What is the WORST book you ever read?

[Sir Degrader]

Cleric Quintet, Legacy of the Drow. Uber munchin characters, half assed attempts at romance, LAME plot,completely ridiculous fights (oh look, a powerfull demon of the abyss. let's kill it then go for lunch). RA salvatore Cannot write anymore.

[Black Baron]

http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...1;t=001618;p=2

These are my contributions to the Salvatore Ostracsism (sp?) Do have a look!!

[Rikard T'Aranaxz]

Originally posted by pcgiant: I probably should have posted this months ago, but I have a question, Memnoch. Was this entire novel simply focused on this (seemingly unkillable) character fighting demons? Or was there an actual story to it? If so, care to give a quick overview of the 'plot'? I'm sure that will also be very funny. I want to read this book, I love bad writing! Books focused mainly on fighting are interesting if the character is extremely low level, and he has to be careful. Where's the fun or the interest if there is no danger of losing or dying?

I realise I'm awfully late with this but i havent been present lately... if you like a book with a lot of fighting where ppl actually can get hurt etc. Try reading David Gemmell! he has some good books where theres a lot of fighting around castles and forts etc. And his characters can actually die (altough they hardly do because well... they are heroes and heroes tend to be lucky)

[ 08-03-2004, 11:59 AM: Message edited by: Rikard T'Aranaxz ]

[Rikard T'Aranaxz]

Originally posted by Memnoch: - can communicate by telepathy - can move to any place with a thought - can become mentally invisible (permanent mind shield) - he wears shadow armor with zero encumbrance and AC -40 - also wears magic ring of 100% magic damage resistance and 100% physical damage resistance - wears elven chain mail shirt giving 100% resistance to elements - wears cats paws gloves, allowing wearer to fall any distance without injury, to deliver clawed blows (why bother when your sword does about 1000pts of damage anyway) and to climb like a cat - wears girdle of planar shifting - can transform into a massive panther at will - regenerates about 20 hp per round (why bother when you are IMPERVIOUS to damage anyway) - immunity to disease, poison, warding from foes, constant true sight - PERMANENT 100% magic resistance - he wields Courflamme, the Mighty Sword of Neutrality, which has the ability to kill thousands of demons with a thought

Its almost like the famed Archlich Wah vs Demi-Diety Rikard stories :/
cept that rikard actually got stabbed to death in a bar by a measly peasant trying to steal his cash :<

[Link]

Phoo-ee! A lot of fun to read the entire thread, and while I don't know many of the abominations that show up here, I can honestly say I understand your pain.

I disagree on David Eddings writing nothing but bad books. I find the Belgariad a very intriguing tale, lots of humorous situations in there that crack me up a good many times. I don't know about his later works (except the successor of the Belgariad, but I trust your opinion

Dreamer: It's nice to see you mention Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. Some seven years ago, when I did my best to read all fantasy novels in the local library, I stumbled across Sword of Shannara. I hadn't read Lord of the Rings back then so I thought the story was pretty stupid. Suffice to say, the book is on the shelf as I'm typing this. I reread it a year or so ago, and was astonished by how many the man had stolen from Lord of the Rings! Not only is Shea small (*cough*hobbit*cough*) he also basically travels the exact same path as Frodo does; cut off from the party, struggling with his burden blah blah.
His later works DO improve, though. In the follow-up for Sword of Shannara, entitled The Elfstones of Shannara, Terry Brooks heads in a total different direction. He actually comes up with a decent storyline (about a tree called the Ellcrys which supposedly protects the Elven nation from utter destruction by a demon army), with nice plot twists and suspense because of chasing demons. And in my opinion it only gets better with the invention of his 'Wishsong', especially the Heritage of Shannara. I can recommend that, honestly! [img]smile.gif[/img]

What I like about Brooks as well is the large scale battles he tells about (main reason for me liking The Elfstones. Raymond E. Feist did that too with A Darkness over Sethanon but I'm not an overly fan of that series. Pug has become a munchkin and sometimes I don't understand what happened (like the ending in the Riftwar saga).

Sooo on to the book that I think was utter crap. I think my vote has to go to Sword of Shannara. I can't think of anything else really. Most books on my shelf are things I've bought myself because I liked it already. Nothing sensationally bad (except for Brooks [img]smile.gif[/img] )

I advise you to read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials if you're open minded to fantasy. It's not your average tale about elves and dwarves, totally different. And it's one of best book series I've ever read. There's three books in the series;
</font>

• The Golden Compass (also known as Northern Lights)</font>
• The Subtle Knife</font>
• The Amber Spyglass</font>

[Link]

Holy thread necromancy, Batman!~

Anyways, maybe people have come up with some new horrible books to share with us!

[Mr. Mopery]

Worst books...

John Grisham's "The Noun"

Robert Jordan's "Neverending Story"

Danielle Steel's "#%^@ing and Manipulation Disguised as Romance"

[Sir Goulum]

Margaret Laurence- 'The Stone Angel'.
Stupid English class... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Ladyzekke]

Most of the worst books I've ever read I tend to forget altogether so it's tough thinking of any. I can only remember one book I read sometime last year, The Hellfire Club by Peter Straub. I've read a few P. Straub books (Shadowland, The Talisman and Black House, both co-written alongside Stephen King) and they were good, so I thought to try another.

Gah it was horrible. The story was bad, characters were bad, it was obscene and gross in parts for no storyline reasons at all, and the ending is stupid. I remember when I bought the book I looked in the cover and there was a review by Stephen King "Awesome thrilling ride!". Wonder how much they paid him to say that LOL? It was anything but awesome, and I saw no thrilling whatsoever, I do suppose I took some sort of ride, although the entire time I wanted to get off. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 07-26-2005, 07:07 PM: Message edited by: ladyzekke ]

[VulcanRider]

Absolute worst book I forced myself to finish was "The Technology Mafia" by T.L. Sparbel. I only bought it because I met the author at a booksigning, and when he told me about it he hinted that it was based on true events he saw while he was in the military. I'm sure the author did his own editing and financed his own publishing, 'cause no one else would have. The book's listed on Amazon.com and if you go to the Amazon review page and read the 1st review you'll get an idea what it was like. I guarantee he wrote that review. I recognized the writing style. Imagine 400 pages like that. There were spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors on almost every page. The action wasn't exciting. Oh, and the (few) love scenes were painfully uninspiring. I kept reading, hoping it would get better. It never did.

Edit: I was right!! I reread that review and the publisher is listed as "AuthorHouse". I searched their site & found that they're a "self-publishing" house, for anyone who thinks they're a writer.

[ 07-27-2005, 09:04 PM: Message edited by: VulcanRider ]