# Books with disappointing endings (spoilers, obviously) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 11, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137 "2009-03-11T22:03:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/41 "2009-03-12T20:32:10Z")
Clarke’s _Rama_ series. I mean, I can totally get into weird spaceships, cities that make no sense, octopus-aliens, cool. But the ending? God did it? Seriously? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/42 "2009-03-12T20:44:46Z")
What Rama series? Clarke only wrote _Rendevous with Rama_. There may have been some hack-work books using his name, but I won’t blame Clarke for abominations perpetrated behind his back. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/43 "2009-03-12T21:04:23Z")
Hatchet What a idiot I am, I can just go back to the plane and use the emergency beacon. It kinda makes me wish I thought of this at SOME POINT IN THE PAST YEAR Or at least, thats how I recall the ending. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/44 "2009-03-12T21:16:08Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada](#): > > His earlier books, though, have terrible endings. I especially hated the ending of **Cryptonomicon**. At the ending… > > Our heros are sitting on a pile of gold in the middle of the Philippine jungle. We have already learned that just knowing where a pile of gold in the jungle is does you no good at all–you have to get it out. In addition, this gold is on land owned by the Roman Catholic Church–which has significant political influence in the Philippines. Also, lawyers. Also, of course, it turns out that the whole Quest was a total waste of time, because one of the main characters knew the Answer the whole time. Man, I really hate that ending. I popped in here just to look for this, and I’m thrilled to find it. All I’ve ever heard is absolute and unqualified praise for **Cryptonomicon** –which I never quite understood. I slogged my way through every last page of that ponderous tome, waiting for The Really Cool Shit to start happening, based on my experience with **Snow Crash**. And then I got to the last page and… this. All that work, all that self-indulgent crypto/computer geek twaddle I waded through–and this was my payoff? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/45 "2009-03-12T21:52:54Z")
I hate the ending of Stephen King’s **Pet Sematary.** I just hate it. The third part of that book is just a complete letdown. The entire first two parts are creepy, creepy, flesh-crawling, jumping-at-loud-noises, delicious scary, and the ending is so far over the top that it actually doubles back and eliminates anything frightening about the entire book. Resulting in epic scary-book fail. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/46 "2009-03-12T22:06:20Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Recently read and so still fresh in the mind – > > **The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana** by Umberto Eco. Very well written, but it doesn’t end – it just stops. I found this ending disappointing as well, but it’s not as if it stops where it does for no reason. I’m pretty sure we’re meant to understand that the protagonist dies at that moment. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/47 "2009-03-12T22:13:03Z")
I’m not boxing the ending because nobody should read this book anyway. At the end of _The Historian_, we learn that all the missives, murders, and machinations were because Dracula was looking for a historian to catalog his library. Apparently he never heard of Craig’s List. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/48 "2009-03-12T22:25:53Z")
The ending of _North Dallas Forty_ pissed me off no end. That’s the book, not the movie (which I haven’t seen. It might be the same and also piss me off). ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/49 "2009-03-13T02:59:04Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > What Rama series? Clarke only wrote _Rendevous with Rama_. > There may have been some hack-work books using his name, but I won’t blame Clarke for abominations perpetrated behind his back. Well, I’ll be damned. I read those when I was pretty young, and I never even noticed that Gentry Lee wrote them (although, wiki says Clarke ‘read and made suggestions’, so he’s not totally off the hook). They were under Clarke at the library… Here I’ve been thinking Clarke wrote 'em for probably a decade, and it’s that damn Gentry Lee I can blame! ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/50 "2009-03-13T03:07:16Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Recently read and so still fresh in the mind – > > **The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana** by Umberto Eco. Very well written, but it doesn’t end – it just stops. Well geez now that two people have mentioned this book I have to point out that the 2nd to last mention of this book on this messageboard was from me with a totally different [take on the ending](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10535730&postcount=96). My answers for _this_ thread have all been taken already… ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/51 "2009-03-13T03:09:31Z")
> [@MeanJoe](#): > > Lord of the Rings - Seriously? Gollum slips and falls and that is how The Ring gets destroyed? He slips?!? Epic quest ends in slippery feet? Gah! As you request I’m flaming you, but not for the reason you think: that is not the book’s ending! Gaaah! ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/52 "2009-03-13T03:11:03Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > Or at least, thats how I recall the ending. I seem to remember that… He had tried to get the backpack with the beacon earlier, and had almost died. That backpack that contained it was not accesible until a thunderstorm or something caused the plane to move around and made it easier for the kid to dive and get the stuff he needed. At least, that’s how I remember it. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/53 "2009-03-13T03:24:59Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > Well geez now that two people have mentioned this book I have to point out that the 2nd to last mention of this book on this messageboard was from me with a totally different [take on the ending](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10535730&postcount=96). By “totally different take” do you mean that you didn’t find it disappointing, or that you didn’t think that the narrator dies? Because if you have a different take on what actually happened at the end, I’m curious to know what it is. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/54 "2009-03-13T03:49:47Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > By “totally different take” do you mean that you didn’t find it disappointing, or that you didn’t think that the narrator dies? Because if you have a different take on what actually happened at the end, I’m curious to know what it is. No, the ending made me cry (the thread was about books that you cry)…I realized that the main character died at the end. And since it was announced as Eco’s last novel it seemed especially poignant to me to end the book in such a way. ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/55 "2009-03-13T05:10:43Z")
_Foucault’s Pendulum_. Yeah, I get the spoof factor. But the climax that all the conspiracies are aiming towards is a giant power generator? WTF? These people have invented immortality and magic as “mere” research by-products along the road to power generation? Just ripped me out of the whole thing, spoof factor or no. I am sure everyone can conjure endless metaphorical “justifications” for it (as can I), it just didn’t work for me as storytelling. ---
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/56 "2009-03-13T05:33:27Z")
Red Mars. Every good character died. I couldn’t bear to read the other two books, just too sad. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/57 "2009-03-13T08:22:46Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > I seem to remember that… > > He had tried to get the backpack with the beacon earlier, and had almost died. That backpack that contained it was not accesible until a thunderstorm or something caused the plane to move around and made it easier for the kid to dive and get the stuff he needed. > > At least, that’s how I remember it. Not that, that ending is all-together that much better. ☹ I mean, it’s still deserving of this thread, no? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/58 "2009-03-13T11:28:53Z")
[Saberhagen’s Swords Series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_the_Swords)- Just an awful. awful. lame ass ending. You could tell he didn’t know how to finish it, and just decided to take a dump on what had been (overall) a pretty good series. ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/59 "2009-03-13T13:18:18Z")
Peter Benchley’s _Jaws_. The shark is coming towards Brody after destroying the Orca. It’s coming closer, closer, and then… it dies. Then sinks. The End.I literally threw the book across the room. Don’t know why I read his book _The Island_ after that. But I did. The protagonist has just managed to get his son back from the pirates and is about to face off against the Dastardly Head Pirate[sup]TM[/sup]. After a little needless exposition, the pirate kills himself. The End. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137/60 "2009-03-13T14:25:12Z")
Dante: as I recall _Jaws_, the shark didn’t die, it just went away in that random, miondless killing machine way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-with-disappointing-endings-spoilers-obviously/489137.md?page=4)