Favorite book series that ended badly.

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Mostly Harmless had no point to exist, it just felt randomly thrown in at the end.

Harry Potter (sorta). Epilogue doesn't need an explanation.

The Pendragon series.

The first nine books were AWESOME. Some of the best books I've read.

And then the final one was so anticlimactic and weird that it sucked.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a great series. But the last book really fails in comparison to the rest of the series.

Yeah. The last two books weren't that good. It just felt so slow paced, and I really hate how the assault on Eelong was handled.

And the ending was complete horseshit.

Spoiler

Oooooh, the good was inside the people the entire time!

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Republic Commando. Mostly because it didn't end and got cancelled.

 

[sniddy_v1legacy]

Honestly - Sword of Truth

The first 4 books or so are fantastic and then it grinds....and the ending....uhhh

Seriously - AND he opens up a new series based on it

I'd also say the Elder gods set by David Eddings....but that's not so much a series as a frickin' writer breakdown, from epic to good to OMFG what is this DRIVEL

 

[Newtonyd]

I cannot overstate how much of a letdown Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series was.

Honestly, the first few books were excellent to read. I really enjoyed them. Then they got shittier somewhere around the point of Soul of Fire or Faith of the Fallen, it was hard to tell because I was still so won over by the earlier books in the series.

I think it was in Chainfire when I realized exactly how absolutely terrible the entire storyline was. But, I had gotten most of the way through the series and decided I would finish it, for better or worse. The last two books, the last one especially, were so plainly awful that I honestly felt like throwing them away after I was done.

It's hard to point to exactly where Goodkind screws up, but I'll try to explain:

*Spoilers, if you actually still want to read this garbage*

a. At some point Goodkind starts throwing in his own political views so ham-handedly that it's painfully obvious what he's trying to force you to believe. Several of his books can be boiled down into the single statement: "Communism is bad, capitalism is better."

b. Endless rape and mutilation. I'm no lightweight when it comes to the grimdark, but at some point the editor should have said, "Another caravan of women and children raped to death? Really, Terry?" If you go a chapter without some woman being tossed to the rapist communists, you've probably fallen asleep and are dreaming a better book. It just got dull, repetitive, and pointless to read.

c. Plot holes large enough to drive a truck through. "Killing their leader won't make a difference." Yes, it clearly would. "All the magicless people somehow agreed to leave the planet." How the hell did they all suddenly decide they didn't want an afterlife, and wanted to live with a bunch of rapists?

d. The books just ran out of inspiration at one point and the problems got either contrived or did not build suspense. Kahlan gets captured and is taken to the enemy Emperor? Looks like they'd better argue politics for a few dozen pages!

Did anyone actually enjoy this series? I'm sure they are out there, but I can't look past these glaring problems. How did you guys manage?

Honestly - Sword of Truth

The first 4 books or so are fantastic and then it grinds....and the ending....uhhh

Seriously - AND he opens up a new series based on it

Ninjar'd. Glad to see someone else thinks SoT sucked.

 

[somonels]

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

let's just say that I fucking hate Greek Tragedies.

Which end do you mean? I can sort of remember the one ending, no clue about the other.

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

let's just say that I fucking hate Greek Tragedies.

I'm going to have to agree with Daystar here.

I loved the Dark Tower series, it managed to keep me hooked the whole way through each book.

However....

The ending left a lot to be desired. Kind of made nearly everything that had happened thus far completely pointless.

In fact, I put the ending on par with the "it was only a dream" kind of endings.

I'm glad I was sane enough (yeah, lol to that) to stop when he suggested it.

I don't have a favorite book series that ended badly. I either un-favorited it, never liked it enough to finish it or it's still ongoing, even if in the most stringy way imaginable.

 

[Ovedius]

A song of ice and fire.

It isn't done yet, so bear with me:
The probability of mr. Martin keeling over before he finishes the final entry is steadily rising.
Firstly, he is 63 years old and ...corpulent.
A feast for crows took five years to complete and A dance with dragons took six years, and he still has two books left to write.
So if he does in fact, tragically, die before the end of the saga, we're either left with an unfinished series or some random hired author finishes it.
Either way, the ending will be bad.

