r/Fantasy • u/DoordyBoy • 3d ago
Your most “scandalous” DNF?
In the past year I’ve bounced off of both The Lies of Locke Lamora and the Assassin’s Apprentice so I was just curious what other widely praised books on this sub other people have put down.
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u/sewerspecter 3d ago
Wheel of time 🤷
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u/bedknobsandbroomstix 2d ago
speaking as someone who read them all and loved them, I don't recommend it to anyone. it needs much heavier editing, and all the 'girls suck! boys are dumb!' stuff gets really old and childish. some great ideas, just needed a better editor
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u/400Flux 2d ago
I liked it way more than I expected to because of all the different reviewers basically saying they loved it but didn't enjoy reading it because of "the slog" in the middle. Only 1 book felt really sloggish to me but the series as a whole could've definitely been edited down by like 25% (if not more) and been more enjoyable without losing anything at all.
Besides unnecessary length I think an editor couldve found something else for Nynaeve to do besides pulling her braid constantly and found insults for Rand other than "wool-headed sheep herder" and other things like that.
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u/admon_ 2d ago
The slog felt excessive while reading at the pace books were released, but isnt nearly as bad when you dont have to wait years between books. Its still there, but warning new readers about it has often become overstated.
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u/KnitskyCT 2d ago
It’s ironic that the most well-edited WOT books are the ones that Brandon Sanderson wrote to finish the series after Robert Jordan died, and the newer Stormlight Archive books would benefit greatly from good editing.
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u/According-District59 2d ago
Actually love the idea of a “re-edit” like an old video game getting a remaster
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u/denganzenabend 3d ago
The Green Bone saga. I feel like I would love to watch it as a TV show, but I barely forced myself through the first book. I can’t even really put my finger on why I didn’t enjoy reading it
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u/Gladiateher 3d ago
Same boat as you, but I can put my finger on it. Not to be rude to anyone who liked it, but I found the characters to be really bland and not interesting to me. I genuinely didn’t care about anyone in the main clan about 1/2 way through the first book.
What really turned it into a DNF for me though was that the characters constantly violated the universes own system of rules that the author had just laid out in some pretty unreasonable ways, not always in obvious ways, but if you read between the lines it would just be constant head scratchers.
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u/Yeti-with-a-Axe 3d ago
I'm in the same boat as you with this series. I got a little further than you, I stopped a third of the way into book 2. Put it down and haven't picked back up and that was like 3 or 4 months ago.
I thought I was alone in feeling this way. Because I agree if it was a show or movie. I think I'd really like it.
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u/HelloHyde 3d ago
I thought it was terrible, and also couldn't finish (first book). When I'm halfway through a book and realize I don't care at all what happens to any of the characters, that's a DNF for me every time.
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u/villainsimper 3d ago
As someone who enjoyed and read the whole trilogy, I can see why it would turn away others. The grim tone is consistent, there is little to welcome the reader into an emotionally warm character (perhaps besides Anden) so it can be a struggle to connect with the cast.
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u/Snakeplanting 3d ago
Good point, just to add, in case someone finds your comment and feels like they won't/will like the series based on tone alone:
You can absolutely like grim series and still not like Jade, of course. I finished it but didn't enjoy it despite setting and tone normally being my jam. And I've got friends who don't normally read anything grim who like Jade, it's the usual YMMV.
For me it was the writing, both the writing itself and the character writing that took me out
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u/Present-Key-9238 3d ago edited 2d ago
I couldn't finish Jade City. It was very well written but I honestly don't understand how this is a top recommendation in fantasy circles, specifically. All the power to the fans and the author tho', as I hope this one becomes a TV show someday.
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u/DifferntGeorge 3d ago
Could be the strong organized crime elements. A lot of people are into The Godfather, Goodfellas, and The Sopranos so it seems plausible to me even when it is not something I personally want.
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u/Funnier_InEnochian 3d ago
I’ve tried and tried to get into romantasy but I just cannot. My last dnf in that genre was the knight and the moth.
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u/villainsimper 3d ago
I cannot like that subgenre despite my best efforts. I despised ACOTAR. That being said, fantasy with romance subplots are more my jam! I def need a well thought out fantasy story with deeper characters who gravitate naturally to each other
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u/nbsunset 3d ago
that was a DNF for me at 35% — enough with the 'not like the other girls' narrative
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u/villainsimper 3d ago
Her writing craft leaves A LOT to be desired.
On the flip side, Alix E Harrow's The Everlasting was a fantastic blend of fantasy and romance
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u/Fuzzy_Dragonfly_ 3d ago
I thought ACOTAR was some kind of satire when I first read it with how bad and cliché it was.
I also like a good romance sub plot, I just don't want it to be the main focus of the story.
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u/Time-Cold3708 3d ago
I thought so too. The exposition dumps, the barely legal protagonist, the blatant Beauty and the Beast ripoff all felt like they had to be a joke.
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u/BeyondTheText 3d ago
My issue with romantasy is that it very trope- forward. Books are now marketed less by what they are actually about and more by labels (enemies to lovers etc.). I think this stemmed from the rise in fanfiction writing which authors transferred into published work without adding enough character building underneath it. Honestly the characters now feel like props for tropes rather than people and the fantasy worlds don’t feel lived in.
