Wprst Sci-Fi & fantasy books EVER

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2003-01-13 05:34pm

Jadeite wrote: I agree with you, it was a good series, but it needs to be edited, with the most of the damn songs cut out. Every other chapter was pretty much the hobbits waking up, eating (but complaining about how they were running out of food) walking and singing, then camping. OVER AND OVER!

A lot of the songs contain background information about the history of M-E, so cutting them off will be a bit of a decision. Regards to the boring bits, I agree with that, especially Frodo and Sam were drudging towards Mt. Doom in the ROTK. But I guess the series is so good in general that no editor will dare to cut off any bits.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-01-13 09:21pm

Morat wrote:
What did you not like about it?
I thought it was pointless and derivative.

Yeah, that one wasn't that great. The one about the kids is better (Heirs of Empire, just looked it up). I also like the series that starts (I think, help me out here, Storm) with Crusade, then goes to Insurrection, then In Death Ground, and ends (so far) with The Shiva Option. I'm not sure about the first two books' timing.

Sindai · Post by **Sindai** » 2003-01-13 10:05pm

The Dark wrote:Yeah, that one wasn't that great. The one about the kids is better (Heirs of Empire, just looked it up). I also like the series that starts (I think, help me out here, Storm) with Crusade, then goes to Insurrection, then In Death Ground, and ends (so far) with The Shiva Option. I'm not sure about the first two books' timing.

Actually, the chronology of the books goes like:

Crusade
In Death Ground
The Shiva Option
Insurrection

Though they were written in a different order entirely. I don't think the series has a formal name but since they're all set in the Starfire wargame universe I just call them the Starfire books.

Bob McDob · Post by **Bob McDob** » 2003-01-13 11:52pm

Simon H.Johansen wrote:
Captain tycho wrote:
Darth_Shinji wrote:The alpha centuri books ending was compleatly stupid to me. Another bad sci-fi novels is the Doom novels. They all suck.
Most novels based on games DO suck.
Some exceptions are several of the SC and Warcraft novels.
I thought that there were some good Wing Commander novels. (one of them was written by Mercedes Lackey herself!)

Ellen Guon wrote that (she did the story for WCII) ... Nobody seems to know how Lackey got on the cover.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-01-14 11:58am

Bob McDob wrote:
Simon H.Johansen wrote:
Captain tycho wrote:Most novels based on games DO suck.
Some exceptions are several of the SC and Warcraft novels.
I thought that there were some good Wing Commander novels. (one of them was written by Mercedes Lackey herself!)
Ellen Guon wrote that (she did the story for WCII) ... Nobody seems to know how Lackey got on the cover.

Perhaps Lackey provided a little advice for Ellen Guon, and they put Lackey's name on the cover to sell more books. (I was personally a bit surprised to find Mercedes Lackey's name on a sci-fi novel, as she usually does fantasy stuff)

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-01-14 12:19pm

Stravo wrote: Lagmonster...You go to hell you go hell and you DIE!!!

Isn't that a bit backwards?

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-01-14 12:26pm

Ted C wrote:
Stravo wrote: Lagmonster...You go to hell you go hell and you DIE!!!
Isn't that a bit backwards?

South Park reference.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-01-14 12:27pm

Jadeite wrote: You must die.

*shoots Jadeite in the head with a 20mm FlaK*

No, YOU must die for thinking Dune is a good series.

DocHorror · Post by **DocHorror** » 2003-01-14 12:31pm

No, YOU must die for thinking Dune is a good series.

Dune, the first book is quite excellent...however IMHO I believe that they do get worse as they go on...but they are still better that 90% of the other sci-fi out there...

The prequels are just wrong on so many levels...

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-01-14 12:34pm

DocHorror wrote: Dune, the first book is quite excellent...however IMHO I believe that they do get worse as they go on...but they are still better that 90% of the other sci-fi out there...

Then explain the entire lasgun/shield bullshit. Just give me a 20mm FlaK
loaded with HESH rounds and I'll bring down all of the fremen in a massive
carnage filled battle as my HESH rounds throw them 10 feet into the air
and break their necks.....

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-01-14 12:34pm

DocHorror wrote:Dune, the first book is quite excellent...however IMHO I believe that they do get worse as they go on...but they are still better that 90% of the other sci-fi out there...

The prequels are just wrong on so many levels...

As a casual fan, I'd like to ask what is wrong with them?

DocHorror · Post by **DocHorror** » 2003-01-14 12:42pm

As a casual fan, I'd like to ask what is wrong with them?

The prequels? Im not a big fan of the idea of prequels...Especially ones not written by the original author...

From Asimovs Prelude to Foundation & Forward the Foundation,right through to the Star Wars prequels...

I feel that often, not always, they serve no real purpose other than to make money. Its not really an argument that stands up well, but to me I just dont have time for them...

I admit I havent read the Dune prequels, as soon as I saw K.J. Andersons name I passed on them...

Its like they touch on things that sounded better when they where only mentioned breifly or in hushed tones...when they get freshed out they generally suck...

