[Grief]

Terrible recommendation? Poorly chosen gift? The series nosedives halfway through but you pushed through anyway?

This is the thread for you.

My most recent disaster is Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.

I found the style really pretentious and it never got out of the way of the interesting subject matter. If anything it gets more grating as the book goes on.

One positive is the length lives up to the title, though I would have been happier with On Earth We're Very Very Briefly Gorgeous Indeed.

Disagree with my hot takes and share your own! Help us all avoid whatever awful tripe you have had the misfortune to read.

[worry]

I looooved On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous!! But I also love the premise of this thread!

The last 1-star book I read is called Savage by Thomas E. Sniegoski, which I got as part of a book of the month club I was gifted last year -- selections were naturally hit and miss, but this was by far the biggest miss.
It's one of those animals-go-crazy stories, so I was actually pretty excited to read it as a pulpy good time. It had one decent scene, but was lacking in ideas (good or bad) generally, and what really killed it was the prose which was consistently very poor.

Edit: All with the caveat of course that writing is hard, completing a novel is generally impressive regardless, different strokes, etc.

This post has been edited by worry: 03 August 2021 - 04:48 AM

[Abyss]

I tend to bail on books fairly quickly if I'm not enjoying them, so I can't say anything is 'truly awful' because I don't stick around long enough to judge.

That said, Terry Goodkind made my eyes bleed.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Goodkind really sticks with you on how bad it is, even years later. I don’t know why I read as many of the series as I did.

[Morgoth]

Dragon Mage by M. L. Spencer. It got great reviews and I found it to be almost spectacularly terrible. The main character is presented as flawed and with maybe asperbergs, making life a bit of a struggle. Interesting concept. Unfortunately everyone that meets him, and especially the dragons, recognise his great and noble soul and all bow to him and love him and isn't it all wonderful. I couldn't get more than halfway.

[Abyss]

Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 03 August 2021 - 05:41 AM, said:

Goodkind really sticks with you on how bad it is, even years later. I don't know why I read as many of the series as I did.

Likely because other than the lesbian torture ninjas, the first few books aren't bad. There are even some neat original ideas... i liked the whole idea of the Confessors, by example. It's when you get to the chicken that everything changes.

...also, weird social commentary, bizarre political plots, women-hate, random plot illogical swerves, characters suddenly having massive skill sets not mentioned in the prior three books, and also the chicken...

[Chance]

Last really poor book would be We Ride the Wind...I blame it (and not getting my hands on Eriksons latest) for not reading a single page during vacation when I regularly read a book every few days.

It wasn't truly awful just pretty bad, you have to go back a good while to Forgetting Moon for something so horribly bad I can't stop reading because I kind of want to know how bad it is going to get.

[Abyss]

Evil chicken.... FFS THERE WAS AN EVIL CHICKEN

[Maark Abbott]

Stormbad 1 was sold to me on a grand promise of 'but it pays off at the end' and the payoff was just a middle finger. What I learned from it was if a book seems like a non-finisher, don't waste more effort on it.

Kings of the Why Did I Even Get This Far read like some sort of spinal tap fanfiction and that movie would make my soul bleed if I had one. Didn't even finish it.

[Zeto Demerzel]

I'm going to go with the second Raven's Shadow book - Tower Lord. Found it boring, derivative, and interminable. Never did finish the book or move on to book 3.

[weaverbird05]

Maark Abbott, on 04 August 2021 - 11:57 AM, said:

Stormbad 1 was sold to me on a grand promise of 'but it pays off at the end' and the payoff was just a middle finger. What I learned from it was if a book seems like a non-finisher, don't waste more effort on it.

Kings of the Why Did I Even Get This Far read like some sort of spinal tap fanfiction and that movie would make my soul bleed if I had one. Didn't even finish it.

Were you referencing Kings of the Wyld? Just because that is what I came here to say - I couldn't force myself to finish it. Oh they got robbed...again. Slowhand got hit...again. Like there was an interesting idea they drove into the ground with their shtick.

[Ailesbury]

I have tried to read Zadie Smith and don't see why so many people consider her to be so important. Her writing style seems flat and uninteresting to me.

[Cougar]

I tried to read The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon and I just detested it. I've a low tolerance for what I call 'Oxford Wank' novels (books in which an author - typically, but not exclusively American and more often than not a woman - has, whether by attending or visiting, completely fallen in love with Oxford, specifically the university, and has her characters moon around in front of the Rad Cam or New College Lane as the central conceit of the plot etc. See also: A Discovery of Witches), but this was just unreadable for me. I appreciate that I'm hardly the target audience, but I hated all the characters and detested the world.

[Abyss]

This.
One chapter, massive exposition, tropes so blunt i could smoke them (not in a good way). Maybe for someone just getting started in fantasy lit this is a glorious work of genius, but it aint me.
I don't like to slam anyone's work - they produced a book with all the work and risk that entails, and hell, i have not - but you my people are not just getting started in fantasy lit.

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 03 August 2021 - 05:41 AM, said:

Goodkind really sticks with you on how bad it is, even years later. I don’t know why I read as many of the series as I did.

I think one of the problems with the Sword of Truth is that the first book wasn't terrible. It was written to work as a stand alone. If that was all Goodkind ever wrote I think reviews here might range from "meh, that was pretty whatever, don't waste your time" to "that was sort of okay-ish," not the "Oh God, burn it with fire" that encapsulates the entire series.

