Red Ronnet Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 We all have had those reads that were supposed to be groundbreaking or what have you, but have ultimately failed to impress and leave instead regrets about the time spent reading them. Whether it be unrealistic character motivations, weak writing structure, or just sheer ignorance by the author concerning what he or she is detailing, something just makes the work as whole fail. My personal "favorite" that I've read recently is... -The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver: I have to admit that this is the only work of Kingsolver's that I have read, but if it's indicative of her other material, it will probably be my last. She has some measure of talent as a writer, but her characters are flat; take everything good about ASOIAF's split-POV approach, cast it aside, and you're left with five perspectives that sound much the same. She seems willfully ignorant of the political and historical material she covers. She makes whites into motivationless boogeymen and glorifies Marxist rebels, shamans, and the like into the book without examining the evils they brought to their society, just as imperialism and Western culture had. If there's something I can't stand, it's writers who go after the "noble savage" and the "strong woman vs. the evils of men" approaches to story-telling. Like I said though, she does have some talent in writing. Her descriptions of wildlife in Central Africa are particularly good (probably stemming from her background in biology, but then again, she implies that smallpox existed in Angola during the 1980's when it was irradicated back in the 70s). What books have disappointed you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stego. Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 I was really looking forward to the latest Terry Goodkind novel, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. There was a recent Furry Porn book called 'Fuck me Lassie' that didn't work in terms of plotting and characterization. That was a real disappointment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Abercrombie Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 I think that's slightly unfair. I really enjoyed 'Fuck me Lassie'. Admittedly, the characters are a tad 2-dimensional, but then most of them were canines, and I loved the prose - lyrical, rich, and thought-provoking. All-in-all, a complex and moving tale of love across the species divide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stego. Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 I think that's slightly unfair. I really enjoyed 'Fuck me Lassie'. Admittedly, the characters are a tad 2-dimensional, but then most of them were canines, and I loved the prose - lyrical, rich, and thought-provoking. All-in-all, a complex and moving tale of love across the species divide. I think my main source of disappointment was that several of the protagonists including Pluto and The Largest Hobo failed to deliver in terms of their character arcs. But sure, some of the descriptive text was beautifully crafted - in particular how the author portrayed the sheer majesty of Rocky Mountains and how it influenced Lassie's motivations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AutumnEvenings Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Red Bonnet, I strongly disagree with what you've said. I don't recall her implying that smallpox existed in Angola in the '80s...a site would be appreciated. Aside from that...well, the POVs are distinct. And she's very, very accurate about the political and historical material. Have you read any of the books she listed in the (lengthy) bibliography? I've read several of them, and they aren't crack-pot books--they're written by (and given favorable reviews from) several of the most respected historians who deal with African/Congolese/Belgian/1950s&60s American stuff. Also...which whites is she villainizing? If you mean the governments of several nations which are largely composed of white citizens (Belgium, France, America, Portugal), then...sort of. But what she's saying is true and accurate. And she doesn't make them "motivationless"--she makes it abundantly clear exactly what is motivating the governments to exploit the Congo in particular and Africa as a whole. If you mean the ex-pats...Her depecition of the Belgian expats was pretty spot-on, as was that of Rachel in the later chapters.** Nathan? He isn't representative of all whites, nor is he meant to be. If you wanted to take issue with the represtentation of Christian misssionaries, you might have a stronger case, though Brother Fowels (I think was his name?) and the nuns who shelter Leah and several others provide a counter-point. As Kingsolver says in her book, "There are Christians, and then there are Christians." As far as the glorification of the shaman...well...did you miss the part where he was SPOILER: The Poisonwood Bible the one who placed the green mamba in the kitchen shed? And had been doing all the other bad stuff as well? And was run out of town? He certainly wasn't glorified. She also makes several direct and indirect references to the wonders of modern, Western medicine. And...who are the Marxist rebels? (**I say this as someone who's lived in Africa for almost 3 years--about 2.5 in Cameroun and 6 months in Kenya.