So if you like the series, pray to whatever deity you happen to worship for the health and motivatoin of our dear, dear mr. Martin.



He's still a bloody bastard though! -if he kills of The Imp I'll get cross eyed with rage.

 

[Gaiseric]

So, what is it and how did it meet its end?

I have two. The first being Classic Battletech. I didn't care for ending mainly because there were too many loose ends and plot lines that didn't get resolved.

By ending, do you mean when they moved the whole time line 200 years into the future, because that's when I lost interest.

on the other hand, the franchise reboot did free up Michael Stackpole's time and he gave us 2 awesome fantasy series =)

Yeah that's when the Classic series ended and Dark Age began. I gave Dark Age a shot, but I didn't care for it.

 

[Gaiseric]

Snip.

I'm with you. I got about halfway through Chainfire and just lost all interest.

 

[ace_of_something]

I can't think of one that's been mentioned but I can say the ending to assassin's creed 2 pretty much made me lose all interest in playing anything else in the series.

Spoiler: spoiler

Suddenly Aliens. Wtf? You couldn't think of ANY other direction to go?

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

let's just say that I fucking hate Greek Tragedies.

I was gonna say that I felt it was the only way the series could've ended, but then I looked up what a Greek Tragedy was, and realised that you pretty much said that yourself.

I, however, rather liked the ending. It was the bit just before the ending that I felt unsatisfied with. With the artist and the King.

I know it was meant to be a Deus ex machina, but I wanted some gunplay!

I agree, but it wasn't bad enough for me to dislike everything else.

 

[JaceArveduin]

Republic Commando. Mostly because it didn't end and got cancelled.

Yes, this! The worst part is that, unless I'm mistaken, the reason she cancelled it is because the clone wars cartoon took all of the Mando lore she had and ripped it to shreds.

I'll also toss in the Vong series from the SW EU, it was really all sorts of "wtf?"

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Republic Commando. Mostly because it didn't end and got cancelled.

Yes, this! The worst part is that, unless I'm mistaken, the reason she cancelled it is because the clone wars cartoon took all of the Mando lore she had and ripped it to shreds.

I'll also toss in the Vong series from the SW EU, it was really all sorts of "wtf?"

You are mistaken. The primary reason for her departure was monetary reasons. The Mandalorian changes were a factor, since the editors tried to get her to put in references to the show, but she couldn't find a way to make them work. The biggest kicker was that after she left, the publishing company decided that not enough people would want to read the book if someone else finished it, so it is on hiatus. It might get finished some day, but I'm not holding out.

And The Unifying Force was an awesome end to the Yuuzhan Vong War, I don't care what you think. The Dark Nest trilogy following it was total ass though.

 

[AbstractStream]

The Inheritance Cycle. Pains me to say it, because I loved those books, but I'm really bitter about the end.

Spoiler

So, Eragon leaves. I know, not really a spoiler cause Angela predicted it in the first book blah blah. But the prophecy also says he'll never return. First off it's been said the future can be changed. More importantly, there is not a single good reason Eragon wouldn't return. For those of you that haven't read the books, Eragon leaves to establish a new Dragon Rider order. Which means wherever he ends up, it must be close enough to Alagaesia that new Dragon Riders can travel there after they are picked. Otherwise either Eragon will be sitting there alone while all the Dragon Riders stay in Alagaesia, or there will be no new Dragon Riders. Why the hell will Eragon never again return? In ten years he isn't going to put someone else in charge and pop back to see how the land he helped free is doing? To meet his nephew?

The only reason Paolini did it is as homage to LOTR. The final scene is Eragon sailing down a river on an elven boat, saying goodbye to friends he's met in his travels, such as the dwarf king etc. The worst part is, this ending would be fine if it weren't for the prophecy. But saying he'll never return, and then everyone treating it that way, just had me sitting there the whole time waiting for someone to explain why. It just sucks that the author would twist his characters and narrative around to do that, especially when he still could have had that scene, it just wouldn't have been as similar, or sad if Eragon was planning to return.

