[Osric]

mocker, on Oct 3 2008, 05:59 AM, said:

terry brooks
i read a shannara novel years ago and it was fucking horrible!
well i say 'read' but it was the only book ive ever bailed on half way thru!

Donaldson doesnt deserve to be in this list at all

Agree, the shannara books, I tried about 3, all made me want to burn things.
I dont know why.
I think it was the elves.

[Ulorian]

The worst?

Anything by:

Terry Goodkind
David Eddings
Dennis L. McKiernan
Robert Jordan

Why are Stephen Donaldson or Neil Gaiman on anyone's list? "I don't like whining lepers" != bad fantasy

[alt146]

Why is everyone here so intent on bashing RJ? I admit they're not malazan quality, but there's a whole lot of other authors out there I would put on this thread before him. & book 11 was actually pretty good, so I dont think the series went down the drain either. Although it would have been nice to know who killed asmodean by now. Anyway, the books are reasonably well written, the characters are interesting in a "you sometimes want to punch them" kind of way and the plots are well thought out and consistent on the whole, although maybe a little drawn out.

[mocker]

i never minded RJ, but WoT could have been finished quite nicely in 6 or 7 books. the thing that really bugged me is that loads of books in the middle of the series hardly progressed the series one bit and stuck to the same format of "shit all happens, then Rand fights a Forsaken, then end", which just made me really dislike most of the characters, with exception of Mat, coz it got too drawn out and showed how uninteresting All the women in the series were! still tho, i'll still read the last un just to see how they're endin it with his notes n shizzle

ooo and i could never see RJ's fascination with constantly describin men as handsome by using the phrase "well turned calfs" ha weird love of the leg goin on there!

[Osric]

I loved the first few books of WoT, the last few were slow and a bit boring, so much potential lost. But I mean, the guy was dieing when he wrote them, can't really blame him can you?
RIP

[Macros]

The Amber series by.. Zelany I think, absolute twaddle.
I couldnt evewn finish WFR twass so god awful
Redemption by Eddings has been thoroughly bashed by myself already.


Now a book that some seem to like but I think is absolute garbage - Knight by Gene Wolf

[lord of tragedy]

i thought the new suns was shite aswell. bought it as a fantasy masterwork and it seems to have a massive reputation. terribly dull. he left the gulid then thet went for a walk in an arboretum and i had a boredom induced stroke. i tried to read zindells the wild. what publisher ever thought that would sell? celestial numbers and computer gods? is he a psuedynom of kevin anderson? read a peter hamilton book once. i still have the twitch in my neck to prove it.

[frookenhauer]

alt146, on Oct 2 2008, 04:49 PM, said:

Maybe I should try read them again sometime. Just remember being incredibly irritated with him all the time.

Did you manage to pinpoint what it was exactly? or was it just a general feeling, in which case I'd ask you whether life was good at the time of reading or somesuch

polishgenius, on Oct 2 2008, 05:12 PM, said:

frookenhauer, on Oct 2 2008, 04:42 PM, said:

so all in all a realistic character then, wouldn't you agree? If it wasn't for selfish whiny and people I'd be out of a job, so its a good thing the world is chock full of them IMO

Yeah, but realism doesn't always make for good reading, no?

My main problem when trying to read it though was that I just didn't like the writing style. A lot of the ideas were class, but I just couldn't get into it.

Ah, but when it comes to characters, I prefer some elements of realism. Another point, if I contracted leprosy, I'd be pretty pissed, I'd moan a hell of a lot more than Covenant, but I digress... It looks like its a question of taste in some cases, but I am still very surprised whenever anyone says they don't like Donaldson, its like I want to ask if they had anything else going on in their life at the time that may have altered their perception or whatnot. Lordydude has explained the case for Donaldson very well, and my explanation would look crap next to his so 'ave a look.

Anyway I bow at the altar of Donaldon, Erikson and Martin (Its a label I've been given, i consider myself impartial) so anything uttered by me is heavily prejudiced and unreliable and inadmissible as evidence

[Coco with marshmallows]

Dennis L Mc-f******g-Kiernan (spelling? who knows) - for horrendous abuses of the Tolkein stereotypes.

Kevin J Anderson - the dune prequels. okay, they're sci-fi, but they are so bloody god-awful that they deserve a mention.

can't think of any others off the top of my head....

[lord of tragedy]

does anyone think russel kilpatrick earth abides the flame deserves to be here


sean russel?

MICKey zucher rhienhart for last of the renshai?

ICE for ROTCG? i havetyped it now and i can't take it back. considering the glittering cast of characters and all the mouth watering set pieces i still felt cheated. not sure how you manage to do the return of the crimson gaurd to quon tali badly but he did.
sorry ICE. loved NOK though.

lowenbrau. great german wheatbeer.

[mocker]

Osric, on Oct 3 2008, 03:28 PM, said:

I loved the first few books of WoT, the last few were slow and a bit boring, so much potential lost. But I mean, the guy was dieing when he wrote them, can't really blame him can you?
RIP

true true. gutted Gemmells gone as well

[polishgenius]

lord of tragedy, on Oct 4 2008, 12:34 AM, said:

does anyone think russel kilpatrick earth abides the flame deserves to be here

Well, I read the first one (Across the Face of the World) and it was awful, so agree there.

[James]

Eddings just for ending up in the same place as you started at. the whole "lets go back in time and fix everything" BS almost made me rip my air out, if they could have done that why didn't they do it at the start. to the power of infinity

Jimms

[Gem Windcaster]

David Eddings Tamuli series - the ending still makes me tremble with rage and horror.

This post has been edited by Gem Windcaster: 04 October 2008 - 02:49 PM

[James]

"Rule of Four" dunno who by cause i hid it far away so no man could reach it.

Jimms

[Werthead]

Gem Windcaster, on Oct 4 2008, 03:49 PM, said:

David Eddings Tamuli series - the ending still makes me tremble with rage and horror.

One of the few books that made me want to commit acts of violence. This really was just unreadable shit of the highest order. Almost as bad something by Elron Hubbard.

[lord of tragedy]

what was that line eddings used to repeat ad nauseum about sparhawk's mind reeled when he considered the implications of what flute had said. even thinking about that line makes me want to vomit. absolute drivel.

[Gem Windcaster]

If it only was a case of simply writing crap, I'd not be so upset - but Eddings purposefully slaughters the whole series in a single act of insanity - the only thing that made sense he just revoked. I am still trembling of the pure shock and horror - someone that does that kind of thing to his own creation should buried alive, like the dude Belgarath put deep into the rock in the Belgariad, to take an example from his own series. I seriously loathe Eddings after reading that ending in Tamuli - it was so wrong on so many levels.

[Darkwatch]

Alice Brochart's "The Dragon Queen".

Absolute shit.

[James]

For every one good writer there's about 20 or so bad writers. If only we could round 'em up and put them into a boat then let it set sail... off a waterfall.

Jimms