Kevin's Watch

Avatar wrote:What? I thought it was a great story. I think I'll reread it soon actually. And it was only one bad woman who was ugly wasn't it?

(I wasn't a big fan of the sequel though.)

--A

Hooooow could a fan of SRD like this thing? It's just not possible! Tell me it ain't so. Of course I can't understand how people who like the Covenant Trilogies could like that Ender's mess either, so maybe it's just me. Maybe I am missing something.......anything. Grasping at straws here, folks.

And did you read that self congratulatory ego inflated preface he wrote? Somebody needs to slap him.

*shrug* For taste there is no accounting.

I like Enders Game too.

--A

<keeping a wary eye on lorin, as she seems to be in a slapping mood >

I liked Pillars of the Earth when I read it, too. I didn't *love* it, mind you. But I think I don't tend to expect much out of popular historical fiction anyhow.

The sequel, tho? That sucked. Same narrative problems -- good people were REALLY good, bad people were REALLY bad -- and the storyline wasn't nearly as compelling as the construction of the cathedral was in the first one.

Agreed. Not impressed by the second one at all.

--A

Dan Brown's terrible writing makes me die a little inside.

Harry Turtledove's horrid writing is capable of inducing retching.

Kevin J. Anderson defines "untalented hack".

David Eddings is awful.

But those are authors. For the single worst book I've ever read...hm...

For pure disappointment when you compare first half to second half? Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show takes the cake.

For just being execrable the entire way through? Tad Williams' Shadowmarch was so bad, I quit the entire series. And I loved Otherland and Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn.

I generally don't like to label books best or worst but I have always plainly stated that I personally didn't care for Terry Brooks - sword of shanarra however when pressed for an answer to the question Terry Brooks is the example I usually give. However I am nearly a quarter way through Terry Goodkind's Wizards First Rule and I can't imagine actually finishing the book.

aTOMiC wrote:I generally don't like to label books best or worst but I have always plainly stated that I personally didn't care for Terry Brooks - sword of shanarra however when pressed for an answer to the question Terry Brooks is the example I usually give. However I am nearly a quarter way through Terry Goodkind's Wizards First Rule and I can't imagine actually finishing the book.

I forgot about Goodkind! Yes, he's bad.

I really did not care for The Secret Life of Bees. an exercise in stereotyped characters in a pretty setting, with a feel-good ending. Kind of like a Color Purple wannabee (wannaBEE, get it? ) but with a pretty blond girl escaping her abusive, Bible-thumping cracker father into the arms of Afro-American earth mothers.

I have thought several times that there are different kinds of worst books. Some, like the one I just mentioned, are not so bad but the hype was so monumental that so is the disappointment. (That's why I tend not to read books less than 3 years old, and most are way old.) Then there are books that make me feel manipulated (Umberto Eco's writing is an example of this), books that are horrifyingly violent, books that are just pulp fiction (but if it's honest about it, I respect that)... My least favorite are the sickening ones (like the example of the babysitter who is raped and murdered by the kids) because some of that you can't unread. The Secret Life of Bees was just forgettable.

Horrim Carabal wrote: Kevin J. Anderson defines "untalented hack".

Saga of the Seven Suns was good as far as I read up 'til now.

--A

Avatar wrote:

Horrim Carabal wrote: Kevin J. Anderson defines "untalented hack".

Saga of the Seven Suns was good as far as I read up 'til now.

--A

I haven't read any Anderson for years. Maybe he's improved!

It's his own universe for a change, compared to the paired/whatever stuff he often does. Look for it in the library and try the first one. Very involved, epic-style thing. (Must find them for myself actually.)

--A

Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson

Had to be the Da Vinci Code - or at least the worst written book ever. If that had been a 12yo's examination essay at school and I was the marker I'd have failed it. But having said that somehow still you had to keep reading it!

There's probably a moral in there, although I'm damned if I know what it is.

--A

I kept solving the puzzles while the 'Symbologist' Professor Robert Langdon was still scratching his head. It made me feel so frikkin' clever!

Avatar wrote:There's probably a moral in there, although I'm damned if I know what it is.

There's no accounting for taste?

u.

P.S. I enjoyed the Da Vinci Code (though the film was a complete mess). It got me to go back and have a real look at Jesus' Jewishness which for someone reared as a Catholic was quite an eye-opener

I think I'd have a multi-way tie for worst book ever.

1. Any Star Wars, Star Trek, or Ravenloft I ever tried to read (with the exception of the Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn) has been utterly pointless and resembled bad fanfiction more than a published work by a professional author.

2. The Ruins Of Ambrai: Exiles Volume 1 by Melanie Rawn. It's one of the few that literally flew across my room when I got about halfway through and nothing had happened yet.

3. A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway. I had to read it for English class in high school and somehow I made it through, but I have no idea how. To this day even the mention of Hemingway fills me with a sort of dull rage at the time wasted reading that book.

4. Gerald's Game by Stephen King. Ok, so Tommyknockers wasn't all that great, and Dark Half was a neat idea, though maybe not executed as well as hoped, but Gerald's Game was where I got off the King Express. Aside from the Dark Tower books. Though I haven't finished the last 3 or 4 of those. But anyway, absolutely hated Gerald's Game with a mighty passion that made it part of the exclusive club of books I tried to read that instead learned to fly. Delores Claiborne fits in here as well, though I don't have the same level of frustration with that one.

Wildling wrote:I think I'd have a multi-way tie for worst book ever.

4. Gerald's Game by Stephen King. Ok, so Tommyknockers wasn't all that great, and Dark Half was a neat idea, though maybe not executed as well as hoped, but Gerald's Game was where I got off the King Express. Aside from the Dark Tower books. Though I haven't finished the last 3 or 4 of those. But anyway, absolutely hated Gerald's Game with a mighty passion that made it part of the exclusive club of books I tried to read that instead learned to fly. Delores Claiborne fits in here as well, though I don't have the same level of frustration with that one.

Gerald's Game is a sick, disturbing, disgusting book with one of the most loathsome villains (Joubert) that has ever darkened the printed page.

Aside from that, however, I'm having trouble understanding your hatred of the book.

It's not the worst-written King book (that's Tommyknockers, a book King was so stoned writing that he barely remembers typing the words).

It's not the most bloated King book (Under the Dome? Needful things? Bag of Bones?).

It's not the King book with the worst plot (Dreamcatcher, by a country mile, Cell bringing up the rear).

So, why the hate for Gerald's Game? Please explain.

Wildling wrote:I think I'd have a multi-way tie for worst book ever.

1. Any Star Wars, Star Trek, or Ravenloft I ever tried to read (with the exception of the Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn) has been utterly pointless and resembled bad fanfiction more than a published work by a professional author.

*laugh* This is especially funny to me because I am personally familiar with P. N. Elrod (just call her Pat for short), who wrote the first Ravenloft book "I, Strahd" and the Vampire Files series. At least, I knew her way back before she became a widely-published author. Even in those days, she was full of herself--or at least I remember her being so--because some of the other members of our gaming group would fawn over her and their characters would defer to her character simply because she was who she was. *roll eyes*

One of my former students posted "Pixar's 22 rules for storytelling" on Facebook, which was very interesting. One of the rules was about being sure your character has an opinion; their indifference would be "toxic" to the reader. It struck me because that just happened with a book I was reading a few weeks ago. I got so mad at a female character for her lack of spine I couldn't finish reading. It's not that it was a character flaw; it was as if the plot couldn't go forward unless she continued down a path of complete idiocy.

I'd put it on the "worst book" list but I can't even remember the title!