The Worst Five Fantasy Series/Books You've Read

[sir archely]

Well, i went into the favorite series/books thread, hoping i could come up with some. I did, but not five. I guess even without five "favorites" i didn't want to put a less than great (by my standards) series on my list. Anyway, what i realized was that i could come up with 5 i didn't like at all. No offense to anyone who does like them, everyone has different tastes. Plus, a lot depends on when in your life you read them, imo. But, here they are.

1. Belgariad, by David Eddings.
2. Harry Potter, by whatsherface (though i do think the last book was a marked improvement over the rest. Oh, i guess now it's the second to last. whatever)
3. Shannara series, by Terry Brooks
4. Pern stuff, by Anne McCaffery (dunno, i like dragons a lot, but all of her stuff i've read i didn't like for some reason.)
5. Homecoming series by Orson Scott Card (does this count? anyway, i thought it was awful.)

[Malcor Sylverwood]

Hmm...I can only think of two off the top of my head. Most of the bad fantasy I've read has been simply forgettable.

1. Belgariad by David Eddings
2. Xanth stuff by Piers Anthony

Well, and an honorable mention to Dragonlance Preludes and Chronicles for killing my two favorite chars.

RIP Sturm
RIP Flint

-Malcor "anti-dragonlance" Sylverwood

[Cloric the Cleric]

Heh. A chance to bag on someone....like I could resist.


1. I think I have to make poor Mr. Eddings 3 for 3 here, and go with the Belgariad.
2. Um. Yeah. I'm rather stuck for anthing even approaching the level of bad from number 1. I'll edit this later when I think of more....

[sir archely]

ouch for eddings. heh, i was going to read other series of his after i was done with the belgariad, but it was just so awful i couldn't go on. most reviews i've seen say that they are all just rehashes anyway.

[Cloric the Cleric]

ouch for eddings. heh, i was going to read other series of his after i was done with the belgariad, but it was just so awful i couldn't go on. most reviews i've seen say that they are all just rehashes anyway.


Well. I've read the Belgariad, The Mallorean, and the companion books:

Polgara, Belgarath, and The Rivan Codex, and I will say this. The stand alone books are a bit more enjoyable than the series. oh, except for the Codex. It's like a breakdown of the Prophecies he uses, and is really only if your intent on knowing more about the series than any sane person really would.

[dark fuschia]

Well. I've read the Belgariad, The Mallorean, and the companion books:

Polgara, Belgarath, and The Rivan Codex, and I will say this. The stand alone books are a bit more enjoyable than the series. oh, except for the Codex. It's like a breakdown of the Prophecies he uses, and is really only if your intent on knowing more about the series than any sane person really would.

oooh I love Belgariad, shame on you all! I will say the Sparhawk series sucked dreadfully though. I could only read a couple of chapters before I gave up.

And the Shannara books were wonderful!

and yes I know I'm not sophisticated no one has to tell me :p but even the most sophisticated readers in the world love Harry Potter. Archely you're a phreak! :D

*fondles her copy of Harry Potter lovingly* the man didn't mean to say bad things about you... ohh no he didn't know what he was saying, i think he was delirious

[epiph]

~hijacks thread~

have you finished it yet, wendy??

[LaughingTurtle]

I'm with you wendy, I really liked the Shannara books. Nsh to all you nay sayers. Sure there are parallels to certain "other" fantasy books, but you'd be hard pressed to not find some reoccuring themes in all fantasy book.

Now I admit, Shannara probably isn't his best series, but so many people gloss over the fact that he's written many other series and novels than just the Shannara series. To label him as a bad author without seeing what else he's done is kinda silly. :D :p

(this is not directed at anyone in particular, just expressing my opinion :) )

[Malcor Sylverwood]

I've only read one book out the Shannara series, Sword of, I think. It was very mediocre, IMO. Is the rest of the series similar? Better? Worse?

-Malcor "Willing to give it another shot" Sylverwood

[sir archely]

well, obviously i don't think it's that great. it wasn't horrible, just wasn't really something i liked. ~shrug~ i did think that it was one of the more predictable series i've read. i also found the characters to be pretty cookie-cutter style.

no, i haven't read other stuff by brooks, but maybe i should. got any recommendations LT?

[LaughingTurtle]

But of course :D

He has a more "grown up" series than the Shannara one - darker, more evil called Running with the Demon. It was quite good. There's three books in the series, that one, Angel Fire East and A Knight of the Word


On July 4, the town of Hopwell in Illinois, is invaded by demons intent on destruction. Opposing them is Nest Freemark, a girl who has magical powers. The drama comes when a demon announces he is her father.
Synopsis copyright Fiction Digest

yaddah, yaddah, yaddah.

