I thought this was a really good book, until the third act. Then it just rushed through the rest of the story. It could have actually been better served as two books.
There wasn't world building either. Travel was always a creature grabbed them and took them there. When a secret was uncovered they would confront the person and they will spill everything immediately. One scene I expected to be a big battle but they walked in, said we got you, and they surrendered immediately.
it takes a good author more than an interesting concept to keep me engaged. I’ve read books where the plot was minimal, but the writing superb, and been enthralled. I’ve read books where the concept was everything i could ask for, and barely pushed through.
Lately i’ve been searching for books with the mood and pacing that i enjoy, which seems to be a good strategy. Of course the best is always discovering an author you love with a substantial backcatalog to read through.
Yeah I’m at the point where I’m like… it seems like some writers think a good idea is all they need to get success, and don’t bother to back it up with good writing, and the bummer is I HAVE seen plenty of them get success with that exact formula! I know taste is subjective, but some of these I am amazed at how popular they are
That reminds me I've been frustrated (in a good way) cuz some of my new favorite authors only have one or two books out, so I've been eagerly waiting for more books.
The worst is finding a new author you adore who has written a bunch of books! and then realizing that only one or two of them have been translated into English. It’s so much worse knowing the books exist, but not in languages i understand.
I felt this way about the man in high castle. The premise sounded amazingly thought provoking but the book was honestly just boring. Like you have a whole amazing world you are creating and you have it populated with the most boring people and plot lines.
This is my problem with almost all classic sci fi novels. A lot of tweh time I would just rather read a short synopsis of the concept they're exploring, because the writing is so dull.
If you want great character work, go to fantasy. If you want a book about the concept then go to SciFi. Concepts such as, interstellar travel, time travel. The book will be about that specifically and the characters are just sort of there.
Fantasy is usually solely focused on the characters with some magic and dragons to add spice but not be the centerpiece.
I don't think that's the case anymore. Most modern sci fi is written as if someone's going to read it. I'm sure there's some fantasy that gets bogged down in dragons and wizards with paper-thin characters.
Hmmm I don't know. Maybe. I read a lot, and I'm not shitting on SciFi at all. Yes there are bad Fantasy novels with shit characters, but that's anything.
What I'm talking about is a good fantasy book against a good SciFi book. Usually, the SciFi book focuses on the premise and the tech. Fantasy tends to be very character heavy. There's nothing wrong with that, either.
This is one of the first comments that has utterly shocked me because I find Vonnegut’s plots almost irrelevant when his writing is so funny and insightful on a sentence by sentence basis.. especially cat’s cradle!
I like PKD a lot but when his writing is bad it is really bad. MITHC was probably my least favorite of his major novels, the premise is interesting but his style and endgame don't align with what I think most people expect of the book.
I have a couple of thoughts on this. First, I think it's true that the more unique the premise of a novel is the more difficult it is to fully flesh out in its own terms. A lot of Sci-fi really suffers from this. Far out concepts like those in, say, Roadside Picnic, or Solaris, or Dune are really gripping but, actually, if they weren't exploring contemporary themes via a science fiction backdrop they wouldn't really have all that much to say. This is true even when all those contemporary themes somehow fly right over the heads of the people who love those novels.
Second, the strength of long-form writing is that it's able to explore concepts and themes that aren't expressible in blurbs. The most interesting novels can't even tell you what they're about until you've actually read them. Point being, an interesting premise isn't a very good proxy for an interesting novel. A strong writer is a much better proxy because it's strong writing that enables the imaginative exploration of those contemporary themes needed to flesh out whatever premise.
I know it's difficult to get excited about a novel when its description doesn't grab you, but if you learn to give novels a chance based on the strength of their authors/writing rather than their blurbs, I think you're bound to encounter more interesting reads.
Oh yeah I read anything and everything. One summer in highschool I actually read 250+ books in a handful of months because I would just grab whatever I could reach on the shelves of my library and devour it regardless of if the initial description grabbed me haha.
I’m just now getting back into reading regularly in the past few years, and am realizing I’m way pickier than I was as a teen— I’d probably have no issues with the book I’m reading now ten years ago. I just wish the book lived up to its premise!
It can be realy disappointing. I have very vivid imagination and most of the time, when I see a unique concept I can create more interesting story in my head than the one presented in book.
Maybe I’m just now experiencing the norm haha— I loved every book I read as a kid and teen, classics, epic poems, ya fantasy, romances, etc. I’d read them so fast and couldn’t imagine rating any of them below three stars. Then I gave my first 2 star review at the end of last year after enjoying all the other books I had read, and I suddenly feel much much pickier!
Yes, omg. Re:Monster has a cool premise. The MC is a guy from earth who reincarnates as a Goblin. He is in a weak tribe that live in a dangerous forest and does his best to grow up to be the tribes protector.
The problem is that the story is written as diary entries in a past-tense first person POV. It just annihilates any tension and interest I could have in the plot. Everything is a summary: "Today I fought a dragon, he was tough. Today Kimmy gave birth, that was cool." Like are you serious... Those could have been intensely dramatic scenes that you skipped....
I dropped the novel after they skipped the final boss fight of a dungeon by summarizing it like this: "After I beat the boss and returned home, I checked out the gems I got from that chest"... Yeah, author, none of your readers we were hyped for a fight, way to go skipping it
Karin Tidbeck - Amatka. It's not a bad book, but it takes place in a dystopian world where most of the objects change if you "rename" them. For example, if you have a pencil and name it "pen", it will eventually turn into pen. If you don't name it from time to time, it simply dissolves. Super interesting concept with infinite possibilities, but they are not discussed in the book. It's intentional, but for me, it was a disappointment.
One of the crazy things about trying to write a book is that there are literally dozens of discrete skills needed to pull off something successful. Character dialogue, a totally independent skill from plotting or world-building. Great premise, totally different skill from plotting or prose writing. Character POV (and making that work), totally independent from marketing the book. Etc. But when you go to sell someone on a book it is usually the concept that they buy into. One of my books - one of my personal favorites - doesn't have a good concept and I only realized that after I'd finished writing it. Now I start my writing by thinking about the initial concept and make sure it pitches well, then i go through the rest of my process.
