What's the worst fantasy novel ever IYO?

Now for my vote. I have to say "Gossamer Axe" by Gael Baudino. It's been YEARS since I read it. And by "read it" I mean I read a significant way into the book before stopping and selling it at a used book store. The whole story seemed like it could be made into a cheesy hair-metal band's movie like the KISS movie "KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park".
 
tracyt1800 said:
The thing to remember is that Paolini's books were originally targeted at children. The storyline is pretty juvenile. My nieces are 9 and 11 and love them.

I know that Rowling and CS Lewis wrote for children, too, and their books are equally loved by adults. I think very few authors have the ability to make a children/adult crossover that really works.

Seems to me that Paolini was a child writing for children. He's 21 now and finishing a storyline that was mapped out as he was hitting puberty. I bet his next story (not the 3rd Inheritence book) will be much better.

I wish I could have written that well at 15.
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I agree, Paolini's writing's not bad for the children's market - it's just that all too often it's portrayed not as children's novesl but as adult fantasy novels, which they aren't. There are a few excellent children's authors, who do what you say, but they're very rare - and fewer still of them can write it at a young age. Perhaps, ironically, writing stories for children requires a lot of experience while writing stories for adults doesn't.
 
It might be The Iron Tower, but I haven't read it yet.
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I haven't read it either, but I'm probably going to keep it that way and steer clear of it, as I've read and heard that all of McKiernan's Mithgar Series are a blatant, and I mean BLATANT, ripoff of Tolkien's LOTR Saga. And I didn't hear this from any snot-nosed critics that think Tolkien is the be-all and end-all to fantasy and that all the other authors are copycats and all that crap, I heard and read it from voracious fantasy readers who definitely know what they're talking about. Hell, all you have to do is read the synopses on the back of McKiernan's Mithgar novels, and the evidence will practically scream at you!
 
I remember being very disappointed in reading "Faith of The Fallen" and wondered why a formerly interesting writer (to me) turned so 'preachy". I was so annoyed by the characters' continual self chastisement and lack of common sense.

I also got sick of the long and oh soooo boring fight scenes in in all of Salvatore's books after the initial Dark Elf Trilogy. Three to four pages of swordplay that we just read three or four pages before...and will read in the next three or four pages. Ugh!
 
Sabriel is terrible - It was just so boring and I couldn't get into it at all. But I cannot believe how bloody poular it was :mad:
 
For me, it was the first Terry Brooks Shannara novel. It was a very ho-hum experience. I'm sure many enjoy Brooks, it just wasn't for me.
 
its surprising how many people think the Sword of Shannara is a bad book. Must have something to do with its similarities with LOTR and the poor general way it is written... anyone else notice that?
 
Hmmm, Brooks captivated me for a long time. I had all his books, ever so nearly went and bought his newer, extended Shannara series, yet for all his faults they are still very readable books and not the worst i've read, that accoldae goes to;

Terry Goodkind, and his first book, i wasn't impressed at all, i didn't bother with the rest of the series, much better things to read out there!
 
I think Robert Newcomb is real bad; I got about 20 pages or so into The Fifth Sorceress before the stomach cramps kicked in. It was only a matter of time (15 more pages I think), before the nasea took me down and i had to burn that book. Or else risk further injury. It was good then though; roasted me some marsmallows!
Mr Goodkind weighs in too, with, well any of his drivel really; its all the same pieces of crap regurgitated in different ways..
But for me the undisputed heavyweight of bad fantasy just has to be David Drake with his Lord of the Isle books. It has to have the most shambolic narrative in the history of the genre: It makes no sense! The characters disappear, and then appear elsewhere with no explanation. BUT they are always in the right place to save the day. The main protagonists (and i dont know if that word should be used in this context), are rehashed Jordan characters, with maybe a bit of Goodkind thrown in. And you know when you're stealing from the likes of them (although I'm prepared to forgive Jordan if he comes throughwith 2 strong final books), you dont really have a hope in hell of achieving anything spectacular.
Wooden characters, wooden storylines, wooden dialouge, wooden everything; man if he were a carpenter, he'd be laughin' all the way to the bank....Are golems wooden? Is that what he's doing, making golems?
The weird thing is, and I do feel a bit of confusion & shame here: I read 3 of his books before realising, it was doing me not a bit of good... Why is that? Ah yes the obsessive completist bit of me, that often rears its ugly head in my fantasy reading. At least I'm off him now, as well as Goodkind.
But on a brighter note, I kind of know in my heart that Newcomb is worse, but I cant prove that and live, so there's my two pennies worth.
 
