# Urgh. The Worst Book Ever....



## Samy :] (Jul 21, 2006)

Whatever you do.
Don't read Eragon or Eldest like I have because I heard it was published by a young author & I was very interested & please that someone my age could do that. But sadly, I found out he wrote it at 15, but had it published when he was 20 or 19. Sooo, I think I've been fooled, or worse, the publishing company are just using his age to market it. I feel sick. But even so, when I read Eragon, I could tell Paolini had a passion for writing at least, even though it wasn't written so well, so I was willing to wait around for the second book & hope that with an editor, he would have improved. I was mistaken & disappointed :?. 

He didn't improve & worse, he used his little quote:

*"characters are borned out of nessicity" *or whatever the crap he was trying to ball on us. 

He's wrong. characters are living, breathing characters with minds of their own. that i believe is the hardest, when you want to create a character. they have to have their own beautiful personaily to enchant us.

But maybe I should blame the editor too. It was as if she didn't bother TRYING to edit at all. Ugh.

I'm sorry if I sound negative, but I just can't believe people are praising the book. He totally plagerise everything & he doesn't even seem to care. He says that he strives for a lyrical beauty between Tolkien himself or Seamus Heanly. I can't respect him half so well if he's going to praise himself in that way constantly. I mean, I would like him a lot more if he knew that he wasn't the best & tries to act so in all his spiffy little intervies & stupid quotes he puts out. But still, when the next book comes out, I'm gonna burrow from the library in hopes that its much better & less plagarized. I would have thought after the first book, he would have listend to honest reviewers & followed their advice.

Still, what do you think of his books?

I'm open for a conversation & felt frustrated because everyone else I've talked to seems to believe it was the greatest book in the world. Gosh, its like, *"Go out & read more."
*
Especially stuff by George RR Martin or very well written romance by Jane Austen. She was about the same age as Paolini when he came out with Eldest, & her writing was 10 times, no forgive me, 100 times better. And thanks for reading this :bomb:


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## dwellerofthedeep (Jul 21, 2006)

I feel a similar way about Dan Brown and the Davinci Code, though I didn't really need the warning here as I'd already heard too many bad things about Paolini to give his books a try.  Because you're trying to help others dodge a bullet or two here's another to look out for.  _Pastwatch the Redemption of Christopher Colombus.  _Orson Scott Card has written great stuff but _Pastwatch _just isn't it.


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## Samy :] (Jul 21, 2006)

you know what we should do?
this be the thread where we all post what books to stay away from.
i'm saying the later wheel of time series.
robert jordan has lost all.
but i admire his earlier stuff. beautiful.
to bad he ruined it in the end.


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## Sigur RÃ³s (Jul 21, 2006)

Any Of Ann Rice's new material avoid.


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## Krim (Jul 22, 2006)

I agree about Paolini.



> *"characters are borned out of nessicity" *or whatever the crap he was trying to ball on us.


 
Well, of course he'd say this, none of his characters are actually realistic and his parents published his book. There really was no editor but him and his parents (except for on Eldest, which was long after Eragon), even though he took like three years to throw it together. Characters are born out of necessity? Humans aren't, and characters are humans. A person isn't born because the world needs another accountant; it's born and then because of it, the world has another accountant. Characters are the reason there is a plot, not the other way around.  

Paolini makes money and does his thing. He doesn't care if other writers, not as famous but much better and more experienced, try to dispense advice; he is Paolini! International bestseller! He is having his own movie.

As for the movie, it'll be hilarious when half of the fans watch Eragon, and then watch LOTR, and go...'wait, which one is Eragon?'

Also, the book can get away with the entire thing mostly taking place with people running through fields and deserts and it rarely deviates from normal terrain like that. So, you don't pay much attention, but then it's on the big screen, and you realize:

'Didn't that horse just run through the same field five minutes ago?' 

At least he is proof that young authors can make it as long as a blitzkrieg marketing strategy claims you're a prodigy when you're actually a so-so writer.


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## Samy :] (Jul 22, 2006)

> At least he is proof that young authors can make it as long as a blitzkrieg marketing strategy claims you're a prodigy when you're actually a so-so writer.


