What's the worst fantasy novel ever IYO?

[Traveler]

My vote goes to Cynthia Sokora’s “The Dark Chronicles”

Sample from the back cover:

And the fight for life begins…
Long ago, a sinister plot to destroy, unfolded. Hatred between generations and a willful destruction of life itself were exposed. The only way for survival – to band together. In this, the first of three, The Dark Chronicles sends you on a journey of sword, & sorcery that is destined to be a classic.
Come into the darkness…

“Action filled excitement from a gifted author!” Margaret Weiss

[Cymric]

anything by Gary Gygax

[Iskaral Pust]

The Fifth Sorcerous - Robert Newcomb
Blub extract: "For after these long years of peace, it seems an ancient and unspeakable evil, nurtured over centuries of darkness, has returned and is thirsting for blood, for domination and above all, for revenge. Tristan's fate is to fulfil a role chosen for him by an ages-old prophecy..." etc.
Published in 2002 by the way.

[Archmage]

The Fifth Sorcerous - Robert Newcomb
Blub extract: "For after these long years of peace, it seems an ancient and unspeakable evil, nurtured over centuries of darkness, has returned and is thirsting for blood, for domination and above all, for revenge. Tristan's fate is to fulfil a role chosen for him by an ages-old prophecy..." etc.
Published in 2002 by the way.

I gotta agree with you on that one. Some of the concepts were interesting, but I found the writing to be terrible.

I can't actually narrow it down to one particular book. Obviously I was also not impressed with Newcomb. I would have to add The Runelords by David Farland, The Wayfarer Redemption by Sara Douglas, and Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth (everything after book two) to the list.

[Firebrand]

wow you must have NO experience with truly bad fantasy, archmage. In my experience two of those books were actually pretty good (I haven't read the other) I've run into stuff MUCH worse than what you mentioned. Like David Drake's Lord of the Isles. that series was a total drudge.

[Archmage]

wow you must have NO experience with truly bad fantasy, archmage. In my experience two of those books were actually pretty good (I haven't read the other) I've run into stuff MUCH worse than what you mentioned. Like David Drake's Lord of the Isles. that series was a total drudge.

I completely forgot about Lord of the Isles ! Yup, that would defintely have to go on my list as well !

[magze]

Legend Of The Lands Steve Cockayne
Read all three in the series the most boring books i have ever read in fact not sure if i have the authors name correct i never part with books but gave these to someone who was having a car boot sale :

[Iskaral Pust]

Found a nice site dedicated to The Fifth Sorcerous:Here
I particularly reccomend the review and the top ten ways Jordan might die.

[Archmage]

Found a nice site dedicated to The Fifth Sorcerous:Here
I particularly reccomend the review and the top ten ways Jordan might die.

While I did agree with websites assessment of Newcomb's lack of writing ability, I felt that the site was simply too mean spirited. I can't respect blantant cruelty.

[allanon]

DragonPrince by Melanie Rawn. Awful stuff.

[Mithfânion]

Legend Of The Lands Steve Cockayne

Odd. If they were really so bad, why did you read all three in this series? The third one is in fact only available as a hardcover, so you must have shelled out big for that one. Or library?

[Ingen_Jegger]

Rather than pick authors who are just not talented. I will go with a few talented ones (that I like) who really dropped the ball:

Winter's Heart, Robert Jordan- this book in no way developed the series. One could read Crossroads of Twilight directly after Path of Daggers and not miss anything.

Fool's Fate, Robin Hobb- Without spoiling anything, I felt the ending was a total cop out.

Conclave of the Shadows, Raymond E Feist- Feist is now at the point where he just kills off major and supporting characters from his old novels for kicks... which is Ok, but then he just reincarnates their personalities and persona into "new" characters. In many cases he doesn't even use new names. How many Jimmy the Hands do we have to have? How many Roberts? It is like watching an acting troupe do a bunch of similar plays. The people are the same, their roles are the same, their personalities are the same, but we are supposed to believe they are different?

All of these authors I enjoy, but find series faults with these works...

Best,
Joe

[Ingen_Jegger]

.

I can't actually narrow it down to one particular book. Obviously I was also not impressed with Newcomb. I would have to add The Runelords by David Farland, The Wayfarer Redemption by Sara Douglas, and Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth (everything after book two) to the list.

How far into the Runelords did you get? What did you not like about it? Just curious...

[Kanin]

I gotta agree with you on that one. Some of the concepts were interesting, but I found the writing to be terrible.

I can't actually narrow it down to one particular book. Obviously I was also not impressed with Newcomb. I would have to add The Runelords by David Farland, The Wayfarer Redemption by Sara Douglas, and Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth (everything after book two) to the list.

Archmage,

Just wondering if you read all 6 books after Book two in Sword of Truth? And why would you keep going if you thought each one was the worst book you ever read?

[Eldanuumea]

I really do like Sara Douglass a great deal, and thought Wayfarer Redemption one of the best fantasies I had ever read......read my way right through the other five in that series with great enjoyment till the very end.

I almost hate to say this, from what I've seen of the volatile feelings aroused by this writer, but I got about halfway through the first Goodkind book and then just felt it was so amateurishly written it wasn'tworth finishing.
**ducks for rotten fruit**