Favorite book series that ended badly.

[Dranae]

The Bartimaeus Trilogy, three books leading up to an epic conclusion, and then...

Spoiler

The main character dies during the anti-climactic fight, with the other characters basically saying "Yup he's dead" after, there, done, there's the end of your series... ugh I wanted to punch the author, but I couldn't so I punched the book then sold them all

I kind of liked that ending. You saw the character gradually become less of a jerk, and then WHAM! they're dead and the book ends without any loose ends.

 

[jarzium]

I cannot overstate how much of a letdown Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series was.

Honestly, the first few books were excellent to read. I really enjoyed them. Then they got shittier somewhere around the point of Soul of Fire or Faith of the Fallen, it was hard to tell because I was still so won over by the earlier books in the series.

I think it was in Chainfire when I realized exactly how absolutely terrible the entire storyline was. But, I had gotten most of the way through the series and decided I would finish it, for better or worse. The last two books, the last one especially, were so plainly awful that I honestly felt like throwing them away after I was done.

It's hard to point to exactly where Goodkind screws up, but I'll try to explain:

*Spoilers, if you actually still want to read this garbage*

a. At some point Goodkind starts throwing in his own political views so ham-handedly that it's painfully obvious what he's trying to force you to believe. Several of his books can be boiled down into the single statement: "Communism is bad, capitalism is better."

b. Endless rape and mutilation. I'm no lightweight when it comes to the grimdark, but at some point the editor should have said, "Another caravan of women and children raped to death? Really, Terry?" If you go a chapter without some woman being tossed to the rapist communists, you've probably fallen asleep and are dreaming a better book. It just got dull, repetitive, and pointless to read.

c. Plot holes large enough to drive a truck through. "Killing their leader won't make a difference." Yes, it clearly would. "All the magicless people somehow agreed to leave the planet." How the hell did they all suddenly decide they didn't want an afterlife, and wanted to live with a bunch of rapists?

d. The books just ran out of inspiration at one point and the problems got either contrived or did not build suspense. Kahlan gets captured and is taken to the enemy Emperor? Looks like they'd better argue politics for a few dozen pages!

Did anyone actually enjoy this series? I'm sure they are out there, but I can't look past these glaring problems. How did you guys manage?

Honestly - Sword of Truth

The first 4 books or so are fantastic and then it grinds....and the ending....uhhh

Seriously - AND he opens up a new series based on it

Ninjar'd. Glad to see someone else thinks SoT sucked.

ah! you're absolutely right! i created an account just to comment on the Sword of Truth series. the first 6 books were brilliant, but the follow-ups were dismally bad. it seems like every other book deals with the lazy 'amnesia' plot.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Can't think of any off the top of my head that haven't already been mentioned, but I'm really worried about WoT. There are so many plot threads to be resolved before the Dark One is defeated, let alone what has to happen after. I'm hoping for a David Eddings style massive epilogue, but I'm worried that it'll just be a chapter or two crammed into the back of the book.

I'm worried too. The sub plots just grow, and grow, and grow....
I haven't read the latest book yet, but Jordan and Sanderson have quite a bit of work to do to pull it off (I heard that Jordan planned it all out before his unfortunate death. Here's hoping that he succeeded).

 

[brunothepig]

The Inheritance Cycle. Pains me to say it, because I loved those books, but I'm really bitter about the end.

Spoiler

So, Eragon leaves. I know, not really a spoiler cause Angela predicted it in the first book blah blah. But the prophecy also says he'll never return. First off it's been said the future can be changed. More importantly, there is not a single good reason Eragon wouldn't return. For those of you that haven't read the books, Eragon leaves to establish a new Dragon Rider order. Which means wherever he ends up, it must be close enough to Alagaesia that new Dragon Riders can travel there after they are picked. Otherwise either Eragon will be sitting there alone while all the Dragon Riders stay in Alagaesia, or there will be no new Dragon Riders. Why the hell will Eragon never again return? In ten years he isn't going to put someone else in charge and pop back to see how the land he helped free is doing? To meet his nephew?

The only reason Paolini did it is as homage to LOTR. The final scene is Eragon sailing down a river on an elven boat, saying goodbye to friends he's met in his travels, such as the dwarf king etc. The worst part is, this ending would be fine if it weren't for the prophecy. But saying he'll never return, and then everyone treating it that way, just had me sitting there the whole time waiting for someone to explain why. It just sucks that the author would twist his characters and narrative around to do that, especially when he still could have had that scene, it just wouldn't have been as similar, or sad if Eragon was planning to return.

