What Fantasy Novels Do You Hate?

The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock. DIE, GARY STU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer. THE SAME TO ALL CHARACTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most of Anne Rice's stuff - i hate them even more because I keep reading through them hoping they will get better ..... and they dont.

I can't say I feel hatred towards any book.

There's a few that aren't for me, but hate?

I don't find much that's worthy of hating.

Not so much hate, per se. Just books I wanted to throw across the room in disgust.

The Fifth Ring, by Mitchell Graham I believe. Blatant, blatant Tolkien rip-off (pretty obvious from the title). Rings of power? Been there and done that.

Twilight & co., probably for the same reasons as everybody else. The characters are all Mary/Gary Stus and there's no plot to speak of, just 800 pages of teen angst and rambling about how amazingly unbelievably gorgeous the guy is.

I was pretty frustrated with Eldest too, but admittedly I'm still willing to read the next book.

Gardens of the Moon, by Steven Erikson. Was hoping for pure military fantasy. Got a confusing, rambling plot filled with your stock wizards and gods and a really weirded out magic system that's never explained satisfactorily.

The Amulet of Samarkand. Was I the only one who wondered why we're supposed to be rooting for the so-called protagonist (I mean the little wizard kid, not Bartimaeus who was admittedly pretty funny)? He was nothing but a snotty arrogant meanyhead.

I could probably go on, but I'll spare you. ;)

Oooh, I loved "The Amulet of Samarkand" because of that reason! I just thought it was clever how the main character was actually someone that was so easy to dislike. But I do understand how that might make you dislike the book.

Personally, I dislike the "Great Tree of Avalon" series by T.A. Barron. I didn't mind his "Lost Years of Merlin" series, but the "Great Tree of Avalon" was simply dull. All the characters seemed to be remakes of the ones from Barron's "Lost Years", and the main character was a definite Gary-Stu.

Other than "Eragon", "Eldest", and the ones I just listed, I don't really dislike any books enough to remember them.

Hm. I couldn't bring myself to read the later ones, but the first Shannara book was a real suckfest--pure, gold-plated LOTR rip-off.

Agreed!

I can't stand the Lord of the Ring series. I do not need to read a description of a button for 2 pages!

Is anybody willing to explain what Gary/Stu is? That reference went right over my head.

I loved "The Lord of the Rings!" It is my favorite book series ever! But I won't hold that against you, we will just have to agree to disagree.

A Gary Stu is a male Mary Sue.

A Mary Sue is a perfect character, usually female but it can be used to describe males.

Generic Example: A tall, beautiful woman who is intelligent, can fight like none other, is extremely adept at magic, has a strange, alluring presence, is a princess, knows right from wrong and never makes a bad decision, and has any number of special abilities which enable her to get out of any bad situation with minimal damage.

Specific Example: Arya, from Eragon

It can also be used to describe the perfect villain.

Example: The same tall, beautiful woman who is intelligant, can fight like none other, is an extremely adept magic user, has a strange, alluring presence, is a dark princess, and is perfectly evil in every way. She abuses her underlings with perfect precision, and always outs a traitor before he can cause damage to her regime. She also has a flawless plan for world domination/whatever her goal is, and will probably either achieve it or get almost all the way.

I hope that helped!

i havn't read much from tamora pierce, but i read the song of the lioness quartet and gagged all the way through. i only read it because my friend really wanted me to >_>

That was extremely helpful, thank you.

I actually like some of Pierce's books, although her other branch of books is much better than the one you're referring to.

I don't *hate* many books, but I was unimpressed with Patricia McKillip's "The Riddle-Master of Hed" and the subsequent two novels.

The magic part of it was interesting, but other than that it was a very rote hero story with a magic sword, magic harp, and birthmark of destiny. I spent most of the series wondering why people were doing stuff, when they didn't even seem sure themselves. The ending was both predictable and disappointing.

Most of Terry Brooks' stuff. He's the guy who wrote the Shannara series. All of the Shannara books are rip-offs of LOTR. (His "Magic Kingdom for Sale - SOLD!" series is pretty good, though).

Has anyone here ever read Janny Wurts' "The War of Light and Shadows" series? In my younger (read naive) days I loved those books, specially the first three. Then I read the next two, and was okay and ... somewhere between starting to write seriously and reading other authors I tried to get back to the series and just couldn't. Adjective, adverbs, metaphors, modifiers, whathaveyou... it was like the author ate a half dozen thesauruses (sp) and just spewed out a book. Bleh. All the dialogue, action, even some of the plot just gets lost in all the wordiness. My brain cells grinded to a halt whenever I tried to read it.

(I do still want to finish the series, I just need to gather some more time and courage)

Ugh, Twilight!--but I consider that more to be romance. *fantasy writer defence inflation* I actually started an Anti-Twilight thread....somewhere. I think in the All-Ages Coffee House?

