Looking for BAD fantasy

Thanks for introducing me to Newcomb guys. Some heavy Eye of Argon undertones in the writing on his site.
 
JRR Tolkien. Seriously. Everyone seems to think that tolkien is the pinnacle of what fantasy should be; but his characters are 1-dimensional and he spends too much time focusing on things that are completely separate to the plot. 3 pages, 3 bleeding pages of people singing a song.
 
Chirios said:
JRR Tolkien. Seriously. Everyone seems to think that tolkien is the pinnacle of what fantasy should be; but his characters are 1-dimensional and he spends too much time focusing on things that are completely separate to the plot. 3 pages, 3 bleeding pages of people singing a song.
Click to expand...

I'm glad someone agrees with me. :D
 
Has anyone read Robert Stanek's stuff?:eek:
When you read it its like being in a dream that doesn't make any sense. I challenge anyone to make it past the first chapter listening to one of his audio books. I believe he does the reading himself. Robert Stanek is the Yoko Ono of audio books.
 
Zsinj said:
[...]
The Belgariad by David Eddings; Sorry, Eddings fans! This is a series that wasted about three weeks of my life. The characters to me were all morons. I wanted to absolutely kill Polgara, C'Nedra, and that immature brat Garion! The last battle was like something out of the Power Rangers, and the world building was absolutely God-awful.
Click to expand...

My internal bad-fantasy compass always points toward TB. Eddings' prose is ... servicable but only just; journalistic in a way, and he apparently had no acquaintence with the tropes can spice up a sentence or illuminate an idea. Worse, his characters felt to me like they came from Central Casting and his settings were facades along a street in the Warner Brothers backlots -- as I recall there was a Cobra (?) worshipping cult that felt pulled from a 1940s Maria Montez movie. Essentially, the story, all bloody five books of it, did not feel imagined; I had no sense of the author being creative so that the books felt like he had an equation and plugged values into some variables without necessarily working out the aesthetic problems of creating a real, affecting story about characters I could believe in as people. What added to the frustration was the scene with the boulder in which our intrepid young hero finds the consequences of not knowing how to use magic; that scene worked.

Randy M.
 
Last edited:
I definitely agree about David Eddings "The Belgariad." His character development seemed to go in the wrong direction as the books progressed. I had no faith in Garion- he wouldn't survive without Polgara. And the girl he ends up marrying is self-centered and immature.

Eragon and Eldest- hmm I will agree that it wasn't the best writing and it seemed like he took a bunch of already used ideas and put them together. However, for some irrational reason, I enjoyed it. I know, wierd. It wasn't "stellar" but it wasn't "bad."
 
nightengale said:
I definitely agree about David Eddings "The Belgariad." His character development seemed to go in the wrong direction as the books progressed. I had no faith in Garion- he wouldn't survive without Polgara. And the girl he ends up marrying is self-centered and immature.
Click to expand...

I totally loved the Belgariad, even though it was completely different from what I thought (at the time) fantasy should be (meaning: just like Tolkien). In fact, Eddings is the only author (besides McKiernan) that I've read and actually enjoyed after Tolkien. (I read Ursula Le Guin's series, but never got hooked on it).

~Elvenfire
 
I'm gonna say Goodkind. I finished allll of his books and come to the conclusion there only should have been about 3 even that would have been to many.... I mean how many times can our main character have the same self reliazations while he looks for his beloved Kahlan?? Did anybody count how many of the books revolved around his quest to find/save her?? And while he tries to be clever with his philosophy I found it more annoying than clever.

There was another one i sat here for ten minutes trying to remember but i guess it surpased bad into "omg I just waisted my life" and I probably put a mental block on it.
 
I still have a soft spot for The Belgariad as it was the second fantasy series I read after LOTR. The rest of Eddings' work, however, can gladly burn in the fires of Hades.

Worse even than Eddings,though, was Myrren's Gift by Fiona McIntosh. I have never read such a cliched, one-dimensional, badly characterised and badly written book:-well the first 100 pages or so, because I gave up at that point. The fact that Robin Hobb endorses the book on its cover can only mean that Hobb has done something bad in the past and McIntosh has the evidence.
 
Last edited:
Numenorian said:
The fact that Robin Hobb endorses the book on its cover can only mean that Hobb has done something bad in the past and McIntosh has the evidence.
Click to expand...

This is the best quote I have seen on this board since I registered here. :D
 
If its so bad, why read it? I can understand this:

Numenorian said:
Worse even than Eddings,though, was Myrren's Gift by Fiona McIntosh. I have never read such a cliched, one-dimensional, badly characterised and badly written book:-well the first 100 pages or so, because I gave up at that point.
Click to expand...

but why do this?

Zsinj said:
The Belgariad by David Eddings; Sorry, Eddings fans! This is a series that wasted about three weeks of my life.
Click to expand...

Please give credit where credit is due. Eddings might not be the deepest read, but it did hook you in, right? If you hated Eddings and still spent three weeks reading it, then Eddings must be a genious, somewhat like Howard Sterns.

Eddings gave me exactly what I wanted at the time I read the Belgariad. Unknown kid turns into the baddest person on the planet. And he's got a way with the ladies. I wish I was Garion.
 
In the Eye of Heaven by David Keck was pretty bad - a complete, confusing mess IMO.
 
fk1523 said:
If its so bad, why read it?
[...]

Please give credit where credit is due. Eddings might not be the deepest read, but it did hook you in, right? If you hated Eddings and still spent three weeks reading it, then Eddings must be a genious, somewhat like Howard Sterns.

Eddings gave me exactly what I wanted at the time I read the Belgariad. Unknown kid turns into the baddest person on the planet. And he's got a way with the ladies. I wish I was Garion.
Click to expand...

I continued reading because, 1) a friend had given the books to me as a gift and I felt somewhat obliged (I don't do that so much now); 2) another friend had said she enjoyed it. I kept reading to see if I would find what they enjoyed, and eventually I kept reading to see if it ended as blandly as it began. It did.


Randy M.
 
i second the eddings, but would also offer up potter and inheritance. another book i read recently and hated was elantirs by brandon sanderson.
 
I am quite an easy reader to please, but I must say without a doubt, anything by Pratchett will drive me over the end.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Sponsors


We try to keep the forum as free of ads as possible, please consider supporting SFFWorld on Patreon


Your ad here.
Back
Top