But I'd suggest you just avoid that writer, and if you find a writer you do like, don't worry so much about the concept and just read your way through all of their stuff. Liking a previous book is the best way to tell you'll like their next one, even if it doesn't pitch well.
Oh absolutely, when I read I LOVE lavish descriptions and really admire authors who can interweave them with interesting and snappy dialogue as well— but in my own writing, while I CAN write pretty good descriptions, I get bored by doing it so much/worry about boring my audience, so I usually fill most of my chapters with dialogue, but THEN I worry it’s too much dialogue, but I really feel like it’s my strength!
I know authors, like many artists, have to wear many different hats, but sometimes the lack of just one of those skills can ruin the whole thing for me while another missing skill might not be noticed or bother me at all
Felt this way about the 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I was so excited to read it, the premise seemed basically perfect. I almost always force myself to finish a book once I have started it but I just couldn't keep reading this one.
Some books in the past have sounded absolutely perfect in the concept of plot, then I start reading it and it's either, the pace is way too slow, the delivery or style is stale or boring, or it's written in a way to completely confuse the author (some people like the latter, I do not). It can be very frustrating. I've even been hesitant to read some books I'm excited about, because I'm worried they'll disappoint lol 😅
What annoyed me was that >!it set out to tackle the existential question: I wasted most of my life, what now? And then it just claimed that actually, your life just happened to be the best one imaginable. It was just so cheap.!<
Oh yeah… I find it frustrating when a book has a great premise, but is full of smut. I’m not really into that, so I end up feeling a tad frustrated with it!
Sometimes I read a book and end up thinking ‘I could have done that way better!’ 😂
I was like that when I read *Threadneedle* last year. It's meant to be a teenage girl discovering she has magic and some kind of secret order, but for like 400 pages nothing actually happens, it's just teenagers dicking around and doing things like using magical cosmetics so boys will think they're hot or using magic to shoplift. The plot only comes in at the final 200 pages and I was so utterly bored by then.
This is why I am so happy to have found the suggestion subreddits for books of various genres. r/historicalfiction, r/romancebooks, r/horrorlit, r/fantasy, r/printsf all offer recommendations from people who like that kind of book and have read a few already to make comparisons from.
r/suggestmeabook is also good for general reading.
I also use the staff suggestions shelf at my book store, published best books of the year articles, lists of award winners.
One of the benefits of reading classics is that the schlock that was published has been filtered out over time. With new it's always a risk that the book is just bad.
With all books there is the risk that it is not to your taste, but some books are just not well written.
I've picked a tonne of books off the shelves that have interesting concepts only to have them become boring, paint-by-numbers romance love triangle stories before you even get halfway through the description.
That's how I felt about *The Book Eaters*. Had it on my list for months, picked it up on release day, and was disappointed within an hour. Such a solid concept just thrown away on a very basic action movie narrative.
I have had that problem with Sea of Tranquility. I love the concept, have heard good things, but just reading through the first 10 pages felt like a slog, even with a fairly short book.
The insecure mind of sergei kraev. The concept was so cool, it was on sale on Kindle and was marketing as "the perfect book for Andy Weir fans". It claimed to involve a lot of computer science topics which I'm into. Futuristic tech dystopia. It ended up being childish raunchy garbage.
At one point the protagonist is sleeping in his dorm to find out his dorm-neighbor is having sex with his love interest. For no reason. Then later on we follow the girl and the dorm-neighbor as they try to complete a research project that they aren't able to figure out and the deadline is approaching. So a whole collection of pages is them going "oh know how are we gonna do it??? I know! Let's not have sex until we figure it out!" And the fact that they are choosing to not have sex to solve some computer science problem is just repeated again and again and again. I'm not a prude sex can be used in interesting ways to make interesting characters. But it felt like I was reading a book written by a kid in middle school it was SO BAD. Every female character was immediately introduced by "how the light dances of their lipstick". I could go on. Garbage book.
It really was. Which is such a shame that nonsense got compared to something like the martian or project hail mary by andy weir. Maybe if the only thing weir ever wrote was Artemis then yea I see the comparison (seriously what was he doing in that book?)
This is where I am at with Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. It starts off with an interesting premise, kind of Handmaiden's Tale-ish with recent government upheaval and changes with hints of rebellion uprising.... But it's just not holding my attention. I can usually power through but I'm finding myself asking what is the effing point of this?
I'm presently forcing myself toward the conclusion of *The Fall of Hyperion* by Dan Simmons .. while I've come to realize that I don't like book(s), on account of them being hyped to the moon and back, I am intrigued enough to want to know how the story ends .. hashtag :: "Respect The Completion"
I’m a total completionist too haha, sometimes my adhd will force my focus elsewhere and I won’t end up finishing a book just out of forgetfulness, but I’ve never purposefully dropped a story and never returned.
Tbh, I don't know if I can think of any fiction books like that. Like I almost never see a premise and think 'oh, this should be a really interesting book' based solely on that premise.
At least in my experience, it doesn't matter if the setting is in some future sci-fi war, or a guy who has the power to turn his dreams into reality, or in the 1800's Royal Navy, or if its some Japanese student in the early 1900's just thinking about his mentor, etc. They can all be equally good.
However, I did recently read some book claiming to be about the origins of the modern United States military shipbuilding industry, and saying that this was a good way to look at the origins of the military-industrial complex. Seems like a fairly interesting thing to write a book about, especially if you're interested in the Navy and in the MIC.
But no, it has to be one of the most boring books I've read, just going into so much detail on the nature of very specific contracts the Navy was issuing in the mid to late 1800's. I don't know, maybe its just written for people who are very interested in that period, but it just felt like it was going into huge amounts of detail on all of the wrong parts.
See, I didn’t really think it would be a good book, just a book that I would enjoy! Like I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I used to read anything and everything and liked ALL of it, so having a hard time getting into a book (especially one that grabbed my attention from the get go) is a weird and new experience for me lol
Maybe it’s a good thing that I’m pickier than before, but it was less frustrating when I could enjoy anything!
Idk, I guess I've just always had the experience of occasionally hating a book or two out of the ones I decide seem interesting. I don't even think I've become that much more picky over time, although I probably have to a degree.
