[Beukies]

What was the worst book you have read in the last 12 months?

People may have differing opinions on books such as My Sister's Keeper, Harry Potter, Twilight, etc.

Please respect everyone's opinions, even if you think their opinion is downright stupid.

In my case it is without a doubt: Zero Day by David Baldacci

[zackddog]

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds

I've read Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space and a few of his stand alone novels, and while they are all mostly a four I'll give "Pushing Ice" a two, and that's because the science was good. The fiction left a lot to be desired. No suspense. No real drama, no true conflict. And the aliens were uninspired.

I like space adventures, the application of theories and concepts to a "working" environment, the realization of ideas. Alastair delivers that and more in most of his work, what he sorely lacked in this one was well developed characters. The conflict between Svetlana and Bella was tedious; the two characters were so annoying and whiny and stupid I wanted them both to die so someone else could step in and make the right decisions. Two women with perpetual bitchiness syndrome and too big of an axe to grind. The chauvinistic pig may be shining thru here but if the two very same characters had been male, they would've had a drag out, knock down epic fight and ended up either friends or one or both of them dead. These two just kept on whining, backstabbing and plotting small revenges. He dragged a great concept and a very good idea thru endless pages or revisiting the same mistakes, of describing the same events in a different and more boring way. I seldom do this, but this one won the cake on the "How many pages can I skim thru and not miss anything" contest. I not only skimmed thru pages, I skipped many at a time just to get over the tedious and unnecessary crap crammed into this book. Seems like Mr. Reynolds couldn't get the plot from A to B in a plausible way so he had the characters make some incredibly stupid mistakes to try to get it there.

I never made it to the end, frankly, because 80% of the book in, I did not care who lived and who died or if they ever made it home at all. I just wanted the whiny main characters to die and hopefully the rest of the crew would make it on their own. That was a better fantasy than having to read another 100 pages of that unimaginative and uneventful drivel.

[musesinspire]

Hands down it was Robert Doherty's Atlantis series. I love his writing and have read just about everything he has published, including his Bob Mayer books. But the problem with this series was two-fold:

1. It was obviously unedited. At least the e-book version. And it made it awkward to read at times.

2. It starts with an awesome plot. AWESOME! Core story is great and makes you wanna read more to find out WTH is going on!! But somewhere along the line, it's like he got lost or forgot what he was writing about and BAM! - the end plot has absolutely NOTHING to do with the beginning plot!! I have had the chance to talk to him before and I just didn't have the courage to tell him that while I adored his Area51 and Psychic Warrior books, I really didn't like this series. Yes, I wimped out. Sue me! LOL

[zackddog]

Thanks for the heads up. Now I know not to read that one, and you're right, Area 51 isn't a bad series.

We'll send our in-house Soul Eater (lawyer) your way pretty soon. His name is Sherlockx.

[sherlockx]

Did someone mention Litigation? Fees, fees fees give me the money
I told Michael Moorcock not to write about me & Stormbringer

[musesinspire]

0.o Missed something here, but that's OK... nothing new there! LOL

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré.
The book itself would have been delightful - the plot, the characters, the mood was right and enticing. But I've made the mistake of buying Polish translation instead of the original. And reading it was like pulling teeth; I've spied seven mistakes and clumsy phrases on the first page alone. Even the title was shortened to "Spy" which takes about half the meaning out of it.
And, sadly, even the best constructed book would suffer from poor language.

Besides that one disappointing incident, I think I've mostly been spared from bad books this year

[Beukies]

What is it with authors lately? Seem like a whole lot of them have become story prostitutes.

Take "Don't Know Jack" by Diane Capri for instance. viewtopic.php?f=121&t=311193&hilit=capri I can't imagine why Lee Child has allowed her to use Jack Reacher's name and the details of a Reacher story to write a mediocre book.

Looking at the write-up:"It's been a while since we first met Lee Child's Jack Reacher in Killing Floor. Fifteen years and sixteen novels later, Reacher still lives off the grid, until trouble finds him, and then he does whatever it takes, much to the delight of readers and the dismay of villains. Now someone big is looking for him. Who? And why? Hunting Jack Reacher is a dangerous business, as FBI Special Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar are about to find out. Otto and Gaspar are by-the-book hunters who know when it's necessary to break the rules, but they Don't Know Jack. Reacher is a stone cold killer. Is he their friend or their enemy? Only the secrets hidden in Margrave, Georgia will tell them." you would expect Reacher to feature for at least one chapter.