Thats just my belief, I don't want an arguement or anything...

Sindai · Post by **Sindai** » 2003-01-14 02:57pm

DocHorror wrote:
Its like they touch on things that sounded better when they where only mentioned breifly or in hushed tones...when they get freshed out they generally suck...

Exactly. Take, for example, the whole "borhters, one of whom becomes a Guild Navigator" bit. That was a horrendous idea.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-01-14 03:23pm

Sindai wrote:
Actually, the chronology of the books goes like:

Crusade
In Death Ground
The Shiva Option
Insurrection

Ah, that makes more sense now. Stupid me forgot about the jump missiles being in Insurrection when they didn't appear until the middle of the Bug War.

since they're all set in the Starfire wargame universe I just call them the Starfire books.

I did not know that. Now I have something new to look up.

BlackWarMewtwo · Post by **BlackWarMewtwo** » 2003-01-14 03:25pm

I must say I'm a bit surprised, four pages of this thread and the "Left Behind" books don't even get a mention for worst books?

Oh, wait, it says "worst book you've READ," and I certainly can't fault anyone for not wanting to read pointless crap like that.

Vejut · Post by **Vejut** » 2003-01-14 03:28pm

It does say Sci-fi Fantasy: those are more religious fiction...

BlackWarMewtwo · Post by **BlackWarMewtwo** » 2003-01-14 03:47pm

Vejut wrote:It does say Sci-fi Fantasy: those are more religious fiction...

You don't think they qualify as fantasy?

They were mentioned in a review by "The Magazine of science fiction and fantasy," which is where I first heard of them.

Sindai · Post by **Sindai** » 2003-01-14 04:20pm

I actually've read that entire series escept the most recent one...

And you know, I can't for the life of me imagine why I didn't nominate them! I read the first batch a couple years ago, but read the second-to-most-recent one just recently (9th or 8th?) and it was just plain laughably bad. The premise simply doesn't make for an interesting action sequence. Every books goes something like:

(Names left out because they all sound exactly the same once they've accept god anyways)

Character 1: Holy crap, the antichrist is about to kill us all!

Character 2: Don't worry, God will save us! It says so right here in revelations!

Character 1: Well...gee...I dunno...

(Repeat until the end of the book when - SURPRISE - god saves them!)

Yellowman · Post by **Yellowman** » 2003-01-14 11:24pm

MKSheppard wrote:
DocHorror wrote: Dune, the first book is quite excellent...however IMHO I believe that they do get worse as they go on...but they are still better that 90% of the other sci-fi out there...
Then explain the entire lasgun/shield bullshit. Just give me a 20mm FlaK
loaded with HESH rounds and I'll bring down all of the fremen in a massive
carnage filled battle as my HESH rounds throw them 10 feet into the air
and break their necks.....

Um, have you read Dune?

-Fremen don't use shields
-Fremen DO use ranged weapons such as rocket launchers
-Fremen DO ride 200m+ long virtually indestructible sandworms

I delurked just to counter your rubbish. Feel proud!

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2003-01-14 11:42pm

*Poke*

Now that that's done with, I wish to inform you of improper usage of Low l33t (as opposed to High 1337). Your sig states you are a "D00d", when it should read "d00d". Correct this horrendous error immediately.

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-01-14 11:58pm

Hmm...I don't think I've actually read any really *bad* books that weren't SW EU, but I've read some snoozers. Niven's Ringworld was interesting, but so desperately dull I was waiting for it to end. The latter two or three books of the Dune 6-book series (the Odrade/Sheeana books) by Frank Herbert were mind-numbing; Chapterhouse Dune was especially dull. The Book of Lost Tales 2 (Christopher Tolkien editing his father's unpublished stuff) is intensely boring, mostly the essays. I haven't yet made it through that one since I have a stack of other books that have priority (Which includes Neuromancer).

LOTR: I would castrate the man that decided to "tighten it up". Leave the book as it is and skip the songs. It's more than a novel: it's meant to help establish a mythology, and things like the songs they sing and what the land looks like paint an extremely vibrant picture of the world that is Middle-Earth. This is the reason for all the appendices.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2003-01-15 01:17am

*poke*

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-01-15 01:20am

Yellowman: *POKE*

Yellowman · Post by **Yellowman** » 2003-01-15 01:33am

JediNeophyte wrote:*Poke*

Now that that's done with, I wish to inform you of improper usage of Low l33t (as opposed to High 1337). Your sig states you are a "D00d", when it should read "d00d". Correct this horrendous error immediately.

You are just so intolerant of other people's ways man! But, just to prevent discord and conflict, I have bowed to your demand. I have no backbone.

And to you and all those mean pokers out there - You are all instantly annihilated by the dreaded poke/holtzmann shield interaction! Haha!

Post by **Beowulf** » 2003-01-15 01:37am

Yellowman wrote: And to you and all those mean pokers out there - You are all instantly annihilated by the dreaded poke/holtzmann shield interaction! Haha!

*watches Yellowman implode* Heh... heh heh, heh. You got the interaction the wrong way around....