Favorite book series that ended badly.

[dorkette1990]

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.

The only way I could get through the books was to read them with friends, so towards the end, it became a sort of joke. We started calling it the "teenage boy soap opera", because of how formulaic it became: Richard needs a new skill, Kahlan is captured, Richard becomes overpowered, Kahlan rescued, Richard has no idea how he gained this new power or how to truly tap it.
I understand that his power is more driven by emotion than learning.... but according to the Temple of Winds (or whatever the weird underworld sky temple thing he leaves to is called...) he could in fact learn control of his power, with education. But he never does (to a kind of shocking and frankly annoying extent).

 

[Trilaanus]

The Dragon Knight saga by Gordon R. Dickson. A fabulous fantasy series from a modern man's perspective, 9 books completed, then Dickson died. This wouldn't be so bad except the last book(The Dragon and the Fair Maid of Kent) while a very good read, is not even close to what would have been the end of the series. Even now, 12 years later I'm hoping Dickson's partner David Wixon will find enough of Gordon's notes for the 10th book to complete it and, hopefully, bring it to a conclusion.

 

[lacktheknack]

-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.

I should reread the Beatrice Letters. I clearly got pissed too quickly.

Also, NEW SERIES? SQUEE

 

[TheNaut131]

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 literally 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.

Beat me to it. Really, what the fuck, James? I could kinda tolerate book 3 but book 4...

Just no. Shorter than the othesr, pointless boring plot, plot holes galore, and the fucking ending is so abrupt, random, and just FUCKING STUPID. Let me summarize the ending for you guys:

Alright, in the final chapter after all the other shit has been said and done, our main character sees a close ally speaking with the main antagonist, privately. Now this is the part where you think to yourself, "Do I smell subterfuge and treachery?"

NOPE.

We suddenly transition to them sitting on the beach, explaining how this ally was just casually talking to pretty much a super villian, telling them that they're going to expose their crimes. And then we cut to some lovey dovey crap, a girl on a dolphin, and poof. The book ends.

Because that makes sense. Walk up to the guy who has been trying to kill you and simply tell them, "Hey, I'm all by myself and probably can't take you on. I'm gonna expose you and get you in a lot of trouble. You're just gonna let me tell you this and leave perfectly fine."

Fucking stupid mother fucking...oh, and I hear there are two more books out.

ISN'T THAT JUST WONDERFUL?!

Spoiler

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

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.

Mr. Snicket warned us from the beginning that nothing good would come of this story.

 

[TheNaut131]

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.

Ah, Pendragon. You hold a dear place in my heart. I was actually quite content with the ending, it was a bit slower, but eh things were finally closing in so I was cool with it. Now the epilogue, dear God, that hurt my head. What was going on there?

I thought they couldn't return to there territories because Halla would throw a fit? Did Bobby, now being a part of the whole Halla thing in Solara, create some sort of weird alternate future/territory for them? Or did he bend the rules one last time for his friends? My God, that fucked shit up...but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned what the word penultimate means.

I'm just glad good ole DJ had the brains not to make Saint Dane Bobby's father or some stupid shit.

 

[Ixnay1111]

Well the series didnt end, in fact it went another 30-40 years... but Raymond E Feist... wtf was up with A Darkness at Sethanon? That book had so many loopholes it wasn't funny. I felt like the entire series after that was made just to make up for it and fill in the holes and fix mistakes. Fun books i suppose otherwise i wouldnt have read them, but jees.

 

[Hitokiri_Gensai]

well, its more the movie based on the books, but Harry Potter ended like SHIT. Im sorry but it was total crap. It was a great series and the last movie was SHIT.

 

[Vault101]

well, its more the movie based on the books, but Harry Potter ended like SHIT. Im sorry but it was total crap. It was a great series and the last movie was SHIT.

why though? (Imnot seeing it)...was it the epilouge?

everyoen keeps saying this but not really giving acutal reasons

 

[Vault101]

-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.

I should reread the Beatrice Letters. I clearly got pissed too quickly.

Also, NEW SERIES? SQUEE

nothign in that series is set in stone..they dont HAVE to be dead (if I dont want them to be )

also would this new series be set in the same universe?

 

[iblis666]

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.

The only way I could get through the books was to read them with friends, so towards the end, it became a sort of joke. We started calling it the "teenage boy soap opera", because of how formulaic it became: Richard needs a new skill, Kahlan is captured, Richard becomes overpowered, Kahlan rescued, Richard has no idea how he gained this new power or how to truly tap it.
I understand that his power is more driven by emotion than learning.... but according to the Temple of Winds (or whatever the weird underworld sky temple thing he leaves to is called...) he could in fact learn control of his power, with education. But he never does (to a kind of shocking and frankly annoying extent).

god that series had such great potential and the first book was fucking amazing. Sadly it became so preachy after the first few books that it became painful to read but i slogged through it until chainfire at which point i realized that he just absolutely lost it.

