What FANTASY book did you find hard to finish?

juzzza

juzzza

Loveable Rogue
Joined
Jul 16, 2002
Messages
3,763
I've stolen the idea for this thread from the Sci Fi forum, I thought it was a good idea.

Sorry if it has been done before.

I found LOTR quite hard to get through, I could appreciate the artistic writing, loved the language and feel to the book, but if I am honest, the Sam and Frodo segments really dragged for me. I did finish it, and I respect the author and LOVE the movies and concept, but it wasn't an easy read.

I had to have a break from ASoIaF, and it is one of my fave series, but when I discovered Martin thanks to SFFW I had four books to get through.

ASH was a slow starter, but really kicked in for me.
 
i too love the story,concept and films of the lord of the rings but it took me 5 attempts over about 10 years to actually finish it. Im having the same problem with Memory,Thorn and Sorrow by Tad Williams - i can feel there is a great story but i have started the first book about 3 times now only to pick something else up after about a 1/3rd of the way.I will get there though.... :)
 
juzzza said:
Sure, why did you bin it?
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I don't think there was anything inherently wrong with the book and I enjoyed the BBC production with Jonathan Rhys Meyers in it. I think it has to do with the fact that the book was extremely descriptive and very detailed in that description, and not being visual, I found that quite hard work. This is the same with Tad Williams Memory Sorrow and Thorn series also. Just realised what you wrote there Parmenion - do you think it might be the same for you?
 
Rats and Gargoyles and Grunts by Mary Gentle

I loved Ash but these two were stylistically different and not as clever as the author thought they were, at least in the case of Grunts. I don't plan on reading any more by her.

Hades Daughter by Sara Douglass
Some here may have seen my tirades against this atrocious bunch of paper the publisher and author had the gall to call a book. I couldn't finish it - the plot, such as it was, hung on a thread, the characters were insipid and stupid. There was nothing redeemable about the words thrown together by Douglass. I still have the book because I wouldn't dare trade it in at the used book shop on the off chance that some poor unsuspecting soul would come across it and try and read it based on the fairly nice dust jacket by Luis Royo. I may use these 600 odd pieces of paper to start a fire in my fireplace someday, but then again, I may just hold it for the rest of my life in contempt and as a solid example of how not to write.

I was given the book to review for SFFWorld and asked the PR agency if the would mind me not writing the review, because for the first and only time I've been reveiwing books in the 4 odd years here, I could find absolutely nothing positive about the book. The PR rep thanked me for my candor and felt it would be best for me to not write the review. A waste of my time and effort and thiers as well.
 
At the risk of bringing down the wrath of the members of the board...
I struggled to finish every one of first three Malazan books by Erikson...
There were parts I loved, but overall, I just could not engage. I soooo want to love Erikson, and see flashes of brilliance, but just can't stay involved. Truth be told, I did not read every page, but skipped portions that seemed to drag, or characters I did not care about.
 
I struggled with the Gormenghast trilogy... the writing was fantastic, but was just too much for me. I'm about 500 pages through 'Child of Flame' at the moment and its just not interesting in me, the only thing left motivating me is the thought 'well, i've got this far...'
 
I had a lot of difficulty with To Green Angel Tower by Williams. It just was not holding my interest.
 
I couldn't, and still haven't, finished the first book in the Northern Lights trilogy by Philip Pullman..... it's been about half a year since I started, and have't continued for about as long, though I am about 2/3 way through
 
I don't usually struggle through books. If I don't like them, I put them down and don't go back to them. There are too many good books out there I have not read, so I am not going to waste my time reading something I don't like when I could be reading something I do like. One example was an Ann Mcaffery(spelling???) omnibus. It was one of the Pern books. I just could not get into it, didn't like the way she wrote so I got rid of it.

Not to be off topic but ,Fitz, do they only alllow favorable reviews of books? Or was it just a case that you were going to rip it so bad they just couldn't let you do it?
 
Grawgos said:
Not to be off topic but ,Fitz, do they only alllow favorable reviews of books? Or was it just a case that you were going to rip it so bad they just couldn't let you do it?
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Bad reviews are allowed, per say, but I didn't feel comfortable writing a review where I had nothing good to say about the book. It would have been a complete waste of my time.
 
I struggled with Little, Big by John Crowley. I did eventually finish it, but I didn't enjoy it. I am also still struggling with The Light Ages by Ian MacLeod.

Both are very wordy and descriptive. They also have what I find to be poorly developed characters that didn't hold any interest for me. They also seemed to share a lack of a compelling plot. The stories had a point, but it just didn't work for me in terms of caring about the outcome or the journey.

I am not sure if I will finish The Light Ages , because I have to force myself to pick it up and I have other things to read.
 
I will probably be beaten about in cyberspace but I struggled with WOT book 10. I did finish it and the ending certainly made me want to know more but it was pure perseverance.
Also Ian Irvine's Geomancer. Finished it and never went back to the series
 
Hmmm... just one book I couldn't finish- I'm not sure I can restrain myself.

:( The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice. Boring and self indulgent from the start, I should've had the toss the book after the first chapter. Instead I plowed through it.

:D Otherland series by Tad Williams. For some reason the first novel was really hard for me to get initially. In this case, however, my persistence paid off and I thoroughly enjoyed the series.
 
Ficus, I own Little, Big and read maybe three pages... No thanks.

I am sure it is very literary, just not my cup of tea (I've gone all English!!!).

On the flipside of the coin, I was SURE I would not enjoy Perdido Street Station by Meiville, and it sat on my 'to-read' pile for months and months... Same with American Gods by Gaiman... They turned out to be two of my fave books.
 
I have to second the Williams calls here - it took me several attempts to get into The Dragonbone Chair but when I did I mostly enjoyed it. However, halfway through the third book in the series (To Green Angel Tower - Siege? Or storm?) I somehow lost interest again. Williams is a good writer but far too self-indulgent. I grew tired of all the songs and poems. From what I read, the story could have been adequately told in 3 books at most. 4 I think was stretching it.

Also, I've already mentioned this recently, but I couldn't finish The One Kingdom by Sean Russel. Simply put - that was the worst-written fantasy I've ever had the misfortune to read. The way he introduced 4 characters in the first scene, by way of a conversation...I can't imagine a more confusing or disinteresting start to a book. :(
 
The most recent thing I read that I managed to finish, and was a hard slog from beginning to end, was the Loremasters of Elundium trilogy by Mike Jeffries. I don't think I had anything of interest on the shelves at the time, and I bought the three books together. The whole time I was reading, I just wanted to get to the end and be done. I've been sitting on Michael Scott Rohan's Winter of the World trilogy for ages because for some reason it reminds me of Jeffries trilogy.
 
starry-eyed said:
Hmmm... just one book I couldn't finish- I'm not sure I can restrain myself.

:( The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice. Boring and self indulgent from the start, I should've had the toss the book after the first chapter. Instead I plowed through it.
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Ooh that made me think. I actually liked The Tale of the Body Thief . I thought it was one of the better books in the series: it actually had some concrete actions in the story as opposed to a lot of navel gazing and whining. But my problem book was Pandora . It was just so boringly written and I could care less about the main character. I never finished it. I still have the last 2 books in the series to read, so they may actually be worse, but for now Pandora is the worst for me.
 
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