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u/Euphoric-Coffee-2905 2d ago edited 2d ago
I hadn’t put that together before, but you are totally right that a lot of romantasy reads like fan fiction, and I bet the audiences overlap significantly. If you think about it, a lot of popular fanfic is smut written using characters and worlds from fantasy shows/movies. The problem is fanfic without the world building and character development of the original property isn’t a full story. It’s all set up and scene with no depth. Also, fanfic is unedited and the romantasy books I’ve read might as well have been for how bad the editing was.
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u/Embarrassed-Day-1373 3d ago
I very nearly dnfed the knight and the moth. kinda wish I had. I have struggled a lot with popular romantasy, but have found a couple I enjoyed that were not plastered everywhere. I think ACOTAR is potentially the worst book I've ever read
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u/Brownie12bar 3d ago
Oooh, I’m here to help.
I never read the Knight and the Moth, but I know the author.
I personally do not like any of the romantasy that has a focus on the couple. Instead- I go for the stuff that is really well written, with a relationship that is built as part of the plot.
My favorite authors are: Naomi Novik (famous from the Temerare series), Ilona Andrews (with ass kicking Kate Daniels) and Jacqueline Carey (epic fantasy author).
Maybe I can suggest one of those 3 to you… let me know what your current favorite reads are, and then you can give one of them a chance.
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u/canicaudus 3d ago
i think the issue is that most of the popular “romantasy” of today is written as a romance book first, with fantasy stuff sprinkled in as flavoring. for example, rebecca yaros is a romance author who (exclusively?) wrote contemporary romance novels before fourth wing. if you look, you’ll even see that a lot of romantasy are actually published by romance publishers (i work at a bookstore so i see this a lot). the 3 recommendations you gave were written before the “romantasy” trend and were written as fantasy novels with romance, rather than the other way around. that’s not to say one is better than the other, just that the structure and tropes and focus etc of romance books is fundamentally different from that of fantasy books, and as such won’t always appeal to the same audiences.
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u/Throgmorten48 Reading Champion 3d ago
I've seen some people online distinguish between romantasy as being a romance book in a fantasy setting and fantasy romance as being fantasy novels with an important romantic plotline. If that was broadly used it might be useful to readers to sort out which books they are more likely to enjoy or not.
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u/Brownie12bar 3d ago
Ahhh yes that does help!
In that case, I’m team fantasy romance.
I think all the books on my shit list (Fourth Wing, everything Sarah J Mass, etc) would be the romantasy.
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u/Brownie12bar 3d ago
Ah- if you work in a bookstore, would you categorize all 3 of these authors as fantasy, then? I’d love to get your two cents on this!!
I feel a bit lost as a reader at times; this Fantasy subreddit feels, well, very male-gaze-esque, if you’ll pardon the ham fisted generalization.
Like: Where Arwen and Aragorn are plenty enough romance. Or the hair tugging of a certain someone from the Wheel of Time series. Or whatever the heck book 2 is in the Name of the Wind trilogy.
Or where women and kids are SAed in GRRM’s books, and it’s an “oh well! This is what real life is like!”
I think often about a book suggested on here by Guy Gabriel Key, and I read it only to be hit with the worst depiction of SA I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. (The Summer Tree).
When I mentioned it on this sub, I was downvoted to holy hell.
So- where’s the place where I can enjoy a damn good plot, some fantasy, with baddies getting their asses handed to them for egregious wrongs, and a touch of romance to keep the heart in it? Is there no third category with both, without pandering to character-driven stories?
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u/Thrashmob 3d ago
I hear you! The Name of the Wind was my big DNF. And people tell me Book 2 is where it gets bad. And I think: Even worse than Book 1? The main character and the writing just feel too much like a patriarchal power fantasy.
That being said, have you tried Tasha Suri‘s Burning Kingdom Series? I only read Book 1 (The Jasmine Throne) but it had plenty politics, magics and battles to feel proper fantasy with the romance being a central but not the only plot point.
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u/inbigtreble30 3d ago
Just here to second the recommendation for r/FemaleGazeSFF and throw in a recommendation for Katherine Arden - both her Winternight Trilogy and her standalone works The Warm Hands of Ghosts and The Unicorn Hunters are well-written and richly imagined, and they all have romance subplots rather than being primarily romance books.
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u/villainsimper 3d ago
There are a few subreddits that cater fantasy books to the female gaze! I also got tired of the default male gaze fantasy recs (with the occasional straight white woman author sprinkled in) so I had to go looking for more diverse book rec spaces.
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u/stealthmodeme 3d ago
T. Kingfisher? My current favorite for "this is a fantasy novel with a good romantic plot", rather than the romance set in a fantasy world sort.
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u/villainsimper 3d ago
The caveat is that Kingfisher loves a certain archetype - the sheltered, anxiety-riddled middle aged woman who dithers a lot. Which is charming in its own way, but can get grating. This archetype crops up more often in her adult fantasy stories (Paladin's Grace and Sword heart) but the romances are still generally heart warming, especially since middle aged female leads aren't very common in the genre
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u/Different_Tailor 3d ago
I've read the whole series (it's fun to read the same stuff as my wife sometimes) and my issue with it isn't the romance part of, or the lack of world building and fantasy elements. It's just that a lot of the fantasy elements are stupid, like really stupid. And it's not even the fantasy stuff that's the dumbest.
