Anyone else like Rendezvous with Rama but then found the following books to be awful?
The first was such great hard SF. The others were these weird “Catholic incest in space” things that made me quit about halfway through Garden of Rama. Or did I not give them enough of a chance?
To be fair, they were more “shared universe” stories than sequels. Clarke didn’t contribute too much to Rama II and I don’t believe he did anything but allow his name to be used for the later two books (if he was even alive). So it’s sort of like comparing Episode IV to Rogue One – sure they’re in the same setting, but creative teams are almost completely different.
While I understand the sentiment (and I realize that there are a wide range of ages here), I think we have to draw the line at citing our teen and pre-teen selves as arbiters of taste or quality.
I adored the Xanth books when I was in seventh grade… the first three anyway. I also had a couple dozen of John Norman’s Gor books (and thus Boris Vallejo’s spectacular covers) in my bookshelf; a fact that I will vociferously deny as an abominable falsehood if I am ever accused of reading that misogynistic crap.
I’d add anything by RA Salvatore.
Drizzit the Drow books in particular.
I literally bought it after hearing so many recommendations, read the first page, walked over to the trash, and threw it away. True story.
Salvatore, and Drizzt in particular, is just super-basic adolescent power fantasy layered with the feeling of not fitting in. It’s pretty mediocre even for YA pap, but I just can’t get that worked up about it.
Salvatore has nothing, nothing on the terribleness of, for instance, this utter garbage that I got on sale for a penny or something once. Behold the ineffable majesty of the blurb, pulled straight from Google:
The best-selling epic adventure trilogy from one of Australia’s most loved fantasy authors Late one evening, an accident near a ring of stones throws tory Alexander across the vortex of time and space to the Dark Ages. there she meets Prince Maelgwn of Gwynedd and his band of warriors, who initially brand her as a witch and are frightened by her strange appearance. they finally overcome their fears and soon the tales of her adventures, brave deeds and beauty spread across the land. twenty years later, tory Alexander, from the 20th century, has ruled as Queen in 6th century Britain. But dark forces are stirring… tory seeks the advice of the triple Goddess, and the women of the Otherworld send tory through time to Plato’s City of the Golden Gates - Atlantis. Once there tory has to find her own way home, and a cure for the High King’s sickness. In an epic climax, the Shining Ones and the Chosen, who are hiding within the circuits of times, gather to defeat the evil ones and bring about a new age of awareness to the world. Yet again, tory must draw on all of her courage, strength of character and resourcefulness.
Yes, the “novel” itself is edited to roughly the same level of quality.
In my defense, I was feeling like crap and wanted something bad to hate-read myself to sleep. This is so awful that even I barely made it through the first chapter.
Don’t worry, though, I’m sure one of Australia’s best loved fantasy authors scrimped and saved for no more than two weeks for these quality, undoubtedly legitimate reviews.
Clarke died in 2008 and the last Rama book was 1993, so he definitely was still alive. I have no idea how much was his but I don’t think I realized there was a co-author on those until now. It’s not like Clarke was a stranger to casually changing direction after a first book, since he went with the movie version of 2001’s events in the sequels to that.
That sounds suspiciously like the plot of the Outlander books. Which the wife loves and I despise.
Oh lord. Years ago I tried to read the Bio of a Space Tyrant series. I started Vol. 1, “Refugee” and the refugee ship was attacked by space pirates, then the refugee ship was attacked by space pirates, then the refugee ship was attacked by space pirates and then I threw the book away.
The only ones I have fond memories of are Chthon, Phthor, and Race Against Time. I wonder if they are as bad as his fantasy.
I think I also read the Apprentice Adept series, but I can only remember the one book where a man falls in love with a robot lady. Maybe Split Infinity.
I gave a sixth grade book report in front of the class on the Xanth books (it was 3 in a large hardback). I quickly learned to leave all scifi and fantasy books at home and to never bring them to school.
Drizzt, Dragonlance, etc… I read all those and I will not be recommending them to my kids. They were/are so bad. I can only say that I didn’t have the internet and didn’t know there was anything better out there.
I remember liking the Dragonlance books, but then that was nearly 30 years ago. I probably shouldn’t revisit them.
Okay, I am actually reading the Book One in the 25th Anniversary release of the Drizzt books. It has the first three books in them. I won’t say they are spell binding, I have read much worse, but I find myself thinking of playing Baldur’s Gate as I read it, and that keeps me going. I doubt i will continue on to Book Two of the series though.
I remember really liking Macroscope when I read it when I was twelve or something like that; don’t remember why anymore.
I’ll agree on Xanth and Sword of Truth being pretty much irredeemable.
Ulysses was excellent but absurdly dense. I read it in college in a class that covered only that book for the whole term, and I can’t in good conscience recommend reading it without the benefit of that slow pace and someone to point out the nuances as you go along.
But I can say, as someone who read a ridiculous amount of mediocre and bad fantasy as a teenager, the Belgariad and the Dark Elf trilogy are well above average and don’t belong anywhere near this thread (though their sequels certainly do). The DET in particular is a perfectly solid fast-paced adventure/battle story overlaid with themes of finding your own path rather than being determined by genetics or upbringing, which is both resonant for any teenager and also a nice bit of rebellion against the typical fantasy biological determinism of evil trope as discussed in the Atilla thread recently. Just treat it as a self-contained story and forget the character’s overexposure since then, though – the Icewind Dale books are pure amateurish pulp, and the million and one subsequent sequels are pointless wheel-spinning rehashes.
Agreed, but it’s been such a long time I don’t remember the books, just my reaction.
As far as I’m concerned, any time the name Gentry Lee appears next to Arthur C. Clarke on a book, avoid it.
Wait, the lead singer of Rush wrote stuff with Arthur C Clarke?
I might have been a little too harsh on some of the first few (3, 6, 9?) Drizzt and Dragonlance books. They really weren’t too bad, especially for someone who likes D&D. I think I just feel pretty dumb for reading so many of the ones that followed.
Yeah, as I mentioned, my defense is SOLELY for Homeland, Exile, and Sojourn. The rest are eminently skippable. Dragonlance I don’t remember nearly as well, but would tend to agree that the quality dropoff past the initial Weis & Hickman trilogy is severe.
Wrong thread for this, but as a counterpoint to Piers Anthony, I still enjoy Raymond E. Feist’s Krondor books; The Riftwar Saga in particular.