I haven't read Eragon....and from this thread, I don't plan to.

I can't stand the Lord of the Ring series. I do not need to read a description of a button for 2 pages!
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I guess you prefer the Arwen-filled movies? Bleh, they're horrible. >_< My mom got so tired of me pointing out the differences (during the movie) that she got up and went to read a book.

.... Eragon, Twlight and "The circle opens" or something set of books by Tamora Pierce. She's a wonderful author, but I'm hoping that it was just a fault by the publisher?

I'm completely prepared to get flamed here, but I honestly can't stand the Harry Potter series anymore. J.K. had a great idea, but when she combined it with an unbelievably annoying protagonist and an inability to tie up plot lines in a satisfactory manor...I just can't handle it anymore. I was sooo disappointed in Book 7, and when I went back and reread the first six books I just couldn't remember what had made me like them so much in the first place. Which, considering how much of my young teenage years were spent gushing over Harry Potter and writing (bad, fangirlish) fanfiction, is kind of sad.

Also, I'm jumping on the Twilight-hating bandwagon because UGH. It's Hogwarts for vampires, with less focus on the magic and more focus on the teen angst. I think the back of the book should just say "Grey's Anatomy + fangs - any redeeming qualities = Twilight."

I'm done now.

i don't really hate any books... i don't really not like many books either...

i will read the third and fourth eragon books, but they'r nt my favourites because of the purple prose and the many, many rip-offs

my favourite books include trudi canavan's black magician trilogy and her age of the five trilogy
although i suppose they cud b counted as mary stu's as the main characters fit that description...
but it's still good lol

Eragon - Definitely not my favorite book. It's okay in some aspects. But then again, it's a complete rip-off.

Harry Potter - I used to like them a lot, but the later books just end up with me screaming at the books, Cause Harry should be dead 50 times over. There seems to be no limit to what Magic can do. I did approve of the ending Fight though.

Twilight- Gag me now. My friends younger sister is completely obcessed with this series (which provides for lots of humor on our parts, Vampires riding Goats and so forth). Whoever said it above me is right, it's Hogwarts for Vampires, minus the magic and with more teen Angst. Personally, i'll take a 2 page description of a button over a 80 page rant on how good looking some guy is. The author does listen to Muse while she writes though, and of that, I Approve.

All I've got right now.

The Wayfarer Redemption by Sara Douglass. The first half of the first book showed some promise but it was preachy and annoying and used ideas that have been done-a-million-times and not well at that, and just GUH. It would have actually been an okay book if not for the stupid-ass horn people or whatever they were called, who were supposed to be this advanced and pure awesome race that was victimized by the bad bad evil humans, and they demanded blood sacrifice at their rituals but abhored violence of all kinds even in self defense and shunned the one girl because she saved their stupid lives by killing the bad guy. And wow that was a long sentence. But my point stands. Excuse me while I puke into a garbage can.

Sorry if I offended anyone who liked the series, but there are some things on here that I enjoyed, so it's all in good fun, right? :)

I don't hate any books, just don't like some and wonder why the hell I tried. ^^

Gregory Maguire - Lost: Seemed an interesting premise, but GODS was it dry. I still never finished the entire book. I gave up at one point and skipped around til I got bored out of my mind and just read the end. For at least half the book nothing much happens but the MC droning on about where her cousin is and her prospective book idea. I'll never really be able to explain what it was about other than some possession by a 13th century spirit and her having some connection to Scrooge. This'll keep me from trying anything else of his.

Enders Game: Okay, so I only don't like the very ending. It should have ended after the last battle, not dribbled off to that other world he settles on. I liked the rest of the book but the ending made me want to throw it at a wall.

And while I still really like Harry Potter, I was rather disappointed by Book 7. It dragged on alot and didn't do much. We didn't need chapters of the Trio wandering around and sniping at each other. I prefer to believe that most of the end just didn't happen as it became too random.

Yes, I suppose I can't honestly say I hate certain books, but I do wonder why the HELL I wasted my time with some. :P

Agree with the poster who mentioned The Fifth Ring.

I must hereby include Robert Newcomb's The Fifth Sorceress. (I just... no. I'll spare you the rant. The book hit the wall and the floor more times than it had pages. If not for it being a library book, more damage would have ensued.)

Triss by Brian Jacques. I stopped reading the series at that.

Um... I don't remember other titles. :P

~Merc

There are few books that I hate, and most of the ones I do are not fantasy, but to comment on what others have mentioned on this thread:

Eragon and Eldest -- I admit that I heard how horrible Eragon was and read it out of morbid curiosity. I had to read the damn thing with a dictionary nearby and couldn't concentrate on the story because I kept thinking "And this is supposed to be for children?" Not to mention that I could accurately predict what was going to happen based on the bits of the meager plot I was able to catch. I haven't read Eldest but I am willing to along with the last two books in the series merely to say that I did it. The sad thing is that if in the hands of a competent writer -- who wouldn't abuse the thesaurus or load it with purple prose -- it may have actually be a halfway decent book. Highly cliched and a rip-off of half of the popular fantasy series, but still something someone can read cover to cover without much thought.

