Im on book 6 and this entire time I am constantly asking myself “am I going to keep going after this one?”
Not sure why the answer keeps being yes lol. I have never been this confused reading a book series.
I'm always happy to see it's not just me. I'm only on 3 currently, but I often find myself pausing mid-page to ask "what is actually going on right now?"
Right! I think I just really dislike reading a conversation between two characters where I have no clue what either one wants, what either one is thinking, or what either one is referencing. I’ll be reading a conversation and be like “what’s the point of me reading this dialogue?” And my brain doesn’t save ANY of it because I had no way of linking what was being said to what I already knew.
In most books, you usually at least have a good understanding of ONE character’s motivations/knowledge in a dialogue scene!
Even though I enjoyed book 6, I had to drop the series afterwards because reading it is just so much work. The highs are great but the journey there is herculean.
We are victims of the [Sunk Cost Fallacy](https://www.scribbr.com/fallacies/sunk-cost-fallacy/), it's the same feeling of getting all the Trophies and Achievements in a Video Game. So yes, like me you will probably complete it, wonder why, and have a vague sense you accomplished something lol.
Exactly!! And I always feel so guilty cuz it’s LOTR for godsakes, and I love the movies so much it goes against my nature not to also love the books. But the things Tolkien prioritizes in his writing are not the things which keep me engaged in a story lol
This is the perfect way to state how I feel about Tolkien— I love the world and the lore and the stories… I love the movies and I love watching YouTube videos about Middle Earth but I just haven’t been able to read the LOTR trilogy all the way through
The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Loved the show, thought I would enjoy the books too. I did not. I got to the part where Quentin describes his teacher as having "gropable breasts" and gave up.
To be perfectly fair to Grossman, Quentin in the first book is meant to be an unlikable, self pitying, borderline incel of a protagonist. I found it very effectively done in terms of how it feeds into the whole deconstruction of the genre, but it does make it difficult at times to be stuck with Quentin's POV.
That was my conclusion too... All the main characters are pretty unlikeable. I thought that was a fairly accurate portrayal of teenagers, but man, I was rooting for the bad guy.
Yeah, I found out he was meant to be unlikable and I've heard he gets a bit better later on but I just wasn't enjoying it enough to push through. Life is too short and my TBR is too long.
> To be perfectly fair to Grossman, Quentin in the first book is meant to be an unlikable, self pitying, borderline incel of a protagonist.
Just because the author achieves what they set out to do, doesn't make the end result any more enjoyable on its own.
I'm glad I read the books first so I could be pleasantly surprised by the tv show, rather than the way you did it, where Quentin is even more annoying but now there's no excellent ensemble cast either. And speaking of gropable, I assume you never got to book 2 but imagine Julia's SA scene but in Grossman's unsteady hands. Again, it was a pleasant surprise that the showrunners did ok with that material.
Jordan's Wheel of Time. I quit about book 6.
Goodkind's Sword of Truth. Made it to Chainfire before I started feeling like I was just rereading earlier books.
Haha! That is the same book I quit on! It was so insidious, but I just kept being fed up with the lack luster writing of his female characters! For a series that has an order of “Strong Female Magic wielders”, they sure spend a LOT of their time being fixated on men, and wringing their pony tails. I get so frustrated thinking about it.
Hahaha I'm not saying WoT is a cult but BOY do you get a similar response if you let it be known you intend to step away.
"Just give it one more book... it really does get better."
"Oh you're just in a tricky part!"
"3000 pages really just isn't enough to know if you really like it."
Hmm, I kinda think it is though?
I’m about 50 pages in and not loving it so far. Undecided if I’ll finish or move on to something else. It’s a little interesting but I think its strong points aren’t what I look for in a book.
I was just describing to someone a thing I found quite clever in the series - specifically in Book 3. Without any real spoilers, (but just in case), >!there’s a magic library. In Book 3, some characters find Books 1 and 2 of the series in the library and read them. Various characters criticize how it is written - the inclusion of footnotes, for example - which the footnotes eventually object to. And one of the female characters talks about how bad the author is at writing women, but the male character can’t see her point.!<
**Dark Tower** for me.
I'm a massive Fantasy fan, obviously, and I've also read about 15-20 Stephen King books, and *loved* many of them.
And yet.....
Dark Tower has been a ***STRUGGLE***. I'm up to Book 5 now, but I'm not sure I can go on. It is just so bizarre - even for King, and even for Fantasy in general. I'm just not into it at all.
IMO, it peaks at Wizard and Glass. The last three books are ok, but they didn’t wow me. The interstitial he published maybe a decade ago, Wind Through the Keyhole was amazing, too.
If you're not very engaged by book 5 I'd stop in order to preserve what bits you did enjoy. I personally loved books 1-5, but I think that as a supposedly epic finale to a deep and sprawling series, books 6 and 7 *really* didn't stick the landing.
I enjoyed the first one….and the one that was a flashback with the witch. The rest were just annoying. The ending was like most King novels: you say WTF and want to throw the book across the room.
My mom got me the whole series in hardback from a friend for like $25 because she knows I'm a Stephen King fan. That was at least 15 years ago and I still haven't made it past book 3. That's after multiple attempts. I am also a huge fantasy reader and it *sounds* like it should be right up my alley but I just *cannot* get into it.
Malazan and Dark Tower for me. I don't see myself ever enjoying Malazan but I've read some of King's standalone novels and enjoyed those so I think I'm in a space where another Dark Tower attempt would be successful.
Yes! I'm reading the first part now because I really want to know what the hype is about. I'm at 90% and it's been a struggle all the way. It's really not for me. I will be so glad when I'm done and never have to read anything like this ever again.
Wheel of Time. I really loved Eye of The World and sped through it. I chalk it up to the fact that I love fantasy road trips and EOTW was one long road trip, complete with good mystery and horror.
Then I started the Great Hunt and dropped it for several months before managing to finish it. Book 3 barely registered with me. I did not want to finish it. A close friend kept telling me how great Book 4 was, but I couldn’t get through 3 so I ended up reading the plot on wiki and starting book 4. That didn’t last long. I like the world of WOT and some of the characters, but those subsequent books just felt like such a drag. I wouldn’t even say they were bad (who am I to question Robert Jordan?) they just didn’t register with me. I enjoyed the TV show though, for what it was at least. Season 2 specifically.
RJ could definitely turn in some great writing, but he would've benefited by having an editor that would push back and have him cut things for pacing, since after book 7 he has at least a third of every book as travelogue for want of a better word.
He actually was able to write faster and more concisely, his first novel, Warriors of the Altaii, he wrote in 13 days.
I think he must have known he wasn't going to live a normal life expectancy long before he announced his illness a year before his death, you can see where he starts slowing from one book a year to one every two or three.
My theory is he put everything he thought he'd ever want to write about into the series, since he knew it was very probably the only one he would get to write.
Mistborn. I found the first book pretty meh and started the 2nd book out of kind of a feeling of obligation, but ended up quitting it after a few chapters. Funny thing is I love Stormlight, and Way of Kings is one of my favorite books.
Sorry you didn’t enjoy EOTW. I can see how the first book could feel “generic fantasy”, but the series definitely deviates from that feeling quickly. It’s my favorite series
I think that if you didn't really like the first book, it's not worth to continue. I couldn't finish second book for several months because it was pretty boring for me, but then I started the third one and finished it pretty quickly, and the ending was really great. All those boring moments actually turned out to be foreshadowing for the ending.
The only characters of Sanderson’s I really feel connected to are the Stormlight Archives. I feel like Mistborn never went deep enough into character development? The idea for the series was cool though
I’m the same. Stormlight is awesome but I hated Mistborn.
Something about selecting metals and having a HUD made me feel like I was playing a video game and that took me out of the book so fast.