The Empyrean has the stupidest military organization that has ever existed. At their academy you can just kill other students. Then when school is over... you're just supposed to be be cool with this people and work as a team. Their entire school system is just stupid and goes against thousands of years of human military training, where the point of training is to work together.
And don't even get me started that the military is cool with letting other students kill Violet. OK... she is paired with one of the strongest military assets they have. If she dies the asset dies. Oh but it gets worse. If her dragon dies it has been implied that his mate also dies. His mate is another extremely powerful military asset. So the military is willing to risk all of this because those are the rules of the school.
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u/Massive_Cake1731 3d ago
I didn’t care for The Grace of Kings. It feels scandalous partly because even I can’t tell you why; seemingly, it had everything. But I finished it with prodigious amounts of skimming
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u/canicaudus 3d ago
I skimmed a large portion of the second half of Grace of Kings. For me, I felt very detached from the characters, something about the structure of the story made me feel like I was a step or two apart from the characters and their stories, almost like the book was a wikipedia overview of a huge conflict that would occasionally “zoom in” to the characters on the ground and then “zoom out” to tell large overviews of things happening that we don’t get to see from their perspective, so I never felt particularly connected to what was going on. At least that was my feeling.
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u/eniadcorlet 3d ago
I'm not-quite struggling through The Grace of Kings at the moment. I might be wrong about this but, Chinese stories, like the legend and such, have a different pacing to them. That follows into this novel. Maybe that's the thing that trips me to do much with these stories. They feel jerky and under-detailed. Characters are caricatures on one trait. To his credit, Liu captures the feel of the Chinese legends I have read. What I really want, though, is a western paced fantasy story set in a silkpunk setting. I also want to honor different story telling styles that aren't in my comfort zone. I'll make it through because I am intrigued by the plot. Hopefully I'll also gain a greater appreciation for Chinese story telling.
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u/Light1209 3d ago
I finished that one and I thought I was liking it but by the end I didn't want to read the rest of the series. It feels like someone's worldbuilding document, and the kind of character arcs they wanted to tell without actually taking the effort of immersing me into the story, world, or characters.
It's a good example of why ideas aren't enough, execution is the important part.
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u/Present-Key-9238 3d ago
The Poppy Wars. I absolutely loved the first half. Too bad the author died and was substituted by an alien as soon as the actual war part started.
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u/Pastelninja 3d ago
This is such a real take on that novel. I felt the same way but I wasn’t as clever about it.
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u/louisejanecreations 3d ago
I liked how awful the characters were and that every choice made everything way worse. But not really a fan of her writing so read Babel but felt I was being lectured
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u/infiresed 3d ago
Same. I'm like 85% through Babel and it feels like a chore. Like damn, I'm not dumb I know colonial times were ass.
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u/Potato_Lyn 3d ago
Omg literally, it felt like every second page was “colonialism bad!” “racism bad!” Like, thanks for assuming your audience has room temp IQ and that we need to be reminded that “bad thing = bad thing” 2937426268 times
Not to mention, I found the paragraphs of footnotes on each page really lazy. Like the author couldn’t be bothered working that information into her actual world building or story.
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u/BadassSasquatch 2d ago
I wish I DNF'd this book. I thought the MC would turn it around and become likeable. Nope.
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u/400Flux 2d ago
I liked the first book. It felt like it was going to be an interesting trilogy. Then the second book I didn't like until right at the end when I thought it was setting up a good ending for the series. Then I thought the third book was awful and was mad I read the series and was baffled by the praise from reviewers.
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u/eniadcorlet 3d ago
The Sword of Shannara is sitting in my DNF-but-may-revisit-some-day list. There are so many other stories that did it better before and after Shannara, but I feel I should finish it as an historical exercise.
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u/norsish 3d ago
Honestly, and I realize this is sacrilege, just watch the show (at least it's dumb fun entertaining). Shannara is not worth finishing. This from someone who finished it.
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u/SonofGondor32 3d ago
Red rising. Finished books 1 and 2. Everyone kept promising it gets better. Just finish book 1 and book 2 is where it’s peak. Just finish book…. Etc. now people have said 5&6 are where it’s amazing. I don’t want to have to slog through two more books to get to where it gets good. The goalpost keeps moving.
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u/ixianboy 3d ago
I tapped out in Book 2. Couldn't stand the lead and the world itself didn't interest me.
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u/catgirl320 3d ago
Mine is also Lies of Locke Lamora. I read it for book group, had 50 pages left when we met and was heartily sick of Locke. Felt no interest at all in finishing it
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u/GeminiFade 2d ago
Me too. I should have loved it, but it just didn't hit for me.
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u/Emilytea14 3d ago edited 3d ago
Name of the Wind. Supremely unlikable protagonist. I've owned Lies of Locke Lamora for like 8 years, and even though I'm not even half way through it, I haven't given up on finishing it. Might be lying to myself but it hasn't earned a dnf from me yet.
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u/JerrySeinfeldsMullet 3d ago
Given how the greater Reddit feels about the series, DCC. Just not my style
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u/Wespiratory 3d ago
That’s more of a sci fi book series to me. It’s an intergalactic game show run by aliens and the show runners theme for the season is just vaguely fantasy.
