Authors you like but the majority loathes!

[Macklyn]

You've never seen a movie you didn't like and then ranted about it your friends? You've never had a bad date and ranted about it to your friends? I've known plenty of people that spent years ranting about a person they had an fall out with.

You're asking why readers stick with a 10 years long series after it's lost it's magic to them. Then I'll ask you why do 10 years old couples stay together after the love is gone?

In answer to your first two queries: No. Laugh about such things, yeah. Rant? Hell no!
I'm not that high-strung or uptight.
You let something as unimportant as a movie, book, or a single moment in your life affect you that way? Go see a shrink and try not to be too shocked at their diagnosis.
Don't go near any assault rifles and Post Offices, please.
And your last question is purely baffling. What decade are you talking about? They don't.

 

[Bluestar]

In answer to your first two queries: No. Laugh about such things, yeah. Rant? Hell no!
I'm not that high-strung or uptight.
You let something as unimportant as a movie, book, or a single moment in your life affect you that way? Go see a shrink and try not to be too shocked at their diagnosis.
Don't go near any assault rifles and Post Offices, please.
And your last question is purely baffling. What decade are you talking about? They don't.

No need to be insulting...

You seem to be under the impression that people who rant about those things are foaming at the mouth. They don't. There's something liberating and amusing about ranting. And it's certainly entertaining to read such rants. Why do you think there are so many humorists, websites and blogs dedicated to just that? Sure the rants are passionate, but it's part of the game. It wouldn't work if you couldn't let it all out.

What decade am I talking about? Well if they've been together for ten years I'm obviously talking about the last decade. But do you honestly think people these days move on as soon as the peak emotions wear off? Most people I know stays on relationships much longer than that. They do it because they've invested so much time and emotions into that relationship and they still think fondly of those early times, they are still hoping things will turn around and the flame will rekindle. Same reasons people keep up with long series, it's human nature to keep hoping. We do like to delude ourselves don't we?

 

[Severn]

Joining the Dolt Club. (and agreeing with Bluestar on the hoping thing).

About five years ago I read the first four books of SoT and enjoyed them, although Richard was definitely a smarmy ass, and he and his leading lady were constantly separated, and reunited through ridiculous deus ex machina. The annoyance was setting in. Then I moved onto the fifth and there the true drivel ensued. But, because I'd invested so much time into the series, I kept going, hoping it would get better again. When I reached Pillars of Creation I couldn't believe I'd wasted my money. It was terrible. Where was the credit control? I threw the whole series out in a liberated moment earlier this year. Ah, it was great.

I've never been able to get beyond the first half of the first book in WoT. Not sure why - think it was the annoying characters.

John Marco. I read one book by him (Eye of God, I think) and sheesh it was SO BAD. So ghastly. Poorly written, flat characters, terrible plot. I still can't believe it. I haven't heard a bad word about him around here, though. That one was binned too. Or sold. Something.

 

[Eventine]

I was about the same with Goodkind as you Severn, but I gave up after book 5. I still have the first 5 books on the shelf, haven't touched them in about 7 or 8 years though and haven't had the urge to revisit.

In regards to Marco, I thought his first trilogy was OK but not worth some of the praise it got around here (ahemRobahem ), but The Eyes of God or whatever it was - sheesh. Terrible stuff.

 

[Severn]

I was about the same with Goodkind as you Severn, but I gave up after book 5. I still have the first 5 books on the shelf, haven't touched them in about 7 or 8 years though and haven't had the urge to revisit.

In regards to Marco, I thought his first trilogy was OK but not worth some of the praise it got around here (ahemRobahem ), but The Eyes of God or whatever it was - sheesh. Terrible stuff.

Oh thank god, I'm not alone! We're the Eye of God survivors hehe. But, seriously, I've seen a lot about his first trilogy (is that the one people are mentioning above? Tyrant and Kings?) Who knows, perhaps it is better. I won't be touching it. Not after that experience. (And who knows, maybe you'll experience the liberation of binning the Goodkinds too, one day).

 

[Macklyn]

No need to be insulting...

You seem to be under the impression that people who rant about those things are foaming at the mouth. They don't. There's something liberating and amusing about ranting. And it's certainly entertaining to read such rants. Why do you think there are so many humorists, websites and blogs dedicated to just that? Sure the rants are passionate, but it's part of the game. It wouldn't work if you couldn't let it all out.