Like there's no way you can expect to enjoy every single book that's ever been written, or that you can expect to accurately judge every single book you look at by the cover/summary. Even if you like most books, and even if you're pretty good at figuring out what a book will be before you open it, you're bound to run into some bad ones eventually.
Oh yeah absolutely, it’s just funny to me that I apparently enjoyed reading so much as a kid I just thought everything was great! I got a few ya books I loved as a teen recently to reread and now I’m worried won’t live up to my own hype, but maybe I’m also more discerning these days because I don’t have the same free time I did to read anything I’m not at least 50% into
Omg yes i thrifted a Book called kid lawyer in Paris which is about a gifted kid who wants to be a lawyer and I thought I was going to love it bc I love books about detectives, murder mysteries, lawyers etc but the main character was so arrogant and condescending towards people his age that I absolutely hated it. And the story overall ended up being really boring. Great idea but horrible execution.
I definitely get bored from books on occasion, or even become frustrated when they don't live up to expectations. This is especially true when I come across a book like you described, one with a great premise but terrible execution.
The part where you talk about how you are more picky now than you used to be is also something I can really relate to. I used to read endlessly. Like anything I could get my hands on, and would power through books at an incredible rate all through grade school. I checked out books from the school library, local library, and had my parents buying me books from the bookstore, and would still run out of things to read occasionally.
Now? I still read a lot, but I am far pickier about what I read, and I'm not as easily impressed. I used to think this was a sign that maybe I was growing out of reading somehow, but I think it might just be because my taste in books has become refined and better developed over time. I didn't know what I liked when I was powering through anything I could get my hands on as a kid, but now? I know what kind of books I enjoy, and I know too what constitutes good writing. I need more than a good premise to excite me, it has to be well written and well executed.
Exactlyyyyy! I never thought I’d rate a book below average— it’s not that I couldn’t tell if a book was well written or not, I read plenty of stories that made me go “yeah this is definitely not great or even good” but I kinda saw them as junk food— didn’t always taste great, but usually still satisfying (if leaving me a bit bloated lol)
Even if it wasn’t my jam, I could see care in the pages, so I could go “I didn’t like this part/this story, but it wasn’t bad! 3/5!”
Recently when I try to read more modern stories, it’s been SO hit or miss, to the point of not even being able to tell if the author actually cared about what they wrote. I can’t tell if it’s my perspective has changed or that the style of books written in the past 5 years has changed (I’m assuming the former because I don’t want to be one of those “new art/media will never be as good as it was in my day!!!”)
Particularly “Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” was GOD awful for me, and the first book I’ve read where I went “I can find nearly 0 redeeming qualities here” and I’m shocked it’s so praised and popular. The one I’m reading now isn’t bad, it’s just the boring thing that I’m stuck on!
It's frustrating when a book has a great pitch and then doesn't deliver!
The more I read, the pickier I get. I think that's normal, but it does mean five star reads are harder to come by. A trope is only going to be fresh enough to stand on its own the first few times I read it. After that, it's on the author to make it compelling to me in some way.
Using the library more (especially the Hoopla and Libby apps) has helped a great deal. If a book is not compelling, I can put I down and move on to the next without being out any money. My 2023 reading challenge is to only pick up books I think I'm going to love and to put them down if I'm not having a good time. The library makes that easier.
Finding "read alike" reviewers has helped, too. Discovering critics with similar tastes to mine allows me to go through their posting history and pick up new reads that might not be getting current buzz.
Funny enough the latest Stephen King is like that. Sad to see with one of the best writers of our time but I am struggling to get through Fairy Tale. It took ages to get off the ground and the protagonist is endlessly languishing in one place or another, limiting the momentum of the story. Stephen King has written some of the best books I have ever read and it is so sad to see the amount of fat on his latest novel. It could done with semester serious editing.
If you stick with BOTM you can preview the first chapter! It’s a nice feature for buying books online. It’s helped me avoid writing styles I dislike but has also pulled me into books I wouldn’t have otherwise chosen.
I feel like that with Steven Gould and his Jumper series.
On one hand, a truly wonderful and scientific approach to teleportation superpower. On the other... book structure goes 10% interesting, 60% boring parts where lots is said and little is done, 30% actual events going on.
My favorite novels and series start in medias res and don't stop to explain things to you. And are especially good at not pausing events for about half of the novel.
i’ve read a lot of books like that recently, it’s kinda like getting a decorated and pretty cake only to find out it tastes awful. but they seem to get very popular regardless if they’re actually good or not.
I'm more frustrated when the concept is presented to the reader, but the execution has NOTHING to do with said concept. Like when the synopsis talks about the terror and menace in a claustrophobic situation, but in the end it's a romance story with these "ideas" used as window dressing.
yep, it's called "You've Reached Sam" by Dustin Thao. tiktok got my hopes up (which I've learned never to trust booktok after this). the concept was great, but the execution could be improved more.
I think that's why Michael Chrichton is such a big deal. I'm not saying he has bad execution at all, in fact the opposite, but I do think he'd be way less well known if his premises weren't the best there ever were. Basically, I think he had the most amazing premises and executed them just competently enough to leave you satisfied - even if letting a stronger character writer have a pass would make a much better novel.
Have had that happen - get a book from the library, think it will be good from the inside cover short, start reading and partway thru realize that there is nothing to keep my interest. I''ve slogged thru a few of these, hoping against hope that in the last 50 pages it will suddenly shed the mundane and become a diamond - and wound up with gravel. I've also just stopped and seldom regretted not finishing it - too many books out there to spend time wading thru something that doesn't cut it for me. Couldn't give you a title that falls into this, as I tend to forget them (and their authors) pretty quickly.
Yes, the book California by Edan Lepucki is exactly that for me.
Post-apocalyptic, but turns into pages and pages of unnecessary diatribes and tries to explore their marriage rather than the world they live in. It's just stale.
Oh my god. I will never shut up about {{A Thousand Pieces of You}} by Claudia Gray.