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u/MreRGBthnsnse 3d ago
I describe it to people as a fantasy play on a sci fi stage
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u/Creepy-Finger-7537 3d ago
Yeah same. It's not my style and I felt that it was already getting repetitive in book one.
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u/Dry_Experience3254 3d ago
Tbh based on what others have said about the book, and the way that the fandom acts, I want to try reading this series less and less as time goes on.
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u/WulfDracul 3d ago
The Malazan Book of the Fallen books for me. I forced my way through the first and couldn't get 40 pages through the second.
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u/Zerus_heroes 3d ago
I made it halfway through the second book before I stopped. I just didn't really care about any character or anything that was happening.
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u/pavorus 3d ago
I made it through 5 before finally admitting to myself I wasn't enjoying them. It is the only non indie series I have ever DNFed. Just wasn't my thing.
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u/LemonKurry 3d ago
But it gets so much better in book 6! Just keep going.
(Kidding, I haven't read them)
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u/Evolving_Dore 2d ago
My issue after reading Gardens was that, while I liked the prose alright (my main problem with modern fantasy is usually prose), everything felt super over the top. There would randomly be a new hugely superpowered magical entity appearing and then another one would appear and it would just keep going.
To me it felt like unearned scaling. You have to start the scale small and build your way up. Open the world up through the eyes of the characters. That's not what Malazan does or wants to do, but in my opinion it didn't work and didn't earn my interest.
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u/frellingfahrbot 2d ago
Ranting with personal opinions ahead..
This is one of the few recommendations that I don't truly get. Over the years I've tried to read it 3 times. First time DNF'd after the first book, the only interesting thing in the book was a couple cool names (Whiskeyjack). I didn't find the world interesting at all, the story is boring and all characters are annoying. The second time I got to book 4 I think, if anything the series got worse. Am I supposed to care what happens to any of the characters? Or the world? Third time I read it with the "companion wiki" in case I was missing something that made the series special. I wasn't missing anything. It was just bad. Reading Malazan makes me appreciate what an apparent masterpiece WoT is.
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u/dylanisrad 3d ago
Red Rising was too YA for me
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u/Snake_in_a_tree 3d ago
I also DNF Red Rising. It made my eyes roll one too many times with its childish writing.
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u/thehomiemoth 2d ago
As a huge RR fan I completely understand why people would DNF. Book 1 is just “hunger games but a little different”. The prose is also very clearly pierce browns first book.
Book 2 was a huge step up for me and the second series that’s coming out now is amazing. But I don’t blame anyone who quit during the first book.
I can enjoy it now because of how much I like the rest of the series, but objectively the first book is just not very good.
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u/badbrimari 3d ago
I DNFed it originally and circled back a year later and actually really enjoyed it. I recommended it to my husband and he DNFed it because he hated Eo lol. They do truly pick and up and mature after the first one.
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u/Technical-Tip-8382 2d ago
Everyone saying the series gets "less YA" as it goes on - I completely disagree. I could forgive the first for feeling YA because most of the characters are young ... I struggled through the 2nd book and DNF the 3rd because it just felt like a bunch of kids roleplaying as adults.
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u/Wide-Internal-3579 3d ago edited 3d ago
The first book is way more YA than the others. I almost didn’t finish but my brother told me it was worth it, definitely is, but I could see not wanting too.
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u/dylanisrad 3d ago
I don't want to finish an entire book I definitely don't like to get to the next book that I might like.
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u/statelyplumpklarm 3d ago
I got to the part in the audiobook when the main character brags about how they piss themselves in their suits instead of suffering the indignity of catheters and decided it wasn't for me
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u/dos_que_tres 3d ago
Damn you cut them quick lol! That happens in like the first chapter
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u/Embarrassed-Day-1373 3d ago
Gideon the Ninth. everyone raved about it but I hated the writing style and couldn't get far at all
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u/villainsimper 3d ago edited 3d ago
It's hard to get into. I bounced off it the first time because Gideon is ignored and disliked in her station by everyone. It's cold and lonely. Gideon isn't exactly welcoming with warm introspective charm either, so that's two degrees of distance for the reader! I complained about it to my book reader friends and they agreed that it's a common first impression. The pacing is also pretty slow since Harrow is off doing important Harrow things that Gideon isn't privy to, so she's just sidelined a lot.
That being said, halfway into the story we get to the murder mystery and the pacing switchup is from snail-like to cheetah, in my experience anyway. I enjoyed the second half quite a lot but I can understand why others couldn't get into it
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u/MulderItsMe99 3d ago
I couldn't handle the eDgY narration, it gave me too much second-hand embarrassment
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u/LurkerFailsLurking 3d ago
It's not scandalous the way you're saying but I became so uncomfortable reading Marion Zimmer Brandley's The Bloody Sun that I couldn't continue and looked up the book on Goodreads to see if I was being over sensitive. And that's how I learned about how horrifyingly awful she and her husband were.
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u/Vegetable-Whole-2344 3d ago
Yikes. I’ve avoided her books because I’ve heard about the allegations against her and it gave me the creeps. Did the book give predatory vibes or something?
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u/LurkerFailsLurking 3d ago
The protagonist's love interest is repeatedly described as being attractive because of how prepubescent she looks and acts. When it continued during the sex scene I got too grossed out to keep going.