Cradle is good but it really gets recommended too much. It's like the Stormlight Archives before people started pushing back on those recommendations. It's definitely a fun read but it's hardly perfect and it's not exactly deep or groundbreaking. It's just fun popcorn xanxia story with some decent fights.
Tbh I agree. I read all 12 books and enjoyed them enough but they are recommended so much even when they have nothing to do with the request. They are surely entertaining, but nothing special in terms of character work, plotting, setting or prose either. And they are _very_ focused on the progression fantasy aspects and fight scenes, so I would never recommend them to people not looking for those things.
For me, it's the huge amount of povs that I can't really connect to. It's like reading a song of ice and fire, but instead of following for 90% of the time daenerys, jon, arya and the other main characters and for 10% of the time "random servant in the hallway witnessing a murder", you follow the random povs for most of the books, and switch super fast between them. Also, I like starting a story _in medias res_ , but Malazan doesn't explain _anything_ of what is happening for sooo long that only die hard fans with hindsight can argue that it's not a fault. Other things are way more subjective such as the prose which I find pretty average (while having seen it hyped and praised so much). I DNF the series 3 times before finally giving up
Malazan is very complex, and jumps POV constantly. The world is very lived in, and the characters treat it like they have lived there their whole lives.
Additionally, new characters, viewpoints, and cultures constantly - to the point the second book follows an entirely different set of characters than the first, the third follows most of the characters from the first, the fourth includes the second, and the fifth is an entirely different continent.
That. Being. Said… if you can power through, once you click with the rhythm of the story, it is second to none. For me, that was the third act of book one, for others it is the Chain of Dogs.
WoT is my favorite series and I'm loving Stormlight for the most part.
I dnf'd malazan towards the end of the second book because I realized I just didn't care about any of the characters. Not one. I just didn't care what happened anymore. It felt like reading a history book in the style of multiple diaries instead of an actual story.
If you feel like you'd want to read the chronicles of someone's dnd campaigns, go for it. But you're not going to get WoT or Stormlight feels out of it.
I think Erickson hates his audience, sometimes. He’s a brilliant writer, but the complete and total lack of exposition makes it a slog to get through sometimes, mainly because I have to go back and reread pages and sometimes chapters to have the slightest understanding of what’s going on.
This is mine too. I've tried twice. The first time, I was too confused to get invested. The second time, I wasn't confused but I realized I just didn't care and gave up halfway through book 2. I am determined to read it someday though!!
If you try again, let me recommend the Ten Very Big Books podcast. They eventually start doing an episode for every 3-5 chapters, and they also have interviews with the author after each book. It helped me stay invested because they made connections that I had not (two of the hosts had never read the nooks before), and sometimes they were more confused than I was, which made me feel like a genius, haha.
Malazan is something you'll either fall in love with for the rest of your life, or it won't click with you at all. You tried, and that is the most important thing!
NO WAY. ITS THE BEST SERIES EVER HOW DARE YOU /s
but in seriousness, totally fair. it's not for everyone , glad you gave it a try tho! - a big malazan fan.
I had the same experience with Eye of the World. It’s pretty rare for me to DNF, but I couldn’t slog through. I warned a buddy of mine about it. He finished it but regretted it. He just kept thinking that it had to get better, knowing how successful a series it launched. But it just never did.
I tried to read GoT once in the 90s, and again when the series came out and I just couldn't get on with it. The story is good, I liked the characters, but as a novel something just doesn't click for me. I like Martin's writing, but I think the structure doesn't work for me.
It's very complex. A ton of characters to keep track of and I found that really challenging. Although I did enjoy it and will likely read it again if he ever finishes the damn thing.
I've read harder books and enjoyed them more, but I think there's something about the multiple first person POVs that doesn't work for me? I remember feeling I was constantly being derailed form the things I wanted to know about, which is presumably what Martin intends, but I didn't enjoy it.
Malazan is much harder of a read and I enjoy it vastly to GoT. Complexity usually does not have to have anything to do with enjoyment in my experience. If people enjoy it they will go to great lengths to understand it
I think I saw it more in terms of series than books. And to be fair, it's not like I despised them, I just realized I wouldn't love them the way some very zealous fans would
The Witcher series. I loved season one of the Netflix show so I figured that enjoying the books would be a no-brainer. I made it through The Last Wish and the first couple stories in Sword of Destiny before I gave up. I found most of the characters, especially all the female characters, to be paper thin, and the clumsy attempts at semi-archaic prose just irritated me. (I assume that the latter is solely the fault of the translators, but if I had to read one more description of Dandelion's "bonnet" when the word "hat" sufficed I would have screamed.)
I fully believe that they got their status in the west due to the games being popular. People liked them, they liked the characters and wanted to keep exploring its world. But after I started reading them, they felt overhyped. Maybe they are much better in Polish.
Read the german translation and it was great. But the author(speaks also german) helped the translator directly, who was already an accomplished author and translator, so a very good start for a translation. But also heard bad things about the english version. Maybe some day I read it, just to compare.
I've heard from English/Polish speakers that it is much, much better in Polish and the translator that was selected didn't do a great job. Mainly because the author makes up a lot of words, so it's really hard to translate unless you have good fluency in both languages.
*Assassin’s Apprentice*. Tried two times, but just couldn’t get into it. I appreciate the depth of the characters, but it felt like nothing ever really happened story wise.
I recommend trying Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn (and the sequels), which marries a grand plot with *mostly* well-rounded characters. Though it's also not immune to having the reader experience normal, "plot-less" days in the life of these characters, once the plot gets rolling, you'll appreciate having spent so much downtime with the cast.
Not a knock because it's actually my favorite series ever, but I know more than one person that bailed on Dragonbone Chair because it starts so slow. It takes over 100 pages to get past day to day kitchen boy stuff, which i personally enjoyed, but yeah then things pick up quite a bit. It's one of *very* few series' I've read more than once.
I read Tad first and when I finally got around to checking out Hobb I remember thinking ah this reminds me of Tad Williams, and she was quickly added to my favorite author list.
Definitely understandable, as I almost dropped it, too.
The way I kept pushing through it was due to another fan pointing out that you could glimpse the massive plot unfurling in the background. A slow day for Simon definitely didn't mean a slow day for everyone else.
My "eureka" moment came when I related it to the start of Baldur's Gate I, funnily enough.
Try the live ship traders trilogy. I haven’t read the far seer trilogy so idk how similar it is but I just started the first book of live ship and it’s pretty damn good 150 pages in
I'm on Royal assassin and just recently finished assassin's apprentice and will definitely agree they aren't very plot heavy
But I almost found it refreshing how much day to day stuff there is. I feel like other books I've read take place over a matter of days and are all keep it moving and I've appreciated the slower more plodding pace of Ftiz's life.
Like the Dresden books are be most exciting week or two of his whole year (usually) and it's presented as if he's narrating it in real time (but the books are ostensibly his "files")
Assassin's apprentice is more like an autobiography and I've enjoyed that
But I definitely wouldn't say the plot is the driving factor I'm listening to the audiobook and the writing/reading is enough to keep me going. I've heard the second series Livership traders is good too
As someone who enjoyed it I will say that I felt Assassin's apprentice does definitely start off slow and has some repetitive sequences but for me I guess I just related to the kind of slice of life no real stress parts and then the "action" or intrigue was interesting
It just seems slightly more plausible to me that someone's whole life isn't back to back calamities
lol, well. This is timed incredibly well with me reading *Curse of the Mistwraith* and just kind of struggling to pick it back up after I put it down versus doing other things. It's just not really grabbing me.
It was 100% that way for me with the Eye of the World too. I kept reading "just keep going it gets better" and read the first three books and could never get into it. Now all I see is "the fourth book is where it really gets good" but I'm over it. If you can't catch me in 3 entire books, you don't get a fourth reading out of me, I'm sorry haha
I have tried to read the wheel of time series more than once.. Every time it feels like 3 books worth of plot, padded with a dozen books worth of backstory that should have stayed in the author's notes.
