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Awful Novels & Why You Hated Them

Discussion in 'Books and Anime Discussion' started by One, Oct 15, 2015.

  1. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    I always had a certain amount of sympathy for Eragon, yeah they were paint by numbers LotR/SW rip off that wouldn't have been published without his parents owning the company. But damn right he should be proud of himself by finishing, publishing and self promoting, a book by 15. I sure as hell wouldn't have been able to, and kids liked them enough to be a massive hit. So really good on him for having the ambition and staying power to manage it that early in life, it couldn't have been easy whatever help he got.

    That said I remember loving the first one at 12 or so, and slowly discovering how bad they were as I bought each one with more and more reading experience under my belt. I think I never finished the 3rd one. They are not good books.
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2015
  2. ScottPress

    ScottPress The Horny Sovereign –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    I would say that Eragon fell into the same trap MoR did. It tried to make magic and the world around it, a world designed with a distinct fantasy feel, seem scientific or something. It's weird, because in Paolini's case we're talking about one person doing the designing and later the failed transformation. Like latter books were taking potshots at earlier ones.

    It would be unfair to say, imo, that he didn't have some cool ideas, but I agree that the bland execution of tropes drags the series down. Once you hit Eragon's literal Divine Power Up in book two, eyebrows start migrating towards the back of your neck.

    I started reading the series when I was quite a bit younger though, and stuck with it through the end. I have a certain amount of guilty pleasure sentiment for the first one, of the same kind I do for the first Twilight film. And like Twilight, the series goes into a downward spiral somewhere around the middle. Inconsistency is the name of the game.

    Like surpassing the elf smith's oath to never forge another Rider's sword through gimmicky possession bullshit. You set the rules, try to stick to them.

    Paolini did something similar to JKR with the Big Bad - he set him up to be this ultimate badass and obviously needed a Deus Ex Machina to end him. If he'd had the balls to do the radical thing and end the series with the MC's death and villain's victory, the series would have suddenly become twice as good.

    So, out of five books in the series, I could say kinda sorta hated the last one for being a bland dish disguised as something less bland by being served in a fancy way.
     
  3. Perspicacity

    Perspicacity Destroyer of Worlds ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    The three celebrated novels I enjoyed least:

    3. Joyce's Finnegan's Wake: pretentious, unreadable garbage.

    2. Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: perhaps the weakest writing one's likely to run across.

    1. Bret Easton Ellis's Less Than Zero: vile, it remains the book I hate most.
     
  4. Warlocke

    Warlocke Fourth Champion

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    On a scale of 1 to 10, what score would you give it? :awesome
     
  5. Perspicacity

    Perspicacity Destroyer of Worlds ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Stylistically, an 8. In terms of enjoyability, a solid -2.

    Cut the OP, he won't bleed. There's literally nothing there that's human. It's the quintessential nihilistic novel, a protag for whom nothing of import happens, who has no redeeming features, no core of values. The climax scene, where the protag's best friend
    reveals that he's keeping a drugged, bound, minor, rape-target in his apartment for the lulz and the protag responds with, basically, "meh," and walks out
    serves to cements the descent into vapid superficiality and sociopathy. It's the author flipping off the readers and laughing at their stupidity for buying and investing emotionally in his POS story.

    A polished turd.
     
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2015
  6. Shinysavage

    Shinysavage Madman With A Box ~ Prestige ~

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    Lovely. I read 'American Psycho in my late teens, and couldn't work out why it was so lauded - it's probably the most repellent book I've ever read. I did enjoy 'Lunar Park', but I wouldn't recommend Ellis to anyone on the whole.
     
  7. DeliriousDoodle

    DeliriousDoodle Squib

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    I really disliked The Magicians by lev grossman. The book would have been brilliant if only the MC had been replaced. The MC is an incredible whiner who keeps looking for something better in life. Each time he gets it, he once again gets depressed and finds it not to his liking.

    The character development that I had hoped, had taken place at the end of the first book is reset by the second book. The author may have been trying to be more "adult" but I really did not need to read about such a pain in the butt character.
     
  8. Mutton

    Mutton Order Member

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    I did a super basic review of the series (yes, I hateread the whole thing) over on SV.

     
  9. Halt

    Halt 1/3 of the Note Bros. Moderator

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    Going by what I've read most recently, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. The only saving grace of this novel, in my opinion, is its length. And by that I mean thank God it's short (190 pages, give or take).

    The characters were shallow, playing on typical archetypes and cliches. The plot was predictable. The dialogue was...meh? It took more suspension of disbelief to read than Harry Potter. But what I'm most angry about is that there weren't really any statistics involved.

    I get that I wasn't the target audience for this type of novel, but honestly, it could have been done way better. As it is, it didn't invoke a slither of empathy from me.

