What FANTASY book did you find hard to finish?

[Croaker24]

Gardens of the Moon - Far too muddled for my taste. After hearing great things about the Malazan series I picked this up. About 1/3rd in, my eyes just started glazing over.

Otherland Series - I loved MS&T, but these books just dragged and I eventually lost interest during the 2nd book. I felt that Tad was just adding a lot of material as sheer filler rather than advancing the plot.

Wheel of Time - First book wasn't too bad, but by book four, the WOT had turned into a blathering mess and that was it. Hard to believe it's now at book 1,343 in the series and that people are still reading it.

Sword of Shannara - Made it 2/3rd through then tossed it out of sheer disgust at the amateurish writing. "Awesome" this, "Awesome" that -- get a vocubulary, Terry.

 

[Monty Mike]

Wheel of Time - First book wasn't too bad, but by book four, the WOT had turned into a blathering mess and that was it. Hard to believe it's now at book 1,343 in the series and that people are still reading it.

It's at book 1,343?! How big is each one??

 

[Croaker24]

It's at book 1,343?! How big is each one??

Dunno for sure. According to reviews, the last book was dedicated to covering the preparations and motivations of all the competitors leading up to the 104th Annual Hair-Pulling Olympics.

 

[Hawklan]

I've read so much in my day that I have a hard time remembering just the good stuff let alone the bad stuff. I've simply erased those from my memory (or it might be an old age thing)

Hard to get through:
Tomas Covenant Chronicles - Stephen R. Donaldson
I got so depressed reading these that I wanted to kill myself...just kidding! He's a brilliant author though. Thankfully I got saved by reading Eddings...
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
It was so boooring
The Scar - Mieville
Not my kind of fantasy at all. Mieville has been banned from my shelves.
The Farseer trilogy - Robin Hobb
Managed to get through the series but promised myself to never read her again. Sold the books.

Never finished:
The Thief's Gamble - Juliet E. McKenna
Never cared for any of the characters. I had high hopes for it but was disappointed in the end.
The Winter of the World trilogy - Michael Scott Rohan
Never finished third book and eventually sold it to someone who hopefully appreciated it more than I did.
Loremasters of Elundium trilogy - Mike Jeffries
Boring from the first sentence. I managed to get through the first book but gave up on the second one. Talk about crap! I don't know why I even bothered with it.
Tyrants and Kings trilogy - John Marco
Got stuck hard in the second book and just put it down. Tried several times to get going again but could not find anything interesting in it. I'll let it rest for a year or two and then try again.

I'm stuck:
Ash - Mary Gentle
I still haven't managed to get this goin' after such a long time. Maybe it lacks enough fantasy elements for me to get interested...or maybe I just don't care about her. I'm not willing to give up yet though.
The Sinai Tapestry - Edward Whittemore
I guess I don't see the brilliance that others see. It was really funny and great in the beginning but halfway it just died...
To Reign in Hell - Steven Brust
Hmmm..don't know what's buggin' me with this one but I got stuck anyway. However I know I'll finish it eventually. I'm reading his The Phoenix Guards as well and although it's really funny my main gripe with it is the prose - which was the whole point for him writing the book I guess. I'm not stuck but it goes slow.
Prince of Dogs - Kate Elliott
I noticed that many think it goes downhill from here so I'm a bit concerned whether I'll manage to get through it or if it's even worth the effort.
The Siege of Arrandin - Marcus Herniman
I've started this twice but got stuck again...I can't find any character to bond with or who I find the least bit interesting.
The Standing Dead - Ricardo Pinto
Many find this great but I...don't. I was hesitant to get this and should have listened to myself...or my inner complaining voice
I'll stop now.

 

[Khallandra]

Silmarillion, hands down.

Though I did find the last Fionobar book a little tedious....

 

[Quagmire]

I had a similar experience with Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy. I was really bored with it. Probably cause I was suffering from post-Martin syndrome. About 6 months after, I picked up Liveship Traders and was really hooked on it that it became one of my fave series. Then Tawny Man surpassed that even more. Fitz's story has become #1 now in my list and I think Farseer warrants a reread in the future.

Crown of Stars plot actually accelerates more on the third book where you find out more about Liath's origins. Alain's adventures become exciting in the 4th book and he has endured one of the worst sufferings in the 5th book. But I gotta say that the writing style is still boring. So much religious rantings!! Can't wait for the final book so we can finally see an end to this.