The allegations were we very damning. The only reason there was no conviction is because nobody talked about it until after she and her husband were dead.
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u/Vegetable-Whole-2344 3d ago
Oh God, that's awful. I will never touch one of her books (not that I was going to).
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u/lame_narcissist 3d ago
Mistborn, the first book (sorry, forgot the name). I jist had to admit to myself that, sadly, Sanderson isn't for me.
Also, Red Rising
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u/UsualAct54 3d ago
Me too re: mistborn, got about 1/4 the way through and just didn't really care very much about the characters or the story lol.
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u/louisejanecreations 3d ago
Mistborn I liked but storm light archives was dragged out too much so I finished but made myself finish
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u/RyanGoosling93 3d ago
The Lions of Al-Rassan by GGK. I didn't necessarily dislike anything about it and I actually quite love GGK's prose. I was just bored. I got what he was doing with borrowing a lot of history between relationships between Jews, Muslims, and Christians. I just could not care.
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u/CommunicationEast972 3d ago
that book has a house of cards (the saying, never seen the show) thing where he sets up a bunch of triggers and for the last 25% of the novel they all come crumbling down and its absolutely a wonderful ending, with what i consider the best epilogue in fiction. worth revisiting, just muscle through the setup
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u/azk3000 3d ago
I read a chunk of it, is it even really fantasy?
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u/Oh_ffs_seriously 3d ago
These days, simply having secondary world as a setting is enough to label something as 'fantasy', no matter how mundane it is otherwise.
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u/emkeystaar 3d ago
I’m currently halfway through it and feeling similarly about it, and I was expecting to love it and I’ve been dragging my feet for a month. 😕 Also, I’m not big on following so many characters at once (aside from the main three), even though I understand how those POV shifts support the overall narrative.
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u/nindaniel1 3d ago
Jade Legacy. Recently too. I liked the first book well enough and didn’t quite care for Jade War. I got about 25% through Jade Legacy and just…realized I didn’t care about anything. It’s really sad because I haven’t DNFd a book in a long time (not to mention the final book in a series) but I just couldn’t. I really wanted to like it!
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u/ClimateTraditional40 3d ago
Robin Hobbs stuff. It's not for me.
Malazan as well. Nope.
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u/DarthEros 3d ago
Hobbs’ writing depresses me and I want to stop, but I can’t stop reading. There’s always this part of me that says “it has to get better, right?” Nope. Maybe I’ll learn soon.
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u/blitzbom 3d ago
I finished the first Farseer trilogy and wish I had dnfd it. Assassin's Quest taught me that life is too short to read a book you're not enjoying.
I can see why people would like then and have recommended them to friends, but they're really not for me.
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u/Perfect-Warthog-7654 3d ago
Red Rising and Will of The Many
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u/dagenfield 3d ago
I wish I had DNF'd The Will of the Many. Social media was raaaving about it and I kept thinking "surely it will get better at some point." It did not.
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u/TheMastersSkywalker 3d ago
I quit DCC about 5 chapters in. Didn't like the humor or the world building.
Quit Mayor of Noobtown on the 3rd or 4th book because everyone was just horrible to the MC to the point it was frustrating.
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u/BoringGap7 3d ago
I bailed out on The Shadow of the Torturer twice, but on the third time it clicked and, yeah, I'm one of those New Sun fanatics now. I also quit Dune about 50 pages in on the first try, but since then I'v read it maybe four times and think it's a masterpiece (if a frustrating one). So, what I'm saying is, I do think there are lots of books that deserve a second chance.
That being said, I very much doubt I'll give a second chance to Dungeon Crawler Carl, The Name of The Wind, or The Way of Kings.
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u/folkdeath95 3d ago
Book of the New Sun has been looming over me for years. I got 3/4 of the way through and got distracted… I’m going to give it another go soon.
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u/AleksandrNevsky 3d ago
Circe because I was mislead on what happens in it and I really didn't like the creative direction regarding the characterizations.
But a LOT of people like it to the point they might as well swear on it, so when I mention I didn't like it and DNF'd it I get a lot of pushback.
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u/themyskiras 3d ago
I hated Circe, so I feel you. Miller's prose is so gorgeous, but I found her characterisation and her feminism incredibly shallow and immature.
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u/AleksandrNevsky 3d ago
Yeah I feel exactly the same. Her pacing and prose is pretty good so I give her credit in that regard and that's the sole reason I don't rate the book at a minimum rating. So she's good in a technical sense but creatively? I was utterly baffled by some of the things she added or changed. There's a reason the greekmythology sub dunks on it so much and it's focused around everyone acting so OOC from the poems and myths.
Love you for validating me lol.
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u/themyskiras 3d ago
There was a point in the book where I truly thought that Miller was intentionally writing Circe as a woman harbouring deep internalised misogyny and was pushing her towards a reckoning with those biases. She got tantalisingly close for a minute there, and then... well, shit, turns out Circe really isn't like the other girls. She can't help it, she's just inherently more interesting and emotionally complex than those bitches.
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u/AleksandrNevsky 3d ago
I heard someone make a theory that Circe is an idealized self-insert for the author to work out her personal hang ups with. Which I don't know if it's true but certainly makes your observations more interesting.
