Books with dissapointing endings

[Eyelesbarrow]

To be fair to Willis, "All Clear" is not a sequel, it is the second half of a single novel. I have not been able to figure out why they were published separately.

Well, then this makes me think the book should be also mentioned in the Bad Publishing Decisions thread.

[palimpsest.]

Stephen King is also pretty bad; he seems to have so much fun in dragging the story out as long as possible, and ends them with the grace of a 5-year-old being told that it's time to stop playing now and go to bed. Bag of Bones was memorably awful for that, but it happens to a varying degree in far too many of his books.

Quoted for truth!

Personally, I think Under The Dome ended even worse than Bag of Bones.

And when he actually writes something that resembles an ending (Dark Tower), he gives you the feeling of being cheated out of the 'real' story :tantrum:

[Cereal Forel]

The Dark Tower. It failed on so many levels. The worst was probably King's "OK, here's the ending, but you better not read it, and if you do and dislike it, it's your fault" rant just before it.

I thought the ending was perfect. The final events leading up to it? Not so much. But the actual ending was rather good.

[Horselover Fat]

Well, then this makes me think the book should be also mentioned in the Bad Publishing Decisions thread.

No argument here

[Lord Toblerone]

2. fool's fate by robin hobb.

Aw, but why? I thought that was pretty good.

The Soldier Son though - alright, there's a lot of problems with this series, but the ending was among the worst.

Bye-Bye Continuity! Suddenly,

Nevare is his uncle's heir as well as his father's, despite the fact that he has brandy and smokes with his uncle and his uncle's son and heir in the first book. This news comes in a letter which can be summed up as "Congratulations, Nevare! You win EVERYTHING!"

and then, there's

The fact that after two fricking books of angsty bullshit over Nevare's two halves fighting each other and resisting merging together (all the time with me screaming inwardly "YOU ARE HALF A FRIKKING PERSONALITY! YOU HAVE NO BLOODY RIGHT TO A DISTINCT EXISTENCE!") finally we get whole Nevare who does his thing, dies, gets tree-eaten and then fucking split in half again! he should have either been left dead in the tree or pulled all the way back to life, all of him.

Then he gets the above-mentioned super-duper happy ending. And Lisana, his mentor-lover whatever? What does she get? Half a Nevare - the angry bullheaded half. Having spoken of how she loved all of him, she's left with that.

5. scott lynch's second book, whatsisname.

Red Seas Under Red Skies.

[Cantabile]

Well, then this makes me think the book should be also mentioned in the Bad Publishing Decisions thread.

Publishing a single novel in multiple volumes worked pretty well for LotR :P

[Tehol]

Aw, but why? I thought that was pretty good.

i liked the tawny man series, book 3 was not bad but she had to go for that ending.the ending ruined the series for me. i think robin hobb is terrible at finishing touch. tawny man series was the last straw, i am not interested in her books any more. i haven't read any of her works after fools fate.

how burik(?) shows up and saves the day by you know how and everything falls into neat, everybody is happy ending.i thought the series had a dark melancholic tone and then bam! sunshine.

[Spring Bass]

I thought the ending was perfect. The final events leading up to it? Not so much. But the actual ending was rather good.

Same here. I think the final ending was powerful and good, but the lead-up in Books Six and Seven was just terrible. Particularly Book Seven, where he tried to cram a whole bunch of key developments into a single gigantic book so that he could end it.

I also liked Harry Potter's ending, and thought it was excellently done (although they could have done better of foreshadowing some stuff about it in earlier books):

Hoping for some epic duel between Harry and Voldemort was silly, since Voldemort is this super-powerful wizard - Harry's no match for him on conventional terms. However, Voldemort ends up being brought down by his own arrogance and blindness, which is a theme surrounding him throughout the whole series.

The epilogue was perfect, too. It was to show that Harry had finally gotten the happy family that he'd never had growing up due to Voldemort, and fits with his last line in the last chapter: "I've had enough trouble for a life-time."

[Cantabile]

I wasn't disappointed because there wasn't some epic duel in which Voldemort won, but because the whole thing was written like bad fan fiction. Harry dying, chatting it up with Dumbledore in purgatory, then being resurrected thanks to some deus ex machina plot tools? Not to mention the whole elder wand business was simply silly and poorly executed.

