What's the worst SF book you've read? (or tried to read)

[Noclevername]

Maybe I'm just being dense, but I don't know what you mean.

I'll PM you about it.

[Paul Beardsley]

You might want to reword that to be a little more specific! Especially given the scene TJ was referring to.

It never occurred to me until you posted this... I think it's fairly safe to guess that by "I have done that very thing" primummobile means he has attempted to read the same book more than once.

[primummobile]

It never occurred to me until you posted this... I think it's fairly safe to guess that by "I have done that very thing" primummobile means he has attempted to read the same book more than once.

I changed my post so that only the pertinent part of the question was quoted.

[swampyankee]

I didn't even know it had a sequel.

You haven't missed much. I read it, and the only thing I remember is the cover.

[Noclevername]

You haven't missed much. I read it, and the only thing I remember is the cover.

The Gripping Hand. Which is not, incidentally, gripping. The first part's like a "where are they now" of a few of the characters from the first book, then they introduce a bunch of new ones and attempt to generate artificial tension. It isn't horrible, but it's slow.

[primummobile]

There was another book I read recently. Impact by Douglas Preston. The idea wasn't that ridiculous for a sci fi book... an alien cannon mounted on one of the moons of Mars was firing stranglets at the Earth, which passed all the way through the Earth, making a very small entrance hole and a very large exit hole. iirc, the cannon was activated because an Earth probe had scanned the area it was located with a radar. The assumption by the end of the book was that the cannon had been placed there millions of years ago by an advanced race and the first shot was a warning shot for the inhabitants of Earth to surrender.

The idea sounds a little like something Clarke may have written, and it might have been better had he written it. In Preston's hands it flounders a bit.

There are funny little side stories. The most notable I remember is a methamphetamine-addicted serial killer stalking the hero. It added a little suspense to the story, but it was annoying suspense because it was getting in the way of the plot. That part of the story could have been left out and it wouldn't have changed anything other than making the book about twenty pages shorter.

By far the worst part was that the hero of the story was a girl who worked as a waitress and had dropped out of college after a year or two, but she knew everything there was to know about almost anything you could think of. She should have been working at NASA or the NSA or something. She had an answer to everything and nothing seemed to really faze her. It made the entire story completely unrealistic, even for science fiction.

[ToSeek]

The Gripping Hand. Which is not, incidentally, gripping. The first part's like a "where are they now" of a few of the characters from the first book, then they introduce a bunch of new ones and attempt to generate artificial tension. It isn't horrible, but it's slow.

I practically never leave a book unfinished, but I gave up on that one due to an absolute lack of interest in reading another single page.

[TJMac]

OK, I can understand peer pressure, and/or at least the feeling of, "Did I miss something?"

After I posted, I thought of it some, and I could also see how my taste in reading has changed over time, so that a book one finds uninteresting may become more attractive over time.
Perhaps the opposite as well. As in, "Why did I think that was a good read five years ago?"

Got my doubts that I will ever pick up ole Thomas again tho.


TJ

[Paul Beardsley]

OK, I can understand peer pressure, and/or at least the feeling of, "Did I miss something?"

After I posted, I thought of it some, and I could also see how my taste in reading has changed over time, so that a book one finds uninteresting may become more attractive over time.
Perhaps the opposite as well. As in, "Why did I think that was a good read five years ago?"

Got my doubts that I will ever pick up ole Thomas again tho.


TJ

Yes, conversely for me too. I'm half afraid to read the third trilogy in case I hate it.

I adored Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars when I was a teenager, and I'm tempted to get it on Kindle, but again, I'm afraid it won't live up to my recollection.

[KaiYeves]

I adored Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars when I was a teenager, and I'm tempted to get it on Kindle, but again, I'm afraid it won't live up to my recollection.

I know that feeling. I recently found an old cartoon I'd thought was the coolest thing in the world as a kid online, re-watched it, and realized how horrible the animation and story were. Not at all like what I remembered. It's kind of soured me on re-experiencing books and shows I enjoyed a lot when I was younger.

[Noclevername]

I know that feeling. I recently found an old cartoon I'd thought was the coolest thing in the world as a kid online, re-watched it, and realized how horrible the animation and story were. Not at all like what I remembered. It's kind of soured me on re-experiencing books and shows I enjoyed a lot when I was younger.