Then he also has the Magical Kingdom of Landover Series. It's ok, it is a comedy of sorts type of series.

[sir archely]

oh hey, i think i've read landover. some guy from 'our' world gets transported to a magical world or something, and is the hero, right?

[LaughingTurtle]

Yup that's it. He bought a magical kingdom and stuff but found out he got more than he bargained for. Pretty funny.

[Cloric the Cleric]

LT, have you read all the Shannara books? even the new Jerle Shannara ones? I, like you think they're pretty good. Bah to the one's who think otherwise.

And the Demon series you mentioned, as I understand it, there will, sometime, be a book that ties that series into the Shannara books. I heard a nasty rumor that Landover would be tied in as well, but I truly hope that was JUST a rumor. But as for Demon and Shannara, I can see how they would work well together. The parallels are already there.


CTC

[dark fuschia]

oooh I started the Order of the Pheonix today Epiph and I am just loving it. Reading it really slow and savouring everything!

and I never actually read Sword of Shannara, it's the only one I never read. I read them all out of order and then finally came across a copy of Sword of Shannara last. I started reading it and only got about 4 or 5 chapters in before deciding it wasn't grabbing me and that I didn't need to read it anyway cos I alreayd knew the basics of the story from piecing together the subsequent books anyway. I think they follow a sort of bellcurve though, starting out not so good, then getting really good, then going not so good again. My favourites were Elfqueen and Wishsong. Each of the books tend to be a generation or two apart anyway so they don't really need to be read in order.

[LaughingTurtle]

Cloric - Yeah I've read all of Brook's recent Shannara ones. Which I might add, I think are pretty good as well ;)

A while back I had also heard something about a tie in, but as of yet nothing serious. I've also heard that some movie directors have even approached him about making movies out of one of his books cause of the "fantasy" popularity that has come about due to LOTR. All gossip and whatnot though.

[epiph]

dude wendy, how can you read it slowly? i read it in less than 24 hours...

[dark fuschia]

dude wendy, how can you read it slowly? i read it in less than 24 hours...

I dunno, I just can't bear the thought of it being over. Plus I have a habit of taking breaks to day dream while reading with some types of books. And Harry Potter is definately one of those types of books.

[sir archely]

yeah, you've definitely gotta let your stomach settle before moving on. :D :p

hehehe

~runs away~

[Nachtnoir]

*fondles her copy of Harry Potter lovingly* the man didn't mean to say bad things about you... ohh no he didn't know what he was saying, i think he was delirious
As much as I hate to ruin this moment between you and that book Wendy, J.K. Rowlings is a hack, and her books suck. Their derivative, and plagaristic. The only good thing about them is that they got kids to read. I don't know yet how badly the psyches of the next generation will be damaged from reading that trash yet though.

OK, you guys will guess that the first of my list of horrible series is the Harry Potter books.

Second is anything written by Terry Goodkind.

Third, Terry Brooks, any series he's written that I've attempted to read has sucked.

Four, did I say the Harry Potter books?

Five, oh yeah those crappy Harry Potter books.

:);)

[epiph]

what are they plagerizing? out of curiousity...

[Nachtnoir]

what are they plagerizing? out of curiousity...

Hey Epiph!

Though it's not exactly plagarizing. Many of the ideas and characters out of the Harry Potter books are exact duplicates of characters in a series called Books of Magic. Most won't recognize the series as it is a comic/graphic novel, but there you are anyway. The original story, and characters were created by Neil Gaimen, other writers wrote subsequent storylines.

It's one thing to write a similar story, but to rip characters off, only changing their names it another.

[Drewmandred]

1. The Dreamers, by David Eddings, or whatever it was called. I couldn't stand to read more than the first chapter it was so dreadful and. It leads me to suspect that he's actually a reanimated head in a jar with only a tenuous grasp of reality.
2. The end books of the Tamuli and the Belgariad, where they just dissolve into magical rock/spirit battles.
3. Xanth series. You can do puns, we get it, Piers.
4. The Death Gate Cycle. I read all these, once, back in the day, and I honestly can't remember anything about them other than the fact that they were dreary.

I can't think of any more, because I tend to pick and choose what fantasy I do read. Most of the trash I read is science fiction, so it doesn't count.

[Arianna]

sometimes there's quite a fine line between scifi and fantasy, i've read series where one book is one and the next is the other genre. :umm: crazy authors.

so, basically, i've just been lumping them together for the purpose of htese threads. that's okay to do.