# Tell us about the worst books by your favorite authors. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 17, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079 "2020-02-17T16:54:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/41 "2020-02-18T02:59:29Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > You see, I like _Unseen Academicals_ - **Posh** and **Becks** as **Romeo and Juliette** , what’s not to like. > > I don’t like _Monstrous Regiment_ much, and have only read it once. I remember when reading Unseen Academicals that it felt like three novellas he merged into one novel. I forget the three separate storylines, but each probably could have had its own book. I ranked it in the bottom half, but not at the bottom of Discworld. I have, however, only read 28 of the books(leaving a solid chunk to go still). > [@RealityChuck](#): > > I personally think that Pratchett’s worst is _Moving Pictures_. It should have been fertile ground for his type of story, but never took off. I liked Moving Pictures, but it was kind of unnecessary. It was cute. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/42 "2020-02-18T03:06:50Z")
Dan Simmonses _Hyperion Cantos are_ some of my favorite books ever. But _Flashback_? Holy crap, _Flashback_. ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/43 "2020-02-18T03:17:53Z")
I too will not disagree with the general assessment of NOTB. If I try, I can remember a few details (“GAYBOUNCEGAYBOUNCEGAYBOUNCE” and the interminable arguing). The only reason, I think, that I remember the story at all was because I gave an old girlfriend the nickname ‘Sharpie,’ because of the biting thing, not the personality. Just a single line in the book that I look at favorably. I tried to read it again a few years ago; didn’t get too far before dropping it. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/44 "2020-02-18T03:30:13Z")
William Goldman wrote a sequel to _Marathon Man_ called _Brothers_. Absolutely awful. I was terribly disappointed. ---
**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:** [February 18, 2020, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/45 "2020-02-18T05:38:27Z")
I found some Heinlein stuff to approach (and bleed into) self-indulgent wish-fulfillment, notably _Number of the Beast_, _Time Enough For Love_, and _Friday_. What turned me off from buying any more of his work was _I Will Fear No Evil_. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/46 "2020-02-18T05:39:53Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Larry Niven’s _Ringworld_ is probably my favorite SF novel. The sequels, though, are a waste of pulpwood. I have a soft spot for “The Ringworld Engineers”. Along the same lines, I really like the Niven & Pournelle book “Inferno”. The sequel “Escape from Hell” hit the trifecta of crappiness – a combination of tedious, unnecessary, and mean-spirited. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/47 "2020-02-18T07:04:49Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Arthur C. Clarke’s sequels to _Rendezvous with Rama_ progress from poor to execrable as they go on. It’s worth noting that Gentry Lee is mostly responsible for them, and Clarke’s name was mostly just on them for sales. I read all the sequels, and Gentry Lee’s standalone novel, and if that guy ever wrote one good paragraph I must have missed it. I hope Clarke got a lot of money from those travesties. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/48 "2020-02-18T07:07:07Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I found some Heinlein stuff to approach (and bleed into) self-indulgent wish-fulfillment, notably _Number of the Beast_, _Time Enough For Love_, and _Friday_. What turned me off from buying any more of his work was _I Will Fear No Evil_. _I Will Fear No Evil_ is the worst Heinlein for me also, but I can see that if someone started with NOTB they might be real confused. I kind of liked it, better than _Friday_ also. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/49 "2020-02-18T07:09:19Z")
I grew quite fond of the novels of Carl Hiassen but made the mistake of reading his first, _Tourist Season_, in which the author tries to get the reader to view a psychopathic serial killer as nobly heroic. Fuck that. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/50 "2020-02-18T07:16:36Z")
> [@Doyle](#): > > Larry McMurtry’s _Texasville_ was awful. This was the sequel to The Las Picture Show. Yes! _Last Picture Show_ was an excellent book. _Texasville_ wasn’t. More glaring for me was the difference in quality between _Lonesome Dove_, a superb book, and the terrible sequel (forgot the name) which seemed to have been written by a different person. IMO most of McMurty’s books don’t compare well to Picture Show and Dove. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/51 "2020-02-18T07:29:36Z")
