Overrated Books

[anthorn]

The lies of Locke Lamora

Anything by Brooks, Goodkind, Jordan, Erikson

 

[GOLLUM]

I hope these weren't the same people who recommended the Liveship Traders trilogy

No way Jose, one of the few times my intuition has let me down....

 

[AdzeybuB]

Welcome Adzeybub...

For me Robin Hobb's books or at least the Liveship Traders series always seemed to be overrated. Whilst the prose is good the story didn't reach any great heights for me. I've started reading the Farseer trilogy and so far it's better than Liveships but still nothing spectacular.

howdy

yea the liveship traders werent as well recieved as the other 2 series but doesnt it bring all 3 series together?

to the guy who said lies locke lamora i thought this book was worth the hype? anyway its in my tbr pile so when i eventually get to it will air my views.

also erikson, controversial choice there is it not

 

[Rosemary]

I too felt that The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch and The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie I thought were overrated.

However, I wonder if this has all got to do with the reader's taste in literature!

 

[Allegra]

I enjoy the Potter books but I think they are overrated big time.

 

[Connavar]

Robin Hobb's Farseer is way overrated.

Also Black Company by Glen Cook, people hail it and recommend to anyone who havent read it and i found it to be almost a waste of paper.

A Game of Thrones by GRRM bored me . I found it so clichè. Im not a fan of High fantasy specially political fantasy with alot of characters etc I found the characters so unintresting. In a series like that without any interesting characters its no point trying to read it more of it.

Before anyone say maybe you dont like books like that, i found Erikson's Gardens of The Moon to be a very good book.

 

[scalem X]

Well things like this, can usually be a matter of taste, but also comparisson.
The first time you hear about a wizard with special powers, you might be impressed, the second pleased and the third time it might annoy you.

I think overrating a book can only be done by using a specific reason. I'm sorry, but if the wheel of time sells a lot, some people must at least like it. (I don't by the way) So say you have a rating system and 30 people rate it as a 10/10 and 20 people rate it as a 5/10. The book will have a rating of 8. That is a fair rating, although a book that gets 8/10 by all people who rated it, will probably disappoint less people.

So I come back to my initial statement: you can only really overrate a book by saying for example: "I like Jordan for his originality." These things can be argued. The title doesn't say: what book disappointed you the most...

I find 'The Da Vinci Code' overrated. A lot of people told me that it was written really well, but to be honest I found it written average and with a good storyline and a hype. So, yes I enjoyed reading it, but I never found the passages that were written really well.
I think that the trouble with these hyped books is that you get a lot of people who normally don't pick up a book, to read them. Afterwards they are astounded that they actually enjoyed reading a book and they conclude that the novel was miraculously well written. Of course they forget that they have no basis for comparisson.

Lol Connavar, you say you don't like books that are high fantasy with lots of characters and politics. "Certainly the title: "A game of thrones" should have been an indication. If someone told you that they liked GRR Martin for his political intrigues and magnitude of characters, you can't argue that, now can you? (say I don't like detectives that solve murders using only their knowledge, I still can't argue with someone who says: I like Hercule Poirot, because he always outsmarts the murderer)

 

[Connavar]

Well things like this, can usually be a matter of taste, but also comparisson.
The first time you hear about a wizard with special powers, you might be impressed, the second pleased and the third time it might annoy you.

I think overrating a book can only be done by using a specific reason. I'm sorry, but if the wheel of time sells a lot, some people must at least like it. (I don't by the way) So say you have a rating system and 30 people rate it as a 10/10 and 20 people rate it as a 5/10. The book will have a rating of 8. That is a fair rating, although a book that gets 8/10 by all people who rated it, will probably disappoint less people.

So I come back to my initial statement: you can only really overrate a book by saying for example: "I like Jordan for his originality." These things can be argued. The title doesn't say: what book disappointed you the most...

I find 'The Da Vinci Code' overrated. A lot of people told me that it was written really well, but to be honest I found it written average and with a good storyline and a hype. So, yes I enjoyed reading it, but I never found the passages that were written really well.
I think that the trouble with these hyped books is that you get a lot of people who normally don't pick up a book, to read them. Afterwards they are astounded that they actually enjoyed reading a book and they conclude that the novel was miraculously well written. Of course they forget that they have no basis for comparisson.