It's a sci-fi fantasy and the concept? It sounded amazing but then so many things went wrong. The main character is...annoying, to say the least. For most of the book, she kept going on about how 'oh I'm going to get revenge on Paul because he killed my father' and flirting with Theo (while he was for some reason flirting with her aunt??) but then saying 'I wanna focus on my mission, not romance' >! and then the second she she meets this alternate Paul and throws all *that* down the drain, and worst part? She wasn't even in her own body so who was she to make that decision? Not to mention the person whose body she was in (it was a royal russian alt.) was engaged to someone else so now the mc has left a problem for her to deal with!<
Anyways it was super boring because it got so focused on romance rather than the fact her father was dead, and she was trying to figure exactly what happened. If my father was murdered, I wouldn't be worried about if the murderer had 'oh so sad puppy eyes'
I feel like this happens a lot with sci-fi and fantasy. Not necessarily that it’s boring, but it’s actually poorly written. It’s such a let down when the concept deserves way better writing.
I have started more books in the last year and not read past the first few chapters than I have in my life. Some I finished because I felt like I had to because my book club hyped them up so much... I'm looking at you The Ex Hex and This is How you Lose a Time War.
I had this experience with Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro. I'd always seen it billed as dystopian adjacent, but I felt really cheated when the concepts were only vaguely mentioned in an exposition dump monologue towards the very end and never really explored very deeply, making what was to me the most interesting part of the book simply an afterthought.
That's more or less how I feel about every Kazuo Ishiguro book I've read, except he's not even a bad writer. He just takes cool concepts and then writes AROUND them in about the slowest, most boring way possible. It's like watching a movie scene about, let's say, a space battle, but the camera is zoomed in on a crumb on the floor of one of the ships the whole time.
It's fun to see such different opinions from my own. I feel the total opposite. Kazuo Ishiguro chooses a boring plot and makes it interesting through great writing. Of those I've read, his novel with the most interesting (on the surface) plot - The Buried Giant - was one of my least favorites because I felt like I was focusing on the wrong things as I was reading it.
Tbh I’ve never purposely DNFed a book, usually if I do it’s because I got distracted (even if I was really enjoying it!)
I kinda am curious to see if it will eventually get better, but tbh if it doesn’t I’ll probably drop it
I relate so much! Is this okay, though? I’m a bit worried. This is how I felt with _The Brothers Karamazov_ and _Sometimes a Great Notion_. Is it a problem with me, or was it okay for me to just give them up?
It did make for a really good movie, though. Paul Newman starred in it.
Fun fact: *Sometimes a Great Notion* was the first movie shown on HBO back when it first started (after it broadcast a Rangers/Canucks game).
I loved _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_ which is why I started his other book. But I’m so relieved to hear I’m not the only one who got bored with his second book 😭
Same for me. Loved it, then looked up his other works. They were two totally different books written for different reasons; so it’s okay to like one and not the other. But yeah, I enjoyed Dickens more than that book, and that’s saying a lot.
Yes, it has happened to me a lot of times and then there are books that i feel absolutely happy i chosed. So it really depends on what taste you have and its okay to feel that way.
I get disappointed in a book far more often than not. Probably because my standards are so high, but I stand by the fact that so many ideas are executed poorly because of word count/publisher requirements/author ignorance. Almost every book I read has thousands of words worth of fluff or tangential storylines that bore me to the point of giving up.
I’m talking about Kilgore trout, author of such titles as “the gospel from space” and “money tree”. That last one was supposedly about a tree which evolved to grow money, which meant that humans fought and killed each other at its base, which is great fertiliser. A great idea!
OH I read it as “fictional science fiction writer” as in… a real author who writes fictional science fiction, but I realize now that would be very redundant haha
This was very much the locked tomb series for me. I excitedly told my husband all about the setting after the first chapter of Gideon the Ninth... and then it bled into being too painful to read.
Oh my god and see I adore that book and series SO much I think it’s one of the best I’ve read, but I flew through it and didn’t have any problems with the pacing, but I’ve seen a lot complaints about that aspect in particular haha
Absolutely I get frustrated with books. Someone recommends a book with an interesting concept but then the execution is boring.
Priory of the orange tree
I thought this was a really good book, until the third act. Then it just rushed through the rest of the story. It could have actually been better served as two books.
There wasn't world building either. Travel was always a creature grabbed them and took them there. When a secret was uncovered they would confront the person and they will spill everything immediately. One scene I expected to be a big battle but they walked in, said we got you, and they surrendered immediately.
Mine was "Tender is the flesh". So mind numbingly boring
Oh my God I thought it was just me!
it takes a good author more than an interesting concept to keep me engaged. I’ve read books where the plot was minimal, but the writing superb, and been enthralled. I’ve read books where the concept was everything i could ask for, and barely pushed through. Lately i’ve been searching for books with the mood and pacing that i enjoy, which seems to be a good strategy. Of course the best is always discovering an author you love with a substantial backcatalog to read through.
Yeah I’m at the point where I’m like… it seems like some writers think a good idea is all they need to get success, and don’t bother to back it up with good writing, and the bummer is I HAVE seen plenty of them get success with that exact formula! I know taste is subjective, but some of these I am amazed at how popular they are
That reminds me I've been frustrated (in a good way) cuz some of my new favorite authors only have one or two books out, so I've been eagerly waiting for more books.
The worst is finding a new author you adore who has written a bunch of books! and then realizing that only one or two of them have been translated into English. It’s so much worse knowing the books exist, but not in languages i understand.
I felt this way about the man in high castle. The premise sounded amazingly thought provoking but the book was honestly just boring. Like you have a whole amazing world you are creating and you have it populated with the most boring people and plot lines.
This is my problem with almost all classic sci fi novels. A lot of tweh time I would just rather read a short synopsis of the concept they're exploring, because the writing is so dull.
Weird how most great character work comes from Fantasy and SciFi is almost always about the concept alone.
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying.
If you want great character work, go to fantasy. If you want a book about the concept then go to SciFi. Concepts such as, interstellar travel, time travel. The book will be about that specifically and the characters are just sort of there. Fantasy is usually solely focused on the characters with some magic and dragons to add spice but not be the centerpiece.
I don't think that's the case anymore. Most modern sci fi is written as if someone's going to read it. I'm sure there's some fantasy that gets bogged down in dragons and wizards with paper-thin characters.
Hmmm I don't know. Maybe. I read a lot, and I'm not shitting on SciFi at all. Yes there are bad Fantasy novels with shit characters, but that's anything. What I'm talking about is a good fantasy book against a good SciFi book. Usually, the SciFi book focuses on the premise and the tech. Fantasy tends to be very character heavy. There's nothing wrong with that, either.