I've done that too, gotten all excited when I found out that so-and-so was available, even bought some cartoons on DVD; a couple I gave away to the local library, some are just gathering dust in a corner. A few I actually still watch despite not being fully awesome, just for nostalgia's sake.

[KaiYeves]

The silver lining when a story isn't as good as you remember it as is that at least you have a vision of what it would be like if it were good that you can use to write your own similar story someday.

[Tinaa]

OK, I can understand peer pressure, and/or at least the feeling of, "Did I miss something?"

After I posted, I thought of it some, and I could also see how my taste in reading has changed over time, so that a book one finds uninteresting may become more attractive over time.
Perhaps the opposite as well. As in, "Why did I think that was a good read five years ago?"

Got my doubts that I will ever pick up ole Thomas again tho.


TJ

I really tried to read the first Thomas Covenant book twice. It was beyond my ken.

[Trebuchet]

Chariots of the Gods.

[Moose]

Worst SF book was a tie between Kevin J. Anderson's first attempts at writing Star Wars books. It was pretty much exactly like not seeing Dark Helmet play with his dolls again, Sir. The characters had about as much depth as their promotional card-board cut-outs. He got the dialogue straight out of the See and Say: Star Wars Edition. [pulls string] "The Leia says: 'I've got a baaaad feeling about this.'"

[Xelebes]

Victoria Foyt's "Save the Pearls"

A dystopia that falls flat on its face. Trying to do the race-reversal thing without actually reversing the races. Just utterly abysmal and inconscionable writing.

[Solfe]

Robert Mason's Weapon and Solo were pretty bad.

[Paul Beardsley]

Actually the worst book by far that I've read, which happened to be science fiction, was Paul Cornell's first Doctor Who spinoff novel, Timewyrm: Revelations. He's gone on to do good things since then (including the TV episodes Father's Day and Human Nature/Family of Blood) and he's done me a very good turn, so I don't want to be too harsh... But the book consists of rambling adolescent musings (aka angst aka drivel), initially interesting ideas that don't go anywhere, buzz-words such as "fractal" (which are used in a way that suggests the author does not have a clue what they mean), and an excessive number of gratuitous references to the old TV series, including a scene where the three companions who died all appear in a dream sequence to "accuse" the Doctor.

Unfortunately the book struck a chord with a lot of subsequent Who authors, so instead of getting intelligent and fun adventures on other planets, we got a load of dark emotional outpourings and wall-to-wall fannish references. And when they'd done so many fannish references that even the authors realised they'd gone too far, they turned to other pop-cultural references. Thus Doctor Who became books about the Doctor turning up in England and meeting people who talked endlessly about the author's favourite TV shows and pop songs, with the occasional T.S. Eliot reference and a token alien thrown in. Elements of this made their way into the revived TV series in 2005.

[TJMac]

I was sorting through some old boxes yesterday, and found A Season for Slaughter, by David Gerrold. This is, of course, part of the 'War against the Chtorr' series. I was reminded of reading the series back in the late 80's/early 90's, and spent a few minutes reading.

This was a mistake. I now wonder why I read the whole (unfinished) series. IMO, the protagonist is really a complete, um, well, jerk. He seems intelligent enough, but he does some really dumb things with no regard to consequences, especially as regards to relationships.

I do like the general premise of the series, but it escalated through 4 books and then apparently after leaving a HUGE cliffhanger, the author just got bored with the series, left a promise to continue on his website, and forgot about it. (or so it would seem, almost 2 decades later) It almost feels like he wrote himself into a position where he was down to two options. Either he wipes the human race out, or he has the aliens all catch a cold and die overnight, game-over.

Perhaps it's a sign of my impending grumpy old man-ism, but having our protagonist flip out about every little thing and rave and carry on was just a bit much. There is something called Mode Training, that seems vague and cultish, and I still don't know how it all works in, other than to add a bunch of unnecessary words to the script.

In checking the website, it seems the author is mostly annoyed that people keep asking him when he will finish the series, and that in itself makes me think I have little interest in finding out the ending. Don't give me a song and dance about how much you love this storyline, and how hard you are working on it, but you havent published a word on it in almost 20 years.

The paperback is old and tired, and I dont know of any used book stores near by, so it will likely go in the trash, even though I have an inborn distaste of throwing any book away.

TJ

[captain swoop]

Anything with Star trek or Star Wars on the cover.

[Noclevername]

Anything with Star trek or Star Wars on the cover.