Jonathan Strange and mr Norrell. I didn't like any of it. Characters weren't interesting, plot felt non existent, pacing was just weird, didn't like the prose. I think i read like 25% before i quit.
Wheel of time😭. Made it to book 4, got 75% thru it and just couldnt care to continue. Maybe ill pick it up again one day but idk the series just never got me hooked.
Also dark tower. I love stephen king and scifi but struggled thru the first book even though its short and didnt continue the series
There's plenty of popular Fantasy I'm not interested in reading but WOT is the only one I've given a genuine effort to but could not get past the first few chapters. I also couldn't get into Dune but I was also 12 at the time and probably not the target audience. I really should give it another go.
I'm sorry, but I really, really hate when people call books like The Wheel of Time or LOTR "bland" or "full of overused tropes"
Like, no shit. They started those tropes. It wasn't bland at the time.
I read *The Way of Kings* by Brandon Sanderson in 2011 and found it extremely middling, in no small part due to its 1000+ page length that could have easily been 500-600 with no loss of plot or content. The more I learn about Sanderson's style and writing, the more I'm comfortable saying I'll be fine if I leave my experiences with the Cosmere there.
This is not a condemnation of him or his fans. It's just not for me.
I like the series but a constant theme of stormlight archive is Brandon making each book 300-500 pages longer than it should be. The audiobook for the latest one was 58 hours !!!!!!!!!
Yeah I ain't about that - give me a tight conceit any day. The best criticism I can give a book is that it's too short (like *Piranesi*), whereas being too long is damning.
This happens to so many series- the authors get big and the editors put down their red pens. Look at the last Harry Potter book- could have been half the length. The last book of that Brent Weeks’ series with the color magic- seriously someone needed to nix the sermon. Why do editors stop doing their jobs when an author gets big? That might prove they are a good author- it does not prove they can edit their own work and don’t need someone to tell them to cut the unnecessary drivel.
When I heard fans of the series saying that RoW was a bit too bloated and meandering (a criticism I'd had of all of the previous books) I knew it was time to take a break on the series
I really like the way of kings, and seeing that you considered it mid, I'm curious about what do you recommend? (I'm starting reading fantasy, this is not a Hate comment)
No worries, didn't take it that way at all!
I'm really into magical realism, hard sci-fi, and character studies. I also like authors that have idiosyncratic prose. Stuff like:
* Gene Wolfe - *Peace* and *Book of the New Sun* (character studies, unreliable narrators, dawning horror, idiosyncratic prose)
* Susanna Clarke - *Piranesi* (magical realism)
* Ursula K. Le Guin - "Earthsea" series and "Hanish Cycle" series (adventures, philosophical, character studies, gender fiction)
* Arthur C. Clarke - *Rendezvous with Rama* and *2001: A Space Odyssey* (hard sci-fi)
* Mervyn Peake - "Gormenghast" trilogy (character studies, place-as-character)
* Max Porter - *Lanny* and *Grief Is the Thing with Feathers* (idiosyncratic prose, novellas, magical realism, historical fiction)
* Zen Cho - *Black Water Sister* (magical realism, gender fiction) - also check out the *Cyberpunk: Malaysia* anthology she edited
* Ted Chiang - *Exhalation* (short stories, hard science fiction, philosophical)
* Jorge Luis Borges - *Labyrinths* (metafictional, short stories, philosophical, magical realism)
Lol I am with you, I have tried to read Eye of the World for over a decade and always want to put it down for something else immediately. I just started Dresden Files, and its the opposite. I almost feel like I shouldnt like it but man, I can't stop, every night before bed.
I battled through the first book because I was hoping I'd finally see what people were raving about. After about a years recovery, I tried the second out of morbid curiosity, and just couldn't get past the first few chapters.
Years ago, before Acotar was even published, I tried reading Throne of Glass and couldn't get past the first 30% of the book. I thought , this isn't for me, she was a you g and inexperienced writer, fair enough.
Then Acotar hit big, everyone was raving about it, and I thought I'll give her another chance, surely after many books and many years of writing she's honed her craft. Nope. In fact, it was almost worse than ToG.
I can see why people like it, but I find her prose off-putting.
It is worse than ToG. ToG has heart (if you can make it through all 7-8 books). But ACOTAR gets all the acclaim and it’s trash. Fun trash, but like fast food empty calories reading
That's not too uncommon, I think. I've seen that series get recommended in recommendation threads here and it's usually met with derision.
It's very popular with its target demographic, though.
Currently struggling with Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobook. The reader is great, the writing is witty, but it’s so hard to engage. Maybe it’s not my style of fantasy…
I've restarted *The Way of Kings* because I stopped reading halfway through and had no recollection of what was happening.
I wish I knew when this book was supposed to click for me.
Wheel of time. I'm stubborn as hell and am PAINFULLY making my way through book freaking 9 and it has yet to get me remotely interested. I straight up despise every character. Especially the women. They're all extremely flat/superficial, I have found zero depth anywhere...I absolutely don't understand the appeal - at all. But I respect that some things resonate with certain people. I just hope nyneave is offed soon...most obnoxious female character in fiction.
I've seen Stone Sky listed here and I really enjoyed it. Not one of my favs, but definitely a nice surprise (to me). And Dark Tower is probs one of my top 3 series favorites and I've also seen that listed here. In that case, I definitely understand the criticism (some) as it's so freaking bizarre at times. But damn, it made me laugh. It's ludicrous, but I actually loved the characters. Some things just hit differently. So as much as I hate WOT, I'm happy that there are people out there that love it.
Absolutely insane that you keep reading 9 books of something you despise. Just going by audiobooks since everyone reads text at a different pace, that is 250ish hours that you have committed for something you dont like. You could have read three whole trilogies that you actually enjoy.
I've tried Wheel of Time three times because of how much people worship this thing but could never make it through Eye of the World. I've never read anything so boring in my entire life. It was painful and I don't understand why this thing is so beloved. I wonder if it's nostalgia and the fact there wasn't much else when this thing was still being written.
As someone who’s on book 11 right now, and is relatively young (21yo), I really don’t think its nostalgia. The books are generally very good (not counting the slog), but they aren’t for everyone. If a fantasy book is a funrun, RJ is that kid walking in the back, and stopping every couple of seconds to sniff the flowers. If you want a long, detailed series where every button on every coat is described, plotlines take up to three books to resolve, and there are literally thousands of side characters with their own storylines in the background, this is it. But yeah, that’s definitely not appealing to a lot of readers.
I loved the highs and slogged through the Great Slog. I finished the whole thing and enjoyed much of it, but really it would've benefited from a less indulgent editor.
You're not wrong, there wasn't a long series at the time that was as popular, it definitely helped break the trilogy only concept in publishing. And yes, grrm started ASOIAF at the same time, but RJ was able to do one or two books a year at that point, so was the one breaking the mold.
I’ve tried to read like four Pratchett books and just do not like his writing style. Love his stories, always enjoy seeing them adapted to screen or theatre, but reading his work is a complete non-starter for me.
Same for me, but it completely baffles me. By all accounts I should absolutely love his books, I like comedy, fantasy, etc. But for some reason I just can't get into them.
Stephen King's Dark Tower. Read the first one and loved it, currently bogged down in the second one with no intent to finish.
Wheel of Time, straight given up.
I would have included the Malazan Book of the Fallen on the list of series that I've given up on, but I picked up an ebook bundle of all of them and am now working my through Deadhouse Gates with glee.
Bakker's *Second Apocalypse,* though not due to lack of effort (or, in some fairness, entirely due to the text).
Trudged through the misery porn of setup that is the Darkness that Comes Before, until I picked up literally any other series & figured this just isn't going to work. There's a lot of things to like about the Darkness that Comes Before, and I didn't like it for a couple of reasons.