I suffered through both Thomas Covenant chronicles but I loved his Gap series. I'll probably still read the final chronicles just to see what happens.

Coldfire Trilogy, didn't see anything special here.

Sword of Shannara

Right now, I've dropped Erikson's series after the 2nd book. It kinda clicked about 70% in the 2nd book but right now, I wanna finish all of GG Kay's stories.

 

[Tari-Xalyr]

i found the CAZ series hard to finish i read the first book which was alright but the sencond was so boring it just dragged on for me.

 

[Nimea]

Time and again books drag. Sometimes it's the wrong book for my mood - happens when I have problems at work or other something like that. Sometimes the only thing I can read then are non-fiction books.

Sometimes books are really good but intense and that's why it takes so long to finish them: my most prominent case is Gentle's Ash. One and a half year . . . But it was soooo worth it!

But then there are those that I fight to finish and afterwards do not feel particularly happy about my victory. Examples that come to my mind:
Tad Williams - Memory Sorrow and Thorn (oh god, those four books were an eternity
LotR - and the most curious thing is: 'Fellowship' alone took me a long time; I still intend to finish the whole thing but am very reluctant.

And I just could not finish Little, Big . . . boah . . . (and reading this thread am happy I am not alone on that one. )

 

[Sammie]

MS&T, for me. I got to the end of book 3 - and don't get me wrong I had enjoyed all three books......and just never picked the fourth one up. I don't know if I was bored, or just distracted by othr authors. I may come back to it some day, but I think the longer I don't, the harder it will be.... To be honest I think part of the problem is that I was hoping for something as good as Otherland, and just didn't get it......

 

[Leiali]

It has occurred to me that I could potentially have three categories of books I couldn't finish reading and the list would therefore be rather long. Here is a quick stab at it:

1. Books that seem reasonably well written but not my cup of tea as they are too descriptive:

Everything I have tried by Tad Williams
Cecelia Dart Thornton - I read half of the Ill made mute and just did not get what on earth was going on.
Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake.

2. Books that are just so badly written that reading more than 50 pages would be torture.
The Fifth Sorceress by Robert Newcombe (Never met anyone who liked this book)
Talion: The Revenant by Michael Stackpole.

3. Series' that I fully intended to read but never got round to finishing due to convoluted plots and slow publishing rates (with my memory, it is hard to read a series where you get a book a year.)

A song of Ice and Fire - Martin (I know, I know. I really like them....they just got a bit bloodthirsty and then the third or fourth one just never came out and it was so long ago now that I read them that I have no idea what they're about).

Crown of Stars - Kate Elliot. More a case of not really being all that bothered as too much happened to too few people.

Wheel Of Time - Jordan. Could be included in the badly written section, though I did have a fondness for them the first few books into it. Now I just feel murderous when I consider how many books there are and how pointless half the plot had been. And the women!

Malazan - Erikson. BUT I will read these books if they kill me. I shall of course have to re read the first one, as I read it last year, but I am a bit put off as they are so complicated.......

That's some of it, sure there's plenty more I've forgotten about.

And I can't believe people put Robin Hobb in. I actually read all nine books, and I reckon they must have been good to get me reading all nine, fickle that I am!

 

[lukeb]

Tough titles to finish

2. Books that are just so badly written that reading more than 50 pages would be torture.

Talion: The Revenant by Michael Stackpole.

I completely agree. I know this was one of his first attempts, but after seeing quite favourable reviews in this forum about it, I was extremely disappointed with this book only a few pages in. I struggled with it for a while more, but gave up eventually. Full of cliches, poorly written, bleh.

Malazan - Erikson. BUT I will read these books if they kill me. I shall of course have to re read the first one, as I read it last year, but I am a bit put off as they are so complicated.......

Agree here too. This series is overwhelmingly huge and tough to keep up with. As someone posted in this forum earlier, each of the first three Malazan books seem to ebb and flow between sheer brilliance to near tediousness. Personally, this is a series I will wait for completion of before retackling, because it's something I can't seem to jump in and out of easily.

That said, I believe this series will show its true brilliance once it's complete. Kinda like LOTR - you may not dig it while you're in the middle of it, but once it's over, you just feel... good.

 

[Leiali]

Welcome Lukeb! I think you have hit the nail on the head with the malazan thing. There is a part of me that worries that it might be too meandering to have a proper full ending, but since I have only read the first book, I think I ought to give it the benefit of the doubt really.

