# Crap series you wish you hadn't started reading **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 20, 2012, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041 "2012-08-20T09:54:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/21 "2012-08-21T00:34:12Z")
I’m pretty sure you’re think ing of Peter F Hamilton’s [\*Night’s Dawn \*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night%27s_Dawn_Trilogy) trilogy. Personally I liked it at first, but it did get a little ridiculous and the ending is the worse piece of Deus ex Machina I’ve seen in a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/22 "2012-08-21T00:37:04Z")
If we go back to fifteen years ago…Sweet Valley High. There has to be SOMEONE here who knows what I’m talking about. ☹ Other than that, I’m pretty good at chucking books when I think they’re awful. I actually gave away my airport copy of _The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo_ to a stranger on the plane. “I can’t read this.” ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/23 "2012-08-21T00:40:46Z")
> [@Suil\_Dubh](#): > > The absolute worst, crappiest, soul-crushingly horrible series I ever had the misfortune to start was this science fiction series about dead souls coming back to possess the living. It was set in the far future, with space colonies etc. but there was a supernatural element too. I don’t remember the author’s name, the name of the books, or the name of the series, and it was all so bad that I’m happy to have forgotten it. Peter F. Hamilton’s [Night’s Dawn Trilogy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night%27s_Dawn_Trilogy). Which I think is actually six books, because they divided up each one into two parts. I think I picked up the first half of Reality Dysfunction at a library book sale but had no interest in picking up the rest. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/24 "2012-08-21T00:55:32Z")
The Shannara trilogy. My mom bought it as a gift, buying the hype on the sleeve “it’s the next Tolkien”; I had to finish it. ---
**Author:** ![Jormungandr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@Jormungandr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jormungandr)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/25 "2012-08-21T01:10:43Z")
Kathy Reichs’s “Temperance Brennan” series, on which the “Bones” TV show is based. I tried reading the first three and it just doesn’t work for me. I went into them with a clear mind, knowing the book and TV characters weren’t supposed to be similar, but the book’s character development wasn’t there for me. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/26 "2012-08-21T01:16:50Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Peter F. Hamilton’s [Night’s Dawn Trilogy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night%27s_Dawn_Trilogy). Which I think is actually six books, because they divided up each one into two parts. I think I picked up the first half of Reality Dysfunction at a library book sale but had no interest in picking up the rest. Ugh. A friend highly recommended _Pandora’s Star_ and _Judas Unchained_ to me, but the bookstore didn’t have those in, so I picked up _Reality Dysfunction_ instead. When I got to the whole “dead souls possessing the living” part, my reaction was basically, “That can’t be what’s really going on. He’s going to tell us the real story soon, right? Right? …right?” I haven’t read any of the rest of the books in that series. However, I did go back and read _Pandora’s Star_ and _Judas Unchained_ and loved them, just as my friend had thought I would. Just goes to show that not every work by a good author is a gem, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/27 "2012-08-21T02:08:58Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > The Wheel of Time series. Drek. After about book 4 or so, yes. I kept on to Path of daggers then gave up as i saw he was just drawing things out on purpose to sell more books. I am with **Finagle** & **aruvqan** on Anita Blake when she was Anita Blake Vampire killer, fine, but when it turned into Vampire lover and got just nasty I gave up in disgust. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/28 "2012-08-21T02:21:59Z")
Clan of the Cave Bear. I read fast, I was bored, there were like four of them, each of them was friggen immense, it was about prehistoric people and horses… what could go wrong? Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/29 "2012-08-21T02:37:12Z")
> [@Jormungandr](#): > > Kathy Reichs’s “Temperance Brennan” series, on which the “Bones” TV show is based. I tried reading the first three and it just doesn’t work for me. I went into them with a clear mind, knowing the book and TV characters weren’t supposed to be similar, but the book’s character development wasn’t there for me. I made it through about 20 pages of the first book. I much prefer the series. Ah, Dexter. And Dresden Files. I have the first book of each series, they were Christmas presents. I don’t like the shows, and I don’t like the books. > [@Lasciel](#): > > Clan of the Cave Bear. > > I read fast, I was bored, there were like four of them, each of them was friggen immense, it was about prehistoric people and horses… what could go wrong? > > Sigh. Sweet jumping Jebus, yes. Ayla discovers everything. Does everything. Goes everywhere. And [Shardik](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shardik) - I read that back in 79 because it was highly recommended and they had it when I was in hospital and had nothing else to do. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/30 "2012-08-21T02:55:59Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > And Dresden Files. I have the first book of each series, they were Christmas presents. I don’t like the shows, and I don’t like the books. > > o. Dresden is a bit like pTerry- the first few aren’t the best. In fact I thing Pratchett didnt hit his stride until fairly late, and just in the last couple are there signs of a decrease in enjoyment. