Favorite book series that ended badly.

[Ovedius]

I really feel like he delayed the last book while he pushed to get the series more mainstream. HBO, video games...just seemed like he was holding the book back just to release it when he finally got his show finished. Which sucks for us, but he needs his millions, right?

You got a point there.

I don't think tv-audiences will take kindly to having to wait for several years for the next season of Game of Thrones.
-short attention spans and all that.
So perhaps the pressure of keeping up with the show will make him work a little faster.

As for the dude that said Harry Potter is sad, you definitely haven't read these books. In these books, *SPOILER* characters you actually give a shit about die. Like main characters.

All to true.
Christ, he doesn't just kill them, he makes them suffer. Deeply.
And I never learn, just as I start to think "Hm, I really like this character." the dragon excrements start hitting the fans at near light speed.

 

[Marcus Kehoe]

Tai-Pan , just kinda pissed me off.

 

[Tallim]

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy of Five.

The first four books are the greatest pieces of comedic literature I have ever had the pleasure to read. The last book (Mostly Harmless) can go burn itself. So dissappointing even the author hated it.

I'm content with only recognising the Trilogy of four. It was a great ending: bittersweet on the mountainside, with Arthur, Fenchurch and *sniffle* Marvin.

There are 6. The final one And Another Thing was written by Eoin Colfer and he does an amazing job of mimicking DA's style and humour and it's a much better end to the whole thing than Mostly Harmless was.

 

[Darkeagle6]

Everytime I see people complaining about how Harry Potter characters die in the last book, I facepalm.

The wizarding world is in a state of war. There's an actual battle in the book. People die everywhere. People you care for. From a stray bullet(spell) even. Off "screen". There's no avoiding this if you want to actually depict a war. The fact that people wrote it off as simply "shock value" and "unnecessary", the fact that so many people complained loudly that their favorite character didn't die in a blaze of glory while taking out half of the enemy army, speaks volumes about the way war is typically portrayed in mainstream media.

I personally really liked the last book in the Harry Potter series. I feel that it's in some ways more problematic than the other ones in terms of plot, and I get that some people didn't like certain things, however (although I'm a bit perplexed at how just how much ire the epilogue invokes).

I haven't read enough novels recently to share anything else about dissapointing endings, however.

 

[dave1004]

R.A Salvatore's most recent book in the saga of a certain famous dark elf. The book's called Gauntlgrym, if you're wondering.

!!SPOILERS!!
In the book, Drizzt's friends are nigh all dead. Regis, Cattie-Brie, Wulfgar, even his foe Entreri. His only friend left is old Bruenor, but even he dies at the end. And it's just Drizzt, alone in the world, with another thousand years left to live.

*sob* I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE...

 

[Kris015]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Harry Potter yet. I love the book series and then the last one happened. The epilogue SUCKED. Big time.

Why?

I never read the books, but I watched all the movies.

 

[Andrew Mitchell]

Thats a pity, i really loved that series, but the ending made me almost send phillip paulman a hate letter...

 

[Veylon]

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.

Heh. Paolini had revealed this ending less than half way through the first book. The justifications were pretty flimsy though:

Spoiler

Eragon: I must leave to protect the eggs and the dragons they'll hatch into.
Arya: What about the cyborg? And all those Eldunarii? Surely the magically powerful ancient minds of the dragon race can protect their own.
Eragon: No! Only I can protect them. And I can never return!
Roran: Won't they grow up in a couple years like Saphira or Thorn? I'm pretty sure a flock of full-size dragons can take care of themselves. You could come back then.
Eragon: No! And I must travel far, far beyond the bounds of Alagaesia so that no one can ever disturb them. I will build a great hall to keep them in.
Nasuada: Why not set up shop in Vroengard? Everything's already set up there. And, in any case, wouldn't there be other people in this far away land that you don't know about?
Eragon: No!
Angela: Okay, fine. We don't want you here anyway.