I've already re-written it in my mind that the prophecy was speaking of his eventual death. He will leave, never to return. He may return a few times, but some day he'll go back to the Riders new place, and die there.

I'm sure there are others, but that is all I can think of right now.

I agree with all that, I also thought

Spoiler

That making Arya Queen AND the new dragon rider was unbelievably stupid, I was hoping that Rorans kid would become the next dragon rider, since he kept lamenting on how he hated not being able to use magic (which never gets resolved by the way, I would have enjoyed hearing his thoughts on Eragons way to combat magic), and having his kid be the next rider would have opened up some characterization for him, I hope the author makes a new book or 2 involving the future shenanigans of the land, hopefully resolving the stupidity of Eragon never returning just because an old lady said so(by the way, it never gets resolved who she is, is she one of the main Gods or what? And what happens if some force attacks the land while the dragons are in training Eragon? JUST GONNA SIT ON YOUR ASS IN NOWHERE LAND?! Yea I'm mad)

Spoiler

Paolini has said he will likely return to Alagaesia with some other books, hopefully he retcons some of the stupid out of the ending. Roran's son is an interesting idea... Could be cool, although it couldn't have worked as him getting the green egg, he's not even a year old during Inheritance. Maybe we'll see him in another book.

As for Angela, I never expected to find out much about her, and I didn't really want to. The whole idea of her character is she's a mystery, her past is revealed piece by piece, and she slowly revealed just how capable she was. Hell, she could kill Eragon if she actually wanted to. Hopefully though she appears in later books. As for Arya becoming queen, kind of stupid yeah. She never wanted to be queen, now that she has a dragon she changed her mind? What? Again, hopefully a later book mentions that after 100 years or some bullshit Arya stepped down and joined Eragon on Riderland.

Also, how old is this thread now? Almost two weeks. And it's still hanging onto life, well how about that.

 

[ElectroJosh]

so as you can see I lurk more then post but this topic has caught my eye.

Peter F. Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy.

It is a si-fi series and is amazing in my opinion, he builds a complete universe and a large scale problem that effect everyone. he continues to build this universe till the last book, where he then spends something like 45 pages fixing this huge issue he just created. was an amazing let down.

however, I still recommend reading it !! also you get a classic example of "Deus ex machina"

Yeah the ending of the series was classic Deus Ex Machina - almost literally!!

However the next (two part series) he wrote, consisting of Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, are fantastic and don't have that issue.

Interesting to hear people talk about A Song of Ice and Fire's latest book. I was overwhelmed at first too but, on a second read-through, have actually changed my mind about it and consider it to be one of the strongest in the series - very cleverly written but there were a lot of things I, and I imagine many on this very thread, missed in the initial read through.

 

[White_Lama]

The Twilight series, because the characters in there didn't all die a horrible agonizing death.

 

[Alphonse_Lamperouge]

Harry Potter and THHGTTG, as mentioned.

Also, the Space Wolf series. In that Bill King left the Black Library, so they gave the series over to two people that had never written anything before, but were big fans, really. Yeah, you can imagine how that went.

Likewise, the Gotrek and Felix series, once King left they gave that to Nathan Long. He's nowhere near as good as King, but mostly he didn't do all that badly (especially by BL standards at that time), there were some good bits, but he got carried away and put loads of really stupid stuff in for no good reason.

i read all the Gotrek and Felix books that King wrote and really enjoyed them....when i was 11. just the other day i tried reading them again, and realized the quality of writing is quite poor. with the exception of the Greater Daemon fight in Daemonslayer, all of the fights boil down to ''And Gotrek began foaming at the mouth, hewing left and right and leaving a trail of limbs and destruction''. no specifics, no blow by blow like the better fantasy writers will go into. Im studying writing now, and i dont know, that stuff seams a bit weaksauce.

that being said, there is something totally bad ass about ending a chapter with ''Come on manling, its time for some bloodletting''

 

[Alphonse_Lamperouge]

I'll be another person to mention A song of Ice and Fire despite it not even being done yet. I got to the fourth book before I just stopped reading, unable to go any farther. Not because he's a bad writer by any stretch, but my god is it miserable. Everyone by that point is either unhappy or dead and frankly I think the author has written himself into a bit of a corner where everything has become so 'grimdark' that the only even remotely 'happy ending' possible short of stupid last second plot twist would be just to kill the whole cast and say they're content in the afterlife or somesuch.

Besides that I didn't like the ending for the Troy series by David Gemmell, though to be fair it's not the authors fault consider he, well, he died before he could finish the last book and another author had to try and finish it up using his notes with... mixed results.