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 The most overrated novel of the twentieth century: The Great Gatsby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Garlan the Gallant Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 *shudders* God, did I hate The Great Gatsby. I didn't really have high expectations going into it when the book was assigned a couple years ago in a high school class. The english teacher told us that we were about to read "the greatest work of American literature." Of course, this was the same woman (supposedly a daily NYTimes reader) who claimed that Bin Laden was Afghanistan's head of government, that we were attacked on 9/11 by the state of Afghanistan, and that Bush had not received Congressional approval for military action against Iraq. :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jagged Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 The most overrated novel of the twentieth century: The Great Gatsby. Most overrated? I don't know but it is certainly up there in the running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackaxx Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Anything by Asimov. Terribly terribly dated, yes I could read it and appreciate how amazing it was for its time, but, I disagree. Hell, I think Neuromancer is far more startling in its predictions, from way back when in the 80s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aplomb Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 The biggest problem with "Fuck Me Lassie" was the author had no idea how to write for collies. Sometimes Lassie acts like a beagle, sometimes a min-pin, sometimes a freakin' dalmatian. If you can't get the bark of a lead character down you've lost before you've even started. The most overrated novel I ever read was David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snuffaluffalee Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 I'll nominate The Great Gatsby as well. Studied it in an american lit class and it was my least favorite by far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Most overrated? I don't know but it is certainly up there in the running. The damn thing was voted the second greatest English language novel of the twentieth century (second only to James Joyce's Ulysses) by a committee of Oxford University academics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Probably Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Most overrated? I don't know but it is certainly up there in the running. I think that's just the high school trauma talking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spring Bass Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Things Fall Apart was a terribly over-rated book, in my opinion. It made not only the protagonist look bad, but the Colonialists look good (which I'm sure was the opposite goal of Achebe). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwinna Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 I doubt anyone on this board will agree with me, but I think Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay is overrated. If you really want to know why, read my amazon review (you'll have to scroll down a bit - it's under the same name as I have here). But it was my first-ever amazon review, and it's not all that good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emberling Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 When I think 'overrated books' the first thing I think of are the crappy or mediocre mega-best-sellers. We all know the fantasy ones - Jordan, Goodkind, Eddings, Brooks and such. Just the other day I was looking at the praise a Sword of Truth book had printed on the back cover, it was both amusing and deeply scary. Just thought I'd throw this in here. More in keeping with the general interpretation of the thread, I read A Princess of Roumania and Perdido Street Station based on massively glowing opinions on this board, and was quite disappointed by both. Worth my money and time, certainly, but not anywhere near as spectacular as I was led to believe. On the literature side (in other words, the books-I-read-in-school-and-didn't-like side), The Scarlet Letter was pure torture and The Great Gatsby was completely unremarkable in any way. I also firmly believe that Shakespeare is highly overrated. Again, good, but far from the absolute mastery of the English language that is often ascribed to him. Oh, and Tolkien, of course. Good world, superbly innovative, poor story. Well worth reading yet highly overrated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slinx Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Oh, and Tolkien, of course. Good world, superbly innovative, poor story. Well worth reading yet highly overrated. The mob should be coming for you soon. I do agree though, that this book was definately lacking to the newer generations raised on Dragonlance and similiar stories which had action (even if the stories weren't the greatest). I'd rather watch the movies than read the books, regardless of how much details the movies didn't show, they were able to convey a darker feeling than the book had and a sense of urgency, since if I recall correctly, Frodo spent 20+ years living at home after Gandalf told him he should go hide and the move out took over six months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanna Stark Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 "The Great Gatsby" here as well (and no, I was not forced to read it in High School, I am not American). What an utter piece of crap with unsympathetic characters and dull plot. Yeech. *hugs copy of "Candide* As for fantasy/Sci-fi: Eddings, Robert Jordan, Tairy. Old news all of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Well this thread asks not just for a book that I thought was really bad, but which was also higly rated by some. A recent one that comes to mind is Perdido Street Station by Mieville. I really don't like his characters or what he does with them. Some people give him credits for the baroque, gothic and freakishly weird world he created but I don't care for those sort of settings. There's also a certain goryness or thrashiness to his characters that I don't like, a gross out factor in his world which reminded me of why I dislike horror books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinDonner Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Risking the lynch mob, I tried reading Vandermeer's City of Saints and Madmen last summer and couldn't get past the first few pages. I'll probably give it another go when the stack gets a bit smaller - it might be really good further in - but that's not a good sign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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