Worst SFF Book Ever

[J-WO]

Very true, Conn. And while I did not like the book as a whole (and specifically Jubal in preacher mode), Stranger in a Strange Land is far from being a bad book.

Wow, big bear, I'm like the mirror opposite to you on this matter! Belloc to your Indiana Jones!

 

[AE35Unit]

I'm sure there are plenty of good words for it...









...but this is a family forum.

Lol i nearly choked on me coffee!

 

[Clansman]

Lol i nearly choked on me coffee!

Me too!

 

[williamjm]

Also does anyone have a clue what book Chris means ? I'll refresh yer memory in case you don't wanna look for it .

I think he's probably referring to The Eye of Argon

I'd also like to add A Case of Conscience by James Blish altho thats not realllx fair. I'm told that its a good book but I just didn't get it.

I've not read A Case of Conscience, but I have read Blish's Cities in Flight and while I wouldn't say it was the worst book I've ever read (the premise and some of the ideas he explores are actually quite interesting) it is one of the few I couldn't finish - the characterisation was appalling and it had an infuriating habit of having what seemed like the most interesting events happening off-screen.

I'm not sure what the worst book I've ever read is, out of recent reads I'd nominate The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks, the writing, characterisation and dialogue were all very weak and there was an annoyingly large amount of exposition mainly consisting of some of the most cliched SF ideas about Evil Governments and Surveillance Societies being presented as great insights.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_argon

 

[AE35Unit]

I've not read A Case of Conscience,

That book is like one of those LPs, you know the ones. Side A is really good. Then you flip it over and its like meh!

 

[Joey Sixknuckles]

I'm not sure what the worst book I've ever read is, out of recent reads I'd nominate The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks, the writing, characterisation and dialogue were all very weak and there was an annoyingly large amount of exposition mainly consisting of some of the most cliched SF ideas about Evil Governments and Surveillance Societies being presented as great insights.

That was recommended to me by family, friends, and partner and I really don't understand what they were raving about, it's a dire book for the reasons you give, and others.

 

[Fried Egg]

For what it's worth, I loved the "Case of Conscience" first time I read it. It does have a chapter or two were the plot seems to go off the rails and get a bit weird but it's actually very important to the story showing the corrupting effect that growing up on earth has on the alien and how effectively he adapts to it, and thoroughly revels in it.

 

[AE35Unit]

For what it's worth, I loved the "Case of Conscience" first time I read it. It does have a chapter or two were the plot seems to go off the rails and get a bit weird but it's actually very important to the story showing the corrupting effect that growing up on earth has on the alien and how effectively he adapts to it, and thoroughly revels in it.

The first half was good apart from those passages where Ruiz is quoting from some boring book,was so glad when that bit was past. Then the second part just bored me with its politics and religion. I'm kinda anti both subjects in fiction!

 

[Joey Sixknuckles]

Then the second part just bored me with its politics and religion. I'm kinda anti both subjects in fiction!

I agree that overt shoehorning of an author's hobbyhorses can be offputting, but you are in danger of excluding 95% of scifi and fantasy at that rate.

 

[AE35Unit]

I agree that overt shoehorning of an author's hobbyhorses can be offputting, but you are in danger of excluding 95% of scifi and fantasy at that rate.

Well that leaves 5% of the good stuff for me then
Actually I've read an awful lot of SF and found little to be annoyed about on that score.

 

[j d worthington]

I agree that overt shoehorning of an author's hobbyhorses can be offputting, but you are in danger of excluding 95% of scifi and fantasy at that rate.

Or, if you exclude them in one form or another (not always the obvious ones), darned near all literature, period!

EDIT: Larry... when you say you're against both of these... um, Stranger in a Strange Land is largely about both, wouldn't you say?

 

[Moonbat]

well, before Saturday I would have had trouble naming a truly awful Sci-fi book, but now, post Saturday, I can confidently say that the worst Sci-fi book/story I have ever read/bought is.......

Short Stories - Fantasy, Time Travel, Sci Fi, Adventure and More by William Neve
Short Stories - Fantasy, Time Travel, Sci Fi, Adventure and More: Amazon.co.uk: William Neve: Books

I made the mistake of buying this from Amazon (without knowing what is was like) and OMG, it is so bad I'm actually lost for words to descibe how bad it is. Trust me when I say that even I could have written (and have written) better stories than these. It must be self-published because it isn't even really writing it is cetainly not professional, its just a list of things that happened. The characters are nothing more than names and sexes, the story is just laughable.

I am deadly serious, I think that you will struggle to find a published Sci-fi story worse than William Neve's Dark Matter.

 

[AE35Unit]

Or, if you exclude them in one form or another (not always the obvious ones), darned near all literature, period!

EDIT: Larry... when you say you're against both of these... um, Stranger in a Strange Land is largely about both, wouldn't you say?

I don't know,maybe its the way its used but I enjoyed Stranger but didn't enjoy Foundation as much. But in Case of Conscience it comes across as if written by a priest,a bible thumper.

 

[Fried Egg]

I don't know,maybe its the way its used but I enjoyed Stranger but didn't enjoy Foundation as much. But in Case of Conscience it comes across as if written by a priest,a bible thumper.

