|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 7:49 pm
I love books. I bet you do too. But when it comes to loving something, you invariably find something within the genre to hate. Movie aficionados all hate Battlefield Earth, after all. And as fun as it is to talk about something you love and encourage others to seek it out and enjoy it too... let's face it, hatin' on things is just more fun.
Welcome to the UnderGaia Anti-Book Club, the place to go specifically to gripe about books or aspects of books that make you want to fling that hunk of paper across the room in rage.
Rules.
I'm not kidding you guys, this s**t is serious.
1. At no point should this become a personal attack on the author or fans of a book. This is a dissection of books, not people. If Sue hates the story of Goldilocks, but Mary absolutely loves it, then Sue cannot and should not attack Mary for having a differing opinion. That's just not cool. Keep it within the bounds of the books, people.
2. Make a point. You cannot simply say "this book is stupid" and leave it at that. Tell us what frustrates you about the book! Dissect it, analyse and critique it. You can still have fun with it -- this isn't a school essay, be as snarky, informal and rambling as you like! -- but actually make an argument of some sort, don't just proclaim a random statement and then expect us all to accept it.
3. Don't limit yourself to just books as a whole. Maybe you liked the book for the most part, but there was one character you just want to rip the face off, or a plot twist that made you rage. So come in and complain!
4. Other written mediums welcome. Don't like a comic book? A manga (but no animes)? An online blog? Our door is always open to your raegfaise!
5. No touching Twilight. At all. Inb4; it's superfabuloussparklespecialawesome/a steaming turd. As a love-it-or-hate-it phenomenon, the criticism and praise has been done to death on every corner of the internet, and even in parts of our own little guild. Be adventurous and get pissed over a new book, people!
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 5:40 pm
Great CLub idea! I will make the first official HAET post.
Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher. UUUUGGGHHHH.
Admittedly I did not finish it, but I couldn't. It was so....generic. So......boring. And it took itself way too seriously.
The characters were forgettable, the plot a copy paste of any coming to age novel, and the worst part? The back made it sound awesome and interesting.
The only thing I liked about it was the author bio in the back: "......he lives in independence MS, with his wife, kids and ferocious guard dog."
Its as if he was frightened someone would come after him after reading it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 10:31 pm
Adharra Its as if he was frightened someone would come after him after reading it.
xD.
For my seething hatred, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to Eragon. Adharra, if you really want a generic coming-of-age story woven Frankenstein-esque from the corpses over other more worthy titles, with not a scrap of originality to it's name with a pretentious delivery, than look no further. Really.
The first book was written and published when the author was a mere sixteen-years-old. Which is amazing work for one so young, but doesn't make it any more awesome. Especially if you consider your own work at that tender age.
The terribly named Drago- oh, sorry, wrong starting letter. Ahem, Eragon, with a name that absolutely does not in any way poorly foreshadow the whole theme of the book, is, believe it or not, an orphan. Who lives on a farm. In Redneckville, Backwater States. Skip forward over unhelpful exposition, and small town drama. Eragon's cousin is in love but the father of his love doesn't approve. Tensions. Eragon is bad a** but still young and naive.
Orcs Urgal attack!
Eragon arrives too late to save the day, because as the untrained child he is, he really could have made a difference. Believing his family is dead, he swears vengeance. The local Unassuming Old Man flees the ruined village with the RaegWangst Eragon, and it is eventually revealed that he's actually an old and powerful warrior of a bygone age who trains Revenge Driven Boy Hero in the art of battle.
I've never seen that done before!
The story was so confusing, and yet at the same time unremarkable, that I can't even recall what happens next, except that a whole slew of characters with names that are impossible to pronounce are introduced, Unassuming Old Man is killed because Eragon is an idiot, one the main characters is revealed to be the son of the Big Bad (yes really) and the Obligatory Heterosexual Love Interest is annoying as all hell. And as always, the most likeable characters are either killed off or are rarely mentioned. The story doesn't so much flow as stumble drunkenly, meandering left and right and probably getting where it intended to go, but you can't be sure. Because by the time it does, you just can't be bothered to care anymore.
Mulder x Scully, I'm looking at you here.
In conclusion: I wasted a small portion of my life by indulging in the curiosity to read this book.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2010 3:48 am
This one is not going to make me popular, but Harry Potter is a book which has always irritated me.
Not merely for the formulaic, predictable plot with all the moral subtlety of a rockfall and characters as deep as your average paddling pool, though that would be enough on its own. Nor for the fact that for seven books the same story is recycled over, and over, and over, ad infinitum, with the only variation being how angry or upset Harry gets about his lot in life, and how useless Ron happens to be in the particular plot.
