
Prince of Thorns / Mark Lawrence
It was on my wishlist for ages and I almost bought it on a couple of occasions. I finally read a sample last year and am happy I was careful. I didn’t like it at all and threw it off the list.
Wool / Hugh Howey
I almost took part in a Read Along and was always very interested in this trilogy. I was sure that I was going to try it eventually. But after too many negative reviews and other more interesting books, I don’t feel like reading it anymore.
Feast of Souls / C. S. Friedman
After being very disappointed by the author’s ‘Black Sun Rising’, I decided that I don’t want to start another of her trilogies.
Swan Song / Robert McCammon
I started reading last year and although it started out interesting and I liked the setting, it never managed to pick up speed and most of the characters just didn’t move on. The ones I liked were trapped for the whole time and the ones on the move were those I didn’t care enough about. I wanted to give it a break & pick it up again, but now I decided that I am just not interested enough.
Wheel of Time / Robert Jordan
I tried. I really did! Twice I started the series and I even got a couple of books in..after someone annoyed me too much & they used too many filler storylines and I had to drop it again. Never again!
The Maze Runner / James Dashner
Also one of the books I almost bought and had sitting on my wishlist for years. That was before there even was a movie. I just didn’t want to read this kind of story anymore after a while and am not keen on it.
Elantris / Brandon Sanderson
Shame on me π ‘Elantris’ was my first ever Sanderson and I did not even finish it. It took years for me to pick up another Sanderson and once I did that, I was hooked! I was playing with the thought of going back and trying ‘Elantris’ again. But now I have to admit, that I don’t care about it anymore. So if there’s ever more books or short stories set in this world, I will just ignore them^^
Magic Lost, Trouble Found / Lisa Shearin
It was high on my wishlist ages ago – that’s why I remember it. But I never got to it in the end and then lost interest. Not what I like to read anymore.
Oh, I feel the same way about Elantris and WoT, although I finished both (but wish I hadn’t). Elantris made be forswear Sanderson, with lazy worldbuilding and terrible, wooden characters… WoT was a messy disaster full of cliches and repetitions that only got worse and worse after the first volume…
Lawrence is somewhere on the far edges of my TBR, but I doubt I will ever get there, unless someone makes me read it π
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Ha, I thought I was the only one who wasn’t into ‘Elantris’.
I am sure there’s lots of better books around than ‘Prince of Thorns’ so that book is sitting there nicely π
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Maze Runner is on my list too (when it goes live). I think I got swept into the hype at the height of the book’s popularity and thought I would check it out. Now that I’m looking at it with a clearer head, I realized I’m really not that interested in the story. I’ve also abandoned the Wheel of Time series. Wasn’t crazy about the first book, and I’ve had years to pick up book two and still haven’t gotten around to it, so I’m starting to doubt it’ll ever happen.
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When I put ‘The Maze Runner’ on my list, I didn’t really know a lot about it, only, that it was popular and dystopian literature. And isn’t there only one girl in the first book?
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I’ve gone back to the Robert Jordan series several times and just can’t do it. I can’t even make myself interested enough to read a synopsis for each book in order to get me to the ones Sanderson wrote! If he hadn’t wrote them, I would have never bothered reading through the first few books of the series.
Though Elantris, I admit, is lovely. I’m planning to revisit it on audio soon.
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I feel you! I picked it up for the second time, because I thought I could get to the Sandersons… but nope. No way I force myself through so much crap before I get there π
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Lawrence is one I was initially interested in, but then decided not to go with after reading part of it too. Just not my thing I guess. Not really interested in Sanderson either, in spite of all the good things I hear.
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It’s good that we have something like free samples nowadays π It probably saved us from so many bad reads haha
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I kind of have the prince of thorns on my tentive wishlist. But it is cheap as a pb and I’ve never bought it haha.
I don’t think I’m ever reading The Wheel of Time either. I’ve heard such blah things about the series as a whole.
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Yep, better stay away! And it’s way too long anyways. Maybe good if you are a binge-reader but if you jump from series to trilogy, back to another series (like me!), it will take you a lifetime to read them all
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That’s a nice list ;). Prince of Thorns was on my radar for a short while but since I find that whole “grimdark” vibe rather off-putting, I don’t think I’ll ever get to it. Sanderson is a general no for me after the Mistborn trilogy, and thankfully Piotrek’s read WoT so I won’t have to! π
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It’s nice to have someone else test the waters first π I have been saved so often from bad books by other bloggers I trust or whose tastes are similar.