My candidate for most disappointing ending to a series was the Weaver series by Stephan Baxter. There are three books about unknown people from the future reaching into the past to manipulate events. In the final book, we learn that the mysterious Weaver who everything was building up to, was in fact:

Spoiler

Nazis who had kidnapped an idiot savant pyschic. Heck, they weren't even clever Nazis. There was this idiot plan to divert Columbus from discovering America, which would somehow help the Nazis (if there even were Nazis, or a unified Germany, for that matter, in such an altered world) win the war. The author himself couldn't swallow that nonsense.

 

[DolorousEdd]

Recently I find every book wearing out its welcome. And I don`t mean bad books but just generally books, even if I´m enjoying them a lot (as I usually buy books that I know are at least worth reading). I always find the last twenty percent or so the longest to read. I always think "OK, I got it, it´s great, now get to the point". Instead there are always a half-dozen buildups, some prerequisite lulls, final back-and-forth, then denouement and an epilogue. It´s as if at a certain point when the book has already established its merit, the rest gets more and more redundant. Maybe it has to do with me prematurely judging the book as "having been an interesting experience (so far)" and then kind of dismissing from my subconsciousness that there is still a solid chunk to go.

 

[Greatjusticeman]

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.

Well, shit...

I've just started the last book right now. These negative opinions and the bunch of negative review scores on Amazon have made me kind of nervous.

Though I shouldn't be surprised by now. The writing and story began to slope on a downwards trend in Wolves of the Calla and Song of Susannah (too many pop culture references for my liking).

However, the first four books are some of my favorites of all time.

 

[teebeeohh]

dune
i loved the original books but the two that were added were really bad.
i mean the think ended on a cliffhanger, some people waited over 20 years and then the big bad is

Spoiler

the robots that only appeared as "this is why we don't have cool scifi stuff and live in a feudal system", except for the prequel books and those weren't any good either

the writing also sucked compared to the originals.

oh and regarding the dark tower: i liked the ending but then again i am also a sucker for Sisyphus-esque gunslingers with missing finger.
edit: the Harry Potter ending sucked. just the epilogue, the rest of the book was awesome, killing off half the cast off-screen was great because that's what happens in war, even if you are clearly the good guys, generally better looking and more likable, you die.

 

[DJDarque]

I have a few.

1: Harry Potter. Books 1-6 were pretty good, but the entirety of book 7 was garbage. In my opinion it had no redeeming qualities.

2: His Dark Materials. The Golden Compass was amazing. The Subtle Knife was not as great, but still good. And then The Amber Spyglass happened. I know Philip Pullman is an atheist and I know the books were written with an underlying atheist message, but in The Amber Spyglass any idea of subtlety went out the window. It turned a decent series into a ham-fisted atheist jab at the likes of C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia.

3. The Redwall Series. It's not that this one ended badly, it's that it is never going to get a proper ending at all. Brian Jacques died after finished the most recent book, The Rogue Crew. I know it would be a difficult series to actually end and I haven't the slightest idea of how it would've worked, but now we'll never know.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Anyone here read Legacy of the Force? It's an abysmal series, which is a real shame, because the first three novels in it are AWESOME. I mean, there are millennium falcon bombers, Boba Fett comes out of retirement, and there's two huge space battles.

But after that, everything collapses.

 

[Giftfromme]

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.

lol wow finally a book I've actually read is mentioned. The ending of that book was...interesting. I didn't expect it to get all mystical and shit at the end, but I guess that was necessary. I haven't read the rest of the books, but I can imagine them being shit. The first book was so good as it showed how he was moulded into a general who could defeat the buggers on their home world. It shows how he is young, doesn't want to turn out like his brother, wanted love and acceptance etc. but he can't really have the same journey in the next books. What are the next books about anyway? I'm not going to read them, so you might as well spoil them for me

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Only book ending I really didn't enjoy, by which I mean pissed me off to no end is Revan by Drew Karpyshyn. Two characters I love got really crappy endings, and I don't approve of this.

Oh yeah that was bad.