Pity because that was my favourite depiction of the Troy legend yet.

dude, if you are reading ASOIAF and expecting some sort of joyous, touchy feely ending, id suggest you stop and read Harry Potter. Rowling, at least, is a weak writer who pandered to her audience, and gave us that god awful epilogue. i just finished a Dance With Dragons, and Martin is a visionary. and that vision is BLEAK. If ANY character comes out of that series for the better i will TRULY be surprised. and i wouldnt have it any other way

 

[Alphonse_Lamperouge]

Can't think of any off the top of my head that haven't already been mentioned, but I'm really worried about WoT. There are so many plot threads to be resolved before the Dark One is defeated, let alone what has to happen after. I'm hoping for a David Eddings style massive epilogue, but I'm worried that it'll just be a chapter or two crammed into the back of the book.

sadly i must agree with you. Robert Jordan created such an amazing world, and now that he is gone, i just don't think his son has the writing chops to satisfy my expectations. i think we both know Rand has to die, which will be hard enough, but i just hope he goes out with a Breaking Of The World sized bang

 

[Mafoobula]

Piers Anthony's Xanth series. It hasn't ended yet, but I get the feeling that it just CAN'T end well.

I liked the series a lot, but somewhere around book 20-25, things took a turn for the absurd and annoying. Puns, puns, and more puns, to the point where whole pages are filled with pun people with pun names and pun talents. When reading any recent Xanth book, it's common to see the following passage at least a handful of times:

(protagonist) was walking along the enchanted path with no conflict or urgency, to the Good Magician's castle. S/He noticed someone walking the other way.
"Hi, I'm (protagonist) on my way to see Good Magician Humphrey."
"Hi, I'm (pun name), with the talent of (pun talent that fits pun name). I'm out here in the middle of nowhere for no reason whatsoever."

And then they just go on their merry *&^%ing way! And this will happen no less than 6 times, often more, sometimes stringing together 3 or more pun people in a row, just like that.
Mind you, this is forgetting all the pun plants and pun random creatures along the way. It was silly in book 15, it was cute in book 20, it's annoying in book 35.

And they way he gets these stories started has become - and I really do like the series, so this hurts to say - hackneyed. Lazy, even. The beginning of "Jumper Cable" quite literally starts with the main protagonist being brought into the story through a narrative hook. Our hero is just chillin' one day, when a big hook picks him up and drops him in the story. That's it. And then he decided to go to the Good Magician's castle, because that happens in about 95% of the books. Good Magician Humphrey is now little more than a plot device to get the narrative into full swing. One of the single most important characters in the Xanth universe, and all he does is tell the protagonist where to go.

Act 2 drags on with the characters interacting with each other with all the believability of mannequins in a soap opera. Puns and panty humor, maybe we see a recurring character or two, just to pad out the story for another couple paragraphs. Moving on.

Act 3, and the whole thing resolves without much urgency or tension. Day is saved, everyone falls in heterosexual happily-ever-after fairy *&^%ing tale love. The end. Bleh.

Maybe I'm just a crotchety young man of 24, but reading the recent books just huuurrrrts. I was right there with the series, all the way up through around book 25. Now, I just read them because, shoot, when you read 25 books in a series, you're more or less obligated to stick with it until the end.

 

[Thaluikhain]

i read all the Gotrek and Felix books that King wrote and really enjoyed them....when i was 11. just the other day i tried reading them again, and realized the quality of writing is quite poor. with the exception of the Greater Daemon fight in Daemonslayer, all of the fights boil down to ''And Gotrek began foaming at the mouth, hewing left and right and leaving a trail of limbs and destruction''. no specifics, no blow by blow like the better fantasy writers will go into. Im studying writing now, and i dont know, that stuff seams a bit weaksauce.

that being said, there is something totally bad ass about ending a chapter with ''Come on manling, its time for some bloodletting''

The writing style is his weakest area, yeah, and it's generally pretty poor. Well, excepting when he tries to do mystery, which is simply awful.

However, his characterisation and worldbuilding is top notch. He's extraordinarily good at making characters come alive, there's alot of minor characters that get the odd paragraph who are much more fleshed out than people written by other authors who devote entire books to them.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

The Saga of Darren Shan got realy stupid towards the end. I can deal with vampaneze and shit like that but then the final trilogy is all: go to future, fight dragons....its as if someone swapped out the pages with something else while I wasn't looking It didn't mesh well at all

This was gonna be my choice.