Haha :rabbit:


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## dwellerofthedeep (Jul 23, 2006)

Krim said:
			
		

> As for the movie, it'll be hilarious when half of the fans watch Eragon, and then watch LOTR, and go...'wait, which one is Eragon?'


 
Actually I'm betting the movie of far higher quality will be easily recognized as LOTR.


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## blademasterzzz (Jul 23, 2006)

Welcome to the club. I've been preaching about the shittiness of Eragon & Eldest for many months now . 

We got long threads about it.


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## Hakeem (Jul 23, 2006)

Ohh... bad books... I hate Danielle Steel's books! I don't know about the writing style and probably they're good books, but I find them way too boring.


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## BeautifulDisaster (Jul 23, 2006)

I also agree about Paolini. Eragon is a semi-good book, but I couldn't even bear to finish Eldest.


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## Crazy_dude6662 (Jul 23, 2006)

BeautifulDisaster said:
			
		

> I also agree about Paolini. Eragon is a semi-good book, but I couldn't even bear to finish Eldest.



i agree, i like eragon, but i struggled to finish eldest ( i have this thing about starting a series of books and finishing them) and im pretty sure i skipped alot of pages and zoned out for others (like when you read it but it dosnt make sense or go in at all)

 and the movie will probably be alot better


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## Samy :] (Jul 23, 2006)

Tolkien was friends with Knopf. I wonder what he would do though if he found out that all these idiot were taking up crap like this. Man, I am so disappointed.


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## BeautifulDisaster (Jul 23, 2006)

Crazy_dude6662 said:
			
		

> i agree, i like eragon, but i struggled to finish eldest ( i have this thing about starting a series of books and finishing them) and im pretty sure i skipped alot of pages and zoned out for others (like when you read it but it dosnt make sense or go in at all)
> 
> and the movie will probably be alot better



Yeah, I know what you mean. I try to finish a series once I start it too. If I'm not interested in the first few pages.. why bother reading the rest of it?


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## CZ (Jul 24, 2006)

Crazy_dude6662 said:
			
		

> i struggled to finish eldest ( i have this thing about starting a series of books and finishing them) and im pretty sure i skipped alot of pages and zoned out for others (like when you read it but it dosnt make sense or go in at all)
> 
> and the movie will probably be alot better



I agree - once I get started on a series, I really want to finish it.  (The exception to this rule is Robert Jordan - I stopped at book 6 and since he's got a terminal illness, I refuse to read further until (and if) he finishes the last book.)

Eragon was... almost passable.  I threw the book down in disgust, however, when I realized that the system of magic was so clearly taken from LeGuin's Wizard of Earthsea series.  

To give credit where credit's due, Eldest did ramp up at the end, but the beginning and middle were a slogfest.  I wrote about it in another thread somewhere.

As for other books to stay away from... I can't name anything specific that I've read recently that I feel strongly enough about to warn people not to read.  I think that in general, the fantasy genre is degenerating.  It seems to me that it's becoming more hit or miss when I buy a fantasy book... they're either good or really good ... or mediocre to terrible.


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## Samy :] (Jul 24, 2006)

CZ said:
			
		

> As for other books to stay away from... I can't name anything specific that I've read recently that I feel strongly enough about to warn people not to read. I think that in general, the fantasy genre is degenerating. It seems to me that it's becoming more hit or miss when I buy a fantasy book... they're either good or really good ... or mediocre to terrible.



Or there either terribly the same. Somebody should write about a dwarf hero and not some boy human over and over again.


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## martysings (Jul 24, 2006)

wow, i rather enjoyed eragon and eldest. well, eldest at least. ok, well, at the end, eldest was good. Chris Paolini's talent for character writing is really lacking, but the story line for Eragon and Eldest is good. i imagine the movies will be better.

as far as books to stay away from, i can't really think of any. i haven't been able to read as much as i would like to have lately.:-k


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## simon woodhouse (Jul 24, 2006)

I feel a bit guilty about singling out an individual book as being really bad, as who am I to say what's hot and what's not. But on the other hand, if someone writes something that stinks shouldn't they be told so? 

