[Aptorian]

stone monkey;107763 said:

Olympos by Dan Simmons.
My disappointment with this knows no bounds. Ilium might be the best thing he'll ever write, Olympos reads like it's the sequel to a completely different book - one which I wouldn't have read.

Oh no, don't say that. I've been looking forward to reading Olympos when the price goes down in the local bookstore

Sir Tuesday said:

I felt something similar (although not quite as extreme) regarding Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by the same author. I really enjoyed Hyperion because of the Canterbury Tales style narrative and the vastly differing stories that were told. On the other hand, Fall of Hyperion did not have the stylistic framework to hold it up, which I believe led to portions of the book being a little garbled, especially relating to the Shrike. This really disappointed me.

Strange I prefered The Fall of Hyperion... Even though I disliked the narrative of the Keats clone/android. The Stories of the first book were really, really great but it was worth it to see all the threads being tied together in the second book.

[caladanbrood]

I enjoyed Olympos personally. Not as good as Illium, sure, but it's not so bad:)

[drinksinbars]

loved olympos and fall of hyperion:) thought they were awesome.

most disappointing novels.. am reading his dark materials on recommendation from people and they are so crap its hard to finish them, they are so shallow its hard to fathom the appeal. you can tell they are for children by the utter lack of development, it reads like a list of events and no one but the main character changes in even the slightest way. and the main characters development goes only as far as them changing clothes once in a while.

bakker disappointed the hell out of me, it was just so boring, well written but with no hook, so conrtived and just plain unlikeable. dont even care if i dont read TTT.

[Dr Trouble]

You should read TTT for this speech alone

Spoiler

Cnaiur speaking:
"I know nothing of your Afterlife. I know nothing of your Gods or their greed for glory. But I do know this: In days to come, widows shall curse me as they weep! Fields shall go to seed! Sons and daughters shall be sold into slavery! Fathers shall die desolate, knowing their line is extinct! This night, I shall carve my mark into the Nansurium, and thousands shall cry out for want of my mercy!"

Sent shives down my spine.

[caladanbrood]

But now everyone has read it, so they don't need to read the book?

[Dr Trouble]

But ... but ... damnit, I ruined it didn't I?

[caladanbrood]

Tsk tsk.

[drinksinbars]

wasnt gonna read it anyway mate, so you saved me the trouble:)

[Dolorous Menhir]

Yeah, thanks Trouble, there was no way I was going to give Bakker any more of my money for book three. So does this mean

Spoiler

Cnaiur takes over the Nansur empire, replacing House Ikurei?

[Dr Trouble]

Dolorous> That passage was from about a quarter of the way in the book.

I don't want to turn this into another Bakker thread, but i'll just say this about that certain part of the book, since it was prehaps my favorite and your question was kinda linked with what happens.

Spoiler

Cnaiur fights along side what he comes to think of as his comrades in the city of Joktha against Emperor Conphas. Who later captures Cnaiur after he has slaughtered a few hundred of Conphass men. What happens later is a little surprising.

I still have a quarter of the book to read so I don't know how it pans out. Although so far its a big improvement on The Warrior Prophet.
But I do share the regret in buying it, getting it from the libary now seems like a much greater idea.

[Astra]

Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson

The Redemption of Althalus by both Eddings.

[Red_orbiT]

Speaking of Eddings... I picked up the first book of elder gods or whatever they are callled from a library. I still had rather fond memories of his other books(although I hadn't read them in years and years), so I expected something pretty good. Instead I got: All of David Eddings older books packaged into ONE volume with NEW NAMES for all the characters! Not a single surprise throughout the book! All encounters with the enemies will go according to the plans the main characters have made!
I'm still surprised to this day that I actually managed to get through the book(all the time with a shocked look of horror in my face). I would not read the rest of the books in the serie if someone threatened me with Goodkind.
Oh well, maybe if they threatened me with Goodkind.

