What's the worst fantasy novel ever IYO?

Night of the Dragon by Richard A. Knaak.

I've given up, about halfway. Unless it's how I read, I'm finding it jumps from place to place, things aren't explained and it's full of inconsistencies (and lore contradictions). Day of the Dragon took me, what, four tries before I managed to get anywhere with it. But thank the Gods the character of Rhonin doesn't have much to do in it, if anything. He'd make it a thousand times worse.
 
Looks like, over time, this thread shifted from 'Worst fantasy' to 'Bash popular series'. I realize its all opinion based, but really..the likes of LOTR and Magician (along with a few others mentioned) being mentioned in here, even jokingly, is ridiculous. Even if one considers them to be massively overrated, how can it be the worst?
 
quajack said:
I think this thread turned into "Books I don't particularly care for" a few pages ago. For example, I can say that both Dr Strange & Mr. Norelland Lord Foul's Bane are two of my least liked books, but I would never deign to call them the worst books ever. Just not my cup of tea is all.
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Well the title did include "IYO." In my opinion Lord Foul's Bane is about as bad a book as I've ever read.

I have to add Iron Angel, by Alan Campbell. Just plain terrible.
 
Warewolf said:
Gotta be either Six of Swords by Carole Nelson Douglas or Heroine of the World by Tanith Lee. The former was just appallingly written to the point where I didn't even know what was going on at times. The latter had no plot whatsoever. The protagonist just went along with whatever was going on around her and let herself be taken wherever others willed. She had no willpower and no thoughts of escaping or fighting her enemies. The book ended and I said, "Huh? What was the point?" No climax and no resolution. Ugh.
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"Six of Swords" gets my vote. I've waited for years to find somebody else who read it! Gods it was awful! Stuck in my mind for 20 years as the worst book (not just fantasy) I've been tempted to read.

John
 
I also could not choose between a couple of the Sword of Truth series that I got through. Many of those were just terrible IMO. Any of those where Goodkind has Richard ramble on and on and on about the virtues of the free market system. It was ponderous! Plus, I am still waiting to see why Zed became First Wizard... clearly not because of is awesome wizarding.

Now that I have written the above I am cringing and waiting for someone to tell me that these brilliant Goodkind novels are far deeper than meets the eye and that reading them over and over again ... perhaps for decades ....might be required to truly understand the brilliance of such many-layered stories!
(Can you tell I am still reeling from my inability to see the genius of Shadow of the Torturer on the first read? I plan to read some books about reading that book though!) :)
Roy
 
rhallva said:
I also could not choose between a couple of the Sword of Truth series that I got through. Many of those were just terrible IMO. Any of those where Goodkind has Richard ramble on and on and on about the virtues of the free market system. It was ponderous! Plus, I am still waiting to see why Zed became First Wizard... clearly not because of is awesome wizarding.

Now that I have written the above I am cringing and waiting for someone to tell me that these brilliant Goodkind novels are far deeper than meets the eye and that reading them over and over again ... perhaps for decades ....might be required to truly understand the brilliance of such many-layered stories!
(Can you tell I am still reeling from my inability to see the genius of Shadow of the Torturer on the first read? I plan to read some books about reading that book though!) :)
Roy
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I never really thought about it, why is Zed first wizard? He is not the brightest star in the sky that is for sure.

As for waiting for someone to tell you how brilliant the books are, I think you will be waiting for a long time.
 
The worst fantasy novel I have read thus far has to be Across The Face of The World by Russell Kirkpatrick. I was first drawn in by its cover, a large moon with 4 riders on horse back, now I know where the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" comes from. I got maybe halfway through and had to stop, it was pretty terrible.
 
the shannara books.

although i've read very few fantasy novels i'd actually call bad tbh, i'm careful about what i read
 
Twilight, Eragon(though all books were bad, I think that the second one was the least bad.), don't waste your time with these books, it would be more fun to read newspapers.
 
I get most of my recommendations from blogs and boards that I trust, so I don't really read many books that could be classified as bad, let alone "Worst ever written". But the worst fantasy novel I've ever read is Bodyguard of Lightning by Stan Nicholls.
 
"Across the Face of the World" by Russel Kirkpatrick was pretty terrible i agree. Don't forget Ian Irvine's "Faith of the Fallen" either.