    Good, but I didn't like it: Going to have to go with Farenheit 451. The ending felt far too rushed after all that buildup and I just generally didn't like the stylistic choices of the author.
     
  10. abcdefg

    abcdefg Squib

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    It's been a while since I read it, but Madame Bovary. I mean, supposedly it's one of the most influential books ever written (from what I've heard at least) but it was just so fucking boring. Nothing in the book was interesting or compelling, the characters were stupid assholes and the plot was just as dull.
    Maybe it was better in its original french (I read it translated to swedish), since the author was apparently some kind of perfectionist who'd spend hours trying to find just the right way to word something.
     
  11. Maphisto40

    Maphisto40 First Year

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    I always wince when I bring this up, as if eagles will swoop down to rip out my eyes, but I cannot read The Lord of the Rings trilogy...

    I have tried. I even assigned one chapter a night to myself like homework. I just cannot get into it at any point. I have this thing where I read so fast that I stop seeing words, and instead I see what's happening like a movie. I cannot get to that point with these books because they are so dry, and so full of shit that seems like it should be in appendices instead of the main story.

    I'm sure it must be a subjective taste thing, since these books are so well-loved, but my god I just cannot. My next attempt will be audio books. I have vowed that I will finish this series before I die, and damn it that will happen.
     
  12. Warlocke

    Warlocke Fourth Champion

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    Kudos to you for providing the "less than zero" I was looking for, while still actually giving an informative answer.

    I hurried up and read Hobbit and Fellowship before the first LoTR movie, but when I went to read Two Towers I hit a massive wooden roadblock called "Ents."

    I tried. I really, really, tried... but I just couldn't get past those fucking trees; it was interminable.

    :rrou:

    That shit just seemed to meander endlessly and it was either putting me to sleep or sapping my will to live. It- The book may have actually been a barrow-wight; I haven't ruled that out.
    So I put it down and never ended up going back. Maybe someday.
     
  13. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    The first time I tried to read LotR I hated it (13). The second time I got through it, assuming I'd missed something, and enjoyed it (17). The third time I loved it (20?). ...but I've had no desire to read it a fourth time once I finally 'got' the enjoyment part, because it did have a lot of filler. That said, I do sort of want to read it again now if only because now that I've started writing the language would be interesting to note.

    However this analysis of Tom Bombadil is fantastic, makes me grin, and I just had to link it again.
     
  14. Marsupial

    Marsupial Minister of Magic DLP Supporter

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    I just finished re-reading LoTR for something like the 4th or 5th time. It does drag in parts, but never enough to particularly bother me.

    You should try reading the actual appendices sometime. Or most of Silmarillion. Believe it or not, a large portion of the really boring shit did get moved elsewhere.
     
  15. Quiddity

    Quiddity Squib ~ Prestige ~

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    I actually really loved the appendices, and found them fascinating.

    But yeah, the Simarillion is very hard to get through.
     
  16. Marsupial

    Marsupial Minister of Magic DLP Supporter

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    I actually quite like Silmarillion; it's unspeakably dry, but as a technical exercise it strikes me as being really impressive. It feels uncommonly like reading a crossbreed of the Iliad and the Bible, but for a race and religion which belong entirely to a world that never existed. To have captured a similar mythological breadth (and, annoyingly, a similar lack of depth and focus on genealogical lists) is actually really neat. I read Silmarillion every few years, whenever the reality of 'fuck that was boring' fades, and I start only remembering how impressive it is as a monument to Tolkein's worldbuilding. I have a similar view of the appendices.

    That said, even though I rather like that stuff I'll freely acknowledge that a lot of it is really fucking dull.
     
  17. Zennith

    Zennith Pebble Wrestler ~ Prestige ~

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    Holy wow. This book is literally my favorite of all time.
     
  18. Mutton

    Mutton Order Member

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    I love it as well but I admit that it can be intense at times.
     
  19. oakes

    oakes Unspeakable DLP Supporter

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    The Paradise War by Stephen Lawhead. The book had a pretty interesting concept, what with old Gaelic myths and stuff. But the main character made me hate the series enough that I dropped the book, and that's something I don't do.

    Throughout the book you see these two characters, well actually there is one main character but the author keeps comparing the other character to the main character and keeps finding himself lacking in every front. Basically I had enough with the pity party and dropped it after a while.
     
  20. cb902

    cb902 Disappeared

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    "the giver", the story had immense potential, was mostly original which is rare in these times and an unhappy end which is so unlikely that i almost got a heart attack which was kind off exiciting.
    I read it in one day and i hated every second of it. I really dont know why, was it because of the bad charactarization or because the protagonist was stupid, we will likely never know.
    Honestly the book isnt half bad the concepts in it outweigh the barely average writing but for some reason i hated it more than i do when I stub my toe on a table.

    Forrest Gump "And that's all i've got to say about that"
     
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