Favorite book series that ended badly.

[Alphonse_Lamperouge]

Can't think of any off the top of my head that haven't already been mentioned, but I'm really worried about WoT. There are so many plot threads to be resolved before the Dark One is defeated, let alone what has to happen after. I'm hoping for a David Eddings style massive epilogue, but I'm worried that it'll just be a chapter or two crammed into the back of the book.

sadly i must agree with you. Robert Jordan created such an amazing world, and now that he is gone, i just don't think his son has the writing chops to satisfy my expectations. i think we both know Rand has to die, which will be hard enough, but i just hope he goes out with a Breaking Of The World sized bang

 

[Mafoobula]

Piers Anthony's Xanth series. It hasn't ended yet, but I get the feeling that it just CAN'T end well.

I liked the series a lot, but somewhere around book 20-25, things took a turn for the absurd and annoying. Puns, puns, and more puns, to the point where whole pages are filled with pun people with pun names and pun talents. When reading any recent Xanth book, it's common to see the following passage at least a handful of times:

(protagonist) was walking along the enchanted path with no conflict or urgency, to the Good Magician's castle. S/He noticed someone walking the other way.
"Hi, I'm (protagonist) on my way to see Good Magician Humphrey."
"Hi, I'm (pun name), with the talent of (pun talent that fits pun name). I'm out here in the middle of nowhere for no reason whatsoever."

And then they just go on their merry *&^%ing way! And this will happen no less than 6 times, often more, sometimes stringing together 3 or more pun people in a row, just like that.
Mind you, this is forgetting all the pun plants and pun random creatures along the way. It was silly in book 15, it was cute in book 20, it's annoying in book 35.

And they way he gets these stories started has become - and I really do like the series, so this hurts to say - hackneyed. Lazy, even. The beginning of "Jumper Cable" quite literally starts with the main protagonist being brought into the story through a narrative hook. Our hero is just chillin' one day, when a big hook picks him up and drops him in the story. That's it. And then he decided to go to the Good Magician's castle, because that happens in about 95% of the books. Good Magician Humphrey is now little more than a plot device to get the narrative into full swing. One of the single most important characters in the Xanth universe, and all he does is tell the protagonist where to go.

Act 2 drags on with the characters interacting with each other with all the believability of mannequins in a soap opera. Puns and panty humor, maybe we see a recurring character or two, just to pad out the story for another couple paragraphs. Moving on.

Act 3, and the whole thing resolves without much urgency or tension. Day is saved, everyone falls in heterosexual happily-ever-after fairy *&^%ing tale love. The end. Bleh.

Maybe I'm just a crotchety young man of 24, but reading the recent books just huuurrrrts. I was right there with the series, all the way up through around book 25. Now, I just read them because, shoot, when you read 25 books in a series, you're more or less obligated to stick with it until the end.

 

[Thaluikhain]

i read all the Gotrek and Felix books that King wrote and really enjoyed them....when i was 11. just the other day i tried reading them again, and realized the quality of writing is quite poor. with the exception of the Greater Daemon fight in Daemonslayer, all of the fights boil down to ''And Gotrek began foaming at the mouth, hewing left and right and leaving a trail of limbs and destruction''. no specifics, no blow by blow like the better fantasy writers will go into. Im studying writing now, and i dont know, that stuff seams a bit weaksauce.

that being said, there is something totally bad ass about ending a chapter with ''Come on manling, its time for some bloodletting''

The writing style is his weakest area, yeah, and it's generally pretty poor. Well, excepting when he tries to do mystery, which is simply awful.

However, his characterisation and worldbuilding is top notch. He's extraordinarily good at making characters come alive, there's alot of minor characters that get the odd paragraph who are much more fleshed out than people written by other authors who devote entire books to them.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

The Saga of Darren Shan got realy stupid towards the end. I can deal with vampaneze and shit like that but then the final trilogy is all: go to future, fight dragons....its as if someone swapped out the pages with something else while I wasn't looking It didn't mesh well at all

This was gonna be my choice.

The last few books completely just came out of nowhere.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

and it isn't that i like evil snape over good snape. I honestly couldn't give a fuck about Cpt. fangirlfap. The problem is the WAY she wrote him as a good guy. As a crying little *****. which is lame

You got a point there.

The more and more I read into this thread, the more and more I start to realize just how badly the last Harry Potter was written.

Seriously, Snape could have been a pretty fucking Bad Ass good guy. Basically the equivalent of an ex-KKK or Neo Nazi who has to pretend to be full of hate? She could have even wrote him off as having a hard time turning back to the good side.

 

[Stocky37]

Snip..

Wow.... that actually makes some sense. I think I'd much prefer something along those lines than than the whole Deathly Hallows debacle. Why Rowling couldn't just continue along those lines instead of pulling some other magical contrivance out of her ass to allow Harry to win is beyond me.

 

[The Wykydtron]

All of Darren Shan's series end badly, The Darren Shan Saga and The Demonata both end with him rebooting the universe.

Though there was this oneshot about executioners (i'll be damned if i can remember the name) he did that ended well, i think he just has a problem with ending long running series.

I wonder if i'll be adding the Inheritance series to this list in a few days?

 

[Pearwood]

Anita Blake. Went from a good urban fantasy series to porn and then to even worse porn.