Right back to add my own contestant: To the best of my knowledge I’ve read the complete works of Edward Abbey, enjoying every word except for _Hayduke Lives!_ It’s an utterly unnecessary sequel to _The Monkey Wrench Gang_, and was written Abbey was dying. It was clearly written in a hurry, and although the story line is more or less complete the book is painfully unpolished and incomplete. So it’s the worst book (the only bad one, actually) but Ed can’t be held responsible- he had a good excuse. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/52 "2020-02-18T07:54:55Z")
Let’s see, favourite authors… LeGuin - \*Rocannon’s World _- a good short story padded to a not-great novel. Pratchett -_ [del]Faust[/del]Eric \*- Just a bore to read. Banks - _Matter_ - I don’t _dislike_ it, but I found it by far the least engaging Culture novel. ---
**Author:** ![Unreconstructed\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/76d3ee/32.png) [@Unreconstructed\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unreconstructed_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/53 "2020-02-18T09:24:03Z")
I love Stephen King, but _Cell_ sucks ass. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/54 "2020-02-18T10:45:01Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Douglas Adams’, “Dirk Gently…”. What utter nonsense; Couldn’t put it down fast enough. Hard to believe it was written by the same guy who wrote, “Hitchhiker’s Guide”. I missed the whole point of the first book, possibly leaving it a few weeks between vital points, and missed the whole point of the overall novel. When I listened to it again, on audio book, it was much clearer and an ambitious, fun and intelligent book… ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/55 "2020-02-18T12:10:30Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > If “Cujo” wasn’t the last Stephen King book I read, it was close enough. IIRC, King has no memory of having written _Cujo_, due to substance abuse. Might explain a lot. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/56 "2020-02-18T13:14:49Z")
John le Carré’s best novel was his very first; they gradually declined thereafter and went rapidly downhill after the Cold War when he decided his job was to preach against Anglophonic imperialism instead of to entertain. (Le Carré’s forté is the vignette: sometimes the best course is to read chapter 1 and throw the rest of the book away! My 2nd-favorite le Carré novel is _A Perfect Spy_ - a collection of eleven unrelated vignettes.) ```auto BTW, when I was very young my three favorite sci-fi writers were L. Frank Baum, Isaac Asimov and ... Paul French! ``` ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/57 "2020-02-18T13:31:33Z")
I like Richard Russo. I could not make it through “Bridge of Sighs”. ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/58 "2020-02-18T14:08:24Z")
As to the sequels to Lonesome Dove, I loved them all, but Dead Man’s Walk was certainly the weakest. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/59 "2020-02-18T14:23:51Z")
I have two, one where the general audience tends to agree with me, and one where they don’t. The one where others agree: _Swamplandia!_ by Karen Russell, her one attempt at a full-length novel. It was nominated for a bunch of literary awards, but when you look at how actual readers rated it on Amazon and Goodreads, there seems to be a consensus that the book was not good. And I suspect that Russell even realized so herself. Her first published book was a (good) collection of short stories, and after attempting a (horrible) novel, she went right back to publishing (good) collections of short stories. The one where a lot of people disagree: _American Gods_ by Neil Gaiman. I have read eight books by Gaiman, and enjoyed every single one, except for the most popular book he ever wrote. I had such high hopes going into this book, and was dismayed to find myself doing that thing where you have to keep re-reading the page because you didn’t care enough about the story to absorb the words the first time. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079/60 "2020-02-18T14:40:24Z")
Gregory McGuire wrote three wonderful books based on children’s stories: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and Mirror, Mirror. Then Wicked was turned into a Broadway musical and McGuire decided to do three sequels: Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz. The fact that none of these books have been turned into anything says it all. I do like the way Maguire’s bios read over the years. First he live in Boston. Next he lived in Boston with his family. Today he lives in Boston with his husband and children. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-worst-books-by-your-favorite-authors/848079.md?page=4)