I remember the first book as having some bits of shoddy writing, some bad ideas (let's ban fire), some weird/juvenile ideas (mord sith (sp?)) and some kinda blatant rip-offs (the gollum like sword of truth carrying dude). But I also remember there being enough interesting ideas that it was easy to convince myself that if he got things together it could actually be a pretty decent series. Then the rest of the series happened. It didn't go completely off the rails immediately; the ideas, writing, and execution of the ideas just kept getting a little bit worse each book until you reach a point where you can't bring yourself to read any further. At that point, knowing the series is never going to improve, you look back over what you just read and come to grips with how terrible the whole thing was.

[Abyss]

Gwynn ap Nudd, on 18 August 2021 - 01:50 AM, said:

Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 03 August 2021 - 05:41 AM, said:

Goodkind really sticks with you on how bad it is, even years later. I don't know why I read as many of the series as I did.

I think one of the problems with the Sword of Truth is that the first book wasn't terrible. It was written to work as a stand alone. If that was all Goodkind ever wrote I think reviews here might range from "meh, that was pretty whatever, don't waste your time" to "that was sort of okay-ish," not the "Oh God, burn it with fire" that encapsulates the entire series.

I remember the first book as having some bits of shoddy writing, some bad ideas (let's ban fire), some weird/juvenile ideas (mord sith (sp?)) and some kinda blatant rip-offs (the gollum like sword of truth carrying dude). But I also remember there being enough interesting ideas that it was easy to convince myself that if he got things together it could actually be a pretty decent series. Then the rest of the series happened. It didn't go completely off the rails immediately; the ideas, writing, and execution of the ideas just kept getting a little bit worse each book until you reach a point where you can't bring yourself to read any further. At that point, knowing the series is never going to improve, you look back over what you just read and come to grips with how terrible the whole thing was.

Agreed. Lesbian leather torture ninjas aside, the first book isn't terrible, it even has some neat ideas and moments, as do 2 and 3. Just less, each time, and then the villain is doing weird things to witches and kids are being fake trained as soldiers and something about syphilis and the protag spontaneously becomes a master stonemason and then finally THE CHICKEN.

[JPK]

Abyss, on 19 August 2021 - 12:50 AM, said:

Gwynn ap Nudd, on 18 August 2021 - 01:50 AM, said:

Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 03 August 2021 - 05:41 AM, said:

Goodkind really sticks with you on how bad it is, even years later. I don't know why I read as many of the series as I did.

I think one of the problems with the Sword of Truth is that the first book wasn't terrible. It was written to work as a stand alone. If that was all Goodkind ever wrote I think reviews here might range from "meh, that was pretty whatever, don't waste your time" to "that was sort of okay-ish," not the "Oh God, burn it with fire" that encapsulates the entire series.

I remember the first book as having some bits of shoddy writing, some bad ideas (let's ban fire), some weird/juvenile ideas (mord sith (sp?)) and some kinda blatant rip-offs (the gollum like sword of truth carrying dude). But I also remember there being enough interesting ideas that it was easy to convince myself that if he got things together it could actually be a pretty decent series. Then the rest of the series happened. It didn't go completely off the rails immediately; the ideas, writing, and execution of the ideas just kept getting a little bit worse each book until you reach a point where you can't bring yourself to read any further. At that point, knowing the series is never going to improve, you look back over what you just read and come to grips with how terrible the whole thing was.

Agreed. Lesbian leather torture ninjas aside, the first book isn't terrible, it even has some neat ideas and moments, as do 2 and 3. Just less, each time, and then the villain is doing weird things to witches and kids are being fake trained as soldiers and something about syphilis and the protag spontaneously becomes a master stonemason and then finally THE CHICKEN.

The more I think about it I'm becoming more and more sure that this sounds like a great book for Maark.

[Maark Abbott]

JPK, on 19 August 2021 - 02:31 AM, said:

Abyss, on 19 August 2021 - 12:50 AM, said:

Gwynn ap Nudd, on 18 August 2021 - 01:50 AM, said:

Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 03 August 2021 - 05:41 AM, said:

Goodkind really sticks with you on how bad it is, even years later. I don't know why I read as many of the series as I did.

I think one of the problems with the Sword of Truth is that the first book wasn't terrible. It was written to work as a stand alone. If that was all Goodkind ever wrote I think reviews here might range from "meh, that was pretty whatever, don't waste your time" to "that was sort of okay-ish," not the "Oh God, burn it with fire" that encapsulates the entire series.

I remember the first book as having some bits of shoddy writing, some bad ideas (let's ban fire), some weird/juvenile ideas (mord sith (sp?)) and some kinda blatant rip-offs (the gollum like sword of truth carrying dude). But I also remember there being enough interesting ideas that it was easy to convince myself that if he got things together it could actually be a pretty decent series. Then the rest of the series happened. It didn't go completely off the rails immediately; the ideas, writing, and execution of the ideas just kept getting a little bit worse each book until you reach a point where you can't bring yourself to read any further. At that point, knowing the series is never going to improve, you look back over what you just read and come to grips with how terrible the whole thing was.

Agreed. Lesbian leather torture ninjas aside, the first book isn't terrible, it even has some neat ideas and moments, as do 2 and 3. Just less, each time, and then the villain is doing weird things to witches and kids are being fake trained as soldiers and something about syphilis and the protag spontaneously becomes a master stonemason and then finally THE CHICKEN.

The more I think about it I'm becoming more and more sure that this sounds like a great book for Maark.

Oi. "High Overlord Goodkind" was an ironic meme and nothing more. >:3