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/31 "2012-08-21T03:25:19Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > And [Shardik](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shardik) - I read that back in 79 because it was highly recommended and they had it when I was in hospital and had nothing else to do. It took me two tries to get through Shardik. I found the beginning quite dull, but it really did pick up towards the last half of the book. In the end I enjoyed reading it. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/32 "2012-08-21T03:27:09Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > I’m pretty sure you’re think ing of Peter F Hamilton’s [\*Night’s Dawn \*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night%27s_Dawn_Trilogy) trilogy. Personally I liked it at first, but it did get a little ridiculous and the ending is the worse piece of Deus ex Machina I’ve seen in a long time. Yep, that was the one. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/33 "2012-08-21T03:53:49Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > The Shannara trilogy. > My mom bought it as a gift, buying the hype on the sleeve “it’s the next Tolkien”; I had to finish it. I started that in similar circumstances and with the same recommendation. I stopped part way through the first book, and didn’t open another fantasy novel for many years. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/34 "2012-08-21T04:16:45Z")
> [@](#): > > Speaking of fantasy, I also gave up on Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman’s **Death Gate Cycle**. (I wrote about this in another book thread.) Yes, it’s my own fault for reading something from the creators of “Dragonlance”. I started the series in high school, and recently tried to pick it up again. It was lousy, I remember why I stopped reading it in the first place, and I really shouldn’t have expected it to be a mature, well-written fantasy series. Just about any book that came from TSR was a huge steaming pile of crap. Sharyn McCrumb had two mysteries published by TSR, I believe, and those books were very good indeed. But for the most part, TSR was churning out bad Tolkienesque fantasies as fast as their stable of hacks could write them. I have a special hatred of kender, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/35 "2012-08-21T05:37:07Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo._ The middle was interesting, but I don’t give a rat’s ass about the investigation of some fraudulent financial scheme that occupied the beginning and end of the book. I’ve successfully resisted reading the other two books in the series. I actually quite liked the first book. The story of solving a 60 year old murder was novel and interesting, even though the characters and the writing were terrible. The remaining two books though, had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. > [@Finagle](#): > > Same thing for the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. Which features, gosh, a gifted beautiful human who’s irresistible to all the vampires and werewolves and that veered almost immediately into relationship angst and soft porn. It’s kind of a shame, because the first Anita Blake book I read was pretty good – a police procedural set in a supernatural setting. Heh, I think I read that first book, but even then my spider sense was tingling. Managed to not get any further. > [@hogarth](#): > > For web comics, I’ll go with Erfworld and Darths & Droids. I think it’s too strong to say they’re crap and I wish I hadn’t started reading them, but I’d say that I’m on the cusp of giving up. > > Erfworld is too slow for my taste (partially due to circumstances beyond their control, granted) and Darths & Droids has drifted too much in its genre (from RPG humour to generic Star Wars fumetti, although it recovered a bit recently). I found lots of really funny moments in Darths and Droids. I suppose it helps that I only recently came across it, so I read almost all of it at one sitting. I always like things better if there’s little to no waiting involved. > [@muldoonthief](#): > > The Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson Dune prequel/sequel abominations. I finally stopped myself somewhere in one of the Butlerian Jihad books. It was like going back to a 5 star restaurant you loved many years ago, only to find they’d closed the kitchen and just got your food from Applebees takeout. I don’t know if this is heresy around here, but I couldn’t even hack my way through Frank Herbert’s Dune sequels, let alone these other people. Although, I seem to remember a Star Wars X wing series written by Kevin Anderson that I found very good. Ok, no just checked, those were by Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston. > [@Mrs.Cake](#): > > Most of them. At 50 I am a lot more likely to drop a series early on than when I was younger and had my whole life ahead of me. In fact, about the only two series I am still engaged in are the Discworld books and the Thursday Next books, although the last was less interesting to me than the previous four. Still Jasper Fforde is so enormously creative i’m not worried about him running out of fresh ideas soon. > > Series recently dropped include Dresden books (got through most of the first two), Harry Potter (made it through “Goblet” before giving up), Patrick Rothfuss’ series (was hoping they’d lose the world’s most irritating love interest, but alas. That character made book two unreadable). I got introduced to Jasper Fforde by reading Shades of Grey, and