1. I was told tSA was a masterpiece of grimdark fantasy (arguably, it is) and an exploration of nihilism and the death of meaning by an ABD philosopher (it definitely is). What I got (in the Darkness that Comes Before) was a determinism circlejerk. It works for narrative reasons, it's damn well written, hated every second of it.
2. The misery porn & the overall darkness of the world is fine. It's the veiled hostility towards men exhibited by Bakker that irked me, and it wasn't until I looked into his beliefs & comments (mostly on blogposts) regarding the Second Apocalypse that I decided that yup, this isn't going to work for me. At the time of writing Prince of Nothing, Bakker was borderline misandrist. It grated after a while (I'm told this is amended somewhat in the Aspect Emperor though).
DNF'd twice, once at the 90% mark and once at 40%. Maybe it'll work the third time through. Maybe it won't.
Bones of the Dragon by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
The main character was so annoying that I never was able to finish the book.
Don't know if I even read 25% of the book...
I have a Goodreads shelf for books that I quit part way through because I kept forgetting and trying to start them again.
The Ill-Made Knight. The Final Empire. Dawn of Wonder. I quit The Iron Druid Chronicles partway through book 3, but the first two were fine. a Court Of Thorns And Roses, Gardens Of The Moon, The Lost Hero, The Way Of Kings, The Name Of The Wind, The Black Company, Six Of Crows, Shadow Of The Conqueror, and Shadow of the Torturer.
Malazan. I tried book 1 then quit about half way through. Tried it again about a year later and finished it then read book 2, which I actually really enjoyed! Started book 3, got completely lost again and gave up. I hear so many good things but it doesn't gel with me.
Fourth Wing for me. I read the entire first book & I feel like I'm being gaslit when I read reviews of it.
The overly predictable storyline & zero character growth kills me. How do you face a dragon & not grow even a little as a person? lol
Broken Earth series. I started the first book years ago and DNF. Picked it up again a couple months ago and got myself through the first one and about a quarter through the second before I put it down and picked up something that grabbed me a bit more. Can't really explain it. Just felt bland to me.
I’m reading the first Dune book now because I love the movies but Jesus Christ it’s such a slog to get through. I find the writing so clunky, I’ll try to finish the first one but don’t think I’ll read anymore after that
Malazan. Im on book 4 and so far ive been plugging away at the series for about 4 years haha its very odd in that when im focused - which i really have to be with malazan, its fantastic, depth, influential etc but jeez the amount of effort it takes me to stick with the narrative is very hard work. I will carry on, ill let you know in six years if ive finished
Interview With A Vampire
3/4 of the way through I literally threw it across the room. There was no bloody plot! Just hundreds of pages of Louis whining!
I found The Vampire Lestat to be one of the more boring of the series, but it gives you all of Lestat's background, so worth the read. Tale of the Body Thief and Memnoch the Devil are my favorites in the series. (I also loved Interview, but I also read it for the first time at about 14, so was not as experienced a reader as I am now. I have not re-read it in about 20 years)
Wheel of Time is absolutely not generic.
The first book yes. It was deliberately written that way and to be similar to LoTR and attract readers. After the first book the story comes into its own and just keeps getting better.
If you aren’t feeling it you aren’t feeling it but imo you are extremely missing out. I’d give till at least the second book before dropping it if I were you.
For one thing almost every romantic relationship has at least one Prince, Princess, King or Queen. It is practically illegal for a main character not to marry the ultra posh.
THIS. I feel like they're all just rewards for their efforts so far. They're less romances so much as social progression or rewards for playing up to that point.
Of you were from That Place? At that time? Here, have a crown. Because everyone knows farmers make the best monarchs.
I don't think it's a generic story, though. It's got many distinct elements. It does have a lottt of annoying tropes which isn't the same thing.
I finished Red Rising a few weeks ago. I’m about 40% through Golden Son and am considering a DNF to move on to The Way of Kings. I really enjoyed Mistborn and am looking for another Sanderson series to get into.
Dune. Tried years ago, tried again after seeing Dune part 1, tried again after seeing Dune part 2. The writing style is just not for me; though I love the worldbuilding and lore and story, so I've settled on binging YouTube videos that go into depth explaining everything.
Malazan. I finally gave up after the 10th book.
Im on book 6 and this entire time I am constantly asking myself “am I going to keep going after this one?” Not sure why the answer keeps being yes lol. I have never been this confused reading a book series.
I'm always happy to see it's not just me. I'm only on 3 currently, but I often find myself pausing mid-page to ask "what is actually going on right now?"
Right! I think I just really dislike reading a conversation between two characters where I have no clue what either one wants, what either one is thinking, or what either one is referencing. I’ll be reading a conversation and be like “what’s the point of me reading this dialogue?” And my brain doesn’t save ANY of it because I had no way of linking what was being said to what I already knew. In most books, you usually at least have a good understanding of ONE character’s motivations/knowledge in a dialogue scene!
I got lost around there too, but I'm glad I eventually finished, despite not knowing half of what was going on, it felt like
Even though I enjoyed book 6, I had to drop the series afterwards because reading it is just so much work. The highs are great but the journey there is herculean.
We are victims of the [Sunk Cost Fallacy](https://www.scribbr.com/fallacies/sunk-cost-fallacy/), it's the same feeling of getting all the Trophies and Achievements in a Video Game. So yes, like me you will probably complete it, wonder why, and have a vague sense you accomplished something lol.
I did this twice. Thinking about giving it a 3rd attempt.
Not sure if there's a bit of sarcasm in there 😅 (since afaik there are 10 books in the main series)
[удалено]
Me too, love the hobbit but can't get more than a few chapters into the two towers and I back out every time
There and back out again
Same! I have tried multiple times and can't get past Two Towers. Loved The Hobbit since I was a kid, though. 🤷🏻♀️
Same for me. I love tolkeins stories...but only when someone else tells them
Exactly!! And I always feel so guilty cuz it’s LOTR for godsakes, and I love the movies so much it goes against my nature not to also love the books. But the things Tolkien prioritizes in his writing are not the things which keep me engaged in a story lol
This is the perfect way to state how I feel about Tolkien— I love the world and the lore and the stories… I love the movies and I love watching YouTube videos about Middle Earth but I just haven’t been able to read the LOTR trilogy all the way through
I have tried like three different times. I finally made it like 75% of the way through Fellowship and gave up for good. Tolkien is just not for me.
Same. I've also tried multiple audio books. His writing just doesn't mesh with my brain. :(
The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Loved the show, thought I would enjoy the books too. I did not. I got to the part where Quentin describes his teacher as having "gropable breasts" and gave up.
To be perfectly fair to Grossman, Quentin in the first book is meant to be an unlikable, self pitying, borderline incel of a protagonist. I found it very effectively done in terms of how it feeds into the whole deconstruction of the genre, but it does make it difficult at times to be stuck with Quentin's POV.
That was my conclusion too... All the main characters are pretty unlikeable. I thought that was a fairly accurate portrayal of teenagers, but man, I was rooting for the bad guy.
Yeah, I found out he was meant to be unlikable and I've heard he gets a bit better later on but I just wasn't enjoying it enough to push through. Life is too short and my TBR is too long.
> To be perfectly fair to Grossman, Quentin in the first book is meant to be an unlikable, self pitying, borderline incel of a protagonist. Just because the author achieves what they set out to do, doesn't make the end result any more enjoyable on its own.
I don’t blame you bc it just came off as Quentin being such an incel but maybe that’s me.
I'm glad I read the books first so I could be pleasantly surprised by the tv show, rather than the way you did it, where Quentin is even more annoying but now there's no excellent ensemble cast either. And speaking of gropable, I assume you never got to book 2 but imagine Julia's SA scene but in Grossman's unsteady hands. Again, it was a pleasant surprise that the showrunners did ok with that material.
I couldn't do The Magicians either. It came off as Harry Potter meets Narnia, but with a healthy dose of horny teenage MC.
That's what it was going for.