I've already re-written it in my mind that the prophecy was speaking of his eventual death. He will leave, never to return. He may return a few times, but some day he'll go back to the Riders new place, and die there.

I'm sure there are others, but that is all I can think of right now.

Well damn, someone beat me to it. I was disappointed with the ending. It's not like I regret buying the book...but I want to sell it now.

 

[franconbean]

Darren Shan's vampire series. Massive vampire adventure...

Spoiler

Ends with main character going back in time to tell himself not to become a vampire. It's pretty much an "It was just a dream Cop-out".

Also, His Ending to the demonata series where they just

Spoiler

reboot the universe.

Don't get me wrong, I love the guy and he is a great writer, I just don't think he's very good at wrapping things up and maybe too afraid to go for a more bleak ending.
Shan, I am disappoint.

I can say that the only book series I've ever read's ending is KIND of sad. I mean, lots of people die. Like 90% of the characters you met throughout the series. Obviously, I'm talking about the one and only...



HARREH POTTAH!

Yeah, It feels like Rowling killed off characters for the pure and simple reason of inflicting loss upon the reader. Characters they have bonded with for literally years...

 

[Vault101]

A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

It tries to end on a note of hope (and fails, really), and then the whole damn ending is undone in The Beatrice Letters.

Actually, the whole last book wasn't very good. It's a good thing that Snicket stuck to thirteen books.

13..the unlucky number? (I think that was intentional)

I loved that series, anyway it was a logn time ago I read it..what exactlaly was wrong with the ending? I man after all the charachters go throuhg you dont want them to be happy at all?

also never got the beatrice letters, how does that undo the ending?

EDIT: anyway for me it would be "earths children" (you knwo clan of the cavebear?) I havnt actually read the last one, but anyway it started out great and really drew you in...but it got pretty rediculous towards the end, the author was relaly laying on the "mary sue" with the main charachter when it wanst needed...also the two charachters are complet idiots in the 3rd book

and the last book...there was NO climax...nothing..ok she has a baby but still..I supose she built that up for the last book, which I supose shit gets real there

overall still an entertaining read, I really should get the last one

 

[lacktheknack]

A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

It tries to end on a note of hope (and fails, really), and then the whole damn ending is undone in The Beatrice Letters.

Actually, the whole last book wasn't very good. It's a good thing that Snicket stuck to thirteen books.

13..the unlucky number? (I think that was intentional)

I loved that series, anyway it was a logn time ago I read it..what exactlaly was wrong with the ending? I man after all the charachters go throuhg you dont want them to be happy at all?

also never got the beatrice letters, how does that undo the ending?

Of course I want them to be happy, the ending was written badly.

Remember how they sailed off the island on the "Beatrice"?

There's a secret anagram in the Beatrice Letters, it rearranges to "Beatrice Sank".

And we get this:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FIGSsuOAU-8/S0yweAuj9JI/AAAAAAAAAE4/ciLrJpKX2MU/s320/beatrice+letters.jpg

Yep, those are Klaus' glasses. And Violet's ribbon. And I'm pretty sure that's Sunny's whisk.

They're dead, man. I'm 90% sure they're dead.

 

[Something Amyss]

The Pendragon series.

The first nine books were AWESOME. Some of the best books I've read.

And then the final one was so anticlimactic and weird that it sucked.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a great series. But the last book really fails in comparison to the rest of the series.

That's disappointing. Still plan on reading it, but it's kinda disappointing.

Harry Potter for me. I felt as though most of the last book was a cop-out.

 

[Romblen]

The Maximum Ride series by James Patterson. The first two books, while they had their issues, were pretty good. The third book, which was supposed to be the end to the series, just go stupid. I'll spare the details, but all their problems were solved by a blog read by children and all the powerful enemies accidentally flying into an electric fence. I'm not making that up, they litterally all die by just flying into an electric fence. It wasn't even any kind of trick, they just forgot there was a fence there and flew into it.

What's worse is that the book that came out after that was even worse.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Harry Potter and THHGTTG, as mentioned.