The last few books completely just came out of nowhere.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

and it isn't that i like evil snape over good snape. I honestly couldn't give a fuck about Cpt. fangirlfap. The problem is the WAY she wrote him as a good guy. As a crying little *****. which is lame

You got a point there.

The more and more I read into this thread, the more and more I start to realize just how badly the last Harry Potter was written.

Seriously, Snape could have been a pretty fucking Bad Ass good guy. Basically the equivalent of an ex-KKK or Neo Nazi who has to pretend to be full of hate? She could have even wrote him off as having a hard time turning back to the good side.

 

[Stocky37]

Snip..

Wow.... that actually makes some sense. I think I'd much prefer something along those lines than than the whole Deathly Hallows debacle. Why Rowling couldn't just continue along those lines instead of pulling some other magical contrivance out of her ass to allow Harry to win is beyond me.

 

[The Wykydtron]

All of Darren Shan's series end badly, The Darren Shan Saga and The Demonata both end with him rebooting the universe.

Though there was this oneshot about executioners (i'll be damned if i can remember the name) he did that ended well, i think he just has a problem with ending long running series.

I wonder if i'll be adding the Inheritance series to this list in a few days?

 

[Pearwood]

Anita Blake. Went from a good urban fantasy series to porn and then to even worse porn.

 

[The Wykydtron]

The Bartimaeus Trilogy, three books leading up to an epic conclusion, and then...

Spoiler

The main character dies during the anti-climactic fight, with the other characters basically saying "Yup he's dead" after, there, done, there's the end of your series... ugh I wanted to punch the author, but I couldn't so I punched the book then sold them all

What? Did it end badly? It's been a few years since i read it...

BRB rereading it.

Spoiler

Wait you thought Nathaniel was the main character? I thought Bartimaeus and him were of equal importance...

[sub] slight nitpicking ftw![/sub]

 

[whiffleball]

Wow. I agree with so much of this thread.

Night Angel Trilogy:
I liked some of the plot elements in the final book, but yeah the very end was kind of weird and haphazard.

Harry Potter:
I don't know what I would have liked for an ending, but I didn't feel satisfied with the one we were given.

Pendragon Series:
That alternate reality stuff at the end felt really weird. How do your respond if you are in Bobby's shoes?

Keys to the Kingdom:
Loved the books, but the end was weird. It made sense to a point, but it felt kind of bizarre.

Inheritance Cycle:
I suppose I have the most to comment about this one.

About Angela

Spoiler

I got the impression that she was the Oracle who lived in Urû'baen centuries ago.

I felt like the final book tried to throw too much "real science" into the story. Suddenly we are dealing with subjects like atom splitting, radiation, the world being round, etc. It didn't fit with the rest of the story.

Spoiler

Though I guess radiation was as good a reason as any why no one would go to Vroengard anymore.

The final victory over Galbatorix was lame as well.

Spoiler

Make him feel regret and pain for all he has done and then he kind of commits suicide. I was hoping for some inventive use of magic.

As for the prophecy:

Spoiler

We learned that Solembaum's prophecies were just things told to the were-cats by the Eldunari. In fact, almost every deus ex machina was supposedly done by them, so there was no great destiny to begin with so why should Angela's prophecy be held in such high regard. As for Arya, I understand that her people would want her to be Queen, but why would it be so important to her. What does the ruler of the elves do anyway? Their whole society is predicated on magic and they don't want for anything. All they really need is an ambassador. I liked that Eragon reworked the magic to allow for Dwarves and Wargals to become riders because it fit with the mythos. As for Arya becoming a dragon rider, it made sense in that it would provide a permanent connection to Eragon, and also Saphira since Arya's dragon was a male. But then to split them up felt arbitrary for the reasons provided. Nasuada should get a dragon to allow her to have a relationship with Murtagh. But I guess that would have made the ending too happy/nice for some people.

 

[Sonicron]

Basically any series exclusively written by Dan Abnett. I love me some W40k, and Lord knows Abnett is the best of the best when it comes to writing those novels, but as great as his book series are (such as Eisenhorn or Ravenor), they always shit the bed on the last 10 pages.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

Interesting to hear people talk about A Song of Ice and Fire's latest book. I was overwhelmed at first too but, on a second read-through, have actually changed my mind about it and consider it to be one of the strongest in the series - very cleverly written but there were a lot of things I, and I imagine many on this very thread, missed in the initial read through.

It's just gotten really trendy to hate on GRRM/asoiaf.

I too think that Dance was actually the best one yet, though I agree that he's been milking the "end a character's pov with the appearance of their death" device too much.

but come on, Tyrion's adventures are downright awesome.