What kills a book for you?

[Stephen_Melling]

When the protagonist gets out of a scrape with unfair help from the author.
Overuse of expletives.
Couldn't read past the first few pages in Trainspotting....

[jupstin]

Do get the conversation more on-track, anything that says "Written by the Marquis de Sade" is definitely DOA. I tried reading one of his books and couldn't first past the first 1015 pages. Perhaps there is brilliant, biting, political and social satire under the surface, but I couldn't get past the surface far enough to see it.

[BenCheetham]

Padding. It seems that every bestseller these days is about a thousand pages long when it could easily be edited down to five or six hundred.

[NVash]

Would that count needless words? I think thats what you mean. I remember I tried many times to read 'The Wheel Of Time' and I just gave up because the man spent hours describing nothing.

And then the fight scenes, what was that? 'Cutting Moon took off half an ear, Eagle Dives For Fish dodged an attack and Woke Up This Morning sliced the man in half.' Whats that supposed to mean anyway?

[jupstin]

Originally Posted by NVash

And then the fight scenes, what was that? 'Cutting Moon took off half an ear, Eagle Dives For Fish dodged an attack and Woke Up This Morning sliced the man in half.' Whats that supposed to mean anyway?

Awww man...that makes me feel sad. I like those books despite their flaws, but they definitely have flaws.

And just for those not "in the know" "Cutting Moon," "Eagle Dives for Fish," and "Woke Up This Morning" are names for different sword techniques.

[NVash]

I apologize. I was not intending to sadden you or anyone else. I dont mind the attack names, its kinda cool really. Its just that I wish there was more to it than that. Maybe an accompanying guide showing what each attack looks like? I dont know. Just an attack name isnt good enough without describing it IMHO. He spends hours describing everything else, he couldnt take a few more minutes to add some more detail into a fight scene?

[queentess]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Infodumps (sometimes referred to as "world-building").
Having no ending (or only one ending for every three to four books).
Unpronounceable names with apostrophes in the middle of them.
Elves. Orcs. Dragons.
No profanity.
All profanity.
No sex.
All sex.
Enigmatic sages who say they don't have time to explain everything (while they're all traveling on horseback by day and lounging around the campfire by night).
Political subtext that's about as subtle as an ice-pick through the eye.
Social subtext that's about as subtle as an ice-pick through the eye.
Quantum mechanics applied to relationships.
Horrible attempts at diversions from the author's plan to "sixth-sense" the hell out of me.
The author trying to "sixth sense" the hell out of me.
Books that exist for no other reason than to set up events in later books.
Unicorns.

I was with you until you got to unicorns. Unicorns?! Clearly you have never heard of this book.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I've always wondered: can it still be considered deus ex machina if the character actually is a god?

I think so. See Hundred Thousand Kingdoms for an absolutely horrific example of such a thing. (I hated this book with a glowing passion, but it got amazing reviews.)

[jupstin]

Originally Posted by NVash

He spends hours describing everything else, he couldnt take a few more minutes to add some more detail into a fight scene?

Yeah - that's a REALLY good point

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

I have never even seen a Kobo first hand, what would cause this?

It's not about the Kobo, per se, it's about the way particular covers are designed, so that if you happen to be randomly browsing your library in pictorial mode only, you can't read the title because it's in a tiny font with no contrast to the picture. But since I mostly browse my library in "Text+covers" mode I rarely pay attention.

Cover artists need to pay attention more, and realize that sometimes people will want to see book titles when a picture is only 40x70 px

Take for instance this novel cover: Picture the same image in grey scale and if you were browsing it by the cover only, can you tell what the title is?

[Joybells]

I didn't stop reading, but I didn't read them again - in fact I took the lot back to the second hand shop and resold them - the DUNE series - which are of such complexity and length, and filled with so many new words that one needs to keep looking up in the glossary. Instead of enjoying the imagery, my attention was fragmented. It reminded me of doing a French translation at school.

The movie didn't improve much, and annoyed me as the heroes ran around their desert planet without the hoods of their stillsuits, with their hair blowing in the wind.

Ursula le Guin has the right idea with introducing new words - only a few, and in a context that one can get the meaning without too much distraction.

[Tome Keeper]

Unneeded explicit sex (and I'm not a prude) and a writing style that sounds like something a middle-school student has wrote but is on Amazon.

[Patricia81]

The long descriptions could kill a book for me. Long descriptions are really boring for me.

[jupstin]

Originally Posted by Patricia81

The long descriptions could kill a book for me. Long descriptions are really boring for me.

That was appropriately succinct

[Caesius]

Originally Posted by NVash

Would that count needless words? I think thats what you mean. I remember I tried many times to read 'The Wheel Of Time' and I just gave up because the man spent hours describing nothing.

And then the fight scenes, what was that? 'Cutting Moon took off half an ear, Eagle Dives For Fish dodged an attack and Woke Up This Morning sliced the man in half.' Whats that supposed to mean anyway?

The boat will sail at midnight.