 

[Hitokiri_Gensai]

well, its more the movie based on the books, but Harry Potter ended like SHIT. Im sorry but it was total crap. It was a great series and the last movie was SHIT.

why though? (Imnot seeing it)...was it the epilouge?

everyoen keeps saying this but not really giving acutal reasons

The movie felt rushed, as if they didnt care enough to really flesh out the plot and storyline. The book wasnt the strongest in the world either, and the movie really made it obvious. To me personally, it felt as if they just pushed it out so they didnt have to think about it anymore. To me, if you dont want to have to make something other than some contract papers to finish, then dont bother, because youll just make crap.

 

[Vault101]

well, its more the movie based on the books, but Harry Potter ended like SHIT. Im sorry but it was total crap. It was a great series and the last movie was SHIT.

why though? (Imnot seeing it)...was it the epilouge?

everyoen keeps saying this but not really giving acutal reasons

The movie felt rushed, as if they didnt care enough to really flesh out the plot and storyline. The book wasnt the strongest in the world either, and the movie really made it obvious. To me personally, it felt as if they just pushed it out so they didnt have to think about it anymore. To me, if you dont want to have to make something other than some contract papers to finish, then dont bother, because youll just make crap.

yeah, the movie was one thing...

but Im talking about the book..what was wrong with the book?

was the the way harry defeats voldemort not satisfactoy?
did the wrong charachters die?
was the pacing off?

I dont mean to sound critical, I just genuinly want to knwo what some people dont like about the book/ending

 

[Vault101]

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

Id argue that being an evil bastard isnt a good thing....nor does it give one dignity

 

[Ryan McGrath]

The Cirque Du Freak series was amazing but the ending was so sad and I thought it could have ended better, but then again the author warned me in the begging.

 

[VoidWanderer]

The Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks.

Not that the series is in any way my favorite, far from so actually. But the ending was so bad, I was embarrassed on the authors behalf.

Really? While it may have fitted right in with a Doctor Who episode, it could've been a lot worse.

 

[Eggbert]

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

He's admitted to liking that character, so it is slightly less (or more) likely than any others.

I've gotta go with Sword of Truth. Loved the first three or four, then they turned into a slog, pushed through because I might as well see how it ends, and then it was just crap. Some others have already covered it. Bleh.

I'd also go with the infamous Dark Tower, but King's writing was so atrocious I never got past the hypno-trick with the gun shells in the first book.

 

[VoidWanderer]

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.

The only way I could get through the books was to read them with friends, so towards the end, it became a sort of joke. We started calling it the "teenage boy soap opera", because of how formulaic it became: Richard needs a new skill, Kahlan is captured, Richard becomes overpowered, Kahlan rescued, Richard has no idea how he gained this new power or how to truly tap it.
I understand that his power is more driven by emotion than learning.... but according to the Temple of Winds (or whatever the weird underworld sky temple thing he leaves to is called...) he could in fact learn control of his power, with education. But he never does (to a kind of shocking and frankly annoying extent).

It seems you forgot the bit where Draken says 'The only way out is to forget everything you learned while in here.

 

[VoidWanderer]

well, its more the movie based on the books, but Harry Potter ended like SHIT. Im sorry but it was total crap. It was a great series and the last movie was SHIT.

why though? (Imnot seeing it)...was it the epilouge?

everyoen keeps saying this but not really giving acutal reasons

The movie felt rushed, as if they didnt care enough to really flesh out the plot and storyline. The book wasnt the strongest in the world either, and the movie really made it obvious. To me personally, it felt as if they just pushed it out so they didnt have to think about it anymore. To me, if you dont want to have to make something other than some contract papers to finish, then dont bother, because youll just make crap.

yeah, the movie was one thing...

but Im talking about the book..what was wrong with the book?

was the the way harry defeats voldemort not satisfactoy?
did the wrong charachters die?
was the pacing off?

I dont mean to sound critical, I just genuinly want to knwo what some people dont like about the book/ending

I think it is more the epilogue which didn't need to exist, more than anything.

 

[Shoujin]

The Ender Series by Orson Scott Card.

The first book was pretty great in my opinion, but each novel after that pretty much gave me one more lump on the head until my IQ hit 0.