Hear Hear about Talion too, I bought it because it was raved about too, but I think it was the only book I didn't like that I got due to recommendation - I would think that the quality should have been along the lines of Stover, who also does Star Wars books, but Stover's books are MILES better imo.

Oh, one series that I stopped was Elizabeth Haydon' s Rhapsody books. Really liked the first book, thought the second was dire. Romance was high on the agenda but I did not think it was something the author was comfortable with. You felt like bits of a romance novel had been cut out and dropped right into the book. Very stilted. So I gave up on that book and haven't bothered with the third!

And (I hope Elda doesn't catch this post) I gave up on the Kusheil books by Jacqueline Carey part of the way through book two as I quite simply do not like Phedre, and do not believe Joscelin.

 

[Pluvious]

I have a lot of trouble with people that blab and blab and blab. Just say it don't spray it. I usually prefer poorly written books that have complex plots and interesting ideas to well written work with too much unnecessary verbage.

This is why I guess I enjoyed David Farland's Runelord series for the first couple of books and Wheel of Time for awhile (although the poor quality got too me and I quit both) but I just could not get into LOTR, Tad Williams, or Donaldson. Just boring.

Anyway, I have trouble reading most books now. I liked Farseer but not Hobb's newest Tawny Man thing. And I couldn't get into Malazan. Martin is my favorite I supposed because he has a nice mix of short verbage, complexity, and mystery/intrigue. And cool characters. I love fantasy but I can't find anything I like anymore.

 

[Evil Agent]

Well I have to say that I too am surprised to see so much mention of Robin Hobb! I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, which is fine, but it's hard to believe when I think of how addicted I was to those books. I'm definitely going to re-read Farseer soon...

Books I found really hard to finish...hmm. NOT Lord of the Rings, that swept me along, but I did find the Silmarillion pretty tough the first time through. However, I've now read it 3 times and it's a lot easier...

I found the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant prett difficult the first time, though I was happy I stuck with them. I never got passed the 1st book of the Second Chronicles, though I definitely mean to return to that world.

I found the first Gormenghast book very difficult, but was delighted with the writing. That's another series I hope to go back to, since there's 2 more books.

And lastly, I found Erikson's first Malazan book difficult when I read it last year. Just recently I re-read it, and now I'm 200 pages in to Deadhouse Gates...I finally have the energy to get into Erikson, and I'm enjoying the epic so far!

 

[Evil Agent]

As for Erikson, I don't ever find the books 'tedious'...he's always got something interesting going on, whether it's crazy action, mysteries and murder, plotting Gods, etc. I'm 250 pages into the 2nd book, after re-reading book 1, and I see improvement in the series already.

I think that whole thing about each book standing alone is a bit untrue. So far there are still some same characters, and I can't even imagine trying to read this book first. I think that the series WILL tie together quite nicely, and I can only imagine the ending being pretty spectacular indeed! Then again, I'm only on the 2nd book (of 10!) so time will tell...

As for Martin being bloodthirsty, are you sure you want to read Erikson, Leiali? In many ways so far I've found his books much more violent than Martin, especially book 2 (and I haven't even really gotten to the heart of the action yet either). I know there's many different types of gore/violence in books, however, and some of it can be more disturbing than others, even when it's on a smaller scale. Martin seems to be smaller scale violence, really graphic and even perverse. Erikson, to me, is wide scale slaughter and war, horrible but almost so horrible you become numb to it. But yeah, so far the whole Malazan world seems to just scream 'DEATH' at me...Kind of depressing really!

 

[Susan Boulton]

Gormenghast I sadly didn't finish. It was a long time ago I tried to read it, perhaps now I should try again.

Goodkind's Temple of the Winds, read the books prior to that, but with this book felt things were going round in circles.

David and Leigh Eddings The redemption of Althalus, it started so good then started to chase its own tail.

Dragon's Kin by Anne and Todd McCaffrey...I tried to like this, but it seemed so flat and the narrative was not as good as others in the series.

 

[J.M. Martin]

I tried Erikson's first Malazan book, got about 200 pages into it, and then moved on to other books. I'm not sure what it was that lost me, but there was definitely something. I ended up selling the book back to a used book store (maybe someone else is getting enjoyment out of it). As more of these become available in the U.S., I'll likely give Erikson another shot, but for now I've gotta move on.

 

[Leiali]

As for Erikson, I don't ever find the books 'tedious'...he's always got something interesting going on, whether it's crazy action, mysteries and murder, plotting Gods, etc. I'm 250 pages into the 2nd book, after re-reading book 1, and I see improvement in the series already.

