The Worst Fantasy Novels

[im_writing]

My co-blogger and I are doing a fantasy week next (and our first giveaway!  So, you know, tune in for that.)  I'm going to create a list of the worst fantasy novels, but I don't want it to be ridiculously subjective (or, at least anymore subjective than a subject like this is...) and restrict it to only the fantasy novels that I've read

Comments

[lied_ohne_worte]

Eragon comes to mind, not that I read all of it. What got me was the "ooh, I want to be a new Tolkien, but I don't want all that work of world-building and coming up with logical languages, and so I'm going to use random fantasy-sounding names and plop down places and societies wherever I need them for the plot, but without any depth whatsoever". Also, there's this weird fixation on meat. And the writing style. And the fact that I couldn't care a bit about the main character.

I probably mostly disliked it because of the hype around it when it really contained very little that was original and lifted such a lot from Tolkien and others - and by that I don't mean just tropes that come up again and again.

[ljlee]

"ooh, I want to be a new Tolkien, but I don't want all that work of world-building and coming up with logical languages, and so I'm going to use random fantasy-sounding names and plop down places and societies wherever I need them for the plot, but without any depth whatsoever"

Isn't that like 90% of post-Tolkien fantasy? I'll take your word for it that Eragon is a particularly dismal offering, though. I just wanted to comment on how well you summarized the many Tolkien knockoffs out there.

[lied_ohne_worte]

Well, Tolkien went way beyond what most people would consider a reasonable amount of effort to put into building his world, so I don't expect the same level of depth from other writers. If one produces so many layers of notes that someone else can publish a dozen books dissecting them, that's serious commitment. Eragon, though, is incredibly primitive in comparison, and really shows that it was written by a very young person with not that much talent - while at the same time it was for a while hailed as this amazing new phenomenon.

[ljlee]

Ha, that's so true about the frighteningly obsessive scope of the Professor's worldbuilding. Talk about above and beyond.

Eragon won't be the first "amazing new phenomenon" and it won't be the last: these flashes in the pan come and go, and the vast majority won't stand the test of time. We're braving the Twilight storm right now but this, too, shall pass.

[im_writing]

You know, I read the first two Eragon books (at least.. I think I did. I might have only read the first one) and really... it wasn't that it was TERRIBLE but it was so unmemorable. I kind of remember things, but nothing really stands out in my mind.

Which, says something about the book right there.

[youjik33]

I only got through, like, half of the first Eragon book. It was basically just Star Wars in a fantasy setting... and the only reason Star Wars was interesting is because it took a generic fantasy story and gave it a sci-fi setting, which made it kind of fun. Putting that BACK in a fantasy setting was just pointless. I stopped reading right after Obi-Wan died. (I don't remember what his name actually was. I don't really care either.)