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Welcome to 2021! Let's get some writing done.
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A list of books Fritz stopped reading and why
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A list of books (or short stories) that I have abandoned with some attempt at justification. (You may also be interested in: Some notes on reading (or Fritz attempts to make sense of why he likes or dislikes a story) )
Warning: This is a work in progress. -- Fritz.
Comments on abandoning books
It's extremely rare for me to get to a point where I want to "throw the book against the wall". I usually keep a general account of the number "eye-rolls" in book. Very occasionally if this grows to high I will put the book down or even abandon it. In the past few years (and I realize this is an uncommon response) I have become rather intolerant of characters who share too much and/or too often of their interior life. Continually telling me that a character is afraid / angry / having gastric distress / "I'm not human (enough)" / etc. irritates me. Eventually, I'll put the book down. Another pet peeve of mine is having a vague or non-existent plot. Which leads me to counter comment about keeping what irritates readers in mind when writing is to also keep in mind that what irritates one reader may delight another. Which is to say, know your target audience.
I abandoned Bowl of Heaven (2012) by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven partly because I couldn't find any characters I was interested in, partly because of strong idiot plot elements, namely the idea that a starship captain (and all the crew) thought it was a good idea to drive the ship into the drive plume of the "Bowl" (a sun converted into a starship using the star as the drive) so they could reach the interior of the "Bowl". As cool as this might be (and who doesn't love the "Rule of Cool"), it is a completely insane idea as they knew nothing of what they would encounter as they entered through the "exhaust port". | |
I really wanted to like this book. I'm a big fan of Startide Rising and would put it down as one of my all-time favorites anytime. But Brightness Reef was another matter. The plot was slow in developing, the characters not very interesting, and I had a hard time getting into the run-away-from-Galactic-civilization mindset of the colonists. To make matters worse, the reader was terrible. Slow and ponderous. I have a particular dislike for that reading style. | |
Alas, I wanted to like The Legend of Buddy Hero (2013) by Adam Oster, but slumming it with a drunken superhero wasn't doing it for me. I had a number of reasons for abandoning this novel. First, there was little to nothing in the way of engagement with the Buddy or any other character. Second, what little of the plot that was visible was an uninteresting and weak version of saving the world from some vague threat of invasion by alien monsters. | |
After re-reading Slan (1946) by A. E. Van Vogt, I thought I would try Slan Hunter (2007) by A.E. Van Vogt and Kevin J. Anderson. As I listened to the introduction about how this final work by Van Vogt was picked up by his children and worked on, I felt a growing trepidation about what the actual book was going to be like. My fears turned out to be true, and I found the writing dated. I think this was on purpose, but I can't be sure. For some reason I can tolerate rereading old works, but when I know something has been written more recently, yet cleaves to a style of years gone by, I lose that tolerance. Unfortunately, Slan Hunter felt stilted and didn't seem to be going over anything new, so I stopped. | |
In the opening paragraph of The Unnoticeables (2015) by Robert Brockway, the narrator goes to great effort to state that he isn't one for metaphor to reinforce his statements as true. Then proceeds in later paragraphs to extensively use metaphors. Update: The deliberate shock factor ramped up dramatically. On top of not believing the character's response to the horror of what she was seeing (too accepting and blase by far) I felt like I was being deliberately and repeatedly poked with the "gore" and "sick sex" schtick, so I'm done with this novel. | |
Soooo much telling! It took a third of Vicious (2013) by V. E. Schwab before we got to the origins of the main characters. Way too much description of internal state and motivations (a serious pet reading peeve). So much that I almost stopped reading, but I'm not quite ready to give up yet.
Update: A bit over halfway through and I have to take a break. Update 2: The break has turned into an abandon. Can't bring myself to go back and finish the book. I have too many other books to read. |
Comments on abandoning series
Early on (approx. 20% of the way through) in A Beautiful Friendship (2012) by David Weber I became irritated with the preachy delivery and the main character being considered strictly honest (by herself and her parents) but this honesty did not extend to withholding information. While I can see this as being a sort of honest, it's rather disingenuous and (did I mention?) annoying. Don't think I can put up with this much more, so I won't be pursing the sequel. After finishing, my opinion did not change. Didn't hate it, but was a real disappointment. | |
I almost stopped reading Death's Apprentice (2012) by K. W. Jeter and Gareth Jefferson Jones dozens of times, but managed to finish it despite the cliche and clunky writing. I wanted to like it, as I've really liked earlier works by the co-author K. W. Jeter, but unfortunately it fell into the anti-pick category. | |
Almost abandoned Ghost of a Chance (2010) by Simon R. Green. I have to give it an anti-pick rating for cliches and repetitiveness of narrative and dialogue. I was also frequently jarred as it transitioned between jovial humorousness and frank and moderately horrific descriptions of violence and the results there of. | |
The Mechanical (2015) by Ian Tregillis is the second book by this author that I've read and it will probably be the last. Like the first book I read, it has great worldbuilding, and like the first book, I could not find a single character that I liked or cared about and every attempt at making them sympathetic through suffering and angst simply made them that much more unlikeable. Nor did it help that the plot was desultory, ending with no real resolutions. | |
