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

[insanepurin]

- The House of Night series by P.C. & Kristin Cast. The whole series is told in the POV of the most despicable and immature female protagonist I've ever read. The "teenspeak" makes me feel like I'm losing braincells, and the stereotypes like the Token Gay are deplorable. If there was a checklist for slut-shaming, House of Night fills all of them. And we get delightful, offensive lines such as these: ""She wasn't thin like the freak girls who puked and starved themselves into what they thought was Paris Hilton chic. ("That's hott." Yeah, okay, whatever, Paris.")"

- If I Pay Thee Not in Gold by Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey. For a book about a matriarchy, it sure is sexist against women. Almost every male character is a rapist and nobody blinks at this. Not only is the book also racist and xenophobic, the writing is choppy as hell and rushed, especially near the ending.

- Wicked by Gregory McGuire. I love the premise (a book about the Wicked Witch of the West? HELL YEAH), but the execution is terrible. The prose is dry and unengaging, and I couldn't care about what was happening to anyone in Oz. I wanted to read about Elphaba, not her mom cheating on her husband. It felt like McGuire wanted to be Darker And Edgier with Oz by including political themes, sex, etc. but his handling of it was too clumsy. I had to stop reading before Elphaba even attended her first class, especially since I heard the book leaves so many loose ends and leaves would could be interesting subplots or characters into the dust. :/

[im_writing]

You know, I was kind of on the fence about including Wicked in the post, but I think I might now. I liked a lot of Wicked, but the ending just completely ruined the whole book for me.

I felt like Dorothy entering the scene should have made the book better but, it just... didn't.

YES!

[jarredgoddess]

Piers Anthony--in my experience--is a dirty old man who doesn't care about women. He has a LOT of misogyny and rape in his books; I noticed that even back in high school. I think anything by him ought to be on this list.

And yes! Yes to what you said about Wicked! That is EXACTLY what its main problem is!

[youjik33]

I hated Wicked the musical because I thought it was silly, pretentious, and trying too hard to be dark... I can only imagine what the book is like XD