We’ve all come across these frustrations. List them (and the reasons for abandonment) below:
We’ve all come across these frustrations. List them (and the reasons for abandonment) below:
Simon R. Green's Deathstalker series : Green takes a fun-if-dim Star Wars inspired universe and populates it with one lethal death machine after another, letting them kill each other off one by one. The problem being that he takes several novels to do it in, with an awesome amount of repetition. He will literally repeat the backstory almost verbatim three times per book.
Aside from that, Green writes well below 'fun pulp' in the realm of 'kitsch crap'. Murderous teddy bear cyborgs may sound fun, but they're not. Red haired feisty female space pirates never giving our muscle-bound hero a break but secretly loving him may sound fun, but they're not. Wafer thin characters, a rebellion plot seemingly written by a 12 year old and as I said, you don't have to sit through it just once, he's sure to repeat back what has happened so far every few hundred pages.
I can think of a few others, but I'm not sure they're worthy of villifying in public to the same degree as the above.
Well, if it was in Chinese or Russian I most definitely couldn't read it!
Seriously, i can't speak for all sci-fi fans, but I would never discuss in public another author's short comings.
All science fiction books are treasures to me, even if i couldn't get into a-- difficult to understand novel.
However......................
Okay - David Brin's Kiln People, the absolute worst novel I've read in years.
Also pretty much anything by Samuel L. Delany. I cannot understand the worship.
I have to second the "anything by Samuel Delaney". I feel the greatest of guilt saying this, because... I've met him. I loved him. He liked me. We had similar thoughts about the movie Species. And still, if I make myself read something by him, almost every sentence is a slog and in 30 minutes I won't be able to remember what the story was about. :/
Because hope springs eternal, one day I will still try to read Dahlgren.
I'm with you, Mug. That's(Kiln People) the only book I have abandoned in the last year, and I can't say that I feel any the worse for not knowing how it turned out.
Kevin J Anderson's Hopscotch. the premise was very flimsily presented and the characters were such cardobaord cut outs. The prose itself smacked too much of the sort of mildly-dumbed down narrative you get occasionally in YA novels. I just went and traded it in for somethung else after finishing a hundred pages. Avoid this man's books, please.
Paul Pruess: Broken Symmetries. A very cool premise marred by an attempt to appeal to the techno-thriller crowd as well, and this horrible habit writers have of making a couple of their main characters attractive and involved in a sexual relationship with each other, in hopes of landing a movie deal.
I'm still unsure on Delaney - I really liked his short stories collected in Driftglass, really didn;t make head nor tail of The Einstein Intersection.
One book convinces you not to read any more of his novels? I suggest you try Captain Nemo.Originally Posted by knivesout
I can't seem to read anything by J.G. Ballard. I've picked up and put down The Drowned World, Crash and Empire of the Sun. I don't know why but, I find his writing boring.
I like Delany, although I have only read Nova and The Towers of Toron. Arguably his most accessable books.
I loved Dune and have reread it many times but I can't seem to get past the first 100 pages of Children of Dune. Weird since I enjoy his other books.
I'm a big fan of PKD but I had a really hard time reading Ubik. Usually, I can not put his novels down. Often reading them in one sitting.
I appreciate that Anderson is a favourite of yours. However, considering that Hopscotch is not even an early work, but one of a swriter well into his career, and that I was less than thrilled with the Dune prequels, I think I'm fairly certain that he is not my cup of tea, in any case.
One man's treasure .............
Actually, I didn't love Kiln People, but I did find it entertaining enough to keep reading it. Though I found the ending a bit cheesy.
The one book that I found unreadable was Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. There is just too much science, it hurt my brain. And other than two characters (over the 300 pages I did manage), I found all of them childish and annoying. Though even through what I disliked, I can see why others adore this book. It just wasn't for me.
I still struggle to try to read the original Foundation books by Asimov, even though I've read everything else of his over the years.
Anything by CJ Cherryh. I just can't get into it. I've tried over and over again since I met her years ago and she used to come to our little Science Fiction club. She's great in person.
Anything by Frank Herbert execept the first Dune book.
Susan
Originally posted by scooter13
One man's treasure .............
The one book that I found unreadable was Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. There is just too much science, it hurt my brain. And other than two characters (over the 300 pages I did manage), I found all of them childish and annoying. Though even through what I disliked, I can see why others adore this book. It just wasn't for me.
I find her or his work a brilliant piece of writing. Although, I'm still trying to get through the first two chapters.....
Glad I named my book "Red Stars". Has nothing to do with the above novel.
Agreed. I fought my way through Downbelow Station. Three chapters of Rimrunners convinced me she's just too much hard work.Originally posted by SusF
Anything by CJ Cherryh. I just can't get into it.
I'll agree that some of Cherryh's books are pretty painful to get through. However, a few were good, IMO.
I read the first Chanur book and had to put down the second book in the series. Both books were just very boring and not much seemed to happen. The 2nd book is probably the only SF book I haven't finished. On the other hand, I can give a huge list of fantasy books I've put down.....
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