What books have you hated?

[Violanthe]

Ever read a book that you absolutely hated? Or even one that you rather disliked? Which book was it? And why didn't you like it?

 

[Rhiannon]

Wuthering Heights. Because it sucked.

I'm still bitter about Pamela Dean's Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary, which I slogged all the way through, only to discover that the idea behind the book (revealed at the end) was brilliant--she just spent 280 pages killing it. Waaaaaugh.

George R.R. Martin started to make me crazy after a while--I just can't handle that many POV characters, or that much time in between resolving cliffhangers, especially when every chapter ends in a cliffhanger.

Robert Jordan is another one I'm bitter about--started out with so much potential, and then randomly decided to suck. Tsk.

 

[Starbrow]

I have some pretty awful books in my time, but I don't really remember them now. After some very pathetic romance novel a friend recommended, I swore off the whole genre. One book I thought I would enjoy, but wound up hating was Dune. It seemed to go on forever and I never connected with the characters.

 

[e.Blackstar]

Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger.

 

[Mormegil]

As a fan of Fantasy in general, I have read many fantasy series and enjoyed them. But the worst books I have ever read are David Eddings 3 Books of The Tamuli. A shameless rehash of his previous books, which were in turn shameless rip-offs of other fantasy books such as LOTR.
Also the story was poor and long-winded, and I had to force myself to read through it. I don't think I have enjoyed reading anything less than these books.

 

[Violanthe]

I just ordered Dune from the library. I figure I should give it a go. I've heard generally good things about the first book, but bad reviews of the later ones

 

[HLGStrider]

I've never read Dune, but my friend Adam says that the author was very quite obviously on something strong . . .

 

[Lindir]

As a fan of Fantasy in general, I have read many fantasy series and enjoyed them. But the worst books I have ever read are David Eddings 3 Books of The Tamuli. A shameless rehash of his previous books, which were in turn shameless rip-offs of other fantasy books such as LOTR.
Also the story was poor and long-winded, and I had to force myself to read through it. I don't think I have enjoyed reading anything less than these books.

I used to like Eddings when I was young, but now I cordially dislike everything he has written and just thinking of 'The Redemption of Althalus' makes me mad. I hated that book like I have never hated a book before in my life. I should never have finished it I suppose, but I did. I'll never ever read another Eddings again after that piece of absolute junk. If you haven't read it, then don't. It's the same all over again, but even more poorly executed than the others.

 

[Rhiannon]

I've never read any Eddings--after Robert Jordan and The Most Disappointing Fantasy Series Ever I stopped reading the big multi-volume fantasy series (with the exception of Stephen King's Dark Tower Series, which is just Really Frickin' Cool. And I took a break and haven't gotten back to the series yet). Give me a Neil Gaiman or Robin McKinley novel any day. Or a Hellboy comic book, for that matter.

 

[Talierin]

Thank you, finally some people that agree that David Eddings and Robert Jordan simply cannot write! I tried reading the Belgariad once - I think I ended up throwing it across the room after a few chapters. And I only made it up to book six in WoT, then I realized that the plot was going NOWHERE and if I read that Perrin had "Ham-sized fists" anymore I was going to scream.

Unfortunately my best friend still thinks that WoT is better than LoTR - I think he's crazy.

 

[Rhiannon]

Seriously--The plot just stopped after book six, completely (unfortunately I kept reading for another four books, because I wanted to know what happened to a couple of characters. I skipped most of the tenth book, found a couple of brief references to them, then said screw it and gave up entirely) and Robert Jordan stopped actually describing things, he just repeated what he'd said already. Waaaaugh.

And let's not even talk about Terry Brooks. Except for Running with the Demon and Knight of the Word, Terry Brooks pretty much sucks at existing.

Well, and the whole gobs of money thing. Except for that, he sucks at existing.

 

[HLGStrider]

I found that pretty much all of Jordan's characters grew less and less likeable. Even Matt, who was my favorite for a bunch of weird reasons, really started to fade near the end, and the last book I read scarcely had any Matt in it anyway. . .

