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.

[hoperomantic]

*HR shudders* Terry Goodkind... ewww... his books are awful.

[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

[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

[wyrdmuse]

Green by Jay Lake. There is so much racism and misogyny dressed up in a "aren't women better than I, a mere male" suit. The women in the book are on pedestals so high that I think they need oxygen tanks. To defeat the end boss, the two (presumably) hot women characters start having sex to distract him.

[im_writing]

These suggestions were awesome! Thank you! The post I needed them for will be posted tomorrow, if you're curious (reviewmetwice [dot] blogspot [dot] com).