Anne Rice -- Sadly, I am a fan of her earlier books (the ones she wrote before her head inflated leading her to ban any editor from touching her work) and I am willing to read the rest of the Vampire Chronicles for the same reason that I'm willing to read the rest of the Inheritance Series. I think an acquaintance of mine from another forum put it well when he said "I'm a fan of the memory of reading the books." I don't plan on rereading any of her work.

Harry Potter -- I loved the series but I have many of the same issues with DH that others have mentioned. I can sum up one of those hang ups as "Well, we can put the locket with a chunk of the bad guy's soul in the magical pouch Hagrid gave me that only opens for its owner, but would it be more fun taking turns WEARING it?" Plus that awful epilogue.

I haven't read Twilight, but based on what others have said about it I don't think I ever will. The same applies to the Anita Blake series and Christine Feehan's Dark series.

I haven't read Tolkien either (*braces himself for the upcoming onslaught*) but the first half hour of the first movie almost put me to sleep. The next time I'm in the bookstore I will probably read the first chapter just to see if I like it. The long-winded detail can't be as bad as in GRRM's ASoIaF (which I love) can it?

Just loke to calmly point out that the epilogue was to stop all the 'happily-ever-after' fanfics that I could hear being typed as I closed the back cover. I actually ripped it out of my version and stapled it together, then left it hidden amongst my bookshelf. I rather the story without it.

And agreed on the Horcrux thing. The only thing I can remember thinking during that entire point in the story was "you idiots you idiots YOU IDIOTS!"

LotR - the whole 2-page-button thing

Jennifer Fallon - I don't know if you know her, but they're called the Demon Child Trilogy. I read them once, flew through them, then lost interest. I usually read a book 5 or 6 times, even if I don't really like it. These ones died at 1. The MC is a Mary Stu and to look at them aggrivates me,

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Writing:
It's the only job I know of that you can go around bragging over how many people you've killed today, how many people you have emotionally abused this week and how many towns you've destroyed this month without being shot.

Not too many books that I dislike. If it has a good story, I fall in love with it.

In defence of Stephanie Meyers books, I thought the story is wonderful. The writing style is a bit quick and somewhat childish, but she IS writing for the young adults, so it fits in perfectly with the crowd she's targeting. But, then again, do we really classify it as "true" fantasy? The only element of fantasy that exists is the presence of vampires. ...

I personally love the Anita Blake series, also. Note: It does need to die a quick death, there are waaay too many books and it's being stretched out for way too long(and what is up with becoming so totally powerful without any drawbacks except...sex?), but her earlier works with the series = amazing. I loved it. Same with the Meredith Gentry series.

LOTR? I agree, I don't need to read two pages that describe a friggin' button. Never read it past the first hundred or so pages.

I actually liked LOTR, grueling detail and all. It provided a lot of detail and character development that was absent from the movies. Admittedly, I probably wouldn't've liked it as much had I not seen the movies and read The Hobbit first.

This was sci-fi not fantasy, but I didn't much care for "The Dragon's Nine Sons," I forget the author's name. The concept of the story was amazing. Absolutely amazing. But the storytelling style was just not engaging to me, at all. In my creative writing classes they always say "Show, don't tell." Clearly the author never followed that advice.

Except that epilogue just tempted them ALL to rewrite it. You don't stop fanficcers that way, you make them more likely to write. ^^

Actually I prefer the epilogue as written by a girl named Maya or Mistful. Seemed far more in tune with the writing of the earlier books.

Goodkind. Alright, so I'll admit that I liked Wizard's First Rule enough to buy the sequel, but it sucked that he went on this eighty page trip with the main character being abducted by a dominatrix and all that rot. And then he pulled a Darth Vader. Too wordy, too. And he tried to make the MC seem both innocent and seasoned at the same time. Otherwise a fairly good book.

Twilight, of course. It has no real literary value at all. I read it, and the other two, and enjoyed them a bit, but I don't think they deserve all the hype they've gotten. Vampires shouldn't freaking sparkle.

Eragon was banned, but it bears repeating. I'll stop it at that because you all know why it sucks.

I'll throw out Salvatore. I'll admit I like his stuff, but apparently Drizzt is God and he writes all his fight scenes the exact same way over and over and over again.

That last Artemis Fowl book. The first three were great. The others read like bad fanfic.

I have to say the although most people love LOTR, I despise them with a passion. Other than that, I havent really hated any other books too much.

What's this "two-page button" in LotR everyone's going on about? I've read the books several times (I happen to like them, though I usually skim the less interesting bits) and I'm not remembering any such thing... Or was the original poster just using hyperbole?