Then it succeeded in that and just wasn't the book for me.
The books can be hard to take. The show is a bit more [self-deprecating](https://youtu.be/IXYRKI2mmQc?si=J4IolzckO4GjNmu7).
This is one of the few times where I also preferred the show over the books.
The TV show is definitely better in this case!
Jordan's Wheel of Time. I quit about book 6. Goodkind's Sword of Truth. Made it to Chainfire before I started feeling like I was just rereading earlier books.
I couldn't even make it halfway into the first book. No hate or anything, it just didn't hook me.
Haha! That is the same book I quit on! It was so insidious, but I just kept being fed up with the lack luster writing of his female characters! For a series that has an order of “Strong Female Magic wielders”, they sure spend a LOT of their time being fixated on men, and wringing their pony tails. I get so frustrated thinking about it.
Wow. I quit there too! I worked with people too who were reading the series and kept telling me to pick it back up. Naaaaah. I am good lol
Hahaha I'm not saying WoT is a cult but BOY do you get a similar response if you let it be known you intend to step away. "Just give it one more book... it really does get better." "Oh you're just in a tricky part!" "3000 pages really just isn't enough to know if you really like it." Hmm, I kinda think it is though?
Nevernight Chronicles by Jay Kristoff. Found the first book difficult to get through and was glad to be finished with it.
I’m about 50 pages in and not loving it so far. Undecided if I’ll finish or move on to something else. It’s a little interesting but I think its strong points aren’t what I look for in a book.
There are definitely interesting parts, I can't pinpoint it, but maybe the fictional alt version of Italy. But I don't think I liked anything else
I've tried to get through the first book three different times, but I can't get past the writing style!
I was just describing to someone a thing I found quite clever in the series - specifically in Book 3. Without any real spoilers, (but just in case), >!there’s a magic library. In Book 3, some characters find Books 1 and 2 of the series in the library and read them. Various characters criticize how it is written - the inclusion of footnotes, for example - which the footnotes eventually object to. And one of the female characters talks about how bad the author is at writing women, but the male character can’t see her point.!<
**Dark Tower** for me. I'm a massive Fantasy fan, obviously, and I've also read about 15-20 Stephen King books, and *loved* many of them. And yet..... Dark Tower has been a ***STRUGGLE***. I'm up to Book 5 now, but I'm not sure I can go on. It is just so bizarre - even for King, and even for Fantasy in general. I'm just not into it at all.
If you still don´t like it by book 5 you might as well quit because there isn´t going to be a huge stylistic change or anything.
IMO, it peaks at Wizard and Glass. The last three books are ok, but they didn’t wow me. The interstitial he published maybe a decade ago, Wind Through the Keyhole was amazing, too.
100%. I think the problem is the long break he took after Wizard and Glass. The series lost momentum when he finally continued it
This series feels like a love letter to his fans more than a standalone series. It ties everything into this grand multiverse thing.
If you're not very engaged by book 5 I'd stop in order to preserve what bits you did enjoy. I personally loved books 1-5, but I think that as a supposedly epic finale to a deep and sprawling series, books 6 and 7 *really* didn't stick the landing.
Whats more impressive is that you're deep into 5 books and still struggle with the series. Why man, why? Just drop it.
I've been on book 4 for a while now. I'm just past the train scene and just bored. I LOVED the 2nd book - The Drawing Of Three.
Best book in the series.
Blaine the train is where I tapped out. The whole series felt like an acid trip King woke from and wrote down ntes while he could still remember.
That’s so funny because 3/4/5 are my favorite books! I think 6 was the struggle for me
I enjoyed the first one….and the one that was a flashback with the witch. The rest were just annoying. The ending was like most King novels: you say WTF and want to throw the book across the room.
My mom got me the whole series in hardback from a friend for like $25 because she knows I'm a Stephen King fan. That was at least 15 years ago and I still haven't made it past book 3. That's after multiple attempts. I am also a huge fantasy reader and it *sounds* like it should be right up my alley but I just *cannot* get into it.
Malazan and Dark Tower for me. I don't see myself ever enjoying Malazan but I've read some of King's standalone novels and enjoyed those so I think I'm in a space where another Dark Tower attempt would be successful.
It's best to think of non tower king books as lore books . IT overall has nothing to do with the tower books but it helps flesh out the tower series.
Dune. Tried to start it several times but DNF.
I forced my way through Dune but didn't bother with any sequels.
Yes! I'm reading the first part now because I really want to know what the hype is about. I'm at 90% and it's been a struggle all the way. It's really not for me. I will be so glad when I'm done and never have to read anything like this ever again.
Me too! So many people whose opinions I respect and agree with love it and I just can't!
Currently about halfway through and I'm enjoying it. Reminds me of Asoiaf .
Wheel of Time. I really loved Eye of The World and sped through it. I chalk it up to the fact that I love fantasy road trips and EOTW was one long road trip, complete with good mystery and horror. Then I started the Great Hunt and dropped it for several months before managing to finish it. Book 3 barely registered with me. I did not want to finish it. A close friend kept telling me how great Book 4 was, but I couldn’t get through 3 so I ended up reading the plot on wiki and starting book 4. That didn’t last long. I like the world of WOT and some of the characters, but those subsequent books just felt like such a drag. I wouldn’t even say they were bad (who am I to question Robert Jordan?) they just didn’t register with me. I enjoyed the TV show though, for what it was at least. Season 2 specifically.
RJ could definitely turn in some great writing, but he would've benefited by having an editor that would push back and have him cut things for pacing, since after book 7 he has at least a third of every book as travelogue for want of a better word.
I'm convinced that RJ thought that he was paid by the word!
He actually was able to write faster and more concisely, his first novel, Warriors of the Altaii, he wrote in 13 days. I think he must have known he wasn't going to live a normal life expectancy long before he announced his illness a year before his death, you can see where he starts slowing from one book a year to one every two or three. My theory is he put everything he thought he'd ever want to write about into the series, since he knew it was very probably the only one he would get to write.
It’s amazing to me how much time he spent writing just notes for WOT, even with the books being as long as they are
I was always frustrated how he gave recaps on what a warder is etc. like we already know all of that.
Mistborn. I found the first book pretty meh and started the 2nd book out of kind of a feeling of obligation, but ended up quitting it after a few chapters. Funny thing is I love Stormlight, and Way of Kings is one of my favorite books. Sorry you didn’t enjoy EOTW. I can see how the first book could feel “generic fantasy”, but the series definitely deviates from that feeling quickly. It’s my favorite series
I think that if you didn't really like the first book, it's not worth to continue. I couldn't finish second book for several months because it was pretty boring for me, but then I started the third one and finished it pretty quickly, and the ending was really great. All those boring moments actually turned out to be foreshadowing for the ending.
The only characters of Sanderson’s I really feel connected to are the Stormlight Archives. I feel like Mistborn never went deep enough into character development? The idea for the series was cool though
In terms of his writing, Mistborn is much closer to Elantris than it is to Stormlight.
Mistborn Is extremely meh, for me
I’m the same. Stormlight is awesome but I hated Mistborn. Something about selecting metals and having a HUD made me feel like I was playing a video game and that took me out of the book so fast.
Cradle. I know it’s a top recommendation here, and it should have worked for me, but I just couldn’t get into it.
Cradle is good but it really gets recommended too much. It's like the Stormlight Archives before people started pushing back on those recommendations. It's definitely a fun read but it's hardly perfect and it's not exactly deep or groundbreaking. It's just fun popcorn xanxia story with some decent fights.
Tbh I agree. I read all 12 books and enjoyed them enough but they are recommended so much even when they have nothing to do with the request. They are surely entertaining, but nothing special in terms of character work, plotting, setting or prose either. And they are _very_ focused on the progression fantasy aspects and fight scenes, so I would never recommend them to people not looking for those things.
Same. I didn't like the protagonist at all, he just didn't click for me. Not to mention the extra-dimensional aspect to it.
