Series you were disappointed with...

[Slater he/him]

I personally was deeply disappointed by the last Twilight book. After the literary mastery she showed in the original trilogy I will never understand how this fourth book failed so bad to live up to it's glorious predecessors.

 

Maybe it was the pedophile Werewolves. Or the parents being okay with the pedophile werewolves.

 

Alas,The story of Tyler's Van an assorted allies trying desperately to save the world by killing the sociopath Bella Swan and failing was a true tearjerking Greek tragedy that will be remembered through the annals of time even with the absolutely surprising drop in quality in the fourth book.

 

Hope everyone gets the sarcasm. Except for Tyler's Van. Team Tyler's Van FOR LIFE.

[Cheese United he/him]

Oh man. That is a lot of time to NOT be writing in. I sure hope the last Cosmere book isn't like that.... *Shudder*

I once wrote a sereies of pages... Very dissapointing.

[JTolman he/him]

Oh man. That is a lot of time to NOT be writing in. I sure hope the last Cosmere book isn't like that.... *Shudder*

I once wrote a sereies of pages... Very dissapointing.

thing is She is still wrting. It's Not that Melanie Rawn stoped writing or died or something. She Just never completed the series. I mean Heck, they even had a Title for the Finale book, " The Capital's Tower". The book has been listed as "Forthcoming" ever since. Even on her own Website, you can go there today and it is still lsited as forthcoming.

 

She has published other books since, just never that one.

[LouiseSparrow she/her]

Spooks Apprentice by Joseph Delaney... I hated the end, up until then it was really good but it almost felt like he got fed up and finished it off quick so that he could get to the next series.

 

I gave up on Janny Wurts Wars of Light and Shadow.

 

I haven't entirely given up on The Sword of Truth but I've had book 6 for a few years and not picked it up.

 

LE Modesitt Jr's, Spellsong Cycle, I loved the first 3 but chose not to read the next series because of the way it skips ahead, dismissing the original character.

[The Semi-Retired Gamer he/him]

Thomas Covenent the Unbeliever. I am about 60% of the way through the first book and I can't make myself finish it. I am so bored. I think if I read this book when it came out in the 1970s, it would be new and fresh and I would like it. However, today it seems like it is really generic. All the fantasy tone stories and just the prose bores me to tears. I don't think it is a fair criticism, since the stuff that bothers me about it is that it seems generic. However, it probably seems generic because so many other authors have copied him.

I still can't make myself finish the book.

This is the series I have had trouble with several times. I've tried to read it - more than once - but my interest leaves about halfway through the first book. I kind of feel a nagging to try again with the new books released in the last several years... Edited April 12, 2015 by The Semi-Retired Gamer

[Briar King]

The 1st Thomas set is amazing. It's the 2nd set that drove me tears and had me setting the huge Omnibus down somewhere around bk 2-3.

[the winter system]

Allegiant, the Divergent trilogy, by Veronica Roth. The ending was unforshadowed, at ALL. It made literally no sense!

[Kaymyth she/her]

Does it count if you only made it through the first book in the series?

 

As I mentioned in another thread, I hated Interview With the Vampire.  Detested with the fire of This Book Is Not Mine And Thus I Cannot Throw It Across the Room.  See, I had seen the movie first, and thought, "Well, books are always better than the movie!  I should read it and see how much better it is!"  Oh, younger me.  How naive you were.

 

I found none of the characters remotely likeable:

 

Louis:  "I'm a vampire and I'm sooo tortured!"

Claudia:  "I'm a child vampire, and I'm even mooore tortured!"

Armand:  "I'm hot and smexy, but now I'm in lurve with Louis, so I'm tortured, too!  Even though being tortured is not really in my baseline personality and is illogical.  Nope, I'm just going to be tortured now, instead of stealing Louis away and teaching him how to have fun like a sensible person."

And, of course, Lestat:  "I'm a raging sociopath!  Someone should set me on fire!"