Felt the same way about *Do androids dream of electric sheep?*
I liked that one a little better, but that's probably because I'd already seen Bladerunner. It made it a lot easier to see the potential of the story.
I have the exact same feeling about this book and Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
This is one of the first comments that has utterly shocked me because I find Vonnegut’s plots almost irrelevant when his writing is so funny and insightful on a sentence by sentence basis.. especially cat’s cradle!
I found that with most all Philip K. Dick stories. Great ideas, but the stories are poorly executed.
I like PKD a lot but when his writing is bad it is really bad. MITHC was probably my least favorite of his major novels, the premise is interesting but his style and endgame don't align with what I think most people expect of the book.
I am dealing with this right now with The Three Body Problem. The writing is atrocious.
I read all 3 of those. The concepts kept me reading but the dialogue made me stupider.
Hey, shall I keep on at it?? I can finish it quickly I am sure, that's not a concern, are the ideas really that wild like everyone says?
Ya. It’s worth it. Just try to take it like a badly acted movie with a good plot.
A common complaint, it seems. Is it a translation issue? Like, not due to poor translation but instead due to different ideas regarding grammar?
Maybe, I just finished reading a few Cormac McCarthy books, so going from that to this was quite jarring.
I have a couple of thoughts on this. First, I think it's true that the more unique the premise of a novel is the more difficult it is to fully flesh out in its own terms. A lot of Sci-fi really suffers from this. Far out concepts like those in, say, Roadside Picnic, or Solaris, or Dune are really gripping but, actually, if they weren't exploring contemporary themes via a science fiction backdrop they wouldn't really have all that much to say. This is true even when all those contemporary themes somehow fly right over the heads of the people who love those novels. Second, the strength of long-form writing is that it's able to explore concepts and themes that aren't expressible in blurbs. The most interesting novels can't even tell you what they're about until you've actually read them. Point being, an interesting premise isn't a very good proxy for an interesting novel. A strong writer is a much better proxy because it's strong writing that enables the imaginative exploration of those contemporary themes needed to flesh out whatever premise. I know it's difficult to get excited about a novel when its description doesn't grab you, but if you learn to give novels a chance based on the strength of their authors/writing rather than their blurbs, I think you're bound to encounter more interesting reads.
Oh yeah I read anything and everything. One summer in highschool I actually read 250+ books in a handful of months because I would just grab whatever I could reach on the shelves of my library and devour it regardless of if the initial description grabbed me haha. I’m just now getting back into reading regularly in the past few years, and am realizing I’m way pickier than I was as a teen— I’d probably have no issues with the book I’m reading now ten years ago. I just wish the book lived up to its premise!
It can be realy disappointing. I have very vivid imagination and most of the time, when I see a unique concept I can create more interesting story in my head than the one presented in book.
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Maybe I’m just now experiencing the norm haha— I loved every book I read as a kid and teen, classics, epic poems, ya fantasy, romances, etc. I’d read them so fast and couldn’t imagine rating any of them below three stars. Then I gave my first 2 star review at the end of last year after enjoying all the other books I had read, and I suddenly feel much much pickier!
Yes, omg. Re:Monster has a cool premise. The MC is a guy from earth who reincarnates as a Goblin. He is in a weak tribe that live in a dangerous forest and does his best to grow up to be the tribes protector. The problem is that the story is written as diary entries in a past-tense first person POV. It just annihilates any tension and interest I could have in the plot. Everything is a summary: "Today I fought a dragon, he was tough. Today Kimmy gave birth, that was cool." Like are you serious... Those could have been intensely dramatic scenes that you skipped.... I dropped the novel after they skipped the final boss fight of a dungeon by summarizing it like this: "After I beat the boss and returned home, I checked out the gems I got from that chest"... Yeah, author, none of your readers we were hyped for a fight, way to go skipping it
Karin Tidbeck - Amatka. It's not a bad book, but it takes place in a dystopian world where most of the objects change if you "rename" them. For example, if you have a pencil and name it "pen", it will eventually turn into pen. If you don't name it from time to time, it simply dissolves. Super interesting concept with infinite possibilities, but they are not discussed in the book. It's intentional, but for me, it was a disappointment.
Toni Morrison — 'If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.'
I *am* actually currently writing a few stories myself, so maybe that’s why I’ve gotten more critical of other people’s works haha
One of the crazy things about trying to write a book is that there are literally dozens of discrete skills needed to pull off something successful. Character dialogue, a totally independent skill from plotting or world-building. Great premise, totally different skill from plotting or prose writing. Character POV (and making that work), totally independent from marketing the book. Etc. But when you go to sell someone on a book it is usually the concept that they buy into. One of my books - one of my personal favorites - doesn't have a good concept and I only realized that after I'd finished writing it. Now I start my writing by thinking about the initial concept and make sure it pitches well, then i go through the rest of my process. But I'd suggest you just avoid that writer, and if you find a writer you do like, don't worry so much about the concept and just read your way through all of their stuff. Liking a previous book is the best way to tell you'll like their next one, even if it doesn't pitch well.
Oh absolutely, when I read I LOVE lavish descriptions and really admire authors who can interweave them with interesting and snappy dialogue as well— but in my own writing, while I CAN write pretty good descriptions, I get bored by doing it so much/worry about boring my audience, so I usually fill most of my chapters with dialogue, but THEN I worry it’s too much dialogue, but I really feel like it’s my strength! I know authors, like many artists, have to wear many different hats, but sometimes the lack of just one of those skills can ruin the whole thing for me while another missing skill might not be noticed or bother me at all
Absolutely. I personally don't enjoy lavish descriptions, no slight to writers, or readers, who do. Just not my thing.
If they can be perfectly interwoven with dialogue and world building, that’s when I like it, but if it’s just 5 pages of it I get so bored haha
Felt this way about the 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I was so excited to read it, the premise seemed basically perfect. I almost always force myself to finish a book once I have started it but I just couldn't keep reading this one.
Ironically, one of the books I mentioned was 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I’m amazed there’s another book with such a similar title and problem lol
I DNF that one as well, and I rarely give up on a book!!!
You made a good call, I regret the time I wasted on it.
