What's the worst fantasy novel ever IYO?

tragic said:
I'm about 10 pages from the end; my considered opinion is that it starts a bit clumsily, picks up quite nicely from about chapter 15, and then has a slightly eye-glazing climax of endless battle manoeuvres and proto-fascist bloodline obsessions. i'm sure some people really go for the tactical details but I personally find the threat or spectre of war more exciting than the minutiae of troop movements.

Also, is it me or is there literally only one female character in the entire book? I mean, including incidental characters and all? Sausagefest of Shannara more like, lolololololol
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thats apparently a major reason why the upcoming movie will be based on the second book (more females = more tight leather outfits = more cash)
 
Probably so, although there are good justifications for plumping for the book with more girls as well as bad. A trotskyist leader James Cannon once said that there are two reasons for any factional split - the good reason, and the real reason.

Still, I think it's almost a morbid achievement on Brooks' part. Even Shirl's less a character than a swoon.
 
David Eddings - Domes of Fire

Only reason it's still on my shelve is because a) it's not good enough to wipe with b) I don't wanna ruin a good trashcan bag.
 
This thread has been around for years and no one has yet said Jim Theis's Eye of Argon? Be sure to click on the link to read samples of this "masterpiece" of fantasy writing... ;)
 
Thankfully I have not been exposed to many of the terrible books mentioned in this thread but some I have:

Krondor? Not good
Ill-made mute? Uh uh
Eragon? I did not enjoy but fair play to Christopher, he was only 15...
 
I am quite selective when it comes to reading fantasy. I tend to get well-informed before I start anything new, which is why I rarely come across something that I could call "the worst". The closest that came to it was Chrystal Shard, the first part in the Icewind Dale trilogy. I heard many good things about it but when I started reading, I felt like I had been cheated. It was as if someone wanted to write a story of an elf, a human and a dwarf just because they saw it in LoTR and knew that people would buy the book. These characters in Salvatore's books seem too two-dimensional, like in a video game, and the plot is too predictible. I never even started book two.
 
Because i've only recently got into fantasy and have just been reading all the classic/most respected titles im sure my book isn't as bad as alot of them here but for me Feist's Magician has been the first fantasy book i haven't been able to complete. I've heard what a great novel it is but I can't get over his horrible dialouge and even more horrible prose.
 
afterroots said:
Because i've only recently got into fantasy and have just been reading all the classic/most respected titles im sure my book isn't as bad as alot of them here but for me Feist's Magician has been the first fantasy book i haven't been able to complete. I've heard what a great novel it is but I can't get over his horrible dialouge and even more horrible prose.
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I loved that book.. i'm about to start Magician: Master after I get through with Joe Abercrombie's 'A Blade Itself'.

As far as the 'worst' goes, I'm going to have to say Michael Moorcock's 'Elric' chronicles are pretty bad imo. I had to put it down halfway through.. ehh
 
I remember picking up the first book of Dennis McKiernan's Iron Tower trilogy and being absolutely apalled by the bare-faced shameless ripping off of Tolkien that was going on. I've never touched another book by him since. Finding out later that he wrote it with the intent of being a sequel to LOTR just made things worse. Maybe not the worst-written, but certainly the worst intentions.
 
A ten-thousand-word joke? :eek:

Wikipedia link.

It was written by a fellow geek in 1970; he was sixteen years old. It wasn't satire ... at least Theis didn't come out and say so. But let me tell you--I'm sixteen and even I'm not that bad.
 
Before I discovered amazon.com, I used to buy books by just reading the back cover. Big Mistake! So I have several books that can fit into this category:
The Ring of Five Dragons by Eric Van Lutsbader. It was some kind of a dune -a-like book, and it was very very bad. I donated it to the local library. Didn't want it on my book shelf.
The Runelords by David Farland - I actually read more than half before I couldn't take it anymore - one of the wrost writings I ever saw. It also found its way to the local library...
 
I posted in the past that the Russell Kirkpatrick Fires of Heaven trilogy was the worst series, but I have come to the conclussion that Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt is by far the worst single book I have ever attempted to read. The sad thing is I think the Mars trilogy by Robinson is a fantastic series, which is why I decided to give The Years of Rice and Salt a try.
 
afterroots said:
Because i've only recently got into fantasy and have just been reading all the classic/most respected titles im sure my book isn't as bad as alot of them here but for me Feist's Magician has been the first fantasy book i haven't been able to complete. I've heard what a great novel it is but I can't get over his horrible dialouge and even more horrible prose.
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Agreed. It is awful. I can't understand the praise heaped upon it.
 
When I read the first Magician, it was pretty obvious that it was Feist's first attempt at writing. But, because of the praise, I kept going. The series gets much better by the second book and I loved the ending A Darkness at Sethanon. I wanna say his writing matures, but that's not it. It definitely progresses beyond the first.
 
As far as good authors that made bad books I would have to say Toll of the Hounds by Steven Erikson

autohrs I didnt like

1000 orcs by R. A. Salvatore

I found this book to be very black and white, good guys versus bad guys.. R. A. Salvatores views on racism are not sublte in this novel, and hurt the novel. In this book you know that the main characters are not going to die. I found every fight scene to be an overboard use of the underdog theme. None of the enemies were a real threat,and the good guys would always win when vastly outnumbered.
 
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