Worst SFF Book Ever

[JunkMonkey]

Out of perversity I went and started reading The Cosmic Traitor and even for a Perry Rhodan book it is pretty poor. Reads like it was written by a precocious seven year old. Some great crappy writing moments though:

"Marshall appeared to contemplate his own thoughts."

"Levtan was brought before the three traders who regarded him with despise."

 

[BAYLOR]

Out of perversity I went and started reading The Cosmic Traitor and even for a Perry Rhodan book it is pretty poor. Reads like it was written by a precocious seven year old. Some great crappy writing moments though:

"Marshall appeared to contemplate his own thoughts."

"Levtan was brought before the three traders who regarded him with despise."

Atrocious and hilariously funny at the same time

 

[Bick]

I nominate The Twilight of the Vilp by Paul Ableman.

 

[BAYLOR]

I nominate The Twilight of the Vilp by Paul Ableman.

Never heard of it but ,even the title sounds bad.

 

[Elvraie]

I didn't read 'Empress Theresa', by N. Boutin, but watched a very good but long Youtube video about it:

That book sounds absolutely terrible. Improbable situations, wooden, unlikable characters, dire cover artwork etc... The lot.
The review is very entertaining, though.

 

[Pyan]

Never heard of it but ,even the title sounds bad.

No more so than Jack Vance's Servants of the Wankh...

 

[BAYLOR]

There

There were two. I've seen both. (I think - from the reuse of locations and presence of big name star of both Jack Palance only turning up for a couple of minutes at the end of the first - that they were shot back to back.) Neither are good but (from memory) have far less of the misogynistic BDSM slavery than the books - and no Tarns either - just another couple of the era's many routine cheapish Sword & Sorcery / Barbarian films.

Oh MST3K did the sequel!

Egads ! , the movie is actually better than the book !

Which is not saying much !

 

[BAYLOR]

No more so than Jack Vance's Servants of the Wankh...

The title make me laugh !

 

[hitmouse]

The title make me laugh !

The book itself is terrific. Unfortunate title which was changed in the Integral Edition.

 

[BAYLOR]

The book itself is terrific. Unfortunate title which was changed in the Integral Edition.

Not surprising . ive read a few of Vance's books , as a writer , he's one of the greats !

 

[JunkMonkey]

The book itself is terrific. Unfortunate title which was changed in the Integral Edition.

The French just called it Le Wankh:

But as Hitmouse said a terrific book.

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

The French just called it Le Wankh:

But as Hitmouse said a terrific book.

It doesn't help that the creature on the cover is naked.

 

[BAYLOR]

The French just called it Le Wankh:

But as Hitmouse said a terrific book.

Hm, interesting cover

 

[hitmouse]

Is that a Moebius illustration?

 

[JunkMonkey]

Is that a Moebius illustration?

No it's by an artist called Caza who did a lot of SF covers for J'ai Lu, many of them very Moebiusesque:

https://www.ecosia.org/images?q=J%27ai%20lu%20Caza%20#id=8BBC361F3036FE2BB3B46F8E69718FE2C3A99DA5

 

[Danny McG]

But wasn't there a book that was so badly written that copies were taken to conventions, and there was a challenge; open the book anywhere, and read it aloud until you couldn't continue for laughing; good, trained straight-men could manage eight or ten paragraphs, nobody could do a chapter

Did anyone ever find out the details of this mystery book that was mentioned in 2009?

 

[BAYLOR]

The French just called it Le Wankh:

But as Hitmouse said a terrific book.

He looks a it like The Blue Hulk.

 

[Harpo]

Without browsing through all eleven pages of this thread, I can’t tell if the word Gor has been mentioned, but the search box tells me there are no mentions of author John Norman.
When I was a foolish kid I discovered his book series and read maybe a dozen or so of them. I can’t remember any particular one being “the worst”, but I’d bet money on the whole series being the worst book series in SFF.

Gor - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

And yes, he is still publishing new ones, according to the list on the wiki page

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

Without browsing through all eleven pages of this thread, I can’t tell if the word Gor has been mentioned....

It must have been. Its impossible to have a discussion about bad books without including it.

 

[BAYLOR]

Without browsing through all eleven pages of this thread, I can’t tell if the word Gor has been mentioned, but the search box tells me there are no mentions of author John Norman.
When I was a foolish kid I discovered his book series and read maybe a dozen or so of them. I can’t remember any particular one being “the worst”, but I’d bet money on the whole series being the worst book series in SFF.

Gor - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

And yes, he is still publishing new ones, according to the list on the wiki page

It must have been. Its impossible to have a discussion about bad books without including it.

Someday, in the future , John Norman will be counted as one of the literary greats of all time. Why do I say this? Because I keep thinking of a certain bus scene in Star Trek The Voyage Home in which Kirk and Spock are having a talk about the giants of literature, Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robins.