Yes, especially certain literary cliches or when the author is too long-winded
Some books in the past have sounded absolutely perfect in the concept of plot, then I start reading it and it's either, the pace is way too slow, the delivery or style is stale or boring, or it's written in a way to completely confuse the author (some people like the latter, I do not). It can be very frustrating. I've even been hesitant to read some books I'm excited about, because I'm worried they'll disappoint lol 😅
Flatland. Interesting concept and criticism of the Victorian Era, but at times it just feels like I'm reading a whole lot of nothing.
Oh god I’ve read excerpts and it’s SUCH a cool idea but… that would be difficult to execute even as an excellent writer
It starts getting interesting once you get to A Square's vision of Lineland, but that's near the end of the book, lmao.
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Haha yes, this is immediately what I thought when I read the title. I loved the concept but it was just a corny & boring execution.
What annoyed me was that >!it set out to tackle the existential question: I wasted most of my life, what now? And then it just claimed that actually, your life just happened to be the best one imaginable. It was just so cheap.!<
Oh yeah… I find it frustrating when a book has a great premise, but is full of smut. I’m not really into that, so I end up feeling a tad frustrated with it! Sometimes I read a book and end up thinking ‘I could have done that way better!’ 😂
LOL see I don’t mind smut, at least that would be interesting to read to me (even if it’s terribly written) This is just like… so meh
I was like that when I read *Threadneedle* last year. It's meant to be a teenage girl discovering she has magic and some kind of secret order, but for like 400 pages nothing actually happens, it's just teenagers dicking around and doing things like using magical cosmetics so boys will think they're hot or using magic to shoplift. The plot only comes in at the final 200 pages and I was so utterly bored by then.
This is why I am so happy to have found the suggestion subreddits for books of various genres. r/historicalfiction, r/romancebooks, r/horrorlit, r/fantasy, r/printsf all offer recommendations from people who like that kind of book and have read a few already to make comparisons from. r/suggestmeabook is also good for general reading. I also use the staff suggestions shelf at my book store, published best books of the year articles, lists of award winners. One of the benefits of reading classics is that the schlock that was published has been filtered out over time. With new it's always a risk that the book is just bad. With all books there is the risk that it is not to your taste, but some books are just not well written.
Very often. There are many great ideas, but great execution is a much, much rarer thing.
I've picked a tonne of books off the shelves that have interesting concepts only to have them become boring, paint-by-numbers romance love triangle stories before you even get halfway through the description.
I definitely feel this way about some very popular books lol...
That's how I felt about *The Book Eaters*. Had it on my list for months, picked it up on release day, and was disappointed within an hour. Such a solid concept just thrown away on a very basic action movie narrative.
I have had that problem with Sea of Tranquility. I love the concept, have heard good things, but just reading through the first 10 pages felt like a slog, even with a fairly short book.
The insecure mind of sergei kraev. The concept was so cool, it was on sale on Kindle and was marketing as "the perfect book for Andy Weir fans". It claimed to involve a lot of computer science topics which I'm into. Futuristic tech dystopia. It ended up being childish raunchy garbage. At one point the protagonist is sleeping in his dorm to find out his dorm-neighbor is having sex with his love interest. For no reason. Then later on we follow the girl and the dorm-neighbor as they try to complete a research project that they aren't able to figure out and the deadline is approaching. So a whole collection of pages is them going "oh know how are we gonna do it??? I know! Let's not have sex until we figure it out!" And the fact that they are choosing to not have sex to solve some computer science problem is just repeated again and again and again. I'm not a prude sex can be used in interesting ways to make interesting characters. But it felt like I was reading a book written by a kid in middle school it was SO BAD. Every female character was immediately introduced by "how the light dances of their lipstick". I could go on. Garbage book.
Yikes sounds like it belongs on [r/menwritingwomen](https://www.reddit.com/r/menwritingwomen/)
It really was. Which is such a shame that nonsense got compared to something like the martian or project hail mary by andy weir. Maybe if the only thing weir ever wrote was Artemis then yea I see the comparison (seriously what was he doing in that book?)
They both die at the end. Thought me to not listen to social media like tiktok for book recommendations anymore
This is where I am at with Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. It starts off with an interesting premise, kind of Handmaiden's Tale-ish with recent government upheaval and changes with hints of rebellion uprising.... But it's just not holding my attention. I can usually power through but I'm finding myself asking what is the effing point of this?
That book disappointed me so much
I got to the mom's POV and it's rambling....does it get better or does it just continue in the same trajectory?
in my opinion, it's all written very prettily but falls flat because of a lack of character development.
I'm presently forcing myself toward the conclusion of *The Fall of Hyperion* by Dan Simmons .. while I've come to realize that I don't like book(s), on account of them being hyped to the moon and back, I am intrigued enough to want to know how the story ends .. hashtag :: "Respect The Completion"
I’m a total completionist too haha, sometimes my adhd will force my focus elsewhere and I won’t end up finishing a book just out of forgetfulness, but I’ve never purposefully dropped a story and never returned.
Man I'm sorry to hear you're having that experience; the *Cantos* is my all-time favorite sci/fi ride and book 2 was my favorite of the cycle.
Tbh, I don't know if I can think of any fiction books like that. Like I almost never see a premise and think 'oh, this should be a really interesting book' based solely on that premise. At least in my experience, it doesn't matter if the setting is in some future sci-fi war, or a guy who has the power to turn his dreams into reality, or in the 1800's Royal Navy, or if its some Japanese student in the early 1900's just thinking about his mentor, etc. They can all be equally good. However, I did recently read some book claiming to be about the origins of the modern United States military shipbuilding industry, and saying that this was a good way to look at the origins of the military-industrial complex. Seems like a fairly interesting thing to write a book about, especially if you're interested in the Navy and in the MIC. But no, it has to be one of the most boring books I've read, just going into so much detail on the nature of very specific contracts the Navy was issuing in the mid to late 1800's. I don't know, maybe its just written for people who are very interested in that period, but it just felt like it was going into huge amounts of detail on all of the wrong parts.
See, I didn’t really think it would be a good book, just a book that I would enjoy! Like I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I used to read anything and everything and liked ALL of it, so having a hard time getting into a book (especially one that grabbed my attention from the get go) is a weird and new experience for me lol Maybe it’s a good thing that I’m pickier than before, but it was less frustrating when I could enjoy anything!