 

[The Wykydtron]

The Bartimaeus Trilogy, three books leading up to an epic conclusion, and then...

Spoiler

The main character dies during the anti-climactic fight, with the other characters basically saying "Yup he's dead" after, there, done, there's the end of your series... ugh I wanted to punch the author, but I couldn't so I punched the book then sold them all

What? Did it end badly? It's been a few years since i read it...

BRB rereading it.

Spoiler

Wait you thought Nathaniel was the main character? I thought Bartimaeus and him were of equal importance...

[sub] slight nitpicking ftw![/sub]

 

[whiffleball]

Wow. I agree with so much of this thread.

Night Angel Trilogy:
I liked some of the plot elements in the final book, but yeah the very end was kind of weird and haphazard.

Harry Potter:
I don't know what I would have liked for an ending, but I didn't feel satisfied with the one we were given.

Pendragon Series:
That alternate reality stuff at the end felt really weird. How do your respond if you are in Bobby's shoes?

Keys to the Kingdom:
Loved the books, but the end was weird. It made sense to a point, but it felt kind of bizarre.

Inheritance Cycle:
I suppose I have the most to comment about this one.

About Angela

Spoiler

I got the impression that she was the Oracle who lived in Urû'baen centuries ago.

I felt like the final book tried to throw too much "real science" into the story. Suddenly we are dealing with subjects like atom splitting, radiation, the world being round, etc. It didn't fit with the rest of the story.

Spoiler

Though I guess radiation was as good a reason as any why no one would go to Vroengard anymore.

The final victory over Galbatorix was lame as well.

Spoiler

Make him feel regret and pain for all he has done and then he kind of commits suicide. I was hoping for some inventive use of magic.

As for the prophecy:

Spoiler

We learned that Solembaum's prophecies were just things told to the were-cats by the Eldunari. In fact, almost every deus ex machina was supposedly done by them, so there was no great destiny to begin with so why should Angela's prophecy be held in such high regard. As for Arya, I understand that her people would want her to be Queen, but why would it be so important to her. What does the ruler of the elves do anyway? Their whole society is predicated on magic and they don't want for anything. All they really need is an ambassador. I liked that Eragon reworked the magic to allow for Dwarves and Wargals to become riders because it fit with the mythos. As for Arya becoming a dragon rider, it made sense in that it would provide a permanent connection to Eragon, and also Saphira since Arya's dragon was a male. But then to split them up felt arbitrary for the reasons provided. Nasuada should get a dragon to allow her to have a relationship with Murtagh. But I guess that would have made the ending too happy/nice for some people.

 

[Sonicron]

Basically any series exclusively written by Dan Abnett. I love me some W40k, and Lord knows Abnett is the best of the best when it comes to writing those novels, but as great as his book series are (such as Eisenhorn or Ravenor), they always shit the bed on the last 10 pages.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

Interesting to hear people talk about A Song of Ice and Fire's latest book. I was overwhelmed at first too but, on a second read-through, have actually changed my mind about it and consider it to be one of the strongest in the series - very cleverly written but there were a lot of things I, and I imagine many on this very thread, missed in the initial read through.

It's just gotten really trendy to hate on GRRM/asoiaf.

I too think that Dance was actually the best one yet, though I agree that he's been milking the "end a character's pov with the appearance of their death" device too much.

but come on, Tyrion's adventures are downright awesome.

 

[Benni88]

David Brin's Uplift Trilogy. Three meaty books which I had to track down and purchase as they weren't at my local library and the ending was atrocious. I felt a little cheated really, I had enjoyed the books so much up until the last hundred and fifty pages when I realised there was no possible way that a satisfactory conclusion would be reached.

 

[Swyftstar]

I will join in on the Harry Potter and His Dark Materials hate.
Harry Potter was, for me, in the beginning about magic and adventure and friendship and joy. I know, sounds corny, but everything we ingest can't be heavy... but wait, then it gets heavy. Like really heavy and dark and it just wasn't enjoyable to me anymore.
As for His Dark Materials, it just dragged and got boring and tedious and I, like others, couldn't even finish the damn thing.

 

[New Frontiersman]

A Series of Unfortunate Events. I loved the books they were funny and interesting, but the ending felt rushed, none of the lingering questions were answered, and it felt so out of step with the rest of the series that I just felt very disappointed by the whole thing.

 

[Berenzen]

For those looking to ASOIAF for a happy ending, I'd recommend reading his other materials first, going by those, it's not going to happen. These can easily be found in Dreamsongs v. I and II.

OT: Sword of Truth, for reasons already mentioned, and I was worried about Wheel of Time while Jordan was still writing it, his last books were fairly slow, Sanderson has done quite well ending the series.

Also, I can't bear to read past Gauntlgrym by R.A. Salvatore, simply because he killed off everybody except Drizzt.

 

[Caveworm]

I would say Dune.

Mr Frank Herbert created a truly immense and epic universe but sadly died before he could complete it. However, his son and a chap who wrote Star War comics or something, J. Anderson, came along and complete pissed all over Frank Herbert's universe, believes, and philosophy.

One does not expect a new set of books to be as good as the original, very much like Tolkien's work that was finished by his son. However, the Dune books just...well, are just an abomination to the first set.