Fantasy authors you (and I) should NEVER read

[banjobama]

Originally Posted by EatingPie

I find True Blood fans the highest form of hypocrisy. I've met so many that despise Twilight and somehow deny they're reading basically the same thing, adults replacing teens, sex replacing romance. I'd even heard Twilight was banned from last year's (2010) Comic Con (don't know if that's true), but True Blood was not. Sheesh!

-Pie

Ha, this is totally me. I have never read Twilight beyond a few chapters and never will, and I tried to read the first Southern Vampires novel and found it to be horrible also.

Like someone else has said, I'm not even slightly interested in stories about teenagers. I finished the HP series because I was a teenager when it came out and I've liked it and felt sentimental about it for that reason.

True Blood the TV show is a different story. It's about adults, with lots of skanky stuff that I enjoy.

[Xanthe]

Originally Posted by carld

I guess I'm not that discriminating. I read and enjoyed all the HP books. It never occurred to me to avoid them because the characters are young anymore than I'd avoid True Blood because the characters are vampires, werewolves and half-faeries.

It's not a matter of being discriminating - books with children or teenagers as protagonists just don't interest me at this point in time; I simply have no desire to read them. Doesn't matter if the character might be the most interesting one every written. I have no problem with people liking the HP books or reading them, or reading the YA books. I actually think that they've been a good thing, since they've gotten kids interested in reading again.

I enjoy the vampire/werewolf/fey stories, among other genres. That's where my interests are now, but only if the main characters are adults. Others aren't interested in the things I like to read. Different strokes.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

Count me in as another person who can't stand to read Tolkien. My eyes just start rolling up in my heard whenever I try.

I read the first three books of David Eddings "Dreamers" series and stopped because they were all basically the same book.

JK Rowlings' books will never pass my doorstep.

I just can't get into Terry Prachett's books, even when the theme is one that should interest me.

I tend to avoid any authors whose paperback covers have either a dragon, a unicorn, or a bipedal creature with a cat's head on it.

I really want to read George R. R. Martin, but everytime I pick up one of his books, I put it down after reading about five pages.

I can't bring myself to read Terry Goodkind or Robert Jordan or Jean M. Aurel. I've looked at the covers and read the blurbs many times in the bookstores, but I just can't make myself buy those books.

I've started "Outlander" by Gabaldon several times, but I always get to a certain point and then I realize that I couldn't care less about Claire and stop reading.

You're getting karma for that because you've caught me in a mood that had me crying with laughter over some of those - 'a bipedal creature with a cat's head on it'

[cearbhallain]

Originally Posted by banjobama

True Blood the TV show is a different story. It's about adults, with lots of skanky stuff that I enjoy.

I concur. I would never in a million years pick up a Sookie Stackhouse book, but if loving True Blood is wrong, I don't wanna be right. I've noticed that with other shows too, for instance I love films and tv shows based on the works of Elmore Leonard, but I just can't read that stuff. I think that it comes down to which genres I enjoy reading and which ones I'd rather watch. Unless it was written by Dennis Lehane, I'd rather watch a mystery.

[TheLongshot]

Originally Posted by EatingPie

Hearken back to the darkness known as Order of the Phoenix, which I considered the equivalent to literary torture. Harry was angry... sorry... ANGRY!!!@@!#R$!! Yeah, he had reason to be, Dolores Umbridge was the most ridiculously black-and-white character in history, painted with broad strokes, and so relentless it became pure stupidity... wait Harry was ANGRY!!!@@!#R$!! before she arrived. Ah well, so much for there being a reason.

The one case where the movie version of a Harry Potter film was better than the book. She went overboard on Harry's angst and they toned it down for the movie.

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

Anthony...I just re-read some of his stuff. Xanth...first couple, maybe up to Crewel Lye, are OK. Incarnations...is OK. Depending on the book. Evil is still good. Adept trilogy is still good, but goes way off kilter in the sequel series. And man, Anthony has a dirty old pervert thing going in some of his books that just seems weird, now. I dunno if it's being a parent now or what but it just jumps out at me a lot more than it used to.

I just accept that Anthony is a dirty old man. I don't mind that, since I aspire to be the same thing.

Personally, the Incarnations Of Immortality is the high water mark for his writing, with the Mode series probably second. Apprentice Adept, like most Anthony, goes off the rails the further he tries to extend the concept (the 7th book is worthless.) I also enjoyed Bio Of A Space Tyrant, even if it is a poor satire on politics.

As for Xanth, that's really just brain candy: mildly enjoyable, but no real nutritional value. Occasionally he writes one that is above average ("Yon Ill Wind" was the last one I felt he wasn't going through the motions for.), but I don't expect much out of it.

[leedr]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Thank you, coffee all over my desk....

Writers to avoid for me:
...
- Later work of Pratchett
...

I wonder if the more recent of Pratchett's Discworld works struggle because of the onset of his Alzheimer's. Just a speculation. I've read them all several times except the last two or three. I don't really like the Tiffany Aching ones, but Going Postal and Making Money still seemed to have that same sense of humor and style that makes me laugh out loud. I suppose after you read enough of them they can blur together. And certain characters are more enjoyable than others, at least for me - Rincewind and Sam Vimes, especially, and maybe Ponder Stibbons, if only because I was (am?) there once.