I don’t mind grimdark, but ‘Prince of Thorns’ was just ridiculous. The main character was 14 years old I think and doing all those horrible things and I just couldn’t take anything serious. It was very much over the top & unbelievable.
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I actually finished the Thorns trilogy but I felt the same way. The 14 yo MC was just ridiculous. I think this series was the result of when I first started reading book blogs.
Re Feast of Souls cover: I think she is wearing a strapless dress and a robe that has fallen off her shoulders it’s just not well done.
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I HATED Wool and DNFed it. I DNFed The Maze Runner as it was frustrating me but I’m still not quite ready to give up on the idea of it-maybe I should watch the film. I hated the MC in Prince of Thorns and quit reading Magic Lost. It just wasn’t my kind of read though I don’t recall anything really bad about it.
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Looks like I didn’t miss anything there π I remembered that you did not like ‘Wool’ at all and that also made me drop it. No time for bad books π
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I didn’t enjoy the Maze Runner so got no further than the first one.
Wheel of time is a series that I feel I should read for some unfathomable reason but realistically I know I’m never going to.
Lynn π
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Haha π It’s probably only because it’s one of the ‘big’ Fantasy Epics and you kinda feel like you should check it out. But please keep it like that and don’t ever actually get to it π You will be much happier!
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I still want to read Wool, but I will admit that I only want to read it because I’m a knitter and it has “Wool” for a title. I know nothing about the book itself. π
Re Feast of Souls: HOW is that dress/drape staying up?
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LOL, I imagine you being all hype for ‘Wool’ and looking for knitting references and then being disappointed!! Don’t make it happen, it’s a trap!
Now that you say it… I have no clue how the dress is staying on! And what the hell is that cover anyways? What are those things on the side?
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Well… I don’t actually expect any knitting in “Wool”. But I have to at least try it with a title like that! π
My bet is double-sided tape.
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Ah, the Wheel of Time! You summed it up very well: annoying and with too many filler threads (and let’s not go on the subject of the braid-chewing….). I often wonder how I managed to resist for three books!
Wool was another great disappointment: after the first section I gave up and never felt the desire to give it a second chance.
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Was is braid-chewing and skirt-smoothing, right? π
Thank you, this confirms my fear about ‘Wool’ ending up as a disappointment.
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I feel like dystopian fiction has had it’s day and unless there’s a complete overhaul of the genre, I’m really not interested in picking up books like The Maze Runner.
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Agree. And everything seems to be ‘like the Hunger Games’. Whenever there’s a really, really popular book in a certain genres, other authors tend to copy it, instead of using the hype and getting popular with something innovative…
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I still have Wool on my to-read list, although it’s been there an awfully long time for a book that I claim to still want to read. π A friend of mine swears it’s worth the effort. We shall see…
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Fair enough if Prince of thorns isn’t for you! I will admit I couldn’t get into it the first time I tried and ended up loving it (much to my own surprise) but I know it’s not for everyone. Eye of the World is a good call- honestly, I struggled the whole way through that book and hated it- it’s just so info-dumpy and full of pointless filler stories like you said. Yeah I lost interest in Maze Runner too (and I watched the movie and honestly don’t think the plot makes sense) so I kicked that off my tbr too. Great list!
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I thought ‘Prince of Thorns’ would be my kinda book, but I think I immediately struggled with the main characters and that put me off, unfortunately π¦
I wish someone would write a nice summary of the whole ‘Wheel of Time’ series π Even though I won’t pick it up again, I kinda want to know, how it ends.
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Ah that’s a shame, but understandable.
hehehe I understand that π
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I fully intend to finish reading WoT… at some point! I’ve had the sixth book on my shelf for years now. I actually really enjoyed the others so the slog hasn’t set in with it just yet… but there are plenty more to put me off! π haha.
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At least if you make it through them, you get to read the last ones written by Brandon Sanderson and can tell us what we are all missing π
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Exactly! I only discovered Brandon Sanderson because of WoT and now he’s one of my faves… so it does have some amazing upsides! π
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