Ranting - Amusing - Play: . . Your words.
You see this forum as a place you can come to play word games and have fun at other peoples expense?
You ever see the commercial on TV about teens posting on the net? If you wouldn't say it in person, don't say it on the net? They're teaching this to teenagers as responsible behavior. Are we excluded from being expected to behave responsibly here? I seem to recall reading something similar about expected behavior here when I first signed up.
Forgive me if I actually take what people write here seriously. An obvious joke is one thing. Those kind of posts are not obvious as anything but insulting to both the reader and the author.
The only fun found in them is petty and seen only by the person who posted them or those who might agree with them.
Where's the respect for those who don't?
If you're a teenager I might understand such an attitude. Are you?

 

[Bluestar]

Ranting - Amusing - Play: . . Your words.
You see this forum as a place you can come to play word games and have fun at other peoples expense?
You ever see the commercial on TV about teens posting on the net? If you wouldn't say it in person, don't say it on the net? They're teaching this to teenagers as responsible behavior. Are we excluded from being expected to behave responsibly here? I seem to recall reading something similar about expected behavior here when I first signed up.
Forgive me if I actually take what people write here seriously. An obvious joke is one thing. Those kind of posts are not obvious as anything but insulting to both the reader and the author.
The only fun found in them is petty and seen only by the person who posted them or those who might agree with them.
Where's the respect for those who don't?
If you're a teenager I might understand such an attitude. Are you?

Again you are being insulting. You need to realize that someone saying they dislike a novel is not an attack against those liking it. We can't all have the same tastes.

No one's breaking the rules, the mods are pretty good at doing their job and when someone get out of line they're quick to react.

It's not amusing as in "haha" and it's not trolling. It just feel good to get those pent up frustrations out and with some luck find out about people that were frustrated like you too. Kind of like group therapy and a good workout all in one.

I do enjoy reading people's frustrations about the books I like. In fact I spend multiple hours every month on amazon.com reading one star reviews of books I've read. It's really entertaining and it prolong the experience of reading the book.

 

[DailyAlice]

I don't see what is wrong with criticizing published fiction. Who on earth is being disrespected by an honestly stated opinion? Debate is enjoyable.

 

[Miriamele]

I do enjoy reading people's frustrations about the books I like. In fact I spend multiple hours every month on amazon.com reading one star reviews of books I've read. It's really entertaining and it prolong the experience of reading the book.

I thought I was the only one who did that. The one star reviews are by far the most entertaining.

 

[Michigan]

John Marco. I read one book by him (Eye of God, I think) and sheesh it was SO BAD. So ghastly. Poorly written, flat characters, terrible plot. I still can't believe it. I haven't heard a bad word about him around here, though. That one was binned too. Or sold. Something.

Same here, though I don't remember the name of the book, just that some character falls in love with a whore at the beginning. Horribly written, I couldn't even finish it. It was one of those books that drew me in with the cover art, too bad the writing was horrible.

 

[Rohan]

It's not amusing as in "haha" and it's not trolling. It just feel good to get those pent up frustrations out and with some luck find out about people that were frustrated like you too. Kind of like group therapy and a good workout all in one.

I do enjoy reading people's frustrations about the books I like. In fact I spend multiple hours every month on amazon.com reading one star reviews of books I've read. It's really entertaining and it prolong the experience of reading the book.

I agree completely. Whether we are expressing a passion or a frustration with a book, the option to share and vent helps to make a vexing read more tolerable.

 

[KatG]

Well I haven't been so quick to moderate because I had computer problems the other day. I am really, really annoyed with my server right now.

Macklyn, you agreed no personal attacks in participating in the forums, so please stop making them. Re your two points:

1) People who read series they hate -- I'm not at all saying that these people are reading to denigrate those authors; that's your interpretation. I see them instead as passionate fans of the whole genre who feel it is important to read important series and give them every chance. Or at least, that's what they say they are doing, and I have no reason to disbelieve them. Though I do not myself embrace that philosophy, I much prefer people who are willing to read books and then make judgements to people who don't read the books and trash them anyway.

2) What we're doing in this thread -- This forum is for discussions of published fantasy fiction. Regularly people express their opinions here on different works, and regularly those opinions don't agree (as I keep trying to remind folks in the cover art thread.) Unfortunately, what often happens when a person expresses an opinion on a work is that they get jumped on. If they like something that a lot of people on the forums do not, or if they dislike something that a lot of people on the forums praise, this is apparently often cause for World War III, not just a difference of opinion.

Which is why this thread is a refreshing change. We have someone saying, I liked this book. And another person says, I didn't like that book, but I liked that one. And we all (so far) are respecting each other's opinions, finding the differences interesting, without the impetus to "win" and prove that those who disagree with us are "wrong" or ridiculous assertions that "everybody agrees with me." We are not slamming each other's opinions, just discussing them and marvelling at how different they are.

Now that may not be something you want to do. But, like I said, I'm really enjoying this discussion and everyone is being civil. So I hope you'll stay and talk about books you love. If others say they don't love them, that's not a comment on you personally.

