll at that to the discussion. Though I really shouldn't be surprised because those books were largly forgettable junk writing to begin with. Maybe I'll have to pick up the Gord books to see what Greyhawk is really supposed to be like.

Crossraods of Twilight was pretty bad too, and I still like the WoT. Too much focus on that twit Elayne, whom I hate; I could have lived without an hour-long description of her taking a bath. Nothing is resolved with Perrin's plot. The Forsaken do nothing. Then there's that argument Rand has with Logain, the worst part there, is he jumps right into the middle of that scene! I'd been waiting a while for the two to meet, and Jordan blew it.

And Eddings can wallow in mediocrity a lot. I haven't read his latest one, and it looks like I haven't missed anything. Which is really a shame, because he is capable of good writing when he isn't padding his books. I thought he started the Belgariad out fairly well, and the Elenium is pretty good if you skip the filler.

 

[David Howery]

I almost hate to say it on a D&D fan site, but 80% of the D&D related novels are nothing but crap crap crap. Estes' GH novels were the worst of the lot, but she has plenty of company.....

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I almost hate to say it on a D&D fan site, but 80% of the D&D related novels are nothing but crap crap crap. Estes' GH novels were the worst of the lot, but she has plenty of company.....

Worry not about that, for many of us agree with you. Me being one of them. Pain those books are. Lots of pain.

 

[OregonGM]

Maybe I'll have to pick up the Gord books to see what Greyhawk is really supposed to be like.

No, don't. Gygax's novels read like term papers and will make you pine for something less dry, needlessly verbose, and self-important, like a Dune novel.


Curse you, I had Estes blocked out completely and now I'm back to the fetal position.

 

[billd91]

I don't think I'd rate the Thomas Covenant books as really bad from a quality point of view. I hated Lord Foul's Bane just the same as many of you because the protagonist was so annoying. The writing had potential though.

I couldn't get more than 1 or 2 chapters into the Paul Kidd Greyhawk books. He's the guy responsible for the Justicar books, right? Bad. Really bad.

I also hated the first book in some pseudo-Celts-in-space book by Patricia Kineally. It was like watching stereotypics dance before my eyes, it was that bad.

 

[Pants]

Dark Tower covers a lot of ground, and I've enjoyed some books more than others, but none made it close to "worst ever".

I actually gave it the honor of being highly overrated, which is in the same category as Deadhouse Gates, a book that I enjoyed.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

The worst book that I actually finished:

The Dreamthief's Daughter, by Michael Moorcock. It's okay for a while, and then it starts to go downhill, fast. It's, in fact, insipid towards the end. I used to like Moorcock, to the point I was going to try and bring back my Von Bek omnibus with me at Christmas. Now, no.

Craptastic books that I just couldn't finish:

Grunts! by Mary Gentle. There's apparently a dividing line between satire and stupidity, and this crossed it. I made it about 100 pages before returning it to the friend I borrowed it from, with invective about how could he possibly like that. I liked the Book of Ash, but sheesh!

Wizard's First Rule, by Terry Goodkind. Other people have described its horrors, so I won't go into detail.

Whatever the first book of David Eddings' Belgariad was. Some people on my floor freshman year thought that it was great, loads better than WoT, and was witty and whatnot. I think I quit about the time what's-his-face meets whoever killed his parents and the "wise chick" tells him to torture them to death or something. The "wit" was painfully bad.

Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown. I like the genre this book's in. However, let me describe what happened when I started reading it:
(open book) "(So-and-so) woke up. He'd just had the best sex of his life with a prostitute." (fling) How he can be a best-seller is completely beyond me. This is the only book I've ever wanted to turn in for a refund. I trashed it instead.

Freedom & Necessity, by Steven Brust & Emma Bull. I liked the Jhereg books, and I heard good things about Emma Bull, so a collaboration should be okay, right? Wrong. Writing a book as a series of letters, postbills, and other such stuff is a poor choice.

I never actually cracked any of the "Celts in Spaaaaace!" books (the Keltiad, I believe...), but the author put a short story in a Knights Templar short story collection that a friend gave me, and the description of the "warm, buttery air" in the first paragraph made me skip to the next story. (shudder)

Brad