That Very Popular Book Everyone Loved But You Hated

Anne Rice Vampings - I did read like the first three. I thought they were interesting and original but I failed to fall down and swoon like just about every other person out there.

The Wheel of Time - My ex loved these. I ran into a dry spell in 2006 and was forced to read them. It was e x c r u c i a t i n g.

What say you?

 

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i'm going to answer this one with a picture

 

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Truth

Sword of Shannara. I kinda like parts, but it just seems like he rambles on and on way too much. Disappointed me because I really loved the Magic Kingdom series.

PS. I also tried the audio book format. Even got bored listening to him rambling on and on.

This.

 

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Ha! If he had simply blacked out every passage where Thomas whines the books would have been GREAT. There was less whining in the second trilogy but it generally wasn't as good.

Yeah I can understand the sentiment.

 

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I was recently in the mood for a good fantasy series, so I decided to start Raymond Feist's Riftwar Cycle series. It gets good reviews, people seem to really like it. 3/4 of the way through Magician I was really bored so I started skipping forward hoping something interesting happens. Eventually I gave up and took the book back to the library because I just didn't care any more. Most things that I've read say that Magician is better than the books that follow, so that kind of killed the series for me.

In the reviews, everyone seems to love the mixture and clash of the two old cultures, but it did nothing for me. Very disappointing because I was looking forward to having a great series to read. I read slowly, so the series would have given me reading material for a looooonnnnnngggg time.

 

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I hate:

1. Wheel of time - ugh all the female characters where so annoying, and then nothing happens for ages.
2. Assassins Apprentice - utterly depressing
3. Anything by Eddings - just no

I've been underwhelmed by:

1. A Song of Ice and Fire - it's the complete opposite of 80's formula fantasy which is good. But most characters don't live long enough to do anything worthwhile - doubly so if they're even slightly likeable. The books (especially the later ones) have too many lists of stuff eaten and chapters where absolutely nothing of importance happens. Oh and if I hear "words are wind" again I will scream.
2. Magician - it wasn't terrible but Pug gets so powerful I ceased to care
3. Thomas Covenant - first trilogy wasn't that bad, although Covenant whines way too much. The later books are best avoided.

 

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I could write a series of essays on this one.


Fantasy:

1. First Law. The characters are all unlikable bastards. The undeserving get everything and the only people who aren't completely and utterly reprehensible end up losing. I'm not one to need a happy ending but when I can't like the characters on any level it isn't engaging. On top of that I found parts of the series excruciatingly boring and slow.

2. Drizzit. Those books are astoundingly bad. The man managed to write 20 books and have ZERO character development. He should get some sort of medal for managing that. Salvatore is a hack in every sense of the word.

3. I suppose disliking Covenant doesn't count anymore since everyone here mentions it. The character is too unlikable and the author writes these pointless chapters that add nothing to the story, characters or plot. The second trilogy was shockingly bad even in comparison.

4. Sword of Truth. A lot of people recognize that this stuff is garbage but a lot of others do not.

5. Piers Anthony. Boring, generic stories that lack everything that makes characters or stories engaging and interesting. The books are just dull as hell. Throw on all of the perverted pedo stuff and Piers gets a 110% pass from me.

6. Odd Thomas. I was reading book one and the second I realized he was going to kill Stormy I put the book down in protest. I refuse to read that.

"Literature"

1. Fahrenheit 451. This book was godawful. All of the culturally relevant stuff was a 1984 rip-off and the ending was laughably stupid. Boring book that gets credit it doesn't deserve.

2. The Catcher in the Rye. A book that persists on people without the confidence to admit they didn't like it alone.

3. Finnegan's Wake. Just because the author is a master and the book goes 100% over your head doesn't mean it is good. It was just nonsense.

4. All of Faulkner. I admit that the books have more merit than I see in them but I get nothing from them. Everything about Faulkner and his topics avoids what is relevant to me and my interests.

 

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Yep. It was slightly interesting the first time Drizzit and Entreri fought to a stalemate. The next 50 times they fought just got to be tiresome.

 

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