There are one or two that make decent light entertainment, if hardly mind-expanding SF. But you'd have to wade through gigatonnes of mass-market pulp bought to fill a quota to find it, so I don't blame you for dismissing the franchises wholesale.

[pzkpfw]

... 'War against the Chtorr' series. ...

I read the first book and loved it. Never found another of the series and it always bugged me; thank you for lifting that "unfulfilled need" from me.

[captain swoop]

David Eddings I found hard going. The Belgariad and all that I found very derivative and only got about a 1/3 of the way through Pawn of Prophecy.

I can't read anything by Storm Constantine either.

[swampyankee]

High on the list is James Clemens' Wit'ch Fire. The gratuit'ous apost'rophes made t'he book impossible for me to re'ad.

[primummobile]

There are one or two that make decent light entertainment, if hardly mind-expanding SF. But you'd have to wade through gigatonnes of mass-market pulp bought to fill a quota to find it, so I don't blame you for dismissing the franchises wholesale.

I liked the James Blish novelizations of Star Trek TV episodes. He had some original short stories mixed in with those that I also enjoyed.

[Daffy]

NOTB was basically wish-fulfilment for an old man past his prime.

Farnham's Freehold was was, I think, an attempt at irony about reverse racism; it failed. (I'm giving RAH the benefit of the doubt here, assuming that he wasn't trying on purpose to be racist. Certainly his black characters in other books were stereotypical, but he had black characters at a time when that was taboo. I think he was trying to overcome the ingrained racism he'd been taught in his youth but had no idea how.)

Certainly agree about "Farnham's Freehold." Especially with it's heavy handed emasculation theme. OTOH, I loved---and still do---"The Number of the Beast." I find that one absolutely delightful...one of his best ever. Different strokes, I guess.

[Daffy]

The series was fun for a while until the protagonist refused the leprosy cure---that made no sense at all, and completely ruined the series for me (of course, that's completely dated now anyway).

[Swift]

Speaking of books that one has tried to read multiple times but just can't....

I loved David Brin's first three "Uplift" books: Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War. I have tried at least 4 or 5 times to read the first book of the next trilogy, Brightness Reef, and I just can't. I get maybe 50 or 60 pages in and it is just so terrible, and plodding and written from too many different characters' perspectives that I can't continue. I just can't get myself to care enough to read it.

[redshifter]

I was sorting through some old boxes yesterday, and found A Season for Slaughter, by David Gerrold. This is, of course, part of the 'War against the Chtorr' series. I was reminded of reading the series back in the late 80's/early 90's, and spent a few minutes reading.

This was a mistake. I now wonder why I read the whole (unfinished) series. IMO, the protagonist is really a complete, um, well, jerk. He seems intelligent enough, but he does some really dumb things with no regard to consequences, especially as regards to relationships.

I do like the general premise of the series, but it escalated through 4 books and then apparently after leaving a HUGE cliffhanger, the author just got bored with the series, left a promise to continue on his website, and forgot about it. (or so it would seem, almost 2 decades later) It almost feels like he wrote himself into a position where he was down to two options. Either he wipes the human race out, or he has the aliens all catch a cold and die overnight, game-over.

Perhaps it's a sign of my impending grumpy old man-ism, but having our protagonist flip out about every little thing and rave and carry on was just a bit much. There is something called Mode Training, that seems vague and cultish, and I still don't know how it all works in, other than to add a bunch of unnecessary words to the script.

In checking the website, it seems the author is mostly annoyed that people keep asking him when he will finish the series, and that in itself makes me think I have little interest in finding out the ending. Don't give me a song and dance about how much you love this storyline, and how hard you are working on it, but you havent published a word on it in almost 20 years.

The paperback is old and tired, and I dont know of any used book stores near by, so it will likely go in the trash, even though I have an inborn distaste of throwing any book away.

TJ

I got through the first two books of that series, which were OK but not great IMO. I agree about the protaganist's issues... I got around to looking for the third book a few years back and was told it was out of print, i.e. the person looking it up at Barnes & Noble couldn't find it. I discovered that didn't bother me too much...

[swampyankee]

I got through the first two books of that series, which were OK but not great IMO. I agree about the protaganist's issues... I got around to looking for the third book a few years back and was told it was out of print, i.e. the person looking it up at Barnes & Noble couldn't find it. I discovered that didn't bother me too much...

I remember reading it a very long time ago. I've never picked up another book by David Gerrold.