# Books You Wish You Never Read (For Better or Worse)



## Philip Overby (Aug 14, 2011)

Sometimes I regret reading Game of Thrones.  Why?  Because now I compare everything to it.  Nothing is good enough anymore.  And of course there are lots of great writers I still like, but just none of them are as good as anything Martin is writing.  Even Dance of Dragons, which to me is sort of like Martin-lite, it's still leagues better than most things I've read.

So I kind of wish I never read it.

Of course there are slews of books I wish I never read because they were somewhat of a waste of time.  But I'll leave that for others to discuss.

Save me some trouble?  What books essentially ruined your life as far as being so good that you can never live up to their standards or being so bad as to make you lose hope in humanity?


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## pskelding (Aug 14, 2011)

I love Joe Abercrombie and think he's one of the greats of fantasy.  I fear I will forever pale in comparison to his characterization abilities. By the time I catch up to him he'll just be that much better!  

There's a certain book by Pyr that I read recently that I wish I hadn't but I won't name names. I did learn how NOT to do characterization though.


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## Donny Bruso (Aug 14, 2011)

I think that _Dance_ was less of 'Martin-Lite' than _Feast_ was. Although it could be simply because almost all my favorite characters were excluded from _Feast_. I'm extremely put out with GRRM, however, over one of the character endings in _Dance_, as he takes far too long in producing the next book to get away with what he pulled.

Anyway, as far as books I wish I'd never read, I wish I'd never read Abercrombie's _Heroes_, as I consider it to be a waste of paper. I don't understand what happened after his first four books, but the storyline on that one was just totally lacking. I often find myself wishing that I'd stopped reading Goodkind after _The Sword of Truth_, since every other book in the series was essentially the same story.


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## Philip Overby (Aug 15, 2011)

I'm still reading Dance now, so no spoilers!  I'm about half-way through and I think it's still good, but just not up to the standard of the first 3 novels.  And Feast is one of those I agree with you on.  Most of the characters I care about weren't in that book, so it was a bit of a chore to get through.  Martin's almost obsessive quality of introducing new characters and settings is becoming a bit wearisome for me as well.  I also don't need to know what everyone eats for breakfast everyday, but that's just me.

That said, I recently watched all of the HBO series and I fell in love with the story all over again.  The series has some faults, but it's extremely well done.  About as well done as it could possibly be done.

And I hate to agree with you about this, but The Heroes is NOT my favorite Abercrombie book.  I was looking forward to it, but I find myself sort of sampling from it.  Just too much going on and too many characters and I don't care about.  And that's a shame because the First Law series had awesome characters.  Even Best Served Cold I thought had some good characters (although not as good as the First Law).  I really love Abercrombie, but I think he should stick to less POVs.

I have since started reading The Hobbit, which I never thought I would choose over Abercrombie (I've never admitted to being a Tolkien guy, but I'm getting converted).


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## Kelise (Aug 15, 2011)

So far, books have only given me the determination to write more. If they're fantastic, it makes me want to try my best at matching their fantasticness in some way or another. If they're awful, then I want to write to show that I can be better than them. So it's all motivation, really.

Scott Lynch, Patrick Rothfuss and Tansy Rayner Roberts sometimes make my head swim with the amount of work it's going to take to write something as involved and perfect and utterly beyond most other things. I'm sure Abercrombie and George R R Martin will join these ranks once I get around to reading them, though.


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## Ravana (Aug 15, 2011)

In the despair-producing category, most of Samuel R. Delany's fiction… he's become my #1 person to try to emulate, particularly in terms of pure language usage. As with starconstant, though, I take this as a goal to strive toward, not a reason to want to surrender. (He replaced Roger Zelazny in that spot, by the way–as if I'm anywhere near matching him, either.) 

People I want to emulate, and think I might actually be able to some day, include David Brin, C. J. Cherryh (her SF; her fantasy isn't quite as strong), and Steven Brust (who, interestingly, seems to have set out with the goal of emulating Zelazny–and did quite well at it). Orson Scott Card probably belongs up there, too. Except for Brust, all of these are primarily or exclusively SF authors, so they may not work for people interested mainly in fantasy.

The number of books I wish I hadn't read… well, I suppose that none of them were a _complete_ waste of time: those, I never get to the end of in the first place. Even things such as Brooks' _Sword of Sha-na-na_, or whatever it was called, provided good examples of what _not_ to do, and having read it enables me to discuss it with an informed opinion. (The book that comes closest to "wish I'd never read it" is _Old Man and the Sea_. Again, it's because I read it that I can say things about it. But unless it comes up as required reading in a class you're taking–don't bother.)

One interesting example of a book I read twice, in spite of not enjoying it either time: Marion Zimmer Bradley's _Mists of Avalon_. It took the second pass to realize what it was that made me dislike it… since I remembered from the first time through that I thought it was well-written. And it is. It also lacks so much as a single likable character. (The closest one was Accolon. Anybody remember him?) And when you write a 900-page novel where every single person is a hypocritical bastard, and do it _well_–you end up with a book that does not make for a pleasant read. At least now I have no reason to subject myself to a third pass… unless I need pointers in how to write jerks.


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## Lord Darkstorm (Aug 20, 2011)

Patrick Rothfuss, the Name of the Wind.  If ever an author made me feel more like an armature, he did.  Then he makes me wait 3 years for the next book....and does it again.  

So, if I can be half that good, I'll feel I've gotten somewhere.


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## gerald.parson (Jan 30, 2012)

A song of Fire and Ice series. For 2 reasons. I dont think George will live long enough to finish it, and they have become increasingly predictable and sloppy. He kills good characters and replaces them with flat ones. I have no issue with characters being killed off, i think thats a great and noble trait to have in a book, but when you do kill one off, replace it with an equally compelling character. 

If George doesnt finish the series, I will. In one sentence. Everyone betrays everyone. The End.


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## Telcontar (Feb 3, 2012)

The Summoner by Gail Martin cuz it was horrible, and I wasted far too many hours of my life reading it.

There was a book many years ago that was one of the reasons I started thinking about publishing, cuz even then I thought "I can do better than this tripe." I can't recall the title, but it was Lovecraft-inspired and had some sort of Cthulu-spawn type creatures running around posing as humans.

Fortunately those are the only two I can think of right away.


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