Bottom 10 2024
Jan. 29th, 2025 10:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaIt was hard to fill out a bottom 10 this year, in part because I was much better about DNFing books I didn't like, in part because a lot of books were not great but also not egregious. But here's the worst list, only 4 months late!
THE WAY OF KINGS BY BRANDON SANDERSON
I've already hated on this book extensively so I won't belabor the point. This is bar none the worst thing I read this year. Sanderson's prose is dry and boring, his fight scenes sound like he's watching someone else play a video game, his characters are one dimensional and spend most of the book ruminating on the same conflict that they magically overcome during the final quarter of the book, and there's some wild sexism and racism in this book. Also, men can't read and yet still hold all positions of power while women act as glorified secretaries, and that's some of the least thoughtful worldbuilding I've ever seen in my life.
This book's popularity is bewildering.
IRON FLAME BY REBECCA YARROS
Again, I've extensively hated on this entire series, so I won't go on and on about it. Just know that this is a fractally wrong book, where every bad thing is actually multiple bad things that tessellate to form a worse thing. I do not believe anyone actually edited these books and I question how much of them Yarros herself even wrote, considering some of the accusations being aimed at the publisher and Liz Pellatier. I don't think Yarros actually likes romantasy or fantasy, either.
ANNIE BOT BY SIERRA GREER
Okay, we're now into the category of books that I didn't like but also recognize the value of. Ultimately I don't think this book achieves what it's trying to achieve, because the final revelation comes so close to the end that it feels uncomfortably like robot torture porn.
THE TERRAFORMERS BY ANNALEE NEWITZ
There are interesting ideas in this book, but none of them really go anywhere. It's quite preachy. And the author's obsession with talking animals and insistence that the ability to talk is the thing that separates sentient beings from non-sentient beings is frankly unhinged.
THE MOONSTEEL CROWN BY STEPHEN DEAS
Not at all my style--this kind of grim fantasy is not to my taste--and it felt like a very uninspired book. I hated every single character, which is quite an accomplishment. I've seen this recommended as "found family", to which I say, "bitch, where?"
BRONWYN BY GRACE J. CROY
Supposedly this is a fantasy adaptation of Mansfield Park, but it bears a very superficial resemblance to the original, and you get the feeling reading it that the author didn't actually like Mansfield Park that much and thinks she is fixing it. But the thing that makes Mansfield Park stand out is Fanny, and her deep, staunch moral core, and turning her into a generic Regency heroine takes away the book's defining feature.
I like Mansfield Park and am not in favor of this slander.
THE FIRST AND LAST DEMON BY HIYODORI
I hoarded this book for a while because I was convinced it was going to be good and I was so sad to be wrong.
There's two problems. One is that the romance is nonexistent, to the point that some side characters have a better, more interesting dynamic than our protagonist and her love interest. Two is that the book is overloaded with plot twists to the point it stops being interesting. And three, the side characters who come in out of nowhere have more agency and do more to advance the plot than the character we're actually following. They're also both really annoying.
- The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
- Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
- Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
- The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
- The Moonsteel Crown by Stephen Deas
- Bronwyn by Grace J. Croy
- The First and Last Demon by Hiyodori
THE WAY OF KINGS BY BRANDON SANDERSON
I've already hated on this book extensively so I won't belabor the point. This is bar none the worst thing I read this year. Sanderson's prose is dry and boring, his fight scenes sound like he's watching someone else play a video game, his characters are one dimensional and spend most of the book ruminating on the same conflict that they magically overcome during the final quarter of the book, and there's some wild sexism and racism in this book. Also, men can't read and yet still hold all positions of power while women act as glorified secretaries, and that's some of the least thoughtful worldbuilding I've ever seen in my life.
This book's popularity is bewildering.
IRON FLAME BY REBECCA YARROS
Again, I've extensively hated on this entire series, so I won't go on and on about it. Just know that this is a fractally wrong book, where every bad thing is actually multiple bad things that tessellate to form a worse thing. I do not believe anyone actually edited these books and I question how much of them Yarros herself even wrote, considering some of the accusations being aimed at the publisher and Liz Pellatier. I don't think Yarros actually likes romantasy or fantasy, either.
ANNIE BOT BY SIERRA GREER
Okay, we're now into the category of books that I didn't like but also recognize the value of. Ultimately I don't think this book achieves what it's trying to achieve, because the final revelation comes so close to the end that it feels uncomfortably like robot torture porn.
THE TERRAFORMERS BY ANNALEE NEWITZ
There are interesting ideas in this book, but none of them really go anywhere. It's quite preachy. And the author's obsession with talking animals and insistence that the ability to talk is the thing that separates sentient beings from non-sentient beings is frankly unhinged.
THE MOONSTEEL CROWN BY STEPHEN DEAS
Not at all my style--this kind of grim fantasy is not to my taste--and it felt like a very uninspired book. I hated every single character, which is quite an accomplishment. I've seen this recommended as "found family", to which I say, "bitch, where?"
BRONWYN BY GRACE J. CROY
Supposedly this is a fantasy adaptation of Mansfield Park, but it bears a very superficial resemblance to the original, and you get the feeling reading it that the author didn't actually like Mansfield Park that much and thinks she is fixing it. But the thing that makes Mansfield Park stand out is Fanny, and her deep, staunch moral core, and turning her into a generic Regency heroine takes away the book's defining feature.
I like Mansfield Park and am not in favor of this slander.
THE FIRST AND LAST DEMON BY HIYODORI
I hoarded this book for a while because I was convinced it was going to be good and I was so sad to be wrong.
There's two problems. One is that the romance is nonexistent, to the point that some side characters have a better, more interesting dynamic than our protagonist and her love interest. Two is that the book is overloaded with plot twists to the point it stops being interesting. And three, the side characters who come in out of nowhere have more agency and do more to advance the plot than the character we're actually following. They're also both really annoying.