Also, the Space Wolf series. In that Bill King left the Black Library, so they gave the series over to two people that had never written anything before, but were big fans, really. Yeah, you can imagine how that went.

Likewise, the Gotrek and Felix series, once King left they gave that to Nathan Long. He's nowhere near as good as King, but mostly he didn't do all that badly (especially by BL standards at that time), there were some good bits, but he got carried away and put loads of really stupid stuff in for no good reason.

 

[Mestraal]

-snip-

-snip-

Let's not forget, nothing in The Series of Unfortunate Events is ever as it seems. That was part of the charm. There's also the fact that we see

Spoiler: A pretty big spoiler. In length and content.

the great unknown hanging around in a photo at the end of the book; what's to say it didn't rescue the orphans? Or something. Let us also remember that Violet allegedly visited Briny Beach again, and Beatrice Baudelaire/Snicket remembers Sunny appearing on the radio to discuss her recipes (also mentioned in The Beatrice Letters) . This would seem to say they're ALIVE! =D

Anyway, that wonderful question mark is gonna be discussed in his upcoming series, possibly answering yet more questions.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

let's just say that I fucking hate Greek Tragedies.

that little old lady would have disappointed, had she lived, don't you think?

I actually liked the ENDING of Dark Tower, but the last three (post-van) books just weren't as good as the first four. Well, the parts having to do with the real world weren't. Making King have an extended universe was a cool idea; making him a part of it was not.

I

The Inheritance Cycle. Pains me to say it, because I loved those books, but I'm really bitter about the end.

Spoiler

So, Eragon leaves. I know, not really a spoiler cause Angela predicted it in the first book blah blah. But the prophecy also says he'll never return. First off it's been said the future can be changed. More importantly, there is not a single good reason Eragon wouldn't return. For those of you that haven't read the books, Eragon leaves to establish a new Dragon Rider order. Which means wherever he ends up, it must be close enough to Alagaesia that new Dragon Riders can travel there after they are picked. Otherwise either Eragon will be sitting there alone while all the Dragon Riders stay in Alagaesia, or there will be no new Dragon Riders. Why the hell will Eragon never again return? In ten years he isn't going to put someone else in charge and pop back to see how the land he helped free is doing? To meet his nephew?

The only reason Paolini did it is as homage to LOTR. The final scene is Eragon sailing down a river on an elven boat, saying goodbye to friends he's met in his travels, such as the dwarf king etc. The worst part is, this ending would be fine if it weren't for the prophecy. But saying he'll never return, and then everyone treating it that way, just had me sitting there the whole time waiting for someone to explain why. It just sucks that the author would twist his characters and narrative around to do that, especially when he still could have had that scene, it just wouldn't have been as similar, or sad if Eragon was planning to return.

I've already re-written it in my mind that the prophecy was speaking of his eventual death. He will leave, never to return. He may return a few times, but some day he'll go back to the Riders new place, and die there.

I'm sure there are others, but that is all I can think of right now.

Well damn, someone beat me to it. I was disappointed with the ending. It's not like I regret buying the book...but I want to sell it now.

I still haven't read the last book, but i guarantee you, i could accurately guess 97% of the plot, including the ending. The first book tells you exactly how the series is going to play out, if you are sharp up on your literary cliche. I still love the books, but they are nothing if not derivative. In every aspect.

hmm, i was surprised that

Spoiler

the human protagonist died at the end

of Bartimaeus Trilogy. The author set up the happy ending waiting for the guy, and I assumed that, being a series for younger readers, that's the direction it would go in. I wouldn't say it ended badly, exactly, except that there was essentially no reason for it. If anything, I figured that it would be Bartimaeus.


However, the answer to the question of the thread is easy for me: Harry Potter.

The last book was awful, and the incredibly batshit retarded hoax book made more god damned sense. And they gave snape some diginity in being an evil bastard, not some relentless weeping pussy who couldn't get over being in a 30-year friend zone.

ironically, the MOVIES based on the book made the ending a LOT easier to swallow. I was intensely amused that Draco Malfoy's punishment was male pattern baldness