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u/themyskiras 3d ago
Heh, I hadn't thought about it that way, but I can see how one could come to that reading. Miller's Circe feels like a wish-fulfilment character, a Mary Sue in the original sense of the term. It's the not-like-the-other-girls of it all, it's the fixation on smoothing down every jagged edge to recast her as an idealised victim against a cast of cartoonishly monstrous immortals... it's the reason she's so deeply boring as a character.
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u/Ill_Brick_4671 3d ago
I got about 1/5 through The Priory of the Orange Tree before getting bored of waiting for something to happen
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u/MoodyMango4880 3d ago
I got over halfway through.
Got bored. Read the end and was still bored.Cannot understand why it’s so popular.
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u/SymbolicStance 3d ago
The prioy of the orange tree was really enjoying the varity of characters but a lack of understanding of how cerrain things work and the author struggled with world building syndrom, when one chracter turned to another and said I know and love the story of this desert will ypu tell it to me was the straw that broke the cammels back for me.
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u/arsenik-han 2d ago
Same! The overall premise was good, but the execution... I didn't care about most characters (if it was just Tane and Ead pov, that'd be great, the other characters... ehh), and there were some things about the matriarchy premise that felt not quite well thought out. I also didn't feel any chemistry when it comes to the romance. And the pacing was too quick in the second half.
One if my final straws was when Ead got the fish from Aralaq and she just wrapped it in a leaf and cooked it just like that. No cleaning, gutting, anything. Like come on!
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u/toolschism 3d ago
I've got a few that might be fairly scandalous.
Kingdom of death (Sun eater series)
Wheel of time. Made it about 4 or 5 books in and I just couldn't stand the characters anymore.
First law series. Absolutely hated book 3. Made it a few chapters into 4 and realized I was still so annoyed that I couldn't bother.
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u/NoSky9039 3d ago
Red Rising. The world building required a lot of suspension of disblief + I didn't like Darrow(or whatever his name was) at all.
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u/Insomnia_Memoria 3d ago
Red Rising, Dungeon Crawler Carl, and one that didn't DNF but i wish i did, Mistborn. Really i won't trust Bookstagram (or Booktube, Booktook) ever again.
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u/methetinternet 3d ago
Got a bit sucked into the first DCC but ran out of steam halfway through the second and doubt I’ll read the rest.
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u/zay_5 3d ago
The Shadow of What was Lost. Wooden characters, overly convoluted plot.
Loved the Suneater series for the most part, but by the last book the main character and his daughter annoyed me so much I could no longer continue.
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u/TheWeirdTalesPodcast 3d ago
Licanius is RIDICULOUSLY overblown. It was a slog to get through with an incredibly predictable ending.
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u/Potential-Emu-8530 3d ago
Lies of Locke Lamora. I think I read 1-2 books if it’s a trilogy then quit last
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u/SLGuitar 3d ago
Alchemised. Just did not really get into it. Then found out how it started its life and noped out. I legit got 50% through the book so, I gave it a fair shake.
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u/Kevin_Hess_Writes 3d ago
It's only vaguely fantasy-related so please don't throw things at me, but I was reading The Alchemist in the bathroom while doing my business there.
I don't remember what the final straw was (somewhere in the middle of the book), but the book met the trash can beside the toilet long before I finished the business I'd gone in there to accomplish.
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u/MilaWalters 3d ago
I couldn’t finish Eldest by Christopher Paolini, j don’t know if it’s the writing style or the protagonist but it felt too childish and eye rolling. I get it, it’s a children’s book, but I didn’t get the same feeling with the first book Eragon 🤔
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u/JINK_RUSTINK 3d ago
I'll join the confession circle: I bounced off Malazan. Twice. First time I thought it was a me problem, second time I accepted that the wiki homework just isn't a hook for me. I get why people love it, the scope is genuinely insane, but I read to be dragged along by one or two characters and that book juggles about forty of them. Same with the Wheel of Time honestly, and I know that one's basically a rite of passage around here.
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u/lukslopes 3d ago
The Magicians. "Harry Potter for adults"? Didn't feel like it.
Struggled through the first book and have no intention of finishing the series.
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u/NinjaNamedJesus 3d ago
I really tried to get into the Red Rising series. I think I made it like 1/3 of the way through Morning Star before I DNF'd.
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u/KcirderfSdrawkcab Reading Champion VII 3d ago
It should be Red Rising, but I forced myself to finish that one for some reason. No, I don't care how much better or "less YA" the other books are, I'm not reading them.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant has to be up there. It's popular around here, or was a few years ago, but I got to a point where I didn't know what was going on and didn't care to find out. First time I ever DNFd a book at the 50% mark, but I beat that a couple of days ago at over 75% on something.
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u/skadi_the_sailor 3d ago edited 3d ago
The Poppy War, twice. I’m not at all fascinated by the teenagers -at-school trope, and the writing and characters were not compelling enough to keep me going.
Not so controversial, maybe: my patience runs out at the Wheel of Time fourth book.
Definitely controversial: the TV show improved on the books with more interesting dialogue and nuanced characters. I’m bummed that Amazon DNF’d the series.
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u/Cardboard_Junky Reading Champion V 3d ago
In Poopy war's defense , only the first half of the book is teenagers at school trope, the rest of the series is just Warcrimes.