Anyway, the worst book I've ever read, by an absolute mile, was Battleaxe by Sara Douglass. The plot was the standard Fantasy blueprint of a band of heroes setting out on a quest. The men were all butch types, and the women weak and watery. There were multiple POV changes, often within the same paragraph. What felt like important characters came and went willy-nilly, usually to never appear again once they'd said their piece. It was overly long, with self-indulgent descriptions of armour and swords and stuff like that. Most of the nonhuman races just seemed thrown together, i.e. the author likes cats so she creates a race of half cat half human people. 

But, even though it was a terrible read, I did find it encouraging, insomuch as if a book like that can find its way onto a bookshop shelf, then there's hope for me. I keep meaning to read it again, and this time mark all the really bad bits so I can use them to make sure I'm not writing that way.


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## Fantasy of You (Jul 24, 2006)

Ah i thought this was about lord of the rings when i looked at the title.


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## Stewart (Jul 24, 2006)

Even if you narrowed the topic from 'worst book ever' to 'worst _fantasy _book ever' _The Lord of the Rings_ will still find itself propped up by everything Terry Goodkind has ever written.


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## Bika (Aug 10, 2006)

simon woodhouse said:
			
		

> I feel a bit guilty about singling out an individual book as being really bad, as who am I to say what's hot and what's not. But on the other hand, if someone writes something that stinks shouldn't they be told so?
> 
> Anyway, the worst book I've ever read, by an absolute mile, was Battleaxe by Sara Douglass. The plot was the standard Fantasy blueprint of a band of heroes setting out on a quest. The men were all butch types, and the women weak and watery. There were multiple POV changes, often within the same paragraph. What felt like important characters came and went willy-nilly, usually to never appear again once they'd said their piece. It was overly long, with self-indulgent descriptions of armour and swords and stuff like that. Most of the nonhuman races just seemed thrown together, i.e. the author likes cats so she creates a race of half cat half human people.
> 
> But, even though it was a terrible read, I did find it encouraging, insomuch as if a book like that can find its way onto a bookshop shelf, then there's hope for me. I keep meaning to read it again, and this time mark all the really bad bits so I can use them to make sure I'm not writing that way.


 
Out of curiousity, did you read the rest of the series?  IIRC it had a few twists in the last.
I rather enjoyed it - but I tend to avoid analysing/criting books I read, preferring to lose myself in them as much as I am able.

Another book Sara Douglass wrote - Threshold (I think) - was much better than the Axis trilogy...


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## demon_ (Aug 10, 2006)

Becuase you guys hate it, I'm starting to.

Edit: Wikipedia stolen.... I laughed at this.
*(Eragon left/ LOTR right)*

_*Arya - Arwen, Arda 
Ardwen - Arwen 
Isenstar - Isengard 
Mithrim - Mithrim or mithril 
Eragon - Aragorn/dragon 
Angrenost - Angrenost, the Sindarin name for Isengard 
Morgothal - Morgoth 
Elessari - Elessar 
Furnost - Fornost 
Hadarac Desert - Harad Desert 
Melian - Melian 
Vanilor - Valinor 
Eridor - Eriador 
Imiladris - Imladris 
Undin - Fundin/Udun 
Gil'ead - Gil'Galad 
Hrothgar - Hrothgar*_​


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## CZ (Aug 11, 2006)

LOTR wasn't the only thing borrowed from.

Page 393 (Eldest): "He savored the epics as he might a well-cooked meal, lingering over _The Deed of Geda_...

Yeah.


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## demon_ (Aug 11, 2006)

That's sad


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## Shawn (Aug 12, 2006)

Really... stealing from Beowulf. I suppose he thought he was being clever and symbolic. I have a friend like that...

More throes of agony from cliche fantasy writers that should have published on Fictionpress.


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## Spherical Time (Sep 18, 2006)

I wish his books weren't so popular though.  There's good writing, and then there's this.


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## AdrienneW (Sep 25, 2006)

What I can't figure out is how they ever got a publishing house like Alfred A. Knopf to take it on?