Oh, right, a point. I think that Pratchett is a very good author in the world/universe he has created, and if the writing isn't stellar of late there may be external factors, or else just the sheer volume of books he's written that make them stand out less and less from the rest. Or just the lack of characters I really like.

[leedr]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

Oh, old thread, but lots of good reading. I'll comment on some of the names brought up.

Personally I liked Terry Brooks, mostly. Shannara- Sure, Sword was a bit of a LOTR clone, but it was his first book. They got better. Up to the end of the Heritage of Shannara I really enjoyed. I read the High Druid/Jerle Shanarra ...meh. I think he derailed a bit - I didn't think either of these trilogies were very good. Word/Void was very good, and the newer Armageddon's Children prequel was alright.

Ditto on this. The prequel, first three, second four books were all right. From there...the characters weren't likable, nor the endings. Particularly, the computer geek/bibliophile in me cringes at how all the old world knowledge embedded in servers got nuked by magic at the end of the Voyage series.

[leedr]

Originally Posted by queentess

I'm trying really hard to like Gaiman, but I think I'm done with him. I loved loved loved his Fragile Things short story collection, and Coraline was pretty interesting as well. But Neverwhere, Stardust and American Gods (which I'm finishing right now) are all so boring and anticlimactic. I don't remember specifics of why I disliked Neverwhere and Stardust, but American Gods has all these really weird product placements, overly-descriptive short sentences that don't really fit with the rest of the story, and random short stories and jokes that never seem to go anywhere. It's more disjointed than anything. I wish he would stick to short stories, as that seems to be his forte.

Thanks for the heads up. Good Omens was amazing, perhaps because I really like Pratchett as well. The Graveyard Book was all right. Anansi Boys had some enjoyable parts. American Gods...was both fairly dark in tone and had a strange ending...it felt like a bad rewrite/copy of Norse mythology. I will probably now consider borrowing Neverwhere and Stardust from the library before buying.

Gaiman's short stories are pretty good, though.

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by BenG

I was going to take issue with you about Holdstock, but Mythago Wood is the only book of his that I've read.

For the love of everything that is holy -- and your own sanity -- keep it that way!!!

I would take this moment to rag on Robert Jordan again. Long winded, becoming longer and longer winded, until even God said enough. But wait a second, a new author and how many books did that one last book turn into? Yes, it's become even more long winded!! I think there's an author out there who needs to learn how to dodge lightning bolts!

-Pie

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by EatingPie

I would take this moment to rag on Robert Jordan again. Long winded, becoming longer and longer winded, until even God said enough. But wait a second, a new author and how many books did that one last book turn into? Yes, it's become even more long winded!! I think there's an author out there who needs to learn how to dodge lightning bolts!

-Pie

Just a question, have you read the books at all? Including the ones written by Brandon Sanderson? I agree that Robert Jordan can go very long winded. A good/better editor would have downsized the series without a doubt. However, the latest books have picked up speed and is clearly reaching the end. He was actually asked to write one book, but was unable to tie everything in one and said quite early he would need three. The last book is being written now, and it would be good to finalize the books.

[Xanthe]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I'll third that.

And, a few years ago, her (then?) husband kept track of her like a well-heeled p*mp. He was aggressively obnoxious in an obsequious sort of way - we've all met this kind of person. (Think about the beginning "The Shining," by Stephen King, for this kind of personality.)

I find her books horrible and with a single-minded stench attached to them. I've seen better character development in Yoko Ono's five-minute film, "One," which is nothing more than a slow-motion sequence of a match being struck.


Don

She's still married to him. He's her second husband and was the president of her fan club when they first hooked up during her first marriage. He used to have a website called "The Shrine to Anita Blake", IIRC. Talk about living your fantasy.

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Just a question, have you read the books at all? Including the ones written by Brandon Sanderson? I agree that Robert Jordan can go very long winded. A good/better editor would have downsized the series without a doubt. However, the latest books have picked up speed and is clearly reaching the end. He was actually asked to write one book, but was unable to tie everything in one and said quite early he would need three. The last book is being written now, and it would be good to finalize the books.

Ugh I hate to say that yes I have read them. And read them. And read them. And read them.

Very long winded is only half the problem.

I don't know what constitutes latest books, but when he spends pages describing a woman walking in the snow -- so long that you no longer care why -- but kills three major characters in 1 sentence... well... That cries "terrible writer." Something well beyond the ken of even the most brilliant editor. Of course, he was published and I am not so he gets the last laugh... oh wait, he's dead, I get the last laugh!



I liked the characters, and I liked the Aiel a ton, but I still think Jordan's death is a sign that there is a God and he is merciful to us all.

-Pie

[HarryT]

I struggle with some of Mercedes Lackey's books. I very much enjoyed the first few "Valdemar" books, and I have absolutely no problems whatsoever with homosexual characters in books. But after a while, it seemed as though the homosexual elements of the books were becoming an "agenda" rather than simply being a part of the story, and I didn't like that at all. I stopped reading her books at that point.

[DiapDealer]

In principle, I'm opposed to the very existence of this thread...

But in secret, it's been a guilty pleasure of mine to read it—even the posts I disagree with.

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

In principle, I'm opposed to the very existence of this thread...

But in secret, it's been a guilty pleasure of mine to read it—even the posts I disagree with.

I think there's a reason it has lasted far longer than the "Fantasy Authors You and I SHOULD Read" thread. And I think you hit the nail on the head!

-Pie