 

Then someone did, much to my great joy.  But he survived it.  Boo.  And then went on to be the protagonist in all the other books to follow.  Nope.  Not reading that.

 

Then there were the descriptions.  Oh, gods, the descriptions.  Yes, Anne, I understand that curtains are probably indeed a very important part of a vampire's general decor.  However, I do not need to know the exact color, pattern, fabric blend, and stitching details of every set of curtains in every room of every house in the book.  Kthxbai.

 

In short: where is Buffy Summers when you need her?

Edited April 19, 2015 by Kaymyth

[maxal she/her]

Does it count if you only made it through the first book in the series?

 

As I mentioned in another thread, I hated Interview With the Vampire.  Detested with the fire of This Book Is Not Mine And Thus I Cannot Throw It Across the Room.  See, I had seen the movie first, and thought, "Well, books are always better than the movie!  I should read it and see how much better it is!"  Oh, younger me.  How naive you were.

 

I found none of the characters remotely likeable:

 

Louis:  "I'm a vampire and I'm sooo tortured!"

Claudia:  "I'm a child vampire, and I'm even mooore tortured!"

Armand:  "I'm hot and smexy, but now I'm in lurve with Louis, so I'm tortured, too!  Even though being tortured is not really in my baseline personality and is illogical.  Nope, I'm just going to be tortured now, instead of stealing Louis away and teaching him how to have fun like a sensible person."

And, of course, Lestat:  "I'm a raging sociopath!  Someone should set me on fire!"

 

Then someone did, much to my great joy.  But he survived it.  Boo.  And then went on to be the protagonist in all the other books to follow.  Nope.  Not reading that.

 

Then there were the descriptions.  Oh, gods, the descriptions.  Yes, Anne, I understand that curtains are probably indeed a very important part of a vampire's general decor.  However, I do not need to know the exact color, pattern, fabric blend, and stitching details of every set of curtains in every room of every house in the book.  Kthxbai.

 

In short: where is Buffy Summers when you need her?

 

Funny. I really loved those books as a teenager... 

[Kaymyth she/her]

Funny. I really loved those books as a teenager... 

 

You and a lot of other people.  I know people now who enjoy them; she must be doing something right.  But it appears that I am not her target audience.

[maxal she/her]

You and a lot of other people.  I know people now who enjoy them; she must be doing something right.  But it appears that I am not her target audience.

 

Nah, it was the 90s      Reading Ann Rice was fashionable back then      I like to say we had real vampires back then, not glowing like diamonds fake ones      Interview with a Vampire was a big movie at the time: staring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, all the teenage girls (including myself  ) went all giggly over it   

 

16 years and over, had to pretend to be older to see it      

 

It got boring after 3 books though. Book 2 which was Lestat back story was actually good, from my memory. How he went from the 7th son of a minor lord, to an actor in Paris to vampire was actually not bad, if my recollection served me right. Louis has always been a boring vampire in my opinion. 

[Left he/him]

Allegiant, the Divergent trilogy, by Veronica Roth. The ending was unforshadowed, at ALL. It made literally no sense!

Don't let me or Delightfull get going on these.....We really loathe them.

[maxal she/her]

Don't let me or Delightfull get going on these.....We really loathe them.

 

Count me in. I hate them too     

[the winter system]

I hated the ending.

[maxal she/her]

I hated the ending.

 

I hated more then the ending... I could rant on how bad this book was for pages and pages 

[Iarwainiel I she/her]

Re: Divergent / Insurgent / Allegiant

 

I've never ever said this about another book, but ... the movies are better than the books! Especially movie #2 is waaaaay better than book #2.

 

I saw movie #1 and though it seemed a lesser cousin to Hunger Games, I still wanted to see what happened in the rest of the trilogy, so I picked up cheap copies of books 2 & 3. Wow, what a let-down; and the ending was just awful - lacked any kind of meaning, even that a high school English class could analyze, IMO.

 

But because the special effects in the trailer looked cool, I took in movie #2 on discount day at the cinema. So glad I did. Figure I'll decide on movie #3 the same way.