Spoiler

The Exile (I'm not calling her Meetra Surik, god that's a shitty name) gets shanked in the back and falls over dead. That's it. T3-M4 gets turned into a molten pile of metal, and Revan was retconned into being a moron seduced by the darkside instead of one who turned to the dark side to PREVENT the Sith Emperor from invading the galaxy. And then he gets put into a prisoner field so that they can yank him out and put him in The Old Republic as a raid mission. What a dignified ending to two great characters.

 

[Blackmagic1515]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Harry Potter yet. I love the book series and then the last one happened. The epilogue SUCKED. Big time.

Why?

I never read the books, but I watched all the movies.

Basically in the epilogue it goes 17 years into the future to Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione and Draco putting their oldest kids on the train to Hogwarts. Harry and Draco are now friends with each other. Harry also named his son after not only Dumbledore, but Snape. He shouldn't have, Snape wasn't a tragic hero, he was a git. And in my personal opinion, Harry should have died along with Voldemort. I've never really liked Harry as a character and I think it'd would've been better if he'd died and been remembered as the hero who died destroying Voldemort. I just hated the way she kind of turned it into a 'then everyone lived happily ever after the end' kind of thing.

 

[Suicidejim]

Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. As much as it was a deliberate choice on the part of the author, his irritating tendency to never ever explain anything in much detail got more and more frustrating as the series continued, and by the time the last book rolled around I still had no idea what was meant to be going on. I still enjoy the books, and they're a wonderful and different read from your average stories, but for every interesting and enjoyable idea Snicket brought in, like his constant and amusing narration of events from the point of view of the author, or even his love of teaching new words, there were irritating issues like the lack of resolution to almost every little side-story (arguably even the main one).

Also, Thinner by Stephen King. The ending would have been better in a short story, in my opinion.

 

[Sampler]

The Red Dwarf novels - Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers is excellent, as is the follow up Better Than Life but when Rob Grant and Doug Naylor fell out and the "third" books Backwards & Last Human written by each respectively didn't have the shine of their collaborative works.

This is also reflected in the TV Show as Doug Naylor carried on his own from Season 8 (well, without Grant, he did have co-writers help).

 

[brunothepig]

Spoiler: snip

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.

Spoiler: Well about the ending

I actually think the ending was quite fitting, The Dragon Riders headed somewhere where they could be completely impartial to the lands events. And I'm pretty sure that Eragon will return from time to time, just that he plans to spend most of his time at the new Dragon Riders headquarters (Whatever you want to call it), Eragons essentially become the most powerful person on the face of the planet, and he cant take too much of an active role in the fate of Alagaesia lest he become another Galbatorix.
I thought the ending was fitting, especially how the romance with him and Arya turned out, he chose not to make it completely cliche by making it not work out, and i respect him for that.

.. Still think that he should have made Roran king though, he would've been the most badass king ever (Although Nasuada makes more sense)

Spoiler: Spoiler again.

I do agree that it fit, my only complaint is the inescapable idea that he's not coming back. Everyone acts that way, when the only reason they have to think that is Angela's prophecy. Like I said, I'm pretty sure Eragon would return from time to time too, but the book says otherwise. The reasons for him leaving were good and sensible, but there's no reason he'd never return. As for the romance, I more got the impression that they'll pick it up some day. Maybe Arya will step down as queen one day and take her place among the Riders or whatever. After all, they've got centuries, no need to rush into things.

Roran being king would have been awesome, but wouldn't really work. He has a very devious, tactical mind, and he cares for the people, but ruling is a far sight from leading.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

I..am not!

anyway I guess you could say snape never grew out of his emo phase...ok yes I see where your coming from though I might npt have interpereted it that way

well I'm glad you can admit you were wrong

even if all the Horcruxes are destroyed, Voldemort can still be saved if he only regrets what he did

where in GOD'S name did you EVER come up with that? nothing in the books even REMOTELY suggests that (not to mention that it clearly shows, from the second book, that voldemort is a complete sociopath), and harry redeems no one anywhere in the series. well, maybe Sirius, but that's stretching.
You sound like you've made some ridiculous fanon argument, little better than why harry and draco "totally have a secret love for eachother!" and then using magic as a justifcation for getting draco knocked up