I think that whole thing about each book standing alone is a bit untrue. So far there are still some same characters, and I can't even imagine trying to read this book first. I think that the series WILL tie together quite nicely, and I can only imagine the ending being pretty spectacular indeed! Then again, I'm only on the 2nd book (of 10!) so time will tell...

As for Martin being bloodthirsty, are you sure you want to read Erikson, Leiali? In many ways so far I've found his books much more violent than Martin, especially book 2 (and I haven't even really gotten to the heart of the action yet either). I know there's many different types of gore/violence in books, however, and some of it can be more disturbing than others, even when it's on a smaller scale. Martin seems to be smaller scale violence, really graphic and even perverse. Erikson, to me, is wide scale slaughter and war, horrible but almost so horrible you become numb to it. But yeah, so far the whole Malazan world seems to just scream 'DEATH' at me...Kind of depressing really!

I think that with Martin, the character development and the balance of issues meant that the violence felt more real. The Malazan books are set in a world so gritty that as you say, you almost get inured to it. I also felt that there was more politics and plot than character development in it, so it was easier to swallow. I really don't like it when bad things happen to good people, and remembered being very upset about a character in ASoIF I liked being rather badly treated. Whilst in the Malazan books they are kind of used to it. Hope that makes sense.

It is interesting that a lot of people have started them and not rejected them, but still felt a bit prickly about them. What is it about Erikson that makes us all so wary? I don't know if it is density, complexity or the grimness of the world that he has created. It's a bit like a Mike Leigh or Ken Loach film really, you kind of think you ought to watch them, put them off, do and then think - what was I worried about?

 

[Evil Agent]

Without getting too sidetracked here, I'll try to put into words why I think some people (including myself) find Erikson difficult...

I don't think it's the scale or complexity of his world. People might think I'm crazy, but I'm being serious. Many of the people that are supposedly put off Erikson's world have read and re-read giant works like Lord of the Rings, the Wheel of Time, aSoIaF, etc... Those worlds are pretty much the same scale as Erikson, give or take a little bit. Readers of fantasy are used to huge worlds, that's what they DO! They read books with crazy world-building.

I think the main thing that makes Erikson difficult is a more subtle, vague problem with his writing style. Despite being about 1200 pages into his universe, I still usually have NO idea where most of the characters came from, what the heck they're agenda is, and where the heck they're going next. I can follow the scenes, and the action, but I feel like I'm constantly having to suppress the part of me that wants more answers. Let's be honest, Erikson is taking his SWEET @SS TIME giving us those answers, and that's probably part of what keeps people reading. But seriously, I feel like despite all I've read, there's a very fragile feeling to his world, as if he's trying to cover too much scope with too little development/description, and I feel like he's demanding quite a bit of faith/trust/comittment from readers.

I'm assuming that this is something that goes away as you get to know the universe more and more, and I feel like I'm getting there...but slowly. Maybe by book 5 everything will feel more right, but at least for the first few books I think it's a serious obstacle for many would-be readers of his work.

 

[lukeb]

Despite being about 1200 pages into his universe, I still usually have NO idea where most of the characters came from, what the heck they're agenda is, and where the heck they're going next. I can follow the scenes, and the action, but I feel like I'm constantly having to suppress the part of me that wants more answers. Let's be honest, Erikson is taking his SWEET @SS TIME giving us those answers, and that's probably part of what keeps people reading.

Amen. And this is exactly what makes me believe that this series will tie itself together very nicely once it begins to draw to a close. I could be wrong, but it seems that Erikson is doing the whole 'hit the ground running and demistify it progressively to build suspense' technique that a lot of other authors do, but he's doing it on such a broad scale, with some seriously abstract high fantasy concepts and ideas. I just feel that this is premeditated and all part of a grand scheme that will crystalize come book 10 (or however long the series is projected for). Even the parts that do seem to drag, never seem as if Erikson has lost his way, meandering along like Jordan.

But seriously, I feel like despite all I've read, there's a very fragile feeling to his world, as if he's trying to cover too much scope with too little development/description, and I feel like he's demanding quite a bit of faith/trust/comittment from readers.

Yes, definitely agreed also, but the quality of his writing and the fact that he is obviously an intelligent guy who likes to steer cleer of cliches and push fantasy well beyond the mould is enough to keep me dedicated to this series, even when it tests my patience