No, the big raison d'etre for my dislike of Harry Potter is a mixture of it's publicity and popularity, and the consequences for other books. People have said that it got children to read, which I agree is a good thing, but it only got children to read Harry Potter. At the time it came out I was working in a bookshop, and since I read a lot I read many of the other books coming out at the time.
Among those were books which were far more deserving of the adoration and worship that Harry Potter received. Garth Nix's Abhorsen series was, and is, absolutely stunning and far exceeds Harry Potter in quality while still being as suitable for kids. Darren Shan created a nice selection of easy reads for children, with a reasonable story to go with them. The Edge Chronicles by Riddell and Stewart are a particular love of mine, and there were many others.
Yet how many of the rabid little Harry Potter maniacs so much as glanced outside their blinkered view to look at any of these others? If the publicity had been a little less manic then maybe Harry Potter really would have got more children reading, and reading good books rather than cheap mythology knockoffs tied together with the Famous Five books. There is not a single original concept in the entire series.
And then, when I began to recover from my bitterness on behalf of the books which were neglected in favour of the Potter, an announcement went out in order to try and drum up a little more publicity for them. The announcement, I'm sure everyone is aware, was that one particular character was gay.
Now, this character's sexuality in no way impacted on the books. It was completely irrelevant. If the character had been given a little more development (for that matter if any of the characters had a little genuine depth and development) then it may have been interesting to know, but since the character was a cardboard-cutout wise father figure/powerful benefactor archetype with no greater substance than that it really didn't matter at all. Why, then, was this announcement made? Even worse, why was this considered important enough to then make newspaper headlines?
It feels good to get all that off my chest.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 5:27 pm
boneyard blues Adharra Its as if he was frightened someone would come after him after reading it.
xD.
For my seething hatred, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to Eragon. Adharra, if you really want a generic coming-of-age story woven Frankenstein-esque from the corpses over other more worthy titles, with not a scrap of originality to it's name with a pretentious delivery, than look no further. Really.That came out when I was ten I think (********, is that book 8 years old already?!) ...I read it then and thought it was awesome XD But then again, when I was ten I thought Yu-Gi-Oh was a sophiticated card game and that katsup was a food group. Also, I bet you did not know that the author got it published because his parents work in a publishing company? XD
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:19 pm
Adharra Also, I bet you did not know that the author got it published because his parents work in a publishing company? XD Really? I never heard that. I thought it was a small desperate publisher that was hoping for another Potter. I heard that later when some hot shot in the publishing world stumbled upon it, did it get all the popularity and hit the "Main street". Though it would explain why the bad writing was allowed. Seriously as soon as Arya arrived in the book, I thought "I wouldn't mind if her throat got cut". My feelings for the cardboard cut of his once upon time crush are the same. Though...TV tropes makes a better argument for my hatred of the series.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:59 pm
Antique Whisper Adharra Also, I bet you did not know that the author got it published because his parents work in a publishing company? XD Really? I never heard that. I thought it was a small desperate publisher that was hoping for another Potter. I heard that later when some hot shot in the publishing world stumbled upon it, did it get all the popularity and hit the "Main street". Though it would explain why the bad writing was allowed. Seriously as soon as Arya arrived in the book, I thought "I wouldn't mind if her throat got cut". My feelings for the cardboard cut of his once upon time crush are the same. Though...TV tropes makes a better argument for my hatred of the series. Their synopsis of the series sounds exactly like Star Wars...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 10:54 pm
Adharra boneyard blues Adharra Its as if he was frightened someone would come after him after reading it.
xD.
For my seething hatred, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to Eragon. Adharra, if you really want a generic coming-of-age story woven Frankenstein-esque from the corpses over other more worthy titles, with not a scrap of originality to it's name with a pretentious delivery, than look no further. Really.That came out when I was ten I think (********, is that book 8 years old already?!) ...I read it then and thought it was awesome XD But then again, when I was ten I thought Yu-Gi-Oh was a sophiticated card game and that katsup was a food group. Also, I bet you did not know that the author got it published because his parents work in a publishing company? XD Yep, I was aware of that.
:T.
@lapus
I'm a fan of the Harry Potter series, but I feel that there was always a shift in the series that kept it from being SUPERMEGAAWSM. The beginning of the series was fresh, fun, fast-paced and a good read, but the actual language was sloppy. As Rowling became a better writer, though, the series degenerated. It became more of a trial to read, and by the end I was just wanting to get it over with.
I didn't know it came out at the same time as the Old Kingdom Trilogy, but that explains why it's so overlooked for such a brilliant series.
Except you, the character of Lirael, and your stupid whiny hopelessness that makes me want to punch you in the throat. Get the ******** over yourself and get on with the plot. HSKJGSDHGF I HATE YOU.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