Another writer that makes me dissapointed with every book is Mary Gentle. She has very interesting ideas and concepts in her books. She is obviously a very talented writer. Some parts of her books are very enjoyable. But... still... they don't really manage to make me care. I think she is maybe overusing the law of "don't think that your reader is stupid", to the point that I have to spend all my time trying to understand what is actually happening in her books. And when it's easy to understand what's happening, it's usually because there isn't much(that I can see) that is happening. I wouldn't be so dissapointed in her books unless she insisted in pushing my expectations sky-high in the beginning of them.
But I've only read Ash, White Crow and Grunts(wich I didn't really find very funny :/)... maybe I'd like one of her other books.

[Dr Trouble]

astra_lestat;108040 said:

[B]The Redemption of Althalus by both Eddings.

I forgot about that horror. I was one of the few people that forced themselves to read all the way through it.
Even though it made my eyes hurt. I still can't believe how bad it was!

[caladanbrood]

Eddings has never dissapointed me after reading his first book - I got exactly what I expected.

[RodeoRanch]

Trouble;108159 said:

I forgot about that horror. I was one of the few people that forced themselves to read all the way through it.
Even though it made my eyes hurt. I still can't believe how bad it was!

I read it. Then I spent a year trying to travel back in time and prevent myself from reading it.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

astra_lestat;108040 said:

Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson

The Redemption of Althalus by both Eddings.

What specifically didn't you like about The Chrinicles of Thomas Covenant? How many of the books did you read? I'm interested to hear because it seems like this series inspires extreme emotions in people - either they love it or hate it. Very rarely do people say it was OK or so-so, it's all or nothing. Personally, I loved the series, and am looking forward to the new covenant book almost as much as the new Erikson.

[Astra]

caladanbrood;108181 said:

Eddings has never dissapointed me after reading his first book - I got exactly what I expected.

Do you mean you can compare The Redemption of Althalus to Belgariad and say they are equally good/bad/average/whatever?

[Astra]

raymondluxuryyacht;108227 said:

What specifically didn't you like about The Chrinicles of Thomas Covenant? How many of the books did you read? I'm interested to hear because it seems like this series inspires extreme emotions in people - either they love it or hate it. Very rarely do people say it was OK or so-so, it's all or nothing. Personally, I loved the series, and am looking forward to the new covenant book almost as much as the new Erikson.

I have read somewhere exact description of what I disliked about it.
I will find it and post here


[EDIT]

I could not find what I was looking for, however I have found what I said about it on asoiaf forum:

Quote

When Thomas Covenent raped a teenage girl. I decided to go no further.

Oh I never got to this point.
I was so tired of this whining miserable char that I took all 6 books from the series and donated to a local library.

That was my reply to someone's comment.
The 6 books consisted of the first 2 trilogies.

[warmsoda]

'The Etched City' by KJ Bishop got seemingly universal praise for being a great piece of 'Weird Fiction' in the vein of China Mieville, but in no way was it a great work of imagination. With Mieville every page seems dripping with phantasmagoric people, places, and things, but Bishop's city had very very little of interest. And it also happens to be a story that doesn't go anywhere; I read at least 2/3 of it, and nothing's happened. There seems to intimations of things coming to a head, but nearly 3/4 of the way through it, I really feel like **** shoulda hit the fan at least 100 pages back...

I will freely admit to being a huge Mieville fan. Whatever issues I might have with his purposefully baroque vocabulary I happily put aside. But 'Iron Council' was a bit of a bore. I plan on trying it again and hope to appreciate it a bit more, but the first go through wasn't much fun. I thought 'The Scar' was a great adventure; monsters, monsters everywhere. But 'Iron Council' was just too different an approach, I think. Too somber considering what I was expecting...

[caladanbrood]

astra_lestat;108370 said:

Do you mean you can compare The Redemption of Althalus to Belgariad and say they are equally good/bad/average/whatever?

Not entirely. I mean that after reading the first book, any later books that were worse came as no suprise, thus no particular dissapointment. It's all drivel anyway, imho.