Writers to avoid like the bubonic plague

[Dragonlily]

How did you like the film, Duchess?

I haven't seen it yet, Durris. One of these days I hope to see it, though.

I thought the film was as standard-issue as one could get, except the look, which was nicely evocative of the paintings of the time.

Until I could get round to watching it, I put The Girl With the Pearl Earring on a tape that also has Leonard Nimoy's one man show "Vincent" on it. What a sorry comparison that is. "Vincent" is about Vincent van Gogh: powerful, moving, and artistically exciting. GWTPE didn't even manage to keep my attention.

This is IMHO, of course.

[Cail]

Joe Weber. Worst. Author. Ever.

Roughly half of Alan Dean Foster's stuff is so bad it won't even burn well.

[Ainulindale]

A Couple that just annoy me:

1. Terry Goodkind - If he was 1/100 as good or as relevant as he thinks he is, he would be the second coming. I don't mind ego's from writers that produce great works, but IMHO Goodkind has released exactly ONE soild work, Wizards First Rule, and the rest were average to horrible, and that includes Chainfire, his latest work that is just dire.

2. Janny Wurts - people rave about the Empire work with Feist. IMHO if it'that's good Feist must have pulled off a mircale, because I think her War of the Light and Shadow seres and Alliance of the Light are the worst examples of long winded epic fantasy ever written. Iread a lot of novels most would say are to long or to wordy, but with Wurtz it's those and derivative.

3. Curt Benjamin - Prince of Shadows is horrible, every fourt hword was Sesho (the main character).

4. Christopher Paulini - Don't get me started. It's bad enough the Eragon was horrible, the fact taht it's a best selelr and popualr is not as bad as it is thougth provoking.

5. Kevin J. Anderson - How do you mess up Dune and StarWars?

Thats all for now:)

[danlo]

I tried reading this trilogy once called Loremasters of Elundium by Mike Jefferies that said on the cover of The Road to Underfall: "Classic fantasy in the great tradition of Tolkien and Donaldson" Gods what a piece of garbage!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[drew]

It's funny how many cross-references there are between this thread, and the Favorite Fantasy Series Thread.
Some people Love an author, some of us hate them, citing that it was the worst book they ever read.

There seems to be more disagreeing gpoin on here than in the Religion, and political threads!

[Khaliban]

Eddings.

You can never warn people enough. Reading Eddings is like injecting novocaine directly into your brain. I knew the ending of the Malorean 1400 pages in advance. Chapter 1, Book 2 I predicted the rest of the series and got it all right. And I have never hated any fictional character as much as I hate Polgara. I have spent hours picturing the most violent death for her I could imagine. (It involves flaying and fire ants. More I will not say.)

The Star Wars Expanded Universe.

Virtually all of it. No single author, just a collection of authors who do not understand Star Wars and never will. If you think the Yuuzhan Vong are good in any way, let me show you this nice nest of fire ants...

[Variol Farseer]

Eddings.

You can never warn people enough. Reading Eddings is like injecting novocaine directly into your brain. I knew the ending of the Malorean 1400 pages in advance. Chapter 1, Book 2 I predicted the rest of the series and got it all right.

You're a bit slow, aren't you?

I saw the ending of the Malloreon right from the day I read the ending of the Belgariad. Then, like a complete fool, I bought all five books of the sequel — in hardcover, yet! — just to see if I was right (I was) and if there were any interesting surprises along the way (there weren't, though Velvet and Urgit came close). There was the dreadfully uninteresting surprise that Eddings made it all so obviously repetitive, even having the characters comment on how they were doing the same things all over again.

And I have never hated any fictional character as much as I hate Polgara. I have spent hours picturing the most violent death for her I could imagine. (It involves flaying and fire ants. More I will not say.)

You should write it! It would be better by far than anything Eddings has done in years.

[variol son]

The sad thing is that Eddings whole idea of fantasy with an aspect of "reality" (characters having to eat and take a bath, characters having sex, towns having merchants etc) could have been interesting. But with him it wasn't really.

I for one didn't mind Polgara, although the character was more developed and believable in Polgara the Sorceress than in the other books. Once again though, her relationship with Belgarath should have been interesting, but wasn't. Instead, Eddings had them sniping at each other for 12 books, and then said it was "their way of expressing their boundless love". What crap!

The thing I hated the most was Edding's lack of internal consistancy. I mean, it just didn't exist. At all. And the literary devices he uses to get around this ("different people remember things differently" and "the Prophesy wouldn't let us understand until now") were just horrible.



Sum sui generis
Vs

[Edge]

Hey, I liked David Eddings, or should I say, i liked Belgarath, Polgara, and many of his Belgariad/Malloreon characters.

I actually found Eddings characters refreshing in that they were very much modern men and women for the most part, who still managed to fit into a fantasy world, which are usually historical in nature.

The sad thing is that Eddings whole idea of fantasy with an aspect of "reality" (characters having to eat and take a bath, characters having sex, towns having merchants etc) could have been interesting. But with him it wasn't really.

The thing I hated the most was Edding's lack of internal consistancy.

[danlo]

We give Eddings too much credit by merely bashing him to death-now Mike Jeffries (not in anyway to be confused with our own in house novelist: Mark Jeffery) is SO bad that only a scareligious fool like myself is allowed to speak of him!

[Encryptic]

I feel the love for Eddings in this thread...

I used to love his stuff years ago and still have most of the older books (Belgariad, Malloreon, etc.). I'd definitely say I've matured a bit in my tastes, but Eddings is still an entertaining read if not the most challenging or original fantasy ever.

[drew]

Thank You!!!
Fianlly some one else who doesn't hate him!!
I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
Comparing Eddings to the Lke of Tolken and Donaldson...is like comparing a high school band to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

That doesn't mean the High School band sucks...they play quite well, and they're enjoyable to listen to.
Just not in the same mindframe as the NYPO.

[duchess of malfi]

I don't mind Eddings, either. I've not gone past the Belgariad, but I do like the interactions between the characters. They bitch at each other like old friends or family.

There's a million times worse out there than Eddings...like Terry Goodkind, though even he has some unintentionally hilarious moments...

Spoiler

Like the S&M chicks in skin tight red leather with the penis shaped rods that they use to zap people into submission...or the chickens of doom -- the chickens that were not chickens...

[Khaliban]

We give Eddings too much credit by merely bashing him to death

OK, how about Melanie Rawn? I got 300 pages into her first book and never found the plot. And her characters were so revoltingly nice. No one, anywhere, is that perfect.

Raymond Feist has the same problem. Eddings, Rawn and Feist seem afraid to hurt any of their characters. They're probably very nice people, but their stories have no meat on them. Those are the kinds of writers I hate the most. Story is driven by conflict. They have none.

[Roland of Gilead]

Duchess, if you're read The Belgariad, then you've read everything Eddings has written. The rest is deja vu all over again.

[Loredoctor]

We give Eddings too much credit by merely bashing him to death

OK, how about Melanie Rawn? I got 300 pages into her first book and never found the plot. And her characters were so revoltingly nice. No one, anywhere, is that perfect.

BARADAKAS!!!!!!!!

[variol son]

That's what I thought, Loremaster.

Sum sui generis
Vs

[Metal-Demon]

Wow ... if I took all of these posts to heart, it would seem that I must like a ton of literary garbage, and have absolutely zero taste in good fantasy authors other than liking SRD.

[variol son]

Are you kidding? There is Martin, Pratchett, Erikson and a multitude of others.

Don't dispair because Eddings and Jordan aren't that great.

Sum sui generis
Vs

[Metal-Demon]

Still kind of a shitty feeling though ...