The Bad Book Club

[MinDonner]

Hey, hey. It's unfortunate that the handful of female fantasy authors I've read were all terrible, it has scarred me for life. Scarred me in much the same way reading Erikson and Goodkind have. I will also never read those again, so much was my soul shat upon when I read their books.

So you'll never read any male authors again either? Damn.

[Inigima]

The fantasy books written by females. Sorry gals, it just doesn't do it for me.

What, you hate all of them? Robin Hobb springs to mind as an exceptionally talented female author. Diana Wynne Jones was a formative part of my childhood. Ursula K. LeGuin's short story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is so good it's taught in grade school.

[Datepalm]

So you'll never read any male authors again either? Damn.

More power to the criminaly underrepresented within the genre hermaphrodite community?

Anyway, I have my doubts that Farland is even human, so Runelords should be right up your alley, Swift!

[Lordwalker]

Like SKI I no longer take a chance with female fantasy writers. Unfortunately, Robin Hobb is one of the reasons why.

On the non-scifi/fantasy side: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Worst. Thriller. Ever. This one is waaay overhyped. I hate putting down a book, but I decided about half way through that I was NOT enjoying it and I owed it to myself to move onto something else. I don't know how this book has remained on the bestseller lists.

[MinDonner]

One of the most overused xkcd comics ever, but sadly still relevant

Like SKI I no longer take a chance with female fantasy writers.

Seriously, why do people still think it's OK to say shit like this?

[Datepalm]

Seriously, why do people still think it's OK to say shit like this?

C"mon, we all know women are interchangeable and identical. Plus, they keep writing about such, like, women only stuff - like, y'know, Robin Hobbs narrowly gendred stories about war, destiny, morality, friendship, etc. If she wanted it to be relevant to men she should have stuck in some guns or boobs or somthing. Cooties.

[Arthmail]

One of the most overused xkcd comics ever, but sadly still relevant

Seriously, why do people still think it's OK to say shit like this?

Why is not okay to say this shit? Its personal preference. I tried Hobb, and liked her at first, but i won't lie that within a book and a half i totally despised her. Not personally, mind you. I've done the same with male authors as well. I'd like to think that i'm open minded about all of this, but if i think of all the authors on my shelves, they only come in the non-fiction kind....like Naomi Cambell and the Shock Doctrine. Though i wish to give Ursalla a try.

And a second to Farland. He has a really cool premise, which he proceeds to shit all over on.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

There's nothing wrong with disliking single authors. Using one author to rule out all others in an incredibly broad category is something else entirely. As Min pointed out, nobody walks away from Goodkind saying "My God, that was awful. I'm never reading a book by a man again."

[Renasko]

JK Rowling was good? :lol: Hmm...Melanie Rawn's books are definitely some of the worst of a well-selling author category.

ETA: Trudi Canavan and NK Jemisin being two of the worst out of the recent pile.

[MinDonner]

Um... because it's kind of, dare I say, bigoted? That's pretty much the definition of categorising an entire group of people based on your impressions of a small sample thereof. Personally I think Robin Hobb sucks, but why would that cause me to write off every other author of the same gender, any more than Goodkind's shitness would cause me to stop reading male authors?

ETA: lol, beaten to it by several people. Carry on!

[Renasko]

Isn't there a good female authors thread around here somewhere?

[MinDonner]

There have been several, over the years, usually with the same annoying starting premise. Le sigh.

[Arthmail]

It began with Marion Zimmer Bradley, and then Anne McCaffery. And then went on from there. But i have admitted that i have not given them all a try, but i sure as fuck am not going into the leather pants wearing Urban Fantasy stuff, but thats because i don't like the notion of Urban Fantasy. Magic and modern don't sit well in my head for some reason.

I don't know. Maybe its in how female fantasy authors are packaged. I mean, i don't go out of my way to avoid books by female authors, but it seems like a preponderance of them have shitty covers. That goes for the guys as well...i tend to avoid books that look like cliche bullshit.

And look up the word bigot. Its easy to throw around, harder to justify.

[David Selig]

The Redemption of Althalus by Eddings. It was so bad I gave up after 150 pages even though a was on a long train ride and had nothing else to read, staring out through the window was a much better option for my brain. Somehow it was much more infantile and ridiculous than Eddings's other books, which I didn't think was possible.

I really don't get the blank rejection of all female fantasy writers. There's so much stuff written by them, which varies so much, that I think only a strong gender bias can explain statements like this. If you don't like Hobb, try Le guin. Or Bujold. Or Valente, Mckillip, Susanna Clarke and the many others highly rated female fantasy authors.

[Arthmail]

The Redemption of Althalus by Eddings. It was so bad I gave up after 150 pages even though a was on a long train ride and had nothing else to read, staring out through the window was a much better option for my brain. Somehow it was much more infantile and ridiculous than Eddings's other books, which I didn't think was possible.

I really don't get the blank rejection of all female fantasy writers. There's so much stuff written by them, which varies so much, that I think only a strong gender bias can explain statements like this. If you don't like Hobb, try Le guin. Or Bujold. Or Valente, Mckillip, Susanna Clarke and the many others highly rated female fantasy authors.

At least for me, its not a blanket rejection. Its simply a matter of not having come across something i like yet...i dunno. Frick, lets not derail this thread with this.

Actually, now that i think about it, i do have Susanna Clarke at home right now. It was a used book purchase, and i had completely forgotten about it. I'll give it a go.

[Guest Raidne]

I don't like Robin Hobb, either, but she doesn't even come close to making the worst books ever category. I'll have to reserve that for the Yeard.

You know, I can't even say that I refuse to read any more books by Yearded authors, because Neal Stephenson appears to have had one at one point.

I was getting pretty close to no more fantasy books by British male authors though, until Nick Harkaway saved the day.

See how stupid that sounds? Ski I had no idea you were an essentialist jerkoff. I will now scrub the residue of ick off my soul from having chatted with you. *shivers*

[Spastic Plastic]

I have to agree that Left Behind are some of the worst books ever. I only read the first one, out of morbid curiosity. It didn't disappoint.

The funniest part was that the Christian fundamentalist author was so uneducated about how the world works. For example: the Antichrist villain is meant to be evilly refined and cultured, but the author clearly has no culture at all, which results in a completely failed character.

[Guest Raidne]

What does he do? The cultured villain? Drink "fancy" champagne, like asti spumante?

[Jaxom 1974]

The Crimson Petal and the White

A mistake I made during one of my "expand the horizons" phase. It had decent reviews and was a brick of a book, something I like, but it was just that horrible. One of only three books I've ever put down without finishing...I've since gone and at least been able to finish Michelle West's first Sunsword book and I figure I'll actually try to give The Lord of the Rings a try again someday...but this one? Never. :stillsick:

[The Evil Hat]

The worst book I read lately WAS, by a woman - Elizabeht Moon's Sheep Farmer's Daughter - so I think Ski's onto something. After all, everyone knows that KJ Parker, Robin Hobb, Steph Swainston, and Marjorie M. Liu all write about basically the same stuff.