 

Since the author is on the film production team, I wonder if she's not taking this opportunity to "fix" what's wrong with her stories? "One can only hope." - Captain Jack Sparrow

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Allegiant, the Divergent trilogy, by Veronica Roth. The ending was unforshadowed, at ALL. It made literally no sense!

Don't let me or Delightfull get going on these.....We really loathe them.

Count me in. I hate them too     

 

Add me to the Divergent Haters Club. The first book was fun, fast-paced, with just enough depth to make you care. The second….argh, Insurgent was retroactively bad. It was so terrible, it showed up all the flaws in Divergent and made the entire book worse in hindsight. I haven't even read Allegiant, except through sporkings and snark. 

[maxal she/her]

Veronica Roth, as an author, did about everything wrong when it comes to writing a story. I recall my 8th grade French lessons on how to write a good adventure story and I can say she would have gotten the fail grade  Why? Because she tried to punch in too many tropes into one character and because she did not give her characters plausible enough back story to explain them. And what to say of the world she tried to create? It does not hold together and the only reason I read her book was because book 1 was action packed enough I looked past its mistakes. I cannot say the same about the other 2 books.

[Kaymyth she/her]

Nah, it was the 90s      Reading Ann Rice was fashionable back then      I like to say we had real vampires back then, not glowing like diamonds fake ones      Interview with a Vampire was a big movie at the time: staring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, all the teenage girls (including myself  ) went all giggly over it   

 

16 years and over, had to pretend to be older to see it    

 

It got boring after 3 books though. Book 2 which was Lestat back story was actually good, from my memory. How he went from the 7th son of a minor lord, to an actor in Paris to vampire was actually not bad, if my recollection served me right. Louis has always been a boring vampire in my opinion. 

 

Oh, dearie, I was a teenager in the 90's.  But I was an oddball; for example, I'm pretty sure I was the only female in my age demographic who detested the New Kids on the Block.  I find (then and now) Brad Pitt to be completely unattractive, and Tom Cruise just skeeves me out (that's mostly now, but I could've taken him or left him back then).  My tastes were not normal teenaged girl tastes; I was just too much of a nerd for that.

 

It was a few years later before I finally picked up the book to try to read it, so I would've been probably 20-ish at that point.  Had to force myself to plow through it.  I think I blitz-read a bunch of Star Trek novels afterwards to clear my palate.

 

But I'm right there with you on the sparkly vampire nonsense.  I am Team Stake all the way. 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Veronica Roth, as an author, did about everything wrong when it comes to writing a story. I recall my 8th grade French lessons on how to write a good adventure story and I can say she would have gotten the fail grade  Why? Because she tried to punch in too many tropes into one character and because she did not give her characters plausible enough back story to explain them. And what to say of the world she tried to create? It does not hold together and the only reason I read her book was because book 1 was action packed enough I looked past its mistakes. I cannot say the same about the other 2 books.

 

I read once that she wrote the entire first book without knowing where the fence, the factions, or any of the other stuff came from or why it was there. Which, as a discovery writer, I don't necessarily see as a bad thing. I've written stories without knowing how they'd end, and they turned out fine. But when it comes to big things like that, I think the author should at least have an idea of how to make it all fit together with a plausible explanation—or, failing that, know which portions of their setting they're going to leave unexplained. 

 

Take the Marvel movies of their classic heroes, for example. Sam Raimi's Spider-Man doesn't give us a long-winded explanation of exactly how a spider was made radioactive, or how it transfers that radioactivity through a bite, or how that radiation doesn't kill Peter Parker where he stands. Nor do we get a scene explaining precisely how the Green Goblin's glider works despite the fact it seems to have no room for fuel cells anywhere and yet it basically defies gravity. Captain America doesn't bother telling us how an expatriate scientist in the early 1940s was able to create a power-granting serum that modern science has tried and failed to replicate. It doesn't tell us where they found vibranium or how they extract it from ore or how on earth it can deflect bullets. Those movies just wave off those explanations as part of the comic book setting—and we as the audience go along with it, because it's what we expect. We didn't come to see how modern science is so close to giving us a superpower-granting spider; we came to see ordinary people become heroes and kick villain booty, and Marvel is smart enough to give that to us. 