first time awardes gone to brooks. his ideas are so completely drawn for LOTR, its not funny..... the Sword of Shannara....... 99 percent LOTR...
 
Worst ever...

Worst ever fantasy book, it'd be a toss up.

Either the Bible or Narnia...but then they're so hard to tell apart.


Seriously though, while it's not fair to pick on the pioneers in the field of Fantasy, they opened up a 'new' genre for all of us to enjoy. However, I just can't keep away from Lewis. If there is a more blatant case of agenda pushing, I can't think of it. More to the point, he was in fact going after children specificly. And while I can see some people's point on Tolkien, he at least bothered to a small extent to cover his 'borrowing' from the Norse Eddas and other mythology. Lewis couldn't be bothered with that, he was too busy packing his sparse pages and story with proselytization and religious scare tactics. He should have saved his apologist streak for academia and the church...
 
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Maegliin said:
Worst ever fantasy book, it'd be a toss up.

Either the Bible or Narnia...but then they're so hard to tell apart.


Seriously though, while it's not fair to pick on the pioneers in the field of Fantasy, they opened up a 'new' genre for all of us to enjoy. However, I just can't keep away from Lewis. If there is a more blatant case of agenda pushing, I can't think of it. More to the point, he was in fact going after children specificly. And while I can see some people's point on Tolkien, he at least bothered to a small extent to cover his 'borrowing' from the Norse Eddas and other mythology. Lewis couldn't be bothered with that, he was too busy packing his sparse pages and story with proselytization and religious scare tactics. He should have saved his apologist streak for academia and the church...
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Just to clarify: does this mean that if a book has any specific agenda that is pushed heavily, you would consider it 'bad'?

I think the worst fantasy book ever written is "The Fifth Sorceress". Every aspect of that book is bad. The characters are wooden and paper thin; the dialogue is juvenile (if the characters were juvenile in age that would be fine, but they are in their 30's); the villains are contemptible in their evil even when they are in the midst of grim torture scenes (think Dr. Evil laughing maniacally for no apparent reason); clumsy infodumps; character/political motivations that are most kindly described as asinine; and a disgusting misogynism that permeates the entire book.
I would love it if I could somehow erase all knowledge of that book from my mind.
 
Radone said:
Just to clarify: does this mean that if a book has any specific agenda that is pushed heavily, you would consider it 'bad'?
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No, while I do not appreciate his blatant pushing (and not particularly effective) of his religion on children, that is not my point. This poll has already ripped the Mithgar and Shannara series for copying off of Tolkien (rightly so, but don't forget Tolkien did it too). And yet, Lewis stole from a much much older story, without making much effort in disguising it, most likely because he was picking on an unsuspecting audience...

BUT, if that isn't a worthy nominee, I have a new possibility, although I highly agree with nominating Gygax's Dance of Demons ...

Gardner F. Fox's Kothar books...take your pick on any of these...just plain terrible (and another rip off...Howard)
 
The Fifth Sorceress has been mentioned a large number of times in this thread as terrible, but I didn't mind it, and was looking forward to the next instalment. It was by no means as high a quality as Hobb or Donaldson but it certainly isn't the worst thing I've ever read. I at least managed to finish it.

I have attempted to pick up Janny Wurts on a number of occasions and could not get more than halfway through Curse of the Mistwraith. (Though her colaberations with Feist have been mostly good).

I have to say that the biggest disappointment for me has been Ray Feist though. After starting so brilliantly, everything after Shards of a Broken Crown reads very much the same as a Forgotten Realms novel.

Unfortunately for myself I am hooked on the characters he has already established and cannot stop reading them, even if they are increasingly repetitive and simplistically written.
 
