Skoboe Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 What has been the worst ending in a book series for you? For me it has to be the ending to Amtrak Wars by Patrick Tilley; Six entire books about the coming of 'Talisman', then in the last chapter two babies are born with special powers and no hint at which one is Talisman! Honourable mention goes to Eddings, whose entire final trilogy was terrible. Fiest also, he should have stopped after the first four books in the Magician series...why did he keep dragging it out? Most unfortunate endings came from David Gemmell and Sara Douglass, who both sadly left this world way too young. Let's hope ASoIaF has none of the above endings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecryptile Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 For me, it's the ending to Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy. I loved the universe Hamilton created, and was engaged with the characters, but the ending came out of nowhere. I shouldn't have been shocked, the back cover of The Naked God Pt. 2: Faith says "Deus Ex Machina" plain as day. Not only was the ending contrived, but it utterly ruined his universe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Selig Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 The Dark Tower, period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tehol Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Well i bitched about it any time i got a chance so why let it slide this time.... for me it is Robin Hobb's Fool's Fate, it just did not set right with me, felt like she took a short cut with the finishing touch. I believe writers preserve the right to decide how their story ends, they should not cater to the readers or fan boys (i was a Robin Hobb's fan boy) but that book still riles me up even though i most likely forgot many details of that series. I haven't picked up any of new Robin Hobb's books after Fool's Fate, that hurt feeling is still there though little blunt with passing time but i nurse it as my very own pet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanF Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 I've heard some authors say that ending a book well is by far the hardest part of writing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prone_to_say_stupid_things Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Maybe it was all the hype that raised my expectations, but for me Lord of the Rings diminished in quality with each book. I loved the Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring, but was really disappointed by the end of the Return of the King. (so much so I never even bothered to open the various prequel books that were given to me as gifts during my heavy fantasy period in my teens). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borsabil Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 For me, it's the ending to Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy. I loved the universe Hamilton created, and was engaged with the characters, but the ending came out of nowhere. I shouldn't have been shocked, the back cover of The Naked God Pt. 2: Faith says "Deus Ex Machina" plain as day. Not only was the ending contrived, but it utterly ruined his universe.100% agree with that, I mean wtf was he thinking? I also have a serious dislike of the Dune prequels and sequels, particularly the sequels. So let's write really crap books following on from a series of really great books that had already been finished by the author. Again wtf??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clueless Northman Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Maybe it was all the hype that raised my expectations, but for me Lord of the Rings diminished in quality with each book. I loved the Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring, but was really disappointed by the end of the Return of the King. (so much so I never even bothered to open the various prequel books that were given to me as gifts during my heavy fantasy period in my teens). You know that LOTR is just one book, a pretty big one, running at 1000+ pages, and therefore has only one ending, said ending being quite long considering how big the book it concludes is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arataniello Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Maybe it was all the hype that raised my expectations, but for me Lord of the Rings diminished in quality with each book. I loved the Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring, but was really disappointed by the end of the Return of the King. (so much so I never even bothered to open the various prequel books that were given to me as gifts during my heavy fantasy period in my teens). Tell us more of these "various prequel books" of which you speak. Also, as pointed out, LotR = one book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arataniello Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 What has been the worst ending in a book series for you? The end of one of the Dune sequels, where the two oldsters are dead-heading their rosebushes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 For me it has to be the ending to Amtrak Wars by Patrick Tilley; That wasn't supposed to be the ending though. For various reasons (financial, legal, creative) the second six-book series, which would have picked up 15-20 years later with the fulfilment of the Talisman Prophecy, was never written. Tilley apparently made another attempt to finish the story with a trilogy a few years ago, when the books were optioned as a movie, but AFAICT no publisher was interested. And for what it's worth: It's overwhelmingly clear to me that Roz and Cadillac's daughter is Talisman. At the end of Book 6 she starts turning the grass green again, which is a key part of the prophecy. For me, it's the ending to Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy. I loved the universe Hamilton created, and was engaged with the characters, but the ending came out of nowhere. I shouldn't have been shocked, the back cover of The Naked God Pt. 2: Faith says "Deus Ex Machina" plain as day. Not only was the ending contrived, but it utterly ruined his universe. The ending did not 'come out of nowhere', it was signposted very plainly in Book 1. They spend an inordinate amount of time (not to mention a fairly obvious amount of infodumping) talking about the Sleeping God in the Tyrathca village. The science team on Tranquillity then have two large, info-dumping conversations about it in Book 2. At the start of Book 3 the characters then say, "Hey, let's go find this Sleeping God, it can sort the situation out, based on the fairly lengthy infodumps about it in the first two books." Complaining that they then go and find it and it then sorts the situation out is like saying the ending of Lord of the Rings is a DEM because destroying the Ring also conveniently blows up Barad-dur, kills Sauron and wipes out the Nazgul. It isn't because it was foreshadowed quite heavily. So let's write really crap books following on from a series of really great books that had already been finished by the author. Again wtf??? The Anderson/Herbert Jnr. books are utter shit, let there be no doubt about that, but to be fair Chapterhouse (the last book published by Frank Herbert before his death) was not the final book in the Dune series. It ends on a quite a major cliffhanger and Frank Herbert was already coming up with ideas for 'Dune 7' when he died. The Anderson/Herbert Jnr. continuation was horrific, but he had definitely been planning more books to come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toshio.Keepiru Posted November 3, 2013 Share Posted November 3, 2013 The end of one of the Dune sequels, where the two oldsters are dead-heading their rosebushes. That wasn't the end really.... Frank Herbert died before even getting too far into writing the next book in the series.... he was in his 60s... Which causes some concern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Northman Posted November 3, 2013 Share Posted November 3, 2013 Dare I add Abercrombie's First Law trilogy to the list of endings leaving one deeply dissatisfied, what with the bad guys winning and all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dietl Posted November 3, 2013 Share Posted November 3, 2013 Dare I add Abercro...? No! It was perfect. :pirate: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samalander Posted November 3, 2013 Share Posted November 3, 2013 The Dark Tower, period. Now, let's be fair here: books 6 and 7 were horrible, the ending for all secondary characters was shit and the undoing of the Big Bad was laughable, but Roland himself got a decent enough character arc, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Rodrigo Belmonte Posted November 3, 2013 Share Posted November 3, 2013 Dare I add Abercrombie's First Law trilogy to the list of endings leaving one deeply dissatisfied, what with the bad guys winning and all? no it was a great ending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kephv Posted November 4, 2013 Share Posted November 4, 2013 Dare I add Abercrombie's First Law trilogy to the list of endings leaving one deeply dissatisfied, what with the bad guys winning and all? It's hard for the good guys to win when there aren't any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john Posted November 4, 2013 Share Posted November 4, 2013 I'd say Glokta wins, as far as he was ever going to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolverine Posted November 4, 2013 Share Posted November 4, 2013 the ending of 1984 is not bad, but is really really depressing and disappointing. dark tower ending blows for pretty much every character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plessiez Posted November 4, 2013 Share Posted November 4, 2013 I'd say Glokta wins, as far as he was ever going to. It's debatable if Glokta is a "good guy" though, surely? I'd argue that he isn't. (I mean, he's a protagonist and a POV character, and it's definitely possibly to feel some sympathy for him, but he's really not a good or moral person.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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