 

What Roth should have done in regards to her setting is just wave it off. You have a dystopian Chicago divided into factions derived from a BuzzFeed quiz? Great! How are they working? Not well? Fantastic! Explore that idea some more! Roth didn't have a plausible explanation for where the factions came from, and that's okay. The setting could have worked, if she'd just explored the ideas she had further. Instead, she tried to come up with a plausible explanation for an implausible society, and it didn't work. It just made the whole thing unbelievably silly, rather than the deadly serious angle she seemed to have been going for. 

[maxal she/her]

Oh, dearie, I was a teenager in the 90's.  But I was an oddball; for example, I'm pretty sure I was the only female in my age demographic who detested the New Kids on the Block.  I find (then and now) Brad Pitt to be completely unattractive, and Tom Cruise just skeeves me out (that's mostly now, but I could've taken him or left him back then).  My tastes were not normal teenaged girl tastes; I was just too much of a nerd for that.

 

It was a few years later before I finally picked up the book to try to read it, so I would've been probably 20-ish at that point.  Had to force myself to plow through it.  I think I blitz-read a bunch of Star Trek novels afterwards to clear my palate.

 

But I'm right there with you on the sparkly vampire nonsense.  I am Team Stake all the way. 

 

Sorry, didn't know. Many forumers are younger 

 

No. You weren't  I could never understand why Joey was supposed to be this handsome       I caught Step-by-Step on the radio today  I am ashamed to say that even though I never liked them, I actually know all the lyrics     

 

However, I was crazy over Brad Pitt      with Legends of the Fall       I had all the posters      and I did like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. So this movie was a win-win for me.

 

Read the books at 15. I don't know what I would have thought of them had I read them at a later age, but 15 years old actually liked them, but found Tom Cruise was not a good choice for Lestat.

Edited April 20, 2015 by maxal

[Kaymyth she/her]

Sorry, didn't know. Many forumers are younger 

 

No. You weren't  I could never understand why Joey was supposed to be this handsome       I caught Step-by-Step on the radio today  I am ashamed to say that even though I never liked them, I actually know all the lyrics     

 

However, I was crazy over Brad Pitt      with Legends of the Fall       I had all the posters      and I did like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. So this movie was a win-win for me.

 

Read the books at 15. I don't know what I would have thought of them had I read them at a later age, but 15 years old actually liked them, but found Tom Cruise was not a good choice for Lestat.

 

Heh.  If you thought Cruise was badly cast here, just mention his name around a Jack Reacher fan.  Oh, the unholy tirade that will result....

[maxal she/her]

Heh.  If you thought Cruise was badly cast here, just mention his name around a Jack Reacher fan.  Oh, the unholy tirade that will result....

 

Luckily, I never read Jack Reacher so I cannot comment. However, you can ask yourself how a 30 years old dark haired actors got cast as a 20 years blonde vampire? Even if we forget the age thing which I am quite annoying with, there is the fact the character was described as blond and they had Tom die his hair blond. Awful. Brad was good as Louis, I thought.

[LouiseSparrow she/her]

I haven't seen either, but I haven't liked Tom Cruise since I saw him in Legend

[the winter system]

Add me to the Divergent Haters Club. The first book was fun, fast-paced, with just enough depth to make you care. The second….argh, Insurgent was retroactively bad. It was so terrible, it showed up all the flaws in Divergent and made the entire book worse in hindsight. I haven't even read Allegiant, except through sporkings and snark.

I was okay with Insurgent. I was a little confused on what was going on, but I was like "as long as book three completely blows me away, I'll be okay. It's just the Trilogy Law in action."

Then I read Alliegent. It sucked big time. Utter fail. Really? Really? REALLY? The books got progressively worse and worse.