I think it was easily one of the best books I read that year. Which is why I eagerly picked up the Thursday Next series only to find that while clever, it was just too..ramble-y for my taste. There’s too much in the books that he throws in because it must have sounded clever in his head, but which adds little or nothing to the story. As Wodehouse would put it, I could take the Thursday Next series, or I could leave it alone. Interestingly, I’ve also read the first two Dresden files books before giving up on them. There was just no reason to keep reading them, so I didn’t. I see people have mentioned that it gets better with time. Maybe I’ll take it up again. With Harry Potter, you stopped at a great time. The remaining books are a load of crap. As for Rothfuss, I’ve often complained no end about the second book and how atrocious it is(particularly in comparison to the first - the plotting and the story advancement were such a let down), but I don’t get the widespread hate for Denna. She seems like _exactly_ the kind of girl a 15 year old would fall for - hard. Maybe you could help me understand what you(and thus perhaps people in general) don’t like about her? ---
**Author:** ![JLRogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@JLRogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JLRogers)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/36 "2012-08-21T06:08:29Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > I’m going to go with the Sookie Stackhouse True Blood series by Charlaine Harris. The first one wasn’t too bad, modulo the whole “where have I seen the gifted beautiful human who’s irresistible to all the vampires and werewolves” _deja vu_. If you’re referring to _Twilight_, note that the first Southern Vampire Mystery book was released in 2001, four years before Meier inflicted _Twilight_ on the world. They’re both crap, and yes, I’ve read them. All of them. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/37 "2012-08-21T06:09:42Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > Interestingly, I’ve also read the first two Dresden files books before giving up on them. There was just no reason to keep reading them, so I didn’t. I see people have mentioned that it gets better with time. Maybe I’ll take it up again. I have a hard time recommending the series as a whole, because objectively speaking the first three are IMHO at best kinda tolerable variations on a theme with cliches a plenty. Not bad, just not all that great either ( some disagree with me of course ). Starting with book four I believe they start steadily getting more interesting as the plots became a little less dominated by the classic-monster-of-the-week and more political and metaplotty. Unfortunately it is sorta necessary to slog through the first few to set the scene, hence my hesitation to recommend them wholeheartedly. But they _do_ eventually get better, assuming you generally enjoy urban fantasy to begin with. If you don’t as a rule, then they are best avoided completely - they don’t transcend the genre. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/38 "2012-08-21T10:06:42Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Dresden is a bit like pTerry- the first few aren’t the best. In fact I thing Pratchett didnt hit his stride until fairly late, and just in the last couple are there signs of a decrease in enjoyment. But I _liked_ The Colour of Magic … ☹ > [@Tamerlane](#): > > [Dresden series] > Starting with book four I believe they start steadily getting more interesting as the plots became a little less dominated by the classic-monster-of-the-week and more political and metaplotty. Unfortunately it is sorta necessary to slog through the first few to set the scene, hence my hesitation to recommend them wholeheartedly. But they _do_ eventually get better, assuming you generally enjoy urban fantasy to begin with. If you don’t as a rule, then they are best avoided completely - they don’t transcend the genre. But as a general rule I prefer monster of the week. Whether it is books or TV series. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/39 "2012-08-21T12:47:36Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Just about any book that came from TSR was a huge steaming pile of crap. Sharyn McCrumb had two mysteries published by TSR, I believe, and those books were very good indeed. But for the most part, TSR was churning out bad Tolkienesque fantasies as fast as their stable of hacks could write them. > > I have a special hatred of kender, by the way. I completely agree about TSR “fiction”. But this wasn’t TSR though. After Dragonlance, Weis and Hickman went on to publish through _runs off to look at bookshelf_ Bantam. I believe, this was their second or third attempt at a non-Dungeons and Dragons fantasy series. I also recall enjoying some of Gary Gygax’s “Gord the Rogue” books. I know that Gygax was very inspired by non only Leiber, Moorcock, Vance et al. but also pulps from the 40’s to 60’s, and I think some of those sensibilities showed up in his writing. Then again, I read him when I was in university. I’m afraid to revisit his books in case they disappoint. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041/40 "2012-08-21T14:29:25Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > The Shannara trilogy. > My mom bought it as a gift, buying the hype on the sleeve “it’s the next Tolkien”; I had to finish it. Yup yup. Checked 'em out on audiobooks, and OY, was the first book awful. No idea why I kept going, but I listened to the second. Meh. Got about a third of the way into the third book and realized, “This crap isn’t getting any better,” and just stopped. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crap-series-you-wish-you-hadnt-started-reading/632041.md?page=3)