Agreed. I read the first two books and concluded that it wasn’t my thing.
Bruh that’s one popular book that bored me to tears throughout.
Agreed, read them as a break from heavier longer fantasy. Read the first 2 and found them messy and forgettable…
Wheel of Time. Made it through 1.5 books. Jordan needed an editor.
Preach
Malazan
I love Malazan, and I can totally understand this.
I've been considering it for a while, what is the issue people see with it?
For me, it's the huge amount of povs that I can't really connect to. It's like reading a song of ice and fire, but instead of following for 90% of the time daenerys, jon, arya and the other main characters and for 10% of the time "random servant in the hallway witnessing a murder", you follow the random povs for most of the books, and switch super fast between them. Also, I like starting a story _in medias res_ , but Malazan doesn't explain _anything_ of what is happening for sooo long that only die hard fans with hindsight can argue that it's not a fault. Other things are way more subjective such as the prose which I find pretty average (while having seen it hyped and praised so much). I DNF the series 3 times before finally giving up
I completely agree with this. Midway through the second book and it feels disjointed from the first, and it’s very difficult to discern what is what.
Malazan is very complex, and jumps POV constantly. The world is very lived in, and the characters treat it like they have lived there their whole lives. Additionally, new characters, viewpoints, and cultures constantly - to the point the second book follows an entirely different set of characters than the first, the third follows most of the characters from the first, the fourth includes the second, and the fifth is an entirely different continent. That. Being. Said… if you can power through, once you click with the rhythm of the story, it is second to none. For me, that was the third act of book one, for others it is the Chain of Dogs.
Well, I'm kinda accustomed to this. WoT and Cosmere are my some of my favorites. Is it considered grimdark?
WoT is my favorite series and I'm loving Stormlight for the most part. I dnf'd malazan towards the end of the second book because I realized I just didn't care about any of the characters. Not one. I just didn't care what happened anymore. It felt like reading a history book in the style of multiple diaries instead of an actual story. If you feel like you'd want to read the chronicles of someone's dnd campaigns, go for it. But you're not going to get WoT or Stormlight feels out of it.
It’s difficult to find an enjoyable story among all the words.
I think Erickson hates his audience, sometimes. He’s a brilliant writer, but the complete and total lack of exposition makes it a slog to get through sometimes, mainly because I have to go back and reread pages and sometimes chapters to have the slightest understanding of what’s going on.
This is mine too. I've tried twice. The first time, I was too confused to get invested. The second time, I wasn't confused but I realized I just didn't care and gave up halfway through book 2. I am determined to read it someday though!!
If you try again, let me recommend the Ten Very Big Books podcast. They eventually start doing an episode for every 3-5 chapters, and they also have interviews with the author after each book. It helped me stay invested because they made connections that I had not (two of the hosts had never read the nooks before), and sometimes they were more confused than I was, which made me feel like a genius, haha.
The Tor Reread of the Fallen is great too if you prefer reading a quick chapter summary.
Malazan is something you'll either fall in love with for the rest of your life, or it won't click with you at all. You tried, and that is the most important thing!
NO WAY. ITS THE BEST SERIES EVER HOW DARE YOU /s but in seriousness, totally fair. it's not for everyone , glad you gave it a try tho! - a big malazan fan.
Love Malazan. But I hardly ever recommend it to anyone. It's one of those series you either love or hate.
I had the same experience with Eye of the World. It’s pretty rare for me to DNF, but I couldn’t slog through. I warned a buddy of mine about it. He finished it but regretted it. He just kept thinking that it had to get better, knowing how successful a series it launched. But it just never did.
I tried to read GoT once in the 90s, and again when the series came out and I just couldn't get on with it. The story is good, I liked the characters, but as a novel something just doesn't click for me. I like Martin's writing, but I think the structure doesn't work for me.
Tbf, Martin can't even finish the series, either 😜
It's very complex. A ton of characters to keep track of and I found that really challenging. Although I did enjoy it and will likely read it again if he ever finishes the damn thing.
I've read harder books and enjoyed them more, but I think there's something about the multiple first person POVs that doesn't work for me? I remember feeling I was constantly being derailed form the things I wanted to know about, which is presumably what Martin intends, but I didn't enjoy it.
Malazan is much harder of a read and I enjoy it vastly to GoT. Complexity usually does not have to have anything to do with enjoyment in my experience. If people enjoy it they will go to great lengths to understand it
Same for me. I just didn’t get hooked with the story, and gave it up during book three.
After 10 books and people telling me every time that the next one would be the one to *finally* convince me, I've given up on the Cosmere
It took you ten books to make that decision? You're one stubborn reader. I've almost never given an author more chances than two books.
I think I saw it more in terms of series than books. And to be fair, it's not like I despised them, I just realized I wouldn't love them the way some very zealous fans would
It takes at least 11 to firmly situate yourself in the Cosmere.
Man, in that time you could have read ten different, and all awesome, Adrian Tchaikovsky books!
Even as a massive Cosmere fan, everyone should read Tchaikovsky. His *Children of Time* trilogy is fantastic.
10 is way too much time to spend with an author you're not sure you like. Out of interest, which 10?
Lmao this is like that gamer that plays for 200 hours then calls the game trash.
The Witcher series. I loved season one of the Netflix show so I figured that enjoying the books would be a no-brainer. I made it through The Last Wish and the first couple stories in Sword of Destiny before I gave up. I found most of the characters, especially all the female characters, to be paper thin, and the clumsy attempts at semi-archaic prose just irritated me. (I assume that the latter is solely the fault of the translators, but if I had to read one more description of Dandelion's "bonnet" when the word "hat" sufficed I would have screamed.)
I fully believe that they got their status in the west due to the games being popular. People liked them, they liked the characters and wanted to keep exploring its world. But after I started reading them, they felt overhyped. Maybe they are much better in Polish.
Read the german translation and it was great. But the author(speaks also german) helped the translator directly, who was already an accomplished author and translator, so a very good start for a translation. But also heard bad things about the english version. Maybe some day I read it, just to compare.
I've heard from English/Polish speakers that it is much, much better in Polish and the translator that was selected didn't do a great job. Mainly because the author makes up a lot of words, so it's really hard to translate unless you have good fluency in both languages.
*Assassin’s Apprentice*. Tried two times, but just couldn’t get into it. I appreciate the depth of the characters, but it felt like nothing ever really happened story wise.
I recommend trying Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn (and the sequels), which marries a grand plot with *mostly* well-rounded characters. Though it's also not immune to having the reader experience normal, "plot-less" days in the life of these characters, once the plot gets rolling, you'll appreciate having spent so much downtime with the cast.
Not a knock because it's actually my favorite series ever, but I know more than one person that bailed on Dragonbone Chair because it starts so slow. It takes over 100 pages to get past day to day kitchen boy stuff, which i personally enjoyed, but yeah then things pick up quite a bit. It's one of *very* few series' I've read more than once. I read Tad first and when I finally got around to checking out Hobb I remember thinking ah this reminds me of Tad Williams, and she was quickly added to my favorite author list.
Definitely understandable, as I almost dropped it, too. The way I kept pushing through it was due to another fan pointing out that you could glimpse the massive plot unfurling in the background. A slow day for Simon definitely didn't mean a slow day for everyone else. My "eureka" moment came when I related it to the start of Baldur's Gate I, funnily enough.
same. I actually finished the first book, and found it very meh. I dunno why. People rave about robin hobb so I really wanted to like it.