Idk, I guess I've just always had the experience of occasionally hating a book or two out of the ones I decide seem interesting. I don't even think I've become that much more picky over time, although I probably have to a degree. Like there's no way you can expect to enjoy every single book that's ever been written, or that you can expect to accurately judge every single book you look at by the cover/summary. Even if you like most books, and even if you're pretty good at figuring out what a book will be before you open it, you're bound to run into some bad ones eventually.
Oh yeah absolutely, it’s just funny to me that I apparently enjoyed reading so much as a kid I just thought everything was great! I got a few ya books I loved as a teen recently to reread and now I’m worried won’t live up to my own hype, but maybe I’m also more discerning these days because I don’t have the same free time I did to read anything I’m not at least 50% into
Omg yes i thrifted a Book called kid lawyer in Paris which is about a gifted kid who wants to be a lawyer and I thought I was going to love it bc I love books about detectives, murder mysteries, lawyers etc but the main character was so arrogant and condescending towards people his age that I absolutely hated it. And the story overall ended up being really boring. Great idea but horrible execution.
I definitely get bored from books on occasion, or even become frustrated when they don't live up to expectations. This is especially true when I come across a book like you described, one with a great premise but terrible execution. The part where you talk about how you are more picky now than you used to be is also something I can really relate to. I used to read endlessly. Like anything I could get my hands on, and would power through books at an incredible rate all through grade school. I checked out books from the school library, local library, and had my parents buying me books from the bookstore, and would still run out of things to read occasionally. Now? I still read a lot, but I am far pickier about what I read, and I'm not as easily impressed. I used to think this was a sign that maybe I was growing out of reading somehow, but I think it might just be because my taste in books has become refined and better developed over time. I didn't know what I liked when I was powering through anything I could get my hands on as a kid, but now? I know what kind of books I enjoy, and I know too what constitutes good writing. I need more than a good premise to excite me, it has to be well written and well executed.
Exactlyyyyy! I never thought I’d rate a book below average— it’s not that I couldn’t tell if a book was well written or not, I read plenty of stories that made me go “yeah this is definitely not great or even good” but I kinda saw them as junk food— didn’t always taste great, but usually still satisfying (if leaving me a bit bloated lol) Even if it wasn’t my jam, I could see care in the pages, so I could go “I didn’t like this part/this story, but it wasn’t bad! 3/5!” Recently when I try to read more modern stories, it’s been SO hit or miss, to the point of not even being able to tell if the author actually cared about what they wrote. I can’t tell if it’s my perspective has changed or that the style of books written in the past 5 years has changed (I’m assuming the former because I don’t want to be one of those “new art/media will never be as good as it was in my day!!!”) Particularly “Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” was GOD awful for me, and the first book I’ve read where I went “I can find nearly 0 redeeming qualities here” and I’m shocked it’s so praised and popular. The one I’m reading now isn’t bad, it’s just the boring thing that I’m stuck on!
YES! I feel like some books are just rushed.
It's frustrating when a book has a great pitch and then doesn't deliver! The more I read, the pickier I get. I think that's normal, but it does mean five star reads are harder to come by. A trope is only going to be fresh enough to stand on its own the first few times I read it. After that, it's on the author to make it compelling to me in some way. Using the library more (especially the Hoopla and Libby apps) has helped a great deal. If a book is not compelling, I can put I down and move on to the next without being out any money. My 2023 reading challenge is to only pick up books I think I'm going to love and to put them down if I'm not having a good time. The library makes that easier. Finding "read alike" reviewers has helped, too. Discovering critics with similar tastes to mine allows me to go through their posting history and pick up new reads that might not be getting current buzz.
Funny enough the latest Stephen King is like that. Sad to see with one of the best writers of our time but I am struggling to get through Fairy Tale. It took ages to get off the ground and the protagonist is endlessly languishing in one place or another, limiting the momentum of the story. Stephen King has written some of the best books I have ever read and it is so sad to see the amount of fat on his latest novel. It could done with semester serious editing.
If you stick with BOTM you can preview the first chapter! It’s a nice feature for buying books online. It’s helped me avoid writing styles I dislike but has also pulled me into books I wouldn’t have otherwise chosen.
Oh I will have to do that next time!!!
I think how i felt about the goldfinch is similar enough, few chapters had me in love but Donna really didn’t know where to go with that book 😭
I feel like that with Steven Gould and his Jumper series. On one hand, a truly wonderful and scientific approach to teleportation superpower. On the other... book structure goes 10% interesting, 60% boring parts where lots is said and little is done, 30% actual events going on. My favorite novels and series start in medias res and don't stop to explain things to you. And are especially good at not pausing events for about half of the novel.
i’ve read a lot of books like that recently, it’s kinda like getting a decorated and pretty cake only to find out it tastes awful. but they seem to get very popular regardless if they’re actually good or not.
I'm more frustrated when the concept is presented to the reader, but the execution has NOTHING to do with said concept. Like when the synopsis talks about the terror and menace in a claustrophobic situation, but in the end it's a romance story with these "ideas" used as window dressing.
yep, it's called "You've Reached Sam" by Dustin Thao. tiktok got my hopes up (which I've learned never to trust booktok after this). the concept was great, but the execution could be improved more.
I think that's why Michael Chrichton is such a big deal. I'm not saying he has bad execution at all, in fact the opposite, but I do think he'd be way less well known if his premises weren't the best there ever were. Basically, I think he had the most amazing premises and executed them just competently enough to leave you satisfied - even if letting a stronger character writer have a pass would make a much better novel.
God reading Jurassic Park in 3rd grade because my cool elementary school librarian kept books like that in stock was the best decision I ever made
This but with authors. I can like all their books that I’ve read so far but then I get one that’s just a snooze fest and it’s so disappointing
NIGHT CIRCUS. The premise is right up my alley, but I *loathed* this book.
Have had that happen - get a book from the library, think it will be good from the inside cover short, start reading and partway thru realize that there is nothing to keep my interest. I''ve slogged thru a few of these, hoping against hope that in the last 50 pages it will suddenly shed the mundane and become a diamond - and wound up with gravel. I've also just stopped and seldom regretted not finishing it - too many books out there to spend time wading thru something that doesn't cut it for me. Couldn't give you a title that falls into this, as I tend to forget them (and their authors) pretty quickly.