While I liked a fair amount of Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain (2014) by Richard Roberts, the plot hinged around a superpower that was, in essence, the ability to create semi-random magical items that were labeled as "science" (and while there was a strong feeling of Mary Sue, it wasn't quite enough to drive me away). I had major issues (and this is something I'll fully admit is all about me and my relationship with science) with the way science and math were not-so-subtlety dissed and denigrated by the main character's superpower (a "mad scientist" ability to create Objects of Power that were not understood by their creator). It left a bad taste in my mouth. |
Has Abandoned Comment
- Bowl of Heaven
- Brightness Reef
- The Dangerous Days of Daniel X
- Debatable Space
- Diving into the Wreck
- The Einstein Prophecy
- Jim Anthony: Super-Detective (2009 anthology)
- The Legend of Buddy Hero
- The Map of Time
- Mistborn: The Final Empire
- Slan Hunter
- Superego (2014 novel)
- The Unnoticeables
- Vicious (2013 novel)
- Wearing the Cape
- Category:Has Reading Abandoned Infobox
Abandoned with Comment
- Abandoned with comments
- Bowl of Heaven
- Brightness Reef
- The Dangerous Days of Daniel X
- Debatable Space
- Diving into the Wreck
- The Einstein Prophecy
- Fritz's comments on abandoning books
- Jim Anthony: Super-Detective (2009 anthology)
- The Legend of Buddy Hero
- The Map of Time
- Slan Hunter
- Superego (2014 novel)
- The Unnoticeables
- Vicious (2013 novel)
- Wearing the Cape
- Category:Abandoned Comment Content Template
- Category:Abandoned Content Template
- Category:Abandoned Series Comment Content Template
- Category:Has Abandoned Comment
- Category:Has Reading Abandoned Infobox
Abandoned
- Abandoned
- Abandoned with comments
- The Alchemy Wars (series)
- Andrea Cort (series)
- Andrea Vernon (series)
- Armor (novel)
- The Band (series)
- Boundary Magic (series)
- Bowl of Heaven
- Brasyl
- Brightness Reef
- Checquy Files (series)
- Children of Titan (series)
- A Confederacy of Dunces
- The Dangerous Days of Daniel X
- Deathstalker (series)
- Debatable Space
- The Divine Dungeon (series)
- Diving into the Wreck
- The Doomsday Vault: A Novel of the Clockwork Empire
- The Einstein Prophecy
- The Emperor's New Mind
- Evil Genius
- Ex-Heroes (series)
- Fritz's comments on abandoning books
- The Galactic Cold War (series)
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Good Intentions (series)
- Gor (series)
- How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
- Inheritance Trilogy (series)
- Jim Anthony: Super-Detective (2009 anthology)
- The Legend of Buddy Hero
- The Machineries of Empire (series)
- Mageworlds (series)
- The Map of Time
- Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife
- Abandoned series
- Please Don't Tell My Parents (series)
- Ravirn (series)
- Safehold (series)
- Shadow Rising (2012 novel)
- Slan Hunter
- El Sombra
- Space Knight (series)
- Split Infinity
- Superego (2014 novel)
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
- The Unnoticeables
- Vicious (2013 novel)
- Wearing the Cape
- Xanth (series)
- Category:Abandoned Audiobook
- Category:Abandoned Comment Content Template
- Category:Abandoned Content Template
- Category:Abandoned Series
- Category:Abandoned Series Comment Content Template
- Category:The Alchemy Wars (series)
- Category:Andrea Cort (series)
- Category:Andrea Vernon (series)
- Category:The Band (series)
- Category:Boundary Magic (series)
- Category:Checquy Files (series)
- Category:Children of Titan (series)
- Category:Deathstalker (series)
- Category:The Divine Dungeon (series)
- Category:Ex-Heroes (series)
- Category:The Galactic Cold War (series)
- Category:Good Intentions (series)
- Category:Gor (series)
- Category:Has Abandoned Comment
- Category:Has Reading Abandoned Infobox
- Category:Lorien Legacies (series)
- Category:The Machineries of Empire (series)
- Category:Mageworlds (series)
- Category:Not Engaged Enough to Pursue Series
- Category:Please Don't Tell My Parents (series)
- Category:Ravirn (series)
- Category:Space Knight (series)
- Category:Xanth (series)
Not Engaged Enough to Pursue Series
No pages meet these criteria.
Also See
- Fritz's recent reading list
- Ad hoc survey of story beginnings
- Story Survey (category)
- Read (category)
- Read as Audiobook (category)
- Read as Ebook (category)
- Reading as Audiobook (category)
- Reading as Ebook (category)
- Reading Comment (category)
- Reading Pick (category)
- Reading Unpick (category)
- Reread (category)
- Reread as Audiobook (category)
- Reading (category)
- Rereading (category)
- Rereading as Audiobook (category)
- Started (category)
- Started Reading (category)
- Started Rereading (category)
- Stopped (category)
- Stopped Reading (category)
- Abandoned (category)
- Abandoned Audiobook (category)
- Not Engaged Enough to Pursue Series (category)
- Want to Read (category)
- Want to Read Again (category)
- Anthology Pick (category)
- Novel Pick (category)
- Omnibus Pick (category)
- Short Story Pick (category)
[edit]
- Pick (category)
- Movie Pick (category)
- Rewatched (category)
- TV Pick (category)
- Unpick (category)
- Viewed (category)
Recent Related Changes
Topics recently changed in List (category):
- Fritz's recent reading list 2021 January to April
- List of Fritz's fiction titles
- Fritz's fiction title
- List of CftN stories
- List of non-Chronicles from the Nexus stories
- List of stand alone stories
- List of Fritz's fiction statuses
- List of DocM stories
- List of Fritz's fiction descriptions
- List of NGW stories
- NLB recent changes
Recent Topics with Comments
Categories[edit]
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- Has Image (category)
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- Has Layout (category)
- Has LayoutList (category)
- Has Spoiler (category)
- Has Table (category)
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- Has Work In Progress Warning (category)
- List (category)
- Needs Expansion (category)
- Needs Work (category)
- Reading (category)
- Reading List (category)
- Stopped Reading (category)