The Bad Book Club

[Guest Raidne]

Ursula le Guin is, hands down, one of the most accomplished authors of speculative fiction period. In fact, I cannot think of a man writing science fiction during the same time period that I think is more accomplished in the genre than she is.

I am not considering her to be really of the same period as Asimov, since most of his work was published before hers, and I'm sure he was an influence on her, but I think she is on that level in terms of philosophical depth and literary value, although I am speaking more of the Hainish Cycle than Earthsea (nobody has influence like Asimov, some I'm not saying that, and of course he is more prolific). I would consider The Dispossessed to be her best work, and I am not alone as it won the Hugo and the Nebula (as did The Left Hand of Darkness 5 years before).

I am not holding Le Guin up as a token - I am saying that I don't see how someone could consider themselves to be a serious fan of speculative fiction without reading her work, much like I need to read more Asmiov.

Having said all that, to get back at the topic, I did not like Lavinia. At all. It was so freaking Marion Zimmer Bradley. ;)

[kuroishi]

Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms novels.

Even at 14/15 I could tell that it was incredibly bad, a lot worse than even the other bad Forgotten Realms novels I read at the time. And yet I was still dumb enough to read not one, but two of them (Spellfire and Crown of Fire) and the second one was even worse than the first.

All I can remember is that the heroin traveled... and then the bad guys would ambush her to... and she'd kick their ass with her awesome fire powers, and then she'd travel some more, and get ambushed once again, and kick some more ass and then it'd begin all over and over again.

Since then, I've avoided fantasy written by authors with a beard, because obviously, those guys can't write for shit.

[Guest Raidne]

Oh, Path of Daggers was also screamingly terrible. Winter's Heart was even worse.

Just thought I'd get that in there.

[Ahimsa]

Leguin is awesome. Bujold is awesome. From what I've read, Nnedi Okorafor is fantastic. It's silly to say that women fantasy writers are bad.

The books that are the worst, to me, are the pseudo-spiritual ones. Things like Alchemist, the Secret, or Life of Pi. Or horribly written prose and contrived plots that are widely popular, like Twilight, Da Vinci Code, or Harry Potter.

But the book that was the worst ever written had to be Cujo. King is never a great writer, but this is really really bad. Poor characterization, poor plotting, horrible dialogue topped off what was a pretty poor concept to begin with. He even put in a rabid dog POV. Ugh.

[Little Valkyrie]

The Runelords is an absolutely godawful book, and it just gets worse in the sequels. I don't even remember when I came to my senses and said "Self, why are you reading a book that uses the word 'bunghole' this many times?"

I'm not sure if I'd class it as good for its willingness to Go There or bad because I couldn't finish it thanks to the utterly unredeemably unlikeable protagonist, but reading David Feintuch's The Still was like chewing glass.

[The Evil Hat]

Can someone say what's so bad about Farland? I've never read him, but I've actually heard good things from some people.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Arthmail summed up my reaction pretty well. It was an interesting premise, and one with real consequences (both individual and societal), but it just turned into this steaming pile of nonsense, steering away from the interesting bits and becoming pretty middle-of-the-road.

The writing was never terrific, and without the unusual/appealing aspects, it just became more hassle than enjoyment to continue.

[Migey]

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

Regarding Trudi Canavan.

I actually quite like her. As a writer, she isn't that good, but its readable, and her two main trilogies, (Black Magician and Age of the Five) i both found very enjoyable. For 'light reading' i think Trudi is great.

Also, regarding Robin Hobb.

I hated the assassins trilogy, and the farseer one too. The dragon keeper/haven duo too dissapointed me. I did, however, absolutely love the Liveship Traders - i thought they were brilliant. Thank god i read them first - if i hadn't, i probably never would have continued.

That said, some parts of Farseer are decent.

The worst book i have ever read? Twilight, or one of its sequels. Although since those mutilations of literature are only really 'books' in the broadest possible sense of the word, the worst actual BOOK... well, anyway, that i have read, would probably be one of Dan Browns, or the Redemption of Althalus (enjoyed first i read it when i was 10. read it again a few months ago and nearly burnt the thing. Odd, because despite how Eddings sucks, some of his stuff can actually be enjoyable to read).

[Vvandal]

Worst book....... The Demon Spirit, RA Salvatore its the 5th in a 6 book series i think and i quit it halfway through.

as far as eddings goes i liked Belgareth the Sorcerer the best out of all his crap and im only a little ashamed to say i read it all.

Chick writers! where do they get the nerve! hahaha JK. I read a bunch of mcCaffery and it wasnt too bad.

But im easy i guess

oh yeah any one of the 20 million peirce anthony books there are should be on the list.

[Raskolnikov]

The books that are the worst, to me, are the pseudo-spiritual ones.  Things like Alchemist, the Secret, or Life of Pi.  

This. Inspirational/self-help shit are the shits. Maybe Coelho just scarred me too much? One time a friend and I arranged to meet at a bookstore, and he was so late that I've browsed through everything I liked. So I passed by the self-help aisle for the lulz. That's when he appeared. I wanted to die...

[Renasko]

Worst book....... The Demon Spirit, RA Salvatore its the 5th in a 6 book series i think and i quit it halfway through.

