2008 books
33) Jim Theis, The Eye of Argon, 1970
I have Dave Given to thank for this extraordinary pleasure - and yes it was a pleasure, quite possibly the worst (or at least the least good) book I will ever read, that is, in the "so bad it's good" post-modern sense. Written when Theis was just sixteen and originally published in a forgotten fanzine, this 7,000 word 'sword and sorcery' epic's rise above complete obscurity has come at the (possibly cruel) efforts of several prominent SF fans and has at last been enshrined in its own paperback edition, complete with the long-lost last few pages and a long introduction by Lee Weinstein. The Eye of Argon's charm is its teenage naïvity while at the same time Theis's writing, undaunted by lack of familiarity with his subject or fear of stereotype, bravely takes on adult themes with a barely adequate vocabulary: there are perhaps a dozen grammatically correct sentences in the whole story that are at least properly structured, or free of typos, or don't use an awkwardly heavy emphasis on the wrong components. It often reminds one of reading badly translated Cantonese (I particularly liked the use of "avantgarde" to mean "advanced guard"). Jim Theis died a few years ago but was generally sporting about his story's unwanted notoriety... does anyone still play "The Eye of Argon" game at conventions?