I would also suggest that you might not want to enter into certain thread discussions in the forums, given your views, which get a good deal rougher than this one, and have people who insist that their opinions are the only ones that matter. Particularly, you might want to avoid the forums dedicated to specific bestselling authors, where people get pretty passionate in their opinions.

 

[Alex]

I anticipated a certain ammount of flamewar for this topic hence I posted:

P.S. No excessive flaming in this thread please. People should be able to post their likes and dislikes without getting flamed out of the sky for it=)

I started this topic because as I said beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Even if many of us on this forum are very well read (i.e. most people have probably read many famous works and some have even studied literature at a college level), our opinions differ greatly. Loads of books that many people like will undoubtedly be disliked by some people on this board and vice versa. I thought it would be fun with a thread highlighting our differences and discussing them.

I get abit sad when I see personal attacks in a thread that I started in the spirit of fun for our comunity. I find it hillarious reading some of the posts. I hope you guys do to. Sometimes I just want to scream out BLASPHEMY or shake my head in wonder at some of the books you fellows enjoy=) That was the whole point of this thread.

I did not intend it to become an author-bashing thread, we have enough of those already=)

 

[Arrgh]

I'm still confused about the level of Goodkind hate. Is this purely objectivism hate? Do the same people also hate and rant about Ann Rand? Or is there something else going on I'm missing from only having read the first SoT?

 

[columbob]

Tad Williams' "Memory Sorrow and Thorn": I have expressed many times that this is my favorite fantasy saga of all time, even better than Tolkien's LOTR. Yes, I know, blasphemy, but Tolkien's LOTR, as awesome as it was, just didn't blow me away like MS&T did. Alot of folks seem to dislike it since it's really long and dragging during the beginning to about halfway of book 1 The Dragonbone Chair, and I must admit I almost was tempted to put the book down myself, permanently, but I held on for just a little while longer, and I was completely blown away.

For what it's worth, I didn't dislike MS&T, I enjoyed reading it, although I have to say that the entire series dragged, not just the first half of the first book. The entire second book is the worse in that respect, IMO. I found Williams bad at pacing and descriptions, good at character development and introspection.

I'm glad I read it, but I probably won't ever reread it, and I'm not in any hurry to pick up any more of Tad Williams' books. It was more of a so-so trilogy for me, and I can understand why people loved or hated it.

 

[Bluestar]

I'm still confused about the level of Goodkind hate. Is this purely objectivism hate? Do the same people also hate and rant about Ann Rand? Or is there something else going on I'm missing from only having read the first SoT?

The main argument seem to be that the books have been going downhill. It's been used to describe Jordan's books and apparently lately even G.R.R. Martin too.

 

[Scott]

Oh thank god, I'm not alone! We're the Eye of God survivors hehe. But, seriously, I've seen a lot about his first trilogy (is that the one people are mentioning above? Tyrant and Kings?) Who knows, perhaps it is better. I won't be touching it. Not after that experience. (And who knows, maybe you'll experience the liberation of binning the Goodkinds too, one day).

Yeah, it was the Tyrant and Kings series. I understand your response though, it seems with Marco you either love or hate his work. I told a buddy of mine about the series and how much I enjoyed it. He tried it and his response was 'That sucked'. I guess that's why I'm not a publisher.

 

[Amaunette]

I'm going to put Smith on my reading list. I like pirates too. See Chris, I was wrong. We can talk about mid-list authors too....

Yay for pirates! I'm glad to hear my adoration of the Inda books has reached a susceptible ear. But seriously, I would like to see more discussion on mid-list authors as well. Does C.J. Cherryh's Fortress series count? I don't see it discussed very often. I really enjoyed it, but don't see it discussed much.

Also, Zsinj, good point about Dark Tower VII. It was my least favorite book of the series, and the ending has always bugged me. It was what King honestly saw as the ending of that story, but it seemed like a cop-out to me. It's no ending at all, really.

I have also been reminded in this thread that I did not really enjoy LOTR, which I know is practically blasphemy. I think I appreciated the story but felt like actually reading the books was an effort. I don't actively dislike it, however.

 

[Michigan]

The main argument seem to be that the books have been going downhill. It's been used to describe Jordan's books and apparently lately even G.R.R. Martin too.

I disagree. Yes Jordans books clearly went downhill, I think Terry Goodkind was crappy from book 1. It just takes a few books for people to finally give up on him. One thing about Goodkind, his books are great page turners, even if you sit there reading it and cursing him for his horrible one dimensional characters the whole time.

 

[Starson]

I will say this quickly and duck on out of here before the rotten vegetables come flying.

Sara Douglass...l've like them all.

(running quickly with head held low...)