Worst fantasy books ever written ?

[Agentorange]

Ladies and gentlemen, in honour of the sublime awfulness of the Gor books by John Norman ( briefly mentioned in the interplanetary thread ) I invite you to submit your nominations for the worst fantasy books ever written.

I nominate all the Gor books beyond book2, They're all the same so can safely be treated as one

[drohem]

Oh man, I have to search the memory banks for this thread. This may take a while

[Enpeze]

Hm. I vote for the Shannara books from Terry ...ähem...whatever

[Atgxtg]

I think the worst books are probably something that most of us haven't even heard of. The real stinkers don't get sequels.

[Enpeze]

Well, maybe we should then call the thread

"worst well known fantasy books ever written".

[PK Games]

The Xanth series

[drohem]

The Darksword Trilogy written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

[Aycorn]

Originally Posted by drohem

The Darksword Trilogy written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

I picked up one of Terry Goodkind's once and never made it past page 10. It truly read like someone writing up a D&D adventure. And this guy's supposed to be one of the best-selling fantasy authors?? Yeesh!

Another baddie - "Mention My Name In Atlantis" by John Jakes. Supposed to be a parody of Conan-style sword-and-sorcery - but it just ain't funny. I also remember his "Brak the Barbarian" stories as being nothing special.

However, last year I read the first of the oft-maligned "Circle of Light" series by Neil Hancock, and I actually did like that one. Very weird and somewhat incoherent (like a mish-mash of Tolkein, "Watership Down," funny animal stories and some sci-fi mixed in), but it had some really evocative moments and I found myself fond of the funny-animal characters. Some day I'll read the rest of `em.

[soltakss]

Xanth is funny with some good ideas.

Gor has some excellent settings and very detailed descriptions of peoples such as the Bird Riders and Nomads. They went a bit fetishy after the first 5 or 6 and ended up mostly fetish with some background, but the early ones were pretty good.

[soltakss]

Anything by H.P. Lovecraft.

Seriously.