[Astra]

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

So bad, that I don't want to try anything else by him.

Fool's Fate: Book Three of the Tawny Man (Tawny Man 3) by Robin Hobb

So bad, that I cannot bring myself to read the The Soldier Son Trilogy or The Rain Wild Chronicles. She was in my top 5 list, she dropped out of it.

Crown of Stars by K. Elliott

WASTE of MY life's time. She owes me big big for wasting so much of my precious time on that gibberish.

Hmm. Cannot think of anything else at the moment.

[Dave88]

I didn't like the ending of Farlander ... not to say it was badly written or anything but I just didn't like what happend. Not sure whether I'll read the sequel or not.

This was a long time ago but I remember being very dissapointed with Starman by Sara Douglass.

I also didn't like the ending of Assasin's Quest and second that about Fool's Fate.

Theres probably a bunch of others I can't remember right now.

[Quoth]

"Replay" by Ken Grimmwood. Here's a short description:

Jeff Winston, forty-three, didn't know he was a replayer until he died and woke up twenty-five years younger in his college dorm room; he lived another life. And died again. And lived again and died again -- in a continuous twenty-five-year cycle -- each time starting from scratch at the age of eighteen to reclaim lost loves, remedy past mistakes, or make a fortune in the stock market. A novel of gripping adventure, romance, and fascinating speculation on the nature of time, Replay asks the question: "What if you could live your life over again?"

I was interested by the concept and it was a pretty good read. Until the end. It just seemed to lead nowhere. As if he had this great tale to tell and then asked, "But how shall I end it? But, of course! With a period!"

[Tall Tyrion Lannister!]

I didn't really cvare for the Elder Wand thing either. i liked ending for the most part though.

[Lyanna Stark]

I am confused by why people thought the Harry Potter ending was bad? What on earth did you expect? I've heard lots of complaints that fanfiction is better, but then fanfiction (at least the readable kind) is normally adults writing for adults, and that is not JKR's intended audience.

As for bad endings, I can sort of agree with Perdido Street Station, since it had a bit too much Deus Ex Machina. Especially since every other Mieville novel I have read (The Scar, Kraken, The City & The City, Iron Council) have had excellent endings. It wasn't that the ending was horribly bad, more that it was a let down after a whirlwind read with so much no stuff you were totally blown away by it. On the upside "The Scar" has the best ending of any novel I have ever read, so it all evens out.

Alastair Reynolds' "Reveleation Space" series also ended badly. Which sas disappointing since the rest of the series was really good. Like everyone else, I found "Chasm City" to be wrapped up far better.

[Gigei]

Meredith Ann Pierce's Darkangel trilogy - It's YA and I was literally stunned when I read the ending.

[RobMRobM]

Well, then this makes me think the book should be also mentioned in the Bad Publishing Decisions thread.

Second the point that Blackout and All Clear are not separate novels but are two points of a whole that were separated because the books are so freaking detailed (not a bad thing). The ending of All Clear ties the two books together beautifully and makes full logical and artistic sense. I strongly recommend it, especially if you've already read Blackout.

[RobMRobM]

To be fair to Willis, "All Clear" is not a sequel, it is the second half of a single novel. I have not been able to figure out why they were published separately.

Far too long for a single book....

[Gertrude]

I was blown away by Lynne Flewelling's book, The Bone Doll's Twin. Loved the concept, the magic was well thought out and interesting, dark and spooky ... it started off so promising but the trilogy ended so ... meh. Predictably, maybe? It wasn't bad at all, I was just hoping for more.

[Galactus]

I loathed the Tawny Man ending too... Not because of the mega-happiness of it (I don't like it but I can stand it)

But because we didn't get to hear Fitz explain himself to Nettle. I'd been waiting the ENTIRE DAMN SERIES for it and then Molly goes and RUINS IT.

It maks me so damn angry :(

[Shryke]

Anything by Neal Stephenson. The books don't end so much as just... stop.

Bang on.

Also, anything by Robin Hobb but ESPECIALLY Fool's Fate.

And almost anything by Stephen King.