What are the worst books you've ever finished?

Johnny Storm

pwd wrote:

Arthur C Clarke does not have lousy execution or politically correct goodsy goody characters. Are you sure you didn't read one of this children's books or something? He shows fantastic imagination and exceptional skills at communicating it vividly. Stephen Donaldson is probably the only one who can transport the reader more effectively than Clarke, and to such wonderful places.
Yet Clarke keeps most of his ideas reasonably realistic and scientically valid and has come up time and time again with insight into where technology is taking us.
Characterisation is secondrary to setting and ideas in his books, in my opinion, as is plot. I've found his characters believable and sympathetic, just not as interesting as their surroundings. They are certainly not goody goody or politically correct. The ones that seem like they are can be sexually repressed, and this leads them to some extremely un-goody-goody and politically incorrect behaviour. I'm thinking specifically of the military officers in some of the Rama books, and in Cradle.

Quite so, his novella "Against the fall of night" is truely beautiful, IMHO. Some of the bets science fiction ever. 100% original and full of great ideas.

Johnny Storm

Branoic wrote:

Oh, i thought of a new one. The Reality Dysfunction by Peter Hamilton. Gah! I can't believe I actually finished it. I should have thrown in the towel when i first thought of doing so about 100 pages in.

Some of the ideas were good, but the writing was appalling, the pacing was crap, the characters were two dimensional shallow and unlikeable, the women were all the same (eg, two tits and a pair of legs that will invariabley get screwed in a totally meaningless non-erotic way by the dashing young hero) and there were far far far too many characters to keep track of because there was no emotional depth to them at all, they were just other names you had to try and remember.

Drivel. If Hamilton is indeed the saviour of British Sci-fi that the back of the book claimed, i dearly wish it had stayed un-saved.

I 100% agree. I'm embarrassed to admit I actually read that POS. Its like the stupidest kind of "holiday fiction" with a vaguely science-fictional flavouring. Mind-numbing, repetetive drivel. A waste of paper.

Johnny Storm

Fenster wrote:

Anything by Kevin J. Anderson. Its like McDonalds: You know its unhealthy, bland and unsatisfying, but you read it regardless.

Well said. I struggled through the first few of those Dune prequels and they were woeful, obviously written purely for the money, as noted elsewhere in this thread.

BossArky

galactus wrote:

Peig

Peig... or Peg?

I second that. What a crap book. Could have at least had an interesting book on the course. Still have nightmares about the bloody leaving cert... "oh ****! Irish is on in the morning and I haven't yet learned my poems and literature"

Tar.Aldarion

hmm the butcher boy is a fairly boring book,so is silas marner but at least thats well written.

Kenshi

Have to read this for the Leaving and I think it is just awful. Who was it that actually classified Shakespeare as a master. If you took everyreader in the world and told them to tell you your number 1 book I think that less than 10% will say Shakespeare.

Capt'n Midnight

Johnny Storm wrote:

Well said. I struggled through the first few of those Dune prequels and they were woeful, obviously written purely for the money, as noted elsewhere in this thread.

You've never read Battlefield Earth then..
/me hangs head in shame

Johnny Storm

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

You've never read Battlefield Earth then..
/me hangs head in shame

No, I have never sunk that low. I believe Tom Cruise will star in the re-make though.....

upmayo

One of the worst written and one of the worst books I have ever read. Dune was also pretty boring.

Tar.Aldarion

dune was pretty great,the film of battlefield earth is so ridiculously funny/bad

Kenshi

The Hobbit!!!! It was still ok though but it is the worst book I ever finished.

Tar.Aldarion

Kenshi wrote:

The Hobbit!!!! It was still ok though but it is the worst book I ever finished.

all i say to that is :eek:

Kenshi

So I take it you either loved it or hate it?

Tar.Aldarion

oh i loved it
lets put it in the words of the times
'a flawless masterpiece'

Kenshi

I wonder how much the Times got to say that? lol!

Tar.Aldarion

not much i'd say he sold the film rights of lotr for 10 grand
why not another times quote lol
'the most influential books of our generation'

Kenshi

Now that is nonsense. Who did LOTR ever influence?

Tar.Aldarion

that quote was about the hobbit and i assume it influenced a lot of people from the millions sold right after it came out
i assume they are talking about influencing writers and peoples imaginations.