Most disappointing book

[mummymonkey]

What book were you most disappointed with when you read it and why? I was disappointed with Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species. Clearly an important book in many ways, but tiresomely dull. I have The Descent of Man here, dare I read it?

 

[Glory]

What book were you most disappointed with when you read it and why? I was disappointed with Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species. Clearly an important book in many ways, but tiresomely dull. I have The Descent of Man here, dare I read it?

I don't know about the Descent of Man but Trials Of the Monkey by Mathew Chapman, the great great grandson of Charles Darwin, is a great read. It focuses on Chapman's ill fated attempt to cover the anual reenactment of the Scopes Trial in Dayton Tennessee. I couldn't imagine it being interesting but I loved it.

Glory

 

[Bikewer]

Delaney's "Dhalgren" (spelling?...lazy) was always listed as one of the great SciFi classics, so I was happy to find a copy in a used book store cheap.
Very dissapointing. My first reaction on finishing the thing was, "so what?"

 

[roger]

Re: Re: Most disappointing book

I don't know about the Descent of Man but Trials Of the Monkey by Mathew Chapman, the great great grandson of Charles Darwin, is a great read. It focuses on Chapman's ill fated attempt to cover the anual reenactment of the Scopes Trial in Dayton Tennessee. I couldn't imagine it being interesting but I loved it.

Glory

I just got done reading that, and was thinking about starting a thread about it. I shared your enthusiasm for it, but sometimes found myself thinking "so what" when the author divulved too much about his personal life. For example, he seemed terribly eager to tell us all the details of his losing of his virginity. It didn't add anything to the book IMO.

All in all, the book covered just about every topic we debate in these forums, yes, including pedophilia. It's a very good intellectual tour guised as a write up of the author's incompetence at covering the Scopes trial reenactment (after getting a book deal, he showed up in town a week late).

 

[Brown]

I'm still slogging my way through it, but I'd say "Lord of the Rings" is rather disappointing.

Yes, I know, some consider this to be blasphemy.

So many people have gone so ga-ga over this series of books that I had to see the cause of all the excitement for myself. The books are pretty well-written in some places, but I can't quite understand why so many people are so crazy about them.

(For the record, I've finished "Hobbit" and "Fellowship" and am more than halfway through "Towers.")

 

[Glory]

I'm still slogging my way through it, but I'd say "Lord of the Rings" is rather disappointing.

Yes, I know, some consider this to be blasphemy.

So many people have gone so ga-ga over this series of books that I had to see the cause of all the excitement for myself. The books are pretty well-written in some places, but I can't quite understand why so many people are so crazy about them.

(For the record, I've finished "Hobbit" and "Fellowship" and am more than halfway through "Towers.")

The good news is that The Two Towers is the hardest to get through. I agree that "Rings" is a tough one to get through. For me, it's kind of like watching Casablanca. I can see how ground breaking it was and I know that it is the source of a lot of great devices but I can't help feeling steeped in cliches. By the time I read it I had already come across a thousand rip offs and I was bored. Also, I find it self important and wordy. I did enjoy it. I just didn't enjoy as much as had wanted to.

Glory

 

[Nyarlathotep]

The most disapointing book I ever read was "House Atreides". I am a big Dune fan and when I saw tht Frank Herberts son had written a prequel, I was really excited. I realize quite well that a different author meant it was going to have a slightly different feel than the original "Dune" books, but this was a complete let down. It read more like a "Star Wars" novel to which someone had tacked a bunch of familiar "Dune" names than part of the "Dune' universe. This is probably because the co-author wrote the "Jedi Academy" series. Oh well.

Another contender is "Ringworld Throne". I really liked the first two "Ringworld" books , but "Ringworld Throne" was dull, dull, dull. This one I can't even blame on it being written by a different author too.

 

[Nefertiti]

Erasure by Percival Everett.
'Everett's subject is serious, but his tone, social observations and stylistic inventiveness reach for the bleakest comedy. Erasure is a sly work, not easily described, though what it's for and what it's against are always clear. The narrative is allusive, thickly ironic and includes different texts, various textures. It is a novel that builds and then surprises.'

 

[Chaos]

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, by Stephen Donaldson(? - I can´t remember, and I don´t want to)

I sounded quite interesting, but the more I read, the more dull it got. Have you ever read a book - a series of six books, actually, of which I read the first three - whose protagonist is actually completely gratuitious? He does nothing but complain about his fate. No, wait, at about page 150 of the first book he rapes a girl - and that´s the book´s "hero"! The author could have left this guy out without taking anything substantial away from the book. Would have the trilogy down to about 2 volumes of 400 pages each, I guess, instead of 3 of 800 pages each.