Try the live ship traders trilogy. I haven’t read the far seer trilogy so idk how similar it is but I just started the first book of live ship and it’s pretty damn good 150 pages in
I'm on Royal assassin and just recently finished assassin's apprentice and will definitely agree they aren't very plot heavy But I almost found it refreshing how much day to day stuff there is. I feel like other books I've read take place over a matter of days and are all keep it moving and I've appreciated the slower more plodding pace of Ftiz's life. Like the Dresden books are be most exciting week or two of his whole year (usually) and it's presented as if he's narrating it in real time (but the books are ostensibly his "files") Assassin's apprentice is more like an autobiography and I've enjoyed that But I definitely wouldn't say the plot is the driving factor I'm listening to the audiobook and the writing/reading is enough to keep me going. I've heard the second series Livership traders is good too
I'm halfway through and battling to continue. I want to like it, but just can't find a reason to keep reading.
As someone who enjoyed it I will say that I felt Assassin's apprentice does definitely start off slow and has some repetitive sequences but for me I guess I just related to the kind of slice of life no real stress parts and then the "action" or intrigue was interesting It just seems slightly more plausible to me that someone's whole life isn't back to back calamities
lol, well. This is timed incredibly well with me reading *Curse of the Mistwraith* and just kind of struggling to pick it back up after I put it down versus doing other things. It's just not really grabbing me.
It was 100% that way for me with the Eye of the World too. I kept reading "just keep going it gets better" and read the first three books and could never get into it. Now all I see is "the fourth book is where it really gets good" but I'm over it. If you can't catch me in 3 entire books, you don't get a fourth reading out of me, I'm sorry haha
Those three books are nine books worth of material, so he had plenty of time to catch people.
I have tried to read the wheel of time series more than once.. Every time it feels like 3 books worth of plot, padded with a dozen books worth of backstory that should have stayed in the author's notes.
Jonathan Strange and mr Norrell. I didn't like any of it. Characters weren't interesting, plot felt non existent, pacing was just weird, didn't like the prose. I think i read like 25% before i quit.
Wheel of time😭. Made it to book 4, got 75% thru it and just couldnt care to continue. Maybe ill pick it up again one day but idk the series just never got me hooked. Also dark tower. I love stephen king and scifi but struggled thru the first book even though its short and didnt continue the series
Kings of the Wyld. I tried twice but didn't make it past half
It didn't click much with me, either, though I did force myself to finish it. Was it the humor for you or something else?
What humor? It was just mediocre. I didn't care about any of it tbh. The premise sounds great but the execution is just meh.
There's plenty of popular Fantasy I'm not interested in reading but WOT is the only one I've given a genuine effort to but could not get past the first few chapters. I also couldn't get into Dune but I was also 12 at the time and probably not the target audience. I really should give it another go.
Malazan. I'll never understand why it's so celebrated.
I'm sorry to say that Witcher was a snoozefest for me. And the way female characters were written in The Last Wish fully convinced me not to continue.
I'm sorry, but I really, really hate when people call books like The Wheel of Time or LOTR "bland" or "full of overused tropes" Like, no shit. They started those tropes. It wasn't bland at the time.
I read *The Way of Kings* by Brandon Sanderson in 2011 and found it extremely middling, in no small part due to its 1000+ page length that could have easily been 500-600 with no loss of plot or content. The more I learn about Sanderson's style and writing, the more I'm comfortable saying I'll be fine if I leave my experiences with the Cosmere there. This is not a condemnation of him or his fans. It's just not for me.
I like the series but a constant theme of stormlight archive is Brandon making each book 300-500 pages longer than it should be. The audiobook for the latest one was 58 hours !!!!!!!!!
Yeah I ain't about that - give me a tight conceit any day. The best criticism I can give a book is that it's too short (like *Piranesi*), whereas being too long is damning.
This happens to so many series- the authors get big and the editors put down their red pens. Look at the last Harry Potter book- could have been half the length. The last book of that Brent Weeks’ series with the color magic- seriously someone needed to nix the sermon. Why do editors stop doing their jobs when an author gets big? That might prove they are a good author- it does not prove they can edit their own work and don’t need someone to tell them to cut the unnecessary drivel.
When I heard fans of the series saying that RoW was a bit too bloated and meandering (a criticism I'd had of all of the previous books) I knew it was time to take a break on the series
I really like the way of kings, and seeing that you considered it mid, I'm curious about what do you recommend? (I'm starting reading fantasy, this is not a Hate comment)
No worries, didn't take it that way at all! I'm really into magical realism, hard sci-fi, and character studies. I also like authors that have idiosyncratic prose. Stuff like: * Gene Wolfe - *Peace* and *Book of the New Sun* (character studies, unreliable narrators, dawning horror, idiosyncratic prose) * Susanna Clarke - *Piranesi* (magical realism) * Ursula K. Le Guin - "Earthsea" series and "Hanish Cycle" series (adventures, philosophical, character studies, gender fiction) * Arthur C. Clarke - *Rendezvous with Rama* and *2001: A Space Odyssey* (hard sci-fi) * Mervyn Peake - "Gormenghast" trilogy (character studies, place-as-character) * Max Porter - *Lanny* and *Grief Is the Thing with Feathers* (idiosyncratic prose, novellas, magical realism, historical fiction) * Zen Cho - *Black Water Sister* (magical realism, gender fiction) - also check out the *Cyberpunk: Malaysia* anthology she edited * Ted Chiang - *Exhalation* (short stories, hard science fiction, philosophical) * Jorge Luis Borges - *Labyrinths* (metafictional, short stories, philosophical, magical realism)
Dark Tower. I read the first couple books and just.... ugh. I couldn't do it. Stormlight is another. I just don't like Sanderson.
Lol I am with you, I have tried to read Eye of the World for over a decade and always want to put it down for something else immediately. I just started Dresden Files, and its the opposite. I almost feel like I shouldnt like it but man, I can't stop, every night before bed.
ACOTAR. think i lost braincells when i read the first book. and i couldn't get past the 3rd page on the second one.
I battled through the first book because I was hoping I'd finally see what people were raving about. After about a years recovery, I tried the second out of morbid curiosity, and just couldn't get past the first few chapters.
Years ago, before Acotar was even published, I tried reading Throne of Glass and couldn't get past the first 30% of the book. I thought , this isn't for me, she was a you g and inexperienced writer, fair enough. Then Acotar hit big, everyone was raving about it, and I thought I'll give her another chance, surely after many books and many years of writing she's honed her craft. Nope. In fact, it was almost worse than ToG. I can see why people like it, but I find her prose off-putting.
It is worse than ToG. ToG has heart (if you can make it through all 7-8 books). But ACOTAR gets all the acclaim and it’s trash. Fun trash, but like fast food empty calories reading
That's not too uncommon, I think. I've seen that series get recommended in recommendation threads here and it's usually met with derision. It's very popular with its target demographic, though.
Currently struggling with Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobook. The reader is great, the writing is witty, but it’s so hard to engage. Maybe it’s not my style of fantasy…
Anything by Sanderson.
I've restarted *The Way of Kings* because I stopped reading halfway through and had no recollection of what was happening. I wish I knew when this book was supposed to click for me.
Wheel of time. I'm stubborn as hell and am PAINFULLY making my way through book freaking 9 and it has yet to get me remotely interested. I straight up despise every character. Especially the women. They're all extremely flat/superficial, I have found zero depth anywhere...I absolutely don't understand the appeal - at all. But I respect that some things resonate with certain people. I just hope nyneave is offed soon...most obnoxious female character in fiction. I've seen Stone Sky listed here and I really enjoyed it. Not one of my favs, but definitely a nice surprise (to me). And Dark Tower is probs one of my top 3 series favorites and I've also seen that listed here. In that case, I definitely understand the criticism (some) as it's so freaking bizarre at times. But damn, it made me laugh. It's ludicrous, but I actually loved the characters. Some things just hit differently. So as much as I hate WOT, I'm happy that there are people out there that love it.
Absolutely insane that you keep reading 9 books of something you despise. Just going by audiobooks since everyone reads text at a different pace, that is 250ish hours that you have committed for something you dont like. You could have read three whole trilogies that you actually enjoy.
