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

[Orius]

I am really shocked no one has mentioned the two novels that were sequels to the movie Willow.

The movie was cool, but the sequels sucked.

I read the first book (I forget the names), and it was terrible from page 1 on. You can totally tell George Lucas basically signed the project over to Chris Claremont, who wrote the novels like they were comic books.

Actually, there were three. They're not the easiest reads either. Lucas has a pretty good story with it, but Claremont's very uneven writing makes it hard to notice.

 

[Presto2112]

Robert Jordan
I was actually into the first few books, but the one-dimensional characters and his failure to advance the plotline have really turned me off this series.

Books 1 through 6 were enjoyable. Lord of Chaos especially was memorable. But after that he seemed to just.... stall. Needless description, pointless politicking, endless chapters about characters that don't matter, and entire books that don't mention at least one of the three main characters! I've picked up Crossroads of Twilight twice from the library, fully intending to read it, but then I see a Dave Barry book from the corner of my eye and CoT gets sent back, unread.

 

[Desdichado]

All this talk of Dune reminds me; I couldn't ever get past about the first half of that book. It was extremely poorly written, although the plot itself seemed to be fine. I had it as an AudioBook that I was listening to as I commuted to and from work, and listening to it out loud really emphasised how awkward the prose is.

 

[Patman21967]

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.

Yeahhhhhh...finally someone who agrees with me....I could not even make it through the book...

 

[Wombat]

All this talk of Dune reminds me; I couldn't ever get past about the first half of that book. It was extremely poorly written, although the plot itself seemed to be fine. I had it as an AudioBook that I was listening to as I commuted to and from work, and listening to it out loud really emphasised how awkward the prose is.

I love it ideas in Dune immensely, but the prose, as you say, is truly awful.

This is why I label it as the Best Badly Written Book I Know

Of course very few people "get" what Herbert claimed he was trying to write, that fanaticism, under any guise, is evil. Thus Paul, at the beginning, is good, but by the end he is evil because he leads fanatics. Somehow that got really, really lost...

 

[Black Omega]

Yeahhhhhh...finally someone who agrees with me....I could not even make it through the book...

I do think there is some confusion on the Thomas Covenant books. Some books have such good ideas that they are stil readable even when not well written. Some books well written, so even if their ideas suck, people will still read them. I don't think Lord Foul's Bane and the other books in that series are poorly written in a technical sense. Just poorly conceived and designed, without any real thought to how much the protagonist detracts from the books.

 

[drnuncheon]

I don't think Lord Foul's Bane and the other books in that series are poorly written in a technical sense.

Well, aside from an overuse of the words "roynish" and "vitriol".

J

 

[LostSoul]

All this talk of Dune reminds me; I couldn't ever get past about the first half of that book. It was extremely poorly written, although the plot itself seemed to be fine. I had it as an AudioBook that I was listening to as I commuted to and from work, and listening to it out loud really emphasised how awkward the prose is.

Huh. I really liked the prose in Dune. Thought it was great - I read that book about 3 times a year. Tastes differ.

I thought the ending of Chapterhouse: Dune was good enough to end the series.

Spoiler

The two characters at the end of the book - Tleilexu Kwisatz Haderachs, I believe -seemed to sum up the Golden Path that Paul turned away from and Leto II embraced.

 

[barsoomcore]

Comments:

DUNE: Yeah, it's really weird how people keep wanting to make Paul a hero. His story is TRAGIC, people! He turns into a DICTATOR! I've never noticed the crappiness of the writing -- could be that the ideas are so compelling to me that I ignore the prose -- though most of his other books I never made it through (The Lazarus Effect, The Jesus Incident (or something like that)). Dune is one of those rare genre books that's actually about something adults might find interesting to think about.

THOMAS COVENANT: The books are reasonably well-written, and I don't think it was ever Donaldson's intent to create books that were easy (or even pleasant) to read. I don't object to writers tackling ugliness and asking us to look at evil, which is I think one of the things Donaldson tried to accomplish. I've read a variety of books and watched a number of movies about very unpleasant characters; far worse than poor old whiny Thomas. I doubt I'll ever read them again, and I didn't like them much when I read them, but I remember Donaldson with FAR more respect than an utter hack like Jordan. At least Donaldson's trying to grapple with something approximating actual emotional struggle. Jordan's just applying a word-hose to one page after another.

In the words of Truman Capote: "That's not writing, that's typing."

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

DUNE: Yeah, it's really weird how people keep wanting to make Paul a hero. His story is TRAGIC, people! He turns into a DICTATOR!

Yep, but a case CAN be made for him being a hero in that he eventually DOES see what's happened and tries to stop it. Not that he succeeds(well, Paul doesn't at least), but his attempt to fix what's happened after he becomes a dictator can help his case some. [/re-hijack]