 

[Rhiannon]

That's because all of the characters started as stereotypes, and then turned into caricatures of themselves. Bleh.

 

[Mike]

I just ordered Dune from the library. I figure I should give it a go. I've heard generally good things about the first book, but bad reviews of the later ones

"Dune" is the greatest work of science fiction of all time. I loved that novel, and highly recommend it. Ecological, spiritual, mental themes...it has them all in a crefully-paced story.

However, my attempt at reading "Dune Messiah" led to failure. And "Children of Dune." The former is, really, more akin to a long essay than anything else, and gets increasingly boring--you think that something will happen, but nothing ever develops. At a third of the length of "Dune", it feels much longer. In "Children of Dune" I started noticing contradictions to what was stated in the original and gave up.

As for books I hated...

Dragonlance. I remember trying to read the first novel in the original trilogy (I think its called "Dragonlance Chronicles) or some such name, and never finished. Horrible written, horribly paced, horribly plotted. The characters were all one-dimensional sterotypes. After reading a few chapters, i simply felt defiled. Into the wood boiler for that copy...

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". *Shivers* Enough said.

"Tom Jones" by Fielding also ranks on my top-ten worst novels of all time list. (I made one for a 'zine in my Creative Writing Class--wait, Dune ranked on my top ten best. Hmm.) I could not, really could not, forge a path through that massive prose. Walter Scott is less verbose, and at least does not interject as many random thoughts into a story. Why this novel is ranked as a classic and the "first great English novel" is beyond me. (Robinson Crusoe was written before this and is, for some reason, not even considered.)

As for most other books i have hated, I usually so not finish them, and try to wipe the memory from my mind. It's somewhat easier to do than with films--"Alexander" still has me waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, thinking "I actually watched the whole thing! Why? Oh God WHY?!"

 

[Ithrynluin]

Thank you, finally some people that agree that David Eddings and Robert Jordan simply cannot write! I tried reading the Belgariad once - I think I ended up throwing it across the room after a few chapters.

I haven't read those authors, but I daresay they are better writers than Terry Goodkind with his dull and unimaginative The Sword of Truth series.

 

[Celebthôl]

Dislike the Earthsea quartet (Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore and Tehanu) quite a lot, they're like the first 4 fantasy books - or so is my take on it - because they have SOOO much potential, but they don't achieve, lots of people say they are the best fantasy books written, but they just come across as the first stepping stone that every other fantasy novel is based on and it has some truely brilliant ideas that arent built up on, and you (I) never connected with the characeters. For those who've never read them, they are very short and go through things way to much for example: the main guy Ged when we first meet him is something like 11, the book is 167 pages long and in that time he grows to about 20, unleashes the worst monster thing in the world ever (or something) and he defeats it. The story could have easily and should have been a 1000 page trilogy at least, instead the entire quartet is 691 pages long. WAY to short.

 

[Starbrow]

I think the Earthseas books are fantastic and Leguin is my 2nd favorite author (after Tolkien, of course). However, I do agree with your assessment that there is a lot of story left untold. It leaves me with a somewhat dissatisfied feeling because I want to know so much more. I suspect LeGuin did not want to write your typical fantasy/action novel.

 

[Annaheru]

I had to read j.g. ballard (Crash and Atrocity Exhibition ) and william s. burroughs (Nova Express) for a college course . . . first time I've ever left books unfinished. Burrough's concept, sabotage language, is fine, but 30pg is more than enough, and I can't even comprehend someone reading all 180pgs. ballard just can't write.

 

[Mormegil]

I haven't read those authors, but I daresay they are better writers than Terry Goodkind with his dull and unimaginative The Sword of Truth series.

Trust me, Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is so much more original, exciting and imaginative than any of Edding's works.

 

[Violanthe]

I recently read the first Earthsea and found it largely boring and the ending was so very predictable.