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Maegliin said:
No, while I do not appreciate his blatant pushing (and not particularly effective) of his religion on children, that is not my point. This poll has already ripped the Mithgar and Shannara series for copying off of Tolkien (rightly so, but don't forget Tolkien did it too). And yet, Lewis stole from a much much older story, without making much effort in disguising it, most likely because he was picking on an unsuspecting audience...


Gardner F. Fox's Kothar books...take your pick on any of these...just plain terrible (and another rip off...Howard)
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That clarifies things. However, are you saying Robert E. Howard of Conan fame ripped off his material as well? or that Gardner Fox (who I've never heard of) ripped off Howard?
Also, are there any authors who do not rely significantly on the writings of those who came before ie is there really anything truly original out there? I did not appreciate Shannara or Mithgar because rather than being inspired by Middle Earth, they seemed a scene-for-scene copy of it. As for Lewis, I always considered them allegory as an introduction to the Bible. As for inculcating young minds, that was his intention. I don't think he hid it, nor am I particularly offended by it since grade school attempts to do essentially the same thing.
 
Radone said:
That clarifies things. However, are you saying Robert E. Howard of Conan fame ripped off his material as well? or that Gardner Fox (who I've never heard of) ripped off Howard?
Also, are there any authors who do not rely significantly on the writings of those who came before ie is there really anything truly original out there?
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Fox ripped off Howard. (and horribly) And to be honest for all I know Howard ripped off some one else. In fact I'd be hard pressed to think of a truly original storyline from anyone. That might be an interesting thread (most original storyline).

As for Lewis, I just think that he might have had more of a story if he had focused more on that rather than just indoctrinating unsuspecting minds. But I take your point, that was his intent so I guess he doesn't even belong the realm of truly serious SF anyway, just children's.
 
Maegliin said:
No, while I do not appreciate his blatant pushing (and not particularly effective) of his religion on children, that is not my point. This poll has already ripped the Mithgar and Shannara series for copying off of Tolkien (rightly so, but don't forget Tolkien did it too). And yet, Lewis stole from a much much older story, without making much effort in disguising it, most likely because he was picking on an unsuspecting audience...
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In fairness to Lewis, though, he was deriving some of his plot points from Christianity, which he did not consider a STORY, but his own WORLDVIEW. There is an extreme difference in that. Even if you disagree the worldview to which someone adheres, it is still a valid idea. I know I've quoted it before and I will most likely quote it again:

". . .there is no such thing as a false idea. Hover pernicious as an opinion may seem, we depend for its correction not on the conscience of judges and juries, but on the competition of other ideas."
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That is one of the whole reasons for speculative fiction -- to present other ideas that we normally would not think about for consideration. That does not mean that they are true, accurate, or valid. It just means that we should approach them with a more open attitude than we normally would.

Also, I just want to throw out a quote that I read in an article entitled "C.S. Lewis: Mythmaker" by Horton Presley. It was published in Voices for the Future: Volume three (copyright date: 1984). This is a direct C.S. Lewis quote:

Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I couls say something about Chrsitianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument; then collected information about child-psychology and decided what age group I'd write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn't write that way at all. Everything began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wan'st even anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord.
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I'm jumping into this thread pretty late, but I'd have to say, for me the answer is simple. Hands-down, The Redemption of Althalus by the Eddingses. I bought it at a book sale, and I cringed my way through it (mostly because I hate reading things halfway). It has such a promising premise (at first), though.
 
The worst fantasy novels for me would be Weiss and Hickman's Darksword trilogy. It was my first exposure to them, which is why I am one of possibly four fantasy readers out there who has never read Dragonlance. Except for maybe one redeeming character, the Darksword books were horrible, boring and stupid.

Also, Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame series, after about the fifth book, rate pretty low for me. I understand from some comments here that the man is still writing those books even though he doesn't have any of the same characters. Geez. The horse is dead. Let it go!
Rosenberg's Keepers of the Hidden Ways also pretty much sucked, in my opinion. None of the characters were all that likeable, and the really cool premise got bogged down by bad writing.
 
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