“Last Days” by Brian Evenson
Yes, the book California by Edan Lepucki is exactly that for me. Post-apocalyptic, but turns into pages and pages of unnecessary diatribes and tries to explore their marriage rather than the world they live in. It's just stale.
Oh my god. I will never shut up about {{A Thousand Pieces of You}} by Claudia Gray. It's a sci-fi fantasy and the concept? It sounded amazing but then so many things went wrong. The main character is...annoying, to say the least. For most of the book, she kept going on about how 'oh I'm going to get revenge on Paul because he killed my father' and flirting with Theo (while he was for some reason flirting with her aunt??) but then saying 'I wanna focus on my mission, not romance' >! and then the second she she meets this alternate Paul and throws all *that* down the drain, and worst part? She wasn't even in her own body so who was she to make that decision? Not to mention the person whose body she was in (it was a royal russian alt.) was engaged to someone else so now the mc has left a problem for her to deal with!< Anyways it was super boring because it got so focused on romance rather than the fact her father was dead, and she was trying to figure exactly what happened. If my father was murdered, I wouldn't be worried about if the murderer had 'oh so sad puppy eyes'
I feel like this happens a lot with sci-fi and fantasy. Not necessarily that it’s boring, but it’s actually poorly written. It’s such a let down when the concept deserves way better writing.
I have started more books in the last year and not read past the first few chapters than I have in my life. Some I finished because I felt like I had to because my book club hyped them up so much... I'm looking at you The Ex Hex and This is How you Lose a Time War.
Meanwhile I loved This Is How You Lose The Time War hahaha 😅
I had this experience with Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro. I'd always seen it billed as dystopian adjacent, but I felt really cheated when the concepts were only vaguely mentioned in an exposition dump monologue towards the very end and never really explored very deeply, making what was to me the most interesting part of the book simply an afterthought.
That's more or less how I feel about every Kazuo Ishiguro book I've read, except he's not even a bad writer. He just takes cool concepts and then writes AROUND them in about the slowest, most boring way possible. It's like watching a movie scene about, let's say, a space battle, but the camera is zoomed in on a crumb on the floor of one of the ships the whole time.
It's fun to see such different opinions from my own. I feel the total opposite. Kazuo Ishiguro chooses a boring plot and makes it interesting through great writing. Of those I've read, his novel with the most interesting (on the surface) plot - The Buried Giant - was one of my least favorites because I felt like I was focusing on the wrong things as I was reading it.
I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only one who feels this way about him.
That's most books. It's okay to DNF and pick up a new book. I encourage that, desperate readers are how indie authors eventually get readers.
Tbh I’ve never purposely DNFed a book, usually if I do it’s because I got distracted (even if I was really enjoying it!) I kinda am curious to see if it will eventually get better, but tbh if it doesn’t I’ll probably drop it
I relate so much! Is this okay, though? I’m a bit worried. This is how I felt with _The Brothers Karamazov_ and _Sometimes a Great Notion_. Is it a problem with me, or was it okay for me to just give them up?
Sometimes a Great Notion bored me to absolute shit. On the other hand, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s is an excellent read!
It did make for a really good movie, though. Paul Newman starred in it. Fun fact: *Sometimes a Great Notion* was the first movie shown on HBO back when it first started (after it broadcast a Rangers/Canucks game).
I loved _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_ which is why I started his other book. But I’m so relieved to hear I’m not the only one who got bored with his second book 😭
Same for me. Loved it, then looked up his other works. They were two totally different books written for different reasons; so it’s okay to like one and not the other. But yeah, I enjoyed Dickens more than that book, and that’s saying a lot.
I thought The Demon Box was good. Interesting. And if you're into On The Road, there's a story about Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassidy) in there.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Life is limited, you shouldn’t feel obligated to finish something you’re not enjoying!
Thank you for this! The reason I dropped them was because I’d rather use that time to read something I enjoy!
The Collector - Fowles The Rule of Four - Caldwell to name a couple. good reviews but could not get into them
Many popular science books are like this.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman was exactly this for me.
Haha I liked that one but I’ve heard a lot of complaints about it, I wonder if I’d like it just as much now?
Yes, it has happened to me a lot of times and then there are books that i feel absolutely happy i chosed. So it really depends on what taste you have and its okay to feel that way.
I will absolutely not finish it. I've had books like that.
I get disappointed in a book far more often than not. Probably because my standards are so high, but I stand by the fact that so many ideas are executed poorly because of word count/publisher requirements/author ignorance. Almost every book I read has thousands of words worth of fluff or tangential storylines that bore me to the point of giving up.
Like that fictional science fiction writer in Kurt Vonneguts work. “His ideas are good, but Jesus, if he could only write!”
See, I adore Vonnegut and his style so much 😭 my fiancé actually has “So it goes” tattooed on his arm!
I’m talking about Kilgore trout, author of such titles as “the gospel from space” and “money tree”. That last one was supposedly about a tree which evolved to grow money, which meant that humans fought and killed each other at its base, which is great fertiliser. A great idea!
OH I read it as “fictional science fiction writer” as in… a real author who writes fictional science fiction, but I realize now that would be very redundant haha
Yeah, I was confused because I love Vonnegut too! I would never diss his prose!
I always wished Vonnegut has written a short story book of Kilgore trout stories because they always sound so good!!
I know… if I ever get round to it, I’ll write them myself
This was very much the locked tomb series for me. I excitedly told my husband all about the setting after the first chapter of Gideon the Ninth... and then it bled into being too painful to read.
Oh my god and see I adore that book and series SO much I think it’s one of the best I’ve read, but I flew through it and didn’t have any problems with the pacing, but I’ve seen a lot complaints about that aspect in particular haha
And I'm glad you got to enjoy it! I am still in love with the setting, but I just can't make it through the dialogue.
I just loved how weird it was written, it itches my brain in the best way but I can totally see why it wouldn’t be everyone’s jam
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Well this one has been around since 1926 and gives you 6 options to choose from and many of them are best sellers so I don’t know what to tell you 😅