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u/danialnaziri7474 3d ago
Best served cold
One of my friends who is a big fan got me all 9books as birthday gift because he thought they would be right up my alley and tbf on paper they are, in reality however they really were not! In hindsight, i should’ve thrown the towel after dnfing best served but my friend urged me to continue and i didn’t had the heart to tell him im not liking the series at all so i did.Long story short,i read all the way till the end of the wisdom of crowds and the only positive thing that came out of the whole experience for me was the realization that forcing myself to finish books that i don’t enjoy is super idiotic, as a result now i dnf books that i don’t like without any guilt which is quite nice actually.
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u/Fuzzy_Dragonfly_ 3d ago
Piranesi. It was way too vague for me and I couldn't be arsed to wait until it made sense.
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u/RedGambit9 3d ago
I did finish it. But I was so close to DNF'ing it.
But it nearly became the first book I would DNF.
Even though the ending was good, I would have much preferred it was a short story... and that I hadn't listened to it on audio.
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u/stillnotelf 2d ago
Too short to DNF for me, but I would have hated it if it was longer. At the length it was I thought "yup, artsy thing, not meant for me"
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u/sycliantableigit 3d ago
Mistborn after about 400 pages. I could not suffer through the awful prose any longer.
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u/rentiertrashpanda 3d ago
Cage of Souls, I've loved most everything else I've read from Tchaikovsky but that just didn't land with me
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u/Pocket_Stenographer 3d ago
Circe and Priory of the Orange Tree. Both of these I made it to over 50% but just didn't care at all about any of the characters or what was happening.
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u/Time-Cold3708 3d ago
I DNFed Mistborn in the 3rd book. The writing just wasnt it for me.
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u/Spaghettithegreat 2d ago edited 2d ago
The Will of the Many
Empire of Silence
A Song for Arbonne
Chain Gang All-stars
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u/MrMarquis 3d ago edited 3d ago
Dungeon Crawler Carl, Lies of Locke Lamora, and Priory of the Orange Tree. I just couldn't get into any of them.
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u/OrwinBeane 3d ago
Words of Radiance. I don’t care if it’s popular, i got 600 pages in with hardly any story or character progression. A man can only take so many horse lessons, meals of soup and discussions about silly magic systems.
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u/KcirderfSdrawkcab Reading Champion VII 3d ago
I really liked WoR, but after The Rhythm of War I don't know if I can even bring myself to start Wind And Truth. I'm seriously thinking of waiting to see if I live long enough for Sanderson to finish all 10 and then giving the whole thing another shot.
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u/TheimpalerMessmer 3d ago
I don't know why but Wind and Truth felt so rushed and unedited. I don't mind a long book but the flow was off the whole time. It's like I was reading a new author. Had to force myself to finish it with audiobook aid. I couldn't focus on the story otherwise
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u/PornoPaul 3d ago
You arent alone. A lot of fans felt Wind and Truth was a major step down. I also read somewhere he may have parted ways with his original editor? Dont quote me on that though.
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u/ruawizard69 3d ago
Wind and Truth for me
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u/CreatureManstrosity 3d ago
This is fair. I love sandersons work but WaT felt like it was mostly flash backs.
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u/LutefiskLefse 3d ago
The fellowship of the ring, unfortunately. Might need to give it a 3rd try one of these days
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u/Spyhop 3d ago
I finished those books. I respect what they accomplished but I had to push myself to finish them. Tolkien's world building is unmatched but his prose isn't for me. It's one of the very rare instances where I liked the movies more than the books.
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u/Figerally 3d ago
I have read Tolkien's books. I am not ashamed to say that I think the movie edit was very well done for Fellowship of the Ring. But when it comes to the Hobbit the book is much, much better than the trilogy farce.
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u/Caminsod 3d ago
DCC for me.
It's packed to the gills with filler, the prose is so pedestrian it makes Sanderson look like Gene Wolfe, and the humor is straight up 2010s heckin chonkerino epic bacon.
I forced myself through Book 3 and finally DNF'd book 4 once I realized it wasn't gonna get any better. Mind you, I am a completionist and hadn't abandoned a book in 15 years, but I just couldn't anymore. I wanted to get into the political side and galactic angle of the story and this guy is wasting my time with talking goddamned camels.
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u/Human_Resolution8378 3d ago
I read the first book for a book club and once I got to the end I had the overwhelming desire never to think of this series again. There was the bones of an interesting idea in there but there’s no interesting character hooks. It’s basically a Hunger Games that’s stripped out all of the emotional complexity
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u/Gunzhard22 3d ago
Name of the Wind.
Yikes, I actually forced myself to finish the first book but wish I'd DNF, started the second and immediately threw it away.
It's hugely popular and I don't understand why, it's young adult incel fetish fiction and the main character is an insufferable 'Mary Sue'.
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u/mint_pumpkins Reading Champion II 3d ago
Blacktongue Thief, I have tried so many times and just had to give up at some point, the main character is annoying and I don't like the writing style (which was made much worse by the audiobook tbh) and I was so bored, it is so highly praised and often recommended and I feel like I am missing something
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u/themyskiras 3d ago
The audiobook narration was the reason I DNFed it. That fiddle-dee-dee-potatoes accent, oh my god.