But the worst fantasy ever?......hmm, its hard for me to recall exactly but if i had to pin it down to one i would probably go with "Crossroads of Twilight" by Robert Jordan. Plot progression you want? too bad. Believable charecters doing believable things? (hello Perrin and gf), your out of luck there too. Interesting story? apparently that isn't needed as RJ relies upon the first three novels for all of that.

Awful, just awful.
 
Worst is so hard to say. I usually do a little homework before I invest in a novel. So I've pretty much liked everything I've read. If I had to say my least favourite it would be Lair of Bones by David Farland or Law of Nines by Goodkind.

The first Runelords book (Sum of all Men) I really enjoyed and thought the series had a lot of promise. But each book got progressively worse and by the time I got to book four (Lair of Bones) I'd just had enough. It took me almost a year to finish b/c I'm not one to give up on a series when I'm 3/4 of the way through.

I'm a huge SOT fan, but LON was complete and utter crap. It was a fairly easy read and was fastpaced but in the end I just felt ripped off. It was like reading a modern day Wizards First Rule without any depth. TG needs to get back to writing some epic fantasy and give up on this whole "thriller" escapade.
 
The worst I've read:

The Belgariad by David Eddings
Shannara by Terry Brooks
The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind

well below everything else I've read. That said I haven't had the privilege of reading Stanek, Newcomb, Kirkpatrick, Nichols, etc
 
I do my research before buying novels, so I very rarely completely strike out on a book... But when I do, it results in me buying something like Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling. Absolutely hated it in every way. Writing was decent, but the plotting was just so convenient that it drove me crazy. But I did finish it. It's kinda like listening to Nickelback, I force myself to finish the song (in this case a novel) just to fully appreciate how bad it is. I understand that some on the forum enjoyed this novel. I did not
 
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SeaBeast said:
I do my research before buying novels, so I very rarely completely strike out on a book... But when I do, it results in me buying something like Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling. Absolutely hated it in every way. Writing was decent, but the plotting was just so convenient that it drove me crazy. But I did finish it. It's kinda like listening to Nickelback, I force myself to finish the song (in this case a novel) just to fully appreciate how bad it is. I understand that some on the forum enjoyed this novel. I did not
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I read that steaming pile last year. I agree about the plotting---every random character encountered just happened to be able make bows and other medieval weapons or had other necessary skills to survive. I also felt the complete meltdown of society ocurred just a little bit too quickly. I don't think we'd be resorting to cannabalism within a week of X event. I definitely had no desire to continue with this series.
 
I'm going to have to say Fate of the Fallen by Ian Irvine. It is a trilogy, but I only read the first book. The writing was quite sub-par, I couldn't seem to dredge up any like for any of the characters, and everything was just plain stupid.

After that, it would have to be the Tears of Artamon series by Sarah Ash. I actually read the whole series, although when I look back on it, I cannot for the life of my figure out why. The characters were all so freaking whiney, it was terrible. And every single plot point hinged on one of the main characters being duped by the bad guys. Every single time!

Anyways, finally, I will name the ultimate bad writer. I have never brought myself to read any of it, but I have leafed through a friend's copies, and it is utter trash. Any novel, anything at all, by Mercedes Lackey. Unicorns that are homosexual and in love with boys that cry tears that turn into flames and every other extremely terrible stretch of imagination. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me want to read something by someone with talent.
 
There have been a bunch of stinkers, mostly I manage to forget them unless they're recent or well known. In the latter category there are the first two Shannara books. And then there's Lilith Saintcrow's Steelflower which I had the misfortune of borrowing and reading a few weeks ago. God that was awful. I've read some urban fantasy by her that was ok - nothing special but not horrible. This one was straight medievalesque secondary world fantasy with magic. The plotting was pure cliche, the main character's personality inexplicably transforms from sociopath assassin to saintly warrior princess, the writing is poor... Just an amazingly bad book. Off the top of my head the only other book that rivals the ones I just mentioned was a first novel called The Wanderer's Tale by David Bilsborough.
 
i thought some of the later elric novels were pretty bad aswell. didn't like the fortress of the pearl at all, and i love elric.
 
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