The Demon Spirit was the second in the original trilogy, with four books that followed. I've only read the first three, but they're a fun read.

[TerraPrime]

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.

:rofl:

So you haven't even read LeGuin in a serious way and you conclude that all female SFF writers are shite?

:lmao:

Well, at least we now know how seriously to take your comment.

[Gabriele]

One of Auel's Ayla books. Don't remember which one and never finished it, but is was basically: Ayla and Jondalar walk, Ayla and Jondalar have sex, Ayla and Jondalar meet some people, Ayla and Jondalar have sex, Ayla and Jondalar walk some more, Ayla and Jondalar have sex ....

Second would be Iggulden's Caesar Superman crap, and third Jack Whyte's first Templar book. All tell and no show, and a done to death premisse to boot.

And there's always Goodkind, of course. :) Fortunately, I escaped the worst because I never finished Wizard's First Rule. Never got near Farland, either. Didn't like Hobbs, Le Guin and Modesitt, but not in a Worst Book and Hate way. Just not my cup of tea.

[MixMaesterD]

Can't believe no one has mentioned Pat Rothwell. I read like 98% of The Name of the Wind out of morbid curiosity, but I could not bring myself to finish. Something (forget what) in the last ten pages was so bad, that I literally threw the book across the room and have yet to pick it back up again. Still one of the great mysteries why that book is so well regarded.

Probably the worst thing I ever read, though was something by Kevin J. Anderson. I just remember there was a total Reepacheep rip off swashbuckling mouse and something about cyclops who couldn't shoot crossbows because they had no depth perception. At 15 I was appalled at how badly conceived and written it was.

Robin Hobb is bad, but not that bad. Susanna Clarke FTW! And I quite liked Harry Potter.

[mashiara]

Ugh, so many bad books to choose from, where to start? I'd say Runelords and Left Behind are definitely the worst series of books I've read -because I've read more than one in each series. While Runelords was entirely my fault (I kept hoping it would get better in the sequels until I finally saw the light and stopped bothering) I still blame Left Behind on a loved one who went through a phase of morbid curiosity and just had to read them.

As for a single book, I'll always remember The redemption of Althalus (sp?) by Eddings with particular loathing.

[Alytha]

Can't believe no one has mentioned Pat Rothwell. I read like 98% of The Name of the Wind out of morbid curiosity, but I could not bring myself to finish. Something (forget what) in the last ten pages was so bad, that I literally threw the book across the room and have yet to pick it back up again. Still one of the great mysteries why that book is so well regarded.

That must have been the sex scene with Kvothe and the dragon. I quite understand wanting to forget that...

Seriously, I quite enjoyed Name of the Wind...it's not terribly original, and Kvothe is a bit of a Mary Sue so far, but his p-o-v narration is entertaining enough, and I'll definetely get the next book to see where it goes. Might give up after that.

Concerning female writers, I've tended to avoid them for a while because there's some really bad ones (Meyers, Novik, Jemisin (or however you write her name)come to mind), but I've recently discovered some really good ones, like Susanna Clarke, Elizabeth Bear, JK Rowling (although it remains to be seen if she can write anything else than HP), LeGuin...there's probably just as many decent ones as there are bad male writers ;)

[Peadar]

like Naomi Cambell and the Shock Doctrine. Though i wish to give Ursalla a try.

I'm presuming this is a joke and you know that Naomi Klein is the author of (the brilliant) The Shock Doctrine

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:

I absolutely loved The Crimson Petal and the White :) Our mileage has indeed varied here! :fencing:

[SingleMort]

Can't believe no one has mentioned Pat Rothwell. I read like 98% of The Name of the Wind out of morbid curiosity, but I could not bring myself to finish. Something (forget what) in the last ten pages was so bad, that I literally threw the book across the room and have yet to pick it back up again. Still one of the great mysteries why that book is so well regarded.

Probably the worst thing I ever read, though was something by Kevin J. Anderson. I just remember there was a total Reepacheep rip off swashbuckling mouse and something about cyclops who couldn't shoot crossbows because they had no depth perception. At 15 I was appalled at how badly conceived and written it was.

Robin Hobb is bad, but not that bad. Susanna Clarke FTW! And I quite liked Harry Potter.

Dude if you're going to mention an author at least get their name right. IT'S ROTHFUSS.

And probably no one mentioned Name of The Wind because it is not the worst book they have ever read. Even you yourself name another book as being more awful. Honestly don't what you mean about the last 10 pages seeing as most of the stuff people object to comes before that, and frankly if I had only that much of a bad book left I'd finish it just to have it over with.

[Nichole]

The Crimson Petal and the White

I had a hard time getting into it, but ended up loving this book.

Oh, Path of Daggers was also screamingly terrible. Winter's Heart was even worse.

Just thought I'd get that in there.

They were pretty horrible. I like the series as a whole, but these were pretty disappointing.

The worst I've read or tried to read was The Shack by William P Young. My book club picked it to read and I couldn't finish it, it was too stupid.

[Poobah]

Much love to Le Guin.

But PoD and WH are works of genius next to Crossroads of Twilight.

Edit to embolden the word twilight!