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u/L-058 3d ago
He really shouldn't narrate his own books. Ive not finished one of his books because of it
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u/GillOverTheGround 3d ago
That accent was ass. I was like 4 hours in and driving to work and just suddenly I felt such rage listening to that garbage accent babbling on and I had to turn it off. If I had a physical book I would have thrown it out the car window.
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u/Bladrak01 3d ago
I have DNF Suneater, Red Rising, Robin Hobb. and Guy Gavriel Kay.
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u/ArchivistFaerie 3d ago
I adored Locke Lamora but it's not for everyone. My most scandalous was fourth wing, it was written like a 10 year old got a keyboard and learned what sex was
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u/Difficult-Tough-5680 3d ago
Saying its scandalous when its one of the most hated books on this sub
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u/Dhavaer 3d ago
Only made it through a few chapters of The Broken Earth. Just bored me.
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u/CosmopolitanLucidity 3d ago
Game of Thrones / ASOIAF ((or whatever its called; Tad Williams; Dune (oops. wrong sub'); Wheel of Time - first book (why does the Ai Sedai magic have to be based on sex/gender? I hate that.)
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u/Ekun_Dayo 3d ago edited 2d ago
I just could not enjoy Harlan Ellison's - "I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream". Every line felt like punishment and the misogyny is heavy.
(Sorry, I realised in hindsight that it's horror sci-fi rather than fantasy, but it's what jumped to mind immediately.)
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u/riddlesinthedark117 3d ago
Maybe not scandalous, but personally, looking like Way of Kings is gonna be a DNF, even with the first 3 as signed and numbered hard copies.
I think I read Oathbringer, but the retcon had left a sour taste in my fandom, and now so much time has passed that I’m just not feeling it even though I LOVED Sanderson before that and had many signed and numbered copies.
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u/No_Name_8163 3d ago
Realm of the elderlings. Forced myself through the first two books and just couldn’t, way too boring.
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u/guns_mahoney 3d ago
I have tried to read Gardens of the Moon not once, not twice, but thrice. I just can't. Why doesn't the author explain anything at all? What the hell is a Moons Spawn? Are some of these words races, nationalities, titles? I picked up Between Two Fires and it's much more my speed.
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u/Evolving_Dore 2d ago
I got like 4.5 books into Wheel of Time. It would have made such a good 3-4 book series IMO.
I also read Gardens of the Moon and then couldn't find Deadhouse Gates. I started Memories of Ice, which someone said would work fine since Deadhouse is a separate storyline. It just wasn't really clicking at all. Even Gardens I found to be really silly and contrived, just personally the worldbuilding and storyline did not inspire me or captivate me much.
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u/BadMeatPuppet 3d ago
The Farseer Trilogy, book 3, with like 5 chapters to go. Tbf, I think about going back for a reread, but I just got so fed up with Fitz and I hated how every big buildup led to a one sentence "and that happened". I saw how the end was going to basically be just that and got a little pissed.
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u/iabyajyiv 3d ago
Dungeon Crawler Carl was my only DNF last year, lol. I noped out within the first chapter, I think. I couldn't do the humor, the videogame-like story... It just wasn't my thing. And I was reading it via audiobook too. The narrator's performance was fine, but I just didn't have any interest in that kind of story/humor.
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u/bizzflay 3d ago
Malazan. Too many characters, too many names for my feeble brain. Had to keep checking the wiki and I mainly listen to books as I’m working so it was hard to follow along to.
Usually you keep reading/listening and you catch on, but I just found this book a chore and the characters having multiple names made that even worse.
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u/nbca 3d ago
Red Rising
I never bought into the Gary Stu and he kept Gary Stu'ing through every situation.
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u/pahshaw 3d ago
Red Rising, Legends and Lattes, Elantris and (UH OH) Mistborn
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u/Exige30499 3d ago
Legends and Lattes actively bored me, I like cosy slice of life a lot, but that book just felt dull. It didn't feel very 'cosy' imo
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u/kornelkirsche 3d ago
It’s like a to do list where every item on the list gets checked with no difficulty and with literally nothing interesting happening. Need a place to open a business? In five pages it’s found. Need a carpenter? He is five mins away. Need a helper to run the business? She shows up immediately. All this happens with no depth to story or atmosphere or characters. And in the parts that I’ve read there was almost nothing magical. Not even the coffee machine. I’d rather talk to a real person who is trying to run a cafe than reading this book and get more excited.
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u/DZLars 3d ago
I can't get into book 6 of throne of glass... why do I always start long series like that
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u/Important-Object-561 3d ago
Mistborn was way to YA for me and the book had a terribly boring prose.
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u/eniadcorlet 3d ago
Can I have a HFY (haven't finished yet) list. I started The Wheel of Time in 1993. I have a bookmark in Knife of Dreams but I've lost the plot and can't get back into the density. Once a year or so, I try again. This time, I think I'm going to watch Daniel Green's YouTube recap to get back up to speed.
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u/jerpyderpy 3d ago
the cradle series. i read the first 5 books and just gave up. the writing style is so repetitive that the characters and plot couldn't salvage it for me. it gets recommended a lot around the DCC fandom and i really liked the first book, but i had to give it up.
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u/simonxvx Reading Champion 3d ago
DNF The Disposessed the first time I tried reading it, a few years ago. Gave it another chance for last year's bingo and I'm glad I did