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## Spherical Time (Sep 25, 2006)

AdrienneW said:
			
		

> What I can't figure out is how they ever got a publishing house like Alfred A. Knopf to take it on?


I was under the impression that his parents work for Knopf, or a company related to Knopf.

ETA: Urp, apparently I was wrong about that.  The wiki article about Christopher Paolini talks about how it happened.


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## Krim (Sep 25, 2006)

Shawn, that is probably more of a tribute. I'm an anti-shurtugal member myself, but still --- he named the dwarf king Hrothgar and I doubt he thinks he'd fool anyone, so logically it's a tribute. He liked the book, he's giving tributes out. Not the best idea, but it's always fun to leave little bits and pieces of symbolism and random connections even if you're the only one to know them.


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## Amour (Sep 26, 2006)

Krim said:
			
		

> Shawn, that is probably more of a tribute. I'm an anti-shurtugal member myself, but still --- he named the dwarf king Hrothgar and I doubt he thinks he'd fool anyone, so logically it's a tribute. He liked the book, he's giving tributes out.



Tribute my ass...
Blatant plagiarism and tribute(/symbolism) are in no way synonymous.
Logic must be backwards in my mind, because I don't think "tribute", I think "hack".



			
				Krim said:
			
		

> Not the best idea, but it's always fun to leave little bits and pieces of symbolism and random connections even if you're the only one to know them.



(Response withheld...for now.)


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## AdrienneW (Sep 30, 2006)

I have to admit. I think its pretty cool his parents backed him up and believed in him. Really cool he made it on the best seller list...I have to admit, he's exactly what most of us dream about...but I still have to wonder how the book got that popular....I am personally still trying to get through it and having a hard time of it.  I have not enjoyed it much at all.


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## Fixed (Oct 1, 2006)

I managed to get through Eragon but found Eldest one of the most boring books ever... I agree that Paolini doesn't deserve to be a writer at the moment at least


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## JLrep (Oct 11, 2006)

I've read Eragon (not Eldest), and in my opinion the only thing genuinely _good  _about the book is that it is very easy to read (though there are those who would argue that this is no strength). One may be reminded that it is the opinion of many (myself included) that the ease-of-reading factor was by far the single greatest reason the Harry Potter series is as monumentally popular as it is. If you want a good review of Eragon, I suggest you go look at its Amazon page - you may have to scroll past one or two cheery contentless reviews, but there's usually a well-educated one near the top.


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## Rhea (Oct 20, 2006)

Wow, I've always heard good things about Eragon, however I always thought it was under the young readers/teens/young adult section, and therefore didn't really have an interest in reading it. Yes, coming from a Harry Potter fan >.< but I did start reading Harry Potter when I was younger =D

I've only started hearing that Eragon's not a good book when I come here, which came as a surprise.

I'll agree that Robert Jordan's later books are pretty bad. I stopped reading after the fourth. I realised that he kept introducing new characters in, and it seemed like he was just trying to milk it out and drag it longer than, well, whatever it is that's super long.

Edit: Ooh! I'd also like to add and agree that it's very hard to find good fantasy books. I have never read much of the genre and am trying to read it, however I find it SUPER hard to find good books....most of the storylines sound the same to me, and entirely similar to Tolkien. See, the only fantasy books I've read up till then were Tolkien and Harry Potter. Hadn't been very exposed. And when I started to look I couldn't really find anything - the teen's fantasy books even looked more interesting than the adults ones! Almost given up on getting into fantasy...and reading Robert Jordan early on didn't help much, as I'm now very wary of books that have more than 3 in the series.


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## Krim (Oct 21, 2006)

China Mieville should restore some faith in you. George R.R. Martin has created one of the most well-known, unorthodox, fantastic novels in the genre, so it is said. I've only read book one, but it was good. I can recommend some more if you're interested.


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## Rhea (Oct 22, 2006)

Hmm, yes, recommendations of fantasy books would be nice


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## Fantasy of You (Oct 22, 2006)

Paolini, when reviewing Rowling's Harry Potter series, 'It's great to see her grow as a writer, improving as she has.'

I roll my eyes...


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