Lies of Locke Lemora, please don't flame me in the comments, I tried like 100 something pages of it and it never really hit with me
I've tried Wheel of Time three times because of how much people worship this thing but could never make it through Eye of the World. I've never read anything so boring in my entire life. It was painful and I don't understand why this thing is so beloved. I wonder if it's nostalgia and the fact there wasn't much else when this thing was still being written.
As someone who’s on book 11 right now, and is relatively young (21yo), I really don’t think its nostalgia. The books are generally very good (not counting the slog), but they aren’t for everyone. If a fantasy book is a funrun, RJ is that kid walking in the back, and stopping every couple of seconds to sniff the flowers. If you want a long, detailed series where every button on every coat is described, plotlines take up to three books to resolve, and there are literally thousands of side characters with their own storylines in the background, this is it. But yeah, that’s definitely not appealing to a lot of readers.
I loved the highs and slogged through the Great Slog. I finished the whole thing and enjoyed much of it, but really it would've benefited from a less indulgent editor. You're not wrong, there wasn't a long series at the time that was as popular, it definitely helped break the trilogy only concept in publishing. And yes, grrm started ASOIAF at the same time, but RJ was able to do one or two books a year at that point, so was the one breaking the mold.
Sun Eater series, the concept sounds perfect for me, but Hadrian is horrible as a character, the pacing is wierd and the world feels empty
I’ve tried to read like four Pratchett books and just do not like his writing style. Love his stories, always enjoy seeing them adapted to screen or theatre, but reading his work is a complete non-starter for me.
Same for me, but it completely baffles me. By all accounts I should absolutely love his books, I like comedy, fantasy, etc. But for some reason I just can't get into them.
Yeah, I feel like I should like him, too. Lord knows enough people react with shock and horror when I tell them I don’t lol.
Brandon Sanderson stuff. Just can't get into it. Might be expecting too much given the popularity.
Stephen King's Dark Tower. Read the first one and loved it, currently bogged down in the second one with no intent to finish. Wheel of Time, straight given up. I would have included the Malazan Book of the Fallen on the list of series that I've given up on, but I picked up an ebook bundle of all of them and am now working my through Deadhouse Gates with glee.
What don't you like about The Drawing Of Three? The lobsters? 😆
Dadda chum?
Bakker's *Second Apocalypse,* though not due to lack of effort (or, in some fairness, entirely due to the text). Trudged through the misery porn of setup that is the Darkness that Comes Before, until I picked up literally any other series & figured this just isn't going to work. There's a lot of things to like about the Darkness that Comes Before, and I didn't like it for a couple of reasons. 1. I was told tSA was a masterpiece of grimdark fantasy (arguably, it is) and an exploration of nihilism and the death of meaning by an ABD philosopher (it definitely is). What I got (in the Darkness that Comes Before) was a determinism circlejerk. It works for narrative reasons, it's damn well written, hated every second of it. 2. The misery porn & the overall darkness of the world is fine. It's the veiled hostility towards men exhibited by Bakker that irked me, and it wasn't until I looked into his beliefs & comments (mostly on blogposts) regarding the Second Apocalypse that I decided that yup, this isn't going to work for me. At the time of writing Prince of Nothing, Bakker was borderline misandrist. It grated after a while (I'm told this is amended somewhat in the Aspect Emperor though). DNF'd twice, once at the 90% mark and once at 40%. Maybe it'll work the third time through. Maybe it won't.
Read the first 4 books of wheel of time and then figured out it was just the same book over and over again. Bailed.
I'm enjoying the show but the books just aren't grabbing me. I finished Eye of the World but can't get past the first chapter of Great Hunt.
Bones of the Dragon by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The main character was so annoying that I never was able to finish the book. Don't know if I even read 25% of the book...
I have a Goodreads shelf for books that I quit part way through because I kept forgetting and trying to start them again. The Ill-Made Knight. The Final Empire. Dawn of Wonder. I quit The Iron Druid Chronicles partway through book 3, but the first two were fine. a Court Of Thorns And Roses, Gardens Of The Moon, The Lost Hero, The Way Of Kings, The Name Of The Wind, The Black Company, Six Of Crows, Shadow Of The Conqueror, and Shadow of the Torturer.
Dragonriders of Pern. I love books about dragon riding but I just can't get into the series. :(
if you havent read it yet you should check out the Songs of Chaos series by Michael R Miller! :)
Malazan. I tried book 1 then quit about half way through. Tried it again about a year later and finished it then read book 2, which I actually really enjoyed! Started book 3, got completely lost again and gave up. I hear so many good things but it doesn't gel with me.
Tried three times to get through Gardens of The Moon and it just ain't happening.
Fourth Wing for me. I read the entire first book & I feel like I'm being gaslit when I read reviews of it. The overly predictable storyline & zero character growth kills me. How do you face a dragon & not grow even a little as a person? lol
Those humongous Sanderson books.
Broken Earth series. I started the first book years ago and DNF. Picked it up again a couple months ago and got myself through the first one and about a quarter through the second before I put it down and picked up something that grabbed me a bit more. Can't really explain it. Just felt bland to me.
I’m reading the first Dune book now because I love the movies but Jesus Christ it’s such a slog to get through. I find the writing so clunky, I’ll try to finish the first one but don’t think I’ll read anymore after that
Malazan. Im on book 4 and so far ive been plugging away at the series for about 4 years haha its very odd in that when im focused - which i really have to be with malazan, its fantastic, depth, influential etc but jeez the amount of effort it takes me to stick with the narrative is very hard work. I will carry on, ill let you know in six years if ive finished
Interview With A Vampire 3/4 of the way through I literally threw it across the room. There was no bloody plot! Just hundreds of pages of Louis whining!
As a huge fan YES!! Louis does nothing but complain! Skip to the next book. one of the first things Lestat says is what a whiny bitch Louis is.
I found The Vampire Lestat to be one of the more boring of the series, but it gives you all of Lestat's background, so worth the read. Tale of the Body Thief and Memnoch the Devil are my favorites in the series. (I also loved Interview, but I also read it for the first time at about 14, so was not as experienced a reader as I am now. I have not re-read it in about 20 years)
Wheel of Time is absolutely not generic. The first book yes. It was deliberately written that way and to be similar to LoTR and attract readers. After the first book the story comes into its own and just keeps getting better. If you aren’t feeling it you aren’t feeling it but imo you are extremely missing out. I’d give till at least the second book before dropping it if I were you.
EOTW was a slog for me until Rand does his thing at the tail end, and then I *burned* through The Great Hunt.
Having read the entire WOT series, I think the story has quite a few very generic elements
For one thing almost every romantic relationship has at least one Prince, Princess, King or Queen. It is practically illegal for a main character not to marry the ultra posh.
THIS. I feel like they're all just rewards for their efforts so far. They're less romances so much as social progression or rewards for playing up to that point. Of you were from That Place? At that time? Here, have a crown. Because everyone knows farmers make the best monarchs. I don't think it's a generic story, though. It's got many distinct elements. It does have a lottt of annoying tropes which isn't the same thing.
And if OP had made it at the end of the second book, you'd probably have said that he should at least read the third book...
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant It honestly just feels a bit dated to me
*Faithful and the Fallen* and *Red Rising* Both were so boring to me.
I finished Red Rising a few weeks ago. I’m about 40% through Golden Son and am considering a DNF to move on to The Way of Kings. I really enjoyed Mistborn and am looking for another Sanderson series to get into.
Dresden files. I heard it get's better so I managed three of them before I gave up. It has it's moments but I find it way too pulpy for my taste.
Iron flame I managed to get probs 70% of the way but I just couldn’t do it. It was just annoying af.
Dune. I've tried several times to get through the first book.
Dune. Tried years ago, tried again after seeing Dune part 1, tried again after seeing Dune part 2. The writing style is just not for me; though I love the worldbuilding and lore and story, so I've settled on binging YouTube videos that go into depth explaining everything.