Not only was the whole story lame and unoriginal, Reacher appeared for about 2 seconds worth of reading.

It seems that more and more authors are letting other people write shit under their names and fame! (Clancy and Patterson to just name two).

[zackddog]

It seems that more and more authors are letting other people write shit under their names and fame! (Clancy and Patterson to just name two).

I stopped buying or reading anything Clancy about 15 years ago, when he stopped writing and he became a business.

I stopped buying and reading anything Patterson about 6 years ago, when he went to 3 page chapters and 14 point print. I don't think that he has written any of the two gazillion books published since that bear his name.

I do not begrudge them making money out of their work, what I hate is their letting others sell mediocre work in THEIR name. They should have a little more dignity and take pride in all of what they accomplished.

It's somewhat blasphemous.

[womble]

My daughters became very disilusioned when Darren Shan allowed one of his books to be made into a film and admitted he just wanted the money!

[traceliner]

OK have to agree with 2 thumbs and a big toe that "Don't know Jack" by Capri was just pathetic ( of course, my opinion, have had some say they likes the tie in) I can only suspect that the author has something on Lee Child that he figured it was better to let her hop on the Reacher bandwagon than to just say NOOOOOOOOO. I have read every one of the Reacher series and thought I would give this "spin off" a try, but look what happened when Rhoda tried the spin off from Mary Tyler Moore.....it tanked.....I hope Child has the sense to just say NO to another one.

[musesinspire]

I do have to agree about Ghost Writers where authors are concerned. A big example is Sherilynn Kenyon. Her Dark Hunters series was great! But then she started this Nick Chronicles spin-off... Maybe it's just me, but when I read it, it just doesn't 'feel' like she's the one actually writing it. The cadence, word choices, sentence structures... it just doesn't seem like her. And I find that disappointing as I like to read HER, not some phantom author writing under her name!! Therefore, I don't buy her newer books! - I borrow them. I don't want her to profit from someone else's writing that doesn't even sound like her!

[womble]

I do have to agree about Ghost Writers where authors are concerned. A big example is Sherilynn Kenyon. Her Dark Hunters series was great! But then she started this Nick Chronicles spin-off... Maybe it's just me, but when I read it, it just doesn't 'feel' like she's the one actually writing it. The cadence, word choices, sentence structures... it just doesn't seem like her. And I find that disappointing as I like to read HER, not some phantom author writing under her name!! Therefore, I don't buy her newer books! - I borrow them. I don't want her to profit from someone else's writing that doesn't even sound like her!

I tried the first one, and stopped at the first chapter it was awful, I loved the orriginal series tho' shame

I really wanted to like Twilight after all the hype, but I just couldn't. I can get past bad writing if there's a good plot, but Twilight didn't even offer that much. The best summary of what Twilight is about was offered by Joe, a poster on goodreads. Here's that post below:

Save your time: here's the entirety of Twilight in 20 dialogue snippets & a wiggedy-wack intermission.

First 200 pages:
"I like you, Edward!"
"You shouldn't! I'm dangerous!"
"I like you, Edward!"
"But I'm dangerous!"

Next 50 pages:
"I'm a vampire!"
"I like you, Edward!"
"But I'm a vampire! I'm dangerous!"
"I like you, Edward!"

Next 100 pages:
"I like you, Edward!"
"You smell good, Bella. I'm dangerous!"
"I like you, Edward!"
"Damn, you smell good."
"I like you, Edward!"
"Also, I glow in sunlight."

Next 50 pages:
A. VAMPIRE. BASEBALL. GAME.
(I wish I was kidding)

Last 100 pages:
"Help me, Edward! I'm being chased!"
"I'll save you!"
"Help me, Edward! I'm scared!"
"I'll save you!"
"Oh, Edward!"
"You smell good."

[toby1944]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré.
The book itself would have been delightful - the plot, the characters, the mood was right and enticing. But I've made the mistake of buying Polish translation instead of the original. And reading it was like pulling teeth; I've spied seven mistakes and clumsy phrases on the first page alone. Even the title was shortened to "Spy" which takes about half the meaning out of it.
And, sadly, even the best constructed book would suffer from poor language.

Besides that one disappointing incident, I think I've mostly been spared from bad books this year

i agree with you 100% also the film was total crap