I don't think Blish was religous, not particularly so anyway. Obviously the protagonist was very religous and the premise of the book was to explore the impact that discovering sentient alien life would have on religous beliefs but I don't think it came across as particularly pro or anti religion. The ending itself was highly ambiguous and could be interpreted in different ways.

 

[AE35Unit]

The ending itself was highly ambiguous and could be interpreted in different ways.

I didn't get that far
But yea the character was a religious nut and I was more interested in the other guy,the one who got spiked. And also the fauna and flora of that world was what made me get the book but Blish never explored that. He was too interested in people, at least in that book.

 

[j d worthington]

I don't think Blish was religous, not particularly so anyway. Obviously the protagonist was very religous and the premise of the book was to explore the impact that discovering sentient alien life would have on religous beliefs but I don't think it came across as particularly pro or anti religion. The ending itself was highly ambiguous and could be interpreted in different ways.

I didn't get that far
But yea the character was a religious nut and I was more interested in the other guy,the one who got spiked. And also the fauna and flora of that world was what made me get the book but Blish never explored that. He was too interested in people, at least in that book.

Yes, that ambiguity -- especially given the nature of the book -- was a very difficult line to walk, and I think he did it quite well. In itself, it opens up the discussion of the reasons why such ideas as those proposed by religion -- especially when they come into direct conflict with the predominating scientific view -- remain viable for so many intelligent, reasonable people. And Ramon's own role in that ending is, I would argue, handled at the virtuoso level, as either way, he loses an enormous amount of the core of his world. I think Blish managed very well to have the novel play on the level of myth, social commentary, naturalistic novel, and hard sf, and -- as I've said before -- with each reading, my estimation of the novel grows as I become increasingly impressed with how tightly-knit it all really is.

Yes, the focus is on characters here -- especially conflicting views of the world and reality; which is a prominent theme in sf, really. This one is a very good example of sf as what it has so often been claimed to be: "the literature of ideas". For instance (and this is part of what I refer to when I talk about Blish walking that tightrope): the experiences and resulting corruption of Egtverchi can be seen as the effects of either the physical or the moral/spiritual plane on the young Lithian, something which once more calls into question Ramon's views of the Lithians themselves. Are they without souls on Lithia? If so, does Egtverchi acquire one in becoming an inhabitant of Earth, a quasi-human? Do the Lithians live in a "state of grace"? And what about the implications of their apparently never having developed (or feeling the need to develop) mystical or religious views or understandings of the world -- something which is almost inevitable in the development of a species, as any species is going to begin with a lack of knowledge on how the universe works, gaining that knowledge by a slow and painful process of trial and error, and in the meantime still likely to be driven by a need to understand and derive patterns from their experience, simply in order to create a psychologically and emotionally fulfilling existence -- something the Lithians would seem to refute... but do they? Or are they what some creationists claim for the fossil record: a "red herring" thrown up by "the Enemy"?

And so on....

Incidentally, Larry, as Blish makes explicit in the novel, the "boring book" is one of the 20th centuries' more controversial novels, James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, a novel that itself challenges nearly all conceptions of what a work of fiction "should be". I don't know if Blish had such in mind, but A Case of Conscience might well be seen as an instance of a novel challenging -- in more than one sense of the word -- what a work of science fiction should (or can) be....

 

[AE35Unit]

It just left me cold JD,the parts where he's reading the Joyce book just seemed pointless to me,i was interested in what the book was about and where it was set,and the dilemma of examining and possibly destroying a world,but it failed to excite me. Am I wrong in not being able to get it? I always feel that I've failed somehow when I can't get into a book that others rate highly, and it kind of plays on my mind.

 

[J-Sun]

I always feel that I've failed somehow when I can't get into a book that others rate highly, and it kind of plays on my mind.

FWIW (probably not much) I didn't like it either.

I don't think there's a book around that someone doesn't rate highly and not a book around that someone doesn't dislike. Sometimes you're in the majority; sometimes the minority. I wouldn't worry about it.

Besides, I suspect that book is a "classic" in the usual sense of the word - that everyone talks about and few people actually read. (We all obviously have, but I think that alone puts us in the minority. )

 

[j d worthington]

No, Larry, I don't think that's it. I think J-Sun is more on target. As I've said elsewhere, even the greatest of books will leave some people completely cold, either because the subject matter is alienating, the particular technique jars with them, or the particular writer simply lacks something which appeals to them. Besides, you've said before you're not much of one for the philosophical sf novels, and this definitely fits that description.

My own comments on the book simply reflect my admiration for the book, and my various readings of it -- with the attendant picking up of deeper levels constantly, as my own experience grows, as well as reflecting the impact of things I've read in the interim, and how they help to refashion my views over time.

On the other hand, I seem to be one of the few who actually has some liking for Leiber's The Wanderer, which leaves nearly everyone else cold. Even there, I wouldn't rate it as among his best work; but I do think it has a lot to offer. Nonetheless, my opinion is very much the minority one in any venue I've encountered (despite it having been awarded a Hugo....); yet I am left completely cold by Alexei Panshin's Rite of Passage, which others have praised quite highly, and which won a Nebula award. To me, that one simply feels almost like a "book-by-the-numbers" sort of experiment, with just enough differences to avoid charges of plagiarism being lobbed about....

 

[Fried Egg]

Am I wrong in not being able to get it?

Yes, very wrong. Give yourself fifty lashes!