Wait, just how many Bahzell books are there? I gave up after three, and didn’t realize it was still plodding along.
The one I gave up on was the third one Wind Rider’s Oath, there’s a total of five (the last two in 2012 and 2015) according to Wikipedia, and the other two have reviews on Amazon that seem to confirm my decision was correct. I really loved the first two books in the series.
Interesting question for the thread: Can you say that you gave up on a series if you’ve read all of the books in it but don’t plan to read any more? What if the last one you read was obviously leaving threads for future books but they haven’t been published?
I’ve been reading this thread with attention. It’s fascinating.
But if you do give up on reading it, make sure to tell us which post you quit on.
I see what you did there! 
I’ll second this, God Emperor of Dune is probably the best book in the series, and well worth giving a chance if you have the time.
This is a very valid criticism, which is indeed true of the vast majority of series brought up in this thread. I share your skepticism, but I would say it is actually not true of the Frank Herbert Dune books.
I’ve only read the books by him, and haven’t been as interested in the ones by his son, but at least for the core Frank Herbert Dune books, it is not about the same characters and themes, and he evinces a very pleasing breadth, scope, and variety throughout the books.
With the exception of a few recurring cameos and flashbacks to earlier characters, he prefers to develop broad sociological themes and consequences, and tends to focus on organizations and projects that span hundreds or thousands of years, which necessarily means each book has new protagonists, generally among the Atreides or Bene Gesserit but not exclusively so. I’d say they’re worth considering if this was your only fear about them, as they’re actually pretty interesting and diverse as a series.
I’m on the opposite side. I loved the first book and found that God Emperor made the whole series feel really grotesque. I’m not entirely sure why at this point (it’s been probably 30 years since I read it), but I really hated that book.
This. I remember quitting the series after God Emperor, and I’ve been surprised to see a new Dune book ever since.
I gave up on Dresden because the series didn’t seem to be going anywhere. From what I’ve read recently, it does seem to have found a direction but not a particularly interesting one.
I dunno how I’d count GRRM - I’ve vowed not to read another GoT entry until the series is done, so I haven’t lost interest in the series but rather faith in the author.
I’m hoping we’re closing in on the wrap-up for the Iron Druid series, as I’m finding Atticus a bit annoying now. I’d read a series about Owen, I think.
And I quit the Mercy Thompson books a few back, as they have what I call The Gabby Problem" (ref Xena) where a weak character starts the conflict but it’s always resolved by her stronger associates.
I get that she is trying to show that Life Is Hard and Everyone Suffers. However, one would think that if this magical land has had guardian spirits, in the form of horses, helping guide the society for umpty hundred years, some of the problems would have been worked out.
This may just be that I am out of the target audience, which is teen females, but I am tired that no male can do anything right unless he is doing it in concert with the lead female or in a group that is helping the lead female. This is especially true in the recent Elemental Masters books (which I’m now getting out of the library if I like the original fairy tale). From a High Tower is what really brought that home to me.
Tom Clancy
Piers Anthony
Jean Auel
I walked into a bookstore. I saw the author’s newest book. I read the blurb on the dust jacket. I felt no urge to read the book.
People here will likely rag on me more for starting this than for not finishing it, but … anything by Orson Scott Card - in particular, the Ender books, and the Tales of Alvin Maker. And I adored the Alvin books when they first came out - the first three are still on my frequently-reread list, together with a number of others out of his earlier books (by which I mean, basically, things written before the 21st century)
Reasons including but not limited to…
*His recent batshittery which is serious enough that I really do question whether he has a slow-growing brain tumour or other organic physical problem. I feel like he used to be a fairly ordinary conservative dude with a bit of an ego, but still capable of sympathising with people whose opinion he didn’t share … but I put down Empire from 2006 thinking, crap this guy has a problem
*Obsessive insistence that the main character be the Most Wonderful Person Ever and Saviour Of The Universe - which is a distinct problem when you’re writing a long series and changing POV characters. I wish I’d never read Ender’s Shadow - it’s a complete betrayal of the original book that now Bean is the super-duper most wonderful child ever, just because we’re now seeing things from his eyes.
*Most of his skill is in writing child characters. And then he keeps letting them grow up…
I can’t remember exactly why I abandoned it, but a friend of mine raved about the Chung Kuo series, and I found it so awful that I couldn’t finish the first book.
I skipped the Ender books after Speaker just because, while I thought the idea was sort of interesting, the actual story did nothing for me. I can barely remember details from it now. This was back before the internet was regularly used and Card’s leanings were common knowledge. I guess I came away feeling like Ender’s Game was a one-off.
I just remembered reading Brian Lumley’s Necroscope series back in high school and college. Another series with a good start: Some kid has the psychic ability to speak with the dead and is pulled into a battle with a vampire. Story also goes into the vampire’s side and there’s enough deviation from standard vampire mythos to be interesting. Then the books keep piling abilities on the protagonist giving him teleportation, raising the dead, telepathy, following Fate-like “lifelines”, etc plus he can solve essentially anything by talking to some long dead expert about it, who has had nothing to do for the last hundred or thousand years but dwell on mentally expanding their field of study to unfathomable extent. Meanwhile the vampire mythos keeps expanding in increasingly bizarre ways and what started out as a story about some weirdo kid with special powers getting tangled up with a vampire eventually turns into teams of British Psychic Special Agents going through space/time portals to enter the Vampire Dimension and do battle. Apparently the series is up to book 16+ by now with the most recent entry being in 2013. Man, I checked out of that by 1993 or 94 – God only knows what the plot is about now.
Strong second. When the books became popular enough, they started to become a podium on which the author could stand and basically say/write anything that came to mind. Scarpetta immediately turned into a combination protagonist/victim/participant/social conscience/Wonder Woman. Excepting her own self-doubt, she was flawless (and quite PC).
Nah, I think a majority (though maybe not an overwhelming majority) here would agree that Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead were both pretty good. After that, though, the synopses I read online were enough to turn me off of the rest of the Ender books.
And I tried to start the Alvin Maker stories, but the first one I attempted was written in verse, which slowed it down way too much to be interesting.
Yes, there are many fans on this board. (I know this because I am generally one of the few who didn’t care for Ender’s Game. It just didn’t work for me.)
I’ve read the first 8 novels in the Ender’s Game series, and don’t have major problems with them other than the philosophy that the purpose of life is to have lots and lots of children (at no point in my life have I ever wanted to be a parent.) It was after the short story A War of Gifts (which was A Very Special Christmas Episode) that I gave up on the series. I actually wasn’t until now even aware of the existance of the items past 11 on the linked list.
(I also read all of Card’s Homecoming books and don’t remember hating them.)
It’s been like a decade since I read them, but I think that the intention of God Emperor was to make the whole series feel really grotesque, so it’s not surprising that it had that effect on you. Dune has a very ‘look at the hero getting revenge on the bad guys’ feel and barely mentions the start of Paul’s great Jihad, the next book forces the reader to come to terms with what Paul’s forces are doing, then God Emperor lays out in detail that Leto is intending to hurt the human soul so much that humanity spreads to the point it can never be wiped out. The original book can be read as ending ‘happily ever after’, but God Emperor explicitly makes things ‘unhappily ever after, but at least there’s an after’.
That’s likely the problem for me, then, since my reaction to that is, “Extinction ain’t so bad.”
After I finished the last one, I realized the Oberon was my favorite part. Bitches and Gravy!