Lol Connavar, you say you don't like books that are high fantasy with lots of characters and politics. "Certainly the title: "A game of thrones" should have been an indication. If someone told you that they liked GRR Martin for his political intrigues and magnitude of characters, you can't argue that, now can you? (say I don't like detectives that solve murders using only their knowledge, I still can't argue with someone who says: I like Hercule Poirot, because he always outsmarts the murderer)

Usually i dont like it sure but Erikson has shown i can enjoy them anyway.

I knew what it was about, i tried anyway expecting a decent story then it wouldnt matter the genre. I knew i wouldnt like certain elements but i hoped for interesting characters then maybe i can become a fan of the subgenre but that didnt happen with GRRM.



For me a book is overrated when people talk about it like its the best thing and millions of people read it and you think its bad or even decent but not good enough. That simple for me.

 

[TK-421]

I knew what it was about, i tried anyway expecting a decent story then it wouldnt matter the genre. I knew i wouldnt like certain elements but i hoped for interesting characters then maybe i can become a fan of the subgenre but that didnt happen with GRRM.

For me a book is overrated when people talk about it like its the best thing

So does mean we'll never see you post again in a place where poeple talk about a series like it's the best thing such as the GRRM forum on Chronicles?

 

[Connavar]

So does mean we'll never see you post again in a place where poeple talk about a series like it's the best thing such as the GRRM forum on Chronicles?

Maybe if i tried reading the series again for some reason in the future. I have read only the first book so there is not really a reason to post about a series you dont read.


I mean i dont see you post in Gemmell forum

 

[Snowdog]

So much is a matter of taste. I've lost count of the books I've bought based on tremendous reviews only to end up wondering what all the fuss was about. I'm a huge Glen Cook fan but not everything he writes is top drawer. The Black Company is a marvellous series but the first book is not the best.

Probably the biggest disappointments for me recently were Shadow of the Wind and Something From The Nightside both of which got rave reviews on Amazon. Shadow of the Wind wasn't bad, just not great.

Something From The Nightside though, was pretty poor IMHO, which doesn't mean it's bad necessarily, just that I didn't like it.

 

[Tillane]

The biggest disappointment I've had recently was Iain Banks' The Algebraist. I'm a huge fan of the guy - Use of Weapons and The Player of Games are still amongst my all-time faves - but I just couldn't get into this one. Hopefully it's just a blip and he'll be back with another top-notcher next time. Fingers crossed...

 

[gully_foyle]

The biggest disappointment I've had recently was Iain Banks' The Algebraist.

I've said it before, so I'll say it again, The Algebraist was a wonderful, joyous book that brought me back to sci-fi and introduced me to Banks. Admittedly it was a jumble to begin with, but once I was tuned into it I loved it. The only disappointment was that it ended. I'm working my way through Banks and am yet to get to Weapons or Games, but the only one I felt was close to the tone of The Algebraist was Consider Phlebas.

However, I guess it is just taste and mindset. There are books I have trouble with that other people love.

 

[Tillane]

Absolutely, and I may well go back to The Algebraist at some point and realise that I was wrong, or that I just wasn't in the right frame of mind when I read it. I hope I do. Banks is a wonderful storyteller; I just wasn't taken by this particular story.

 

[rune]

The most overrated book Ive read so far this year is Vellum by Hal Duncan, have no idea why there was such a fuss made about that book as i thought it was dreadful

 

[The Ace]

Errr Connavar, GRRM does write interesting characters, he just kills them off for no good reason.

 

[phelann]

The most overrated book Ive read so far this year is Vellum by Hal Duncan, have no idea why there was such a fuss made about that book as i thought it was dreadful

The general feeling I had when reading that book was that there was an amazingly kick ass story just beneath the pages, but not quite reaching through. It was still a fun read though because of how different it was.

 

[Connavar]

Errr Connavar, GRRM does write interesting characters, he just kills them off for no good reason.

Haha

I have seen your posts about him in old threads heh.

 

[HellMaster]

Lord of the Rings - an entire industry built on one novel.

 

[Siberian]

That doesn't make overrated