But then, perhaps I am only jealous because he managed to sell this crap.

 

[Bikewer]

Hehe- yer right on the Dune "prequels". I shoulda been warned when I say the co-writer was involved with graphic novels....

I read the first book of the Rings trilogy sitting on a mountainside in Norway, on a NATO maneuver. Absolutely the perfect setting; Norway could easily have been Middle-Earth.
Have re-read the whole thing many times.

 

[Mark]

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, by Stephen Donaldson(? - I can´t remember, and I don´t want to)

I sounded quite interesting, but the more I read, the more dull it got. Have you ever read a book - a series of six books, actually, of which I read the first three - whose protagonist is actually completely gratuitious? He does nothing but complain about his fate. No, wait, at about page 150 of the first book he rapes a girl - and that´s the book´s "hero"! The author could have left this guy out without taking anything substantial away from the book. Would have the trilogy down to about 2 volumes of 400 pages each, I guess, instead of 3 of 800 pages each.


But then, perhaps I am only jealous because he managed to sell this crap.

I agree, although I thought the fictional setting was quite fascinating, as were many of the sub characters. But I read the whole 6 book series hoping Covenant would get more interesting. He never did.

 

[Bikewer]

Hehe- be warned, I see Herr Covenant is coming back.....

 

[Chaos]

Hehe- be warned, I see Herr Covenant is coming back.....

Is that a publisher´s announcement or a horror vision?

Anyway, I don´t have to buy any more books by him.

 

[Dinonychus]

I'm still slogging my way through it, but I'd say "Lord of the Rings" is rather disappointing.

(For the record, I've finished "Hobbit" and "Fellowship" and am more than halfway through "Towers.")

I'm glad I'm not alone in my assessment of LotR. I'm stuck in the middle of T2T and I haven't even tried to move in a few months.

I suppose I could try again... one night when I'm having trouble falling asleep.

It is good to hear that it gets better, if only slightly...

 

[Ed]

My most dissapointing book was Childhoods End: The Short Version. It had 2 readers.

Sigh.

But I'm not bitter.

 

[jallenecs]

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, by Stephen Donaldson(? - I can´t remember, and I don´t want to)

Hear Hear! Though, I must confess that I only got four chapters into the blasted thing (book One), before flinging it across the room in disgust. That lead character, what a freaking WHINER!!!! I wanted to climb inside the story and smack him for being such a baby!

The most disappointing book(s) for me was every sequel after Dune. The book was a hugely important reading experience for me, single-handedly creating my passion for science fiction, and bringing me back to voracious reading at a time when Hormones were threatening (I was fourteen! ) Messiah was a big letdown for me; Children was worse.

But at least they were penned by Herbert himself, and not his son or any co-authors (that I'm aware of). There was a sort of continuation of Paul's story. But they were not the tremendous pleasure that Dune was.

As for the prequels, and the rest of the series? Blech!

 

[Chaos]

Dune was good, but not particularly breath-taking. I read about ten pages of Messiah before I quit.

 

[Glory]

I'm glad I'm not alone in my assessment of LotR. I'm stuck in the middle of T2T and I haven't even tried to move in a few months.

I suppose I could try again... one night when I'm having trouble falling asleep.

It is good to hear that it gets better, if only slightly...

It gets way better. It's just that The Two Towers drags on forever so that's not saying much. Seriously, it does get better and the Return Of the King is the shortest of them. Things do get going at the end. It's worth it to finish it.

Glory

 

[HarryKeogh]

memnoch the devil by anne rice

i was a big fan of the vampire chronicles up to that point, (good fun, light reading) but when she got all metaphysical on us i got bored to tears.

 

[Glory]

memnoch the devil by anne rice

i was a big fan of the vampire chronicles up to that point, (good fun, light reading) but when she got all metaphysical on us i got bored to tears.

Ugh! Anne Rice is a bad writer who one great idea. I liked that series, with a few caveats, until The Tale Of the Body Thief. She has fallen in love with her own creation and has completely moved away from the things which made the series interesting. Like so many before her, she doesn't seem to know what was the most compelling thing in her own story. The conflict of good and evil in the protagonist has given way to a spoiled blond peterpan complex. Personally, I never want to see the word "preternatural" again.

Glory