The Worst SF series ever

[Omphalos]

Tanz has a great discussion about this topic going on over at his new and improved blog. Check it out:

http://iansales.com/2010/03/28/the-wors ... on-series/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[lotek]

nice!!
I liked that one:

If prose should be a sleek and powerful Italian sports car, then Bova’s is a great lumbering tank powered by a million hamsters running around a million wheels.

As for the rest I'd hate to spoil it

[The_Kat]

Hmm... very good read. Some issues with his inclusion of foundation, which i have recently re-read (a proposition he rejects as impossible.)

He dismisses any opposing view as wrong and their authors as illiterate and calls anyone who agrees with him literay geniuses.

He's damn right about the KJA though.

[Nekhrun]

I could see kja now spinning this to say that he's just happy to be on any list that includes Asimov.

Anyone still slumming at DN should post this and liven the pace up a bit.

[lotek]

haven't you read the news?

Dune novels is dead and we're just a bunch of boring haters

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=2112" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MrFlibble]

Anyone still slumming at DN should post this and liven the pace up a bit.

Actually this is a mighty good idea

There are many, many things wrong with these books – every single word in them, in fact.

I find this extremely well put

[Omphalos]

Hmm... very good read. Some issues with his inclusion of foundation, which i have recently re-read (a proposition he rejects as impossible.)

He dismisses any opposing view as wrong and their authors as illiterate and calls anyone who agrees with him literay geniuses.

He's damn right about the KJA though.

Tanz was never known for having soft opinions, and IMHO he's grown a bit more polarized in them since he hung out here. But he knows a lot about SF and (sometimes) thinks before he speaks.

[Sandwurm88]

I'd agree that Foundation is over-rated and the writing is nothing special, but it shouldn't be included with pieces of crap found on that list, like Seven Suns and Legends. Also, the Lensman series is really pulpy and cheesy, but it's significant to the genre.


Edit: I was looking at the comments; unfortunately it's mainly people saying Tanz is a idiot for saying that about Foundation...Comments sections should automatically censor out annoying assholes!!

[lotek]

It’s not that the books in my list are truly madly deeply appalling, but that they’re the sf series which should not be held up as the best of the genre. Except the Legends of the Dune trilogy. They really are shit.

nice!

Herbert should have stopped with Dune – the sequels drop in quality exponentially.

dunno if I should

or

or maybe

I agree completely with you on Kevin J. Anderson in general and concerning the Saga of Seven Suns and the new Dune books.

The Seven Suns was a marathon in molasses.

Thank you, thank you, thank you – not enough can or will ever be said about how horrid those so-called Dune books by Kevin J Anderson & Brian Herbert are.They are miserable. Painful. Disgustingly awful. The only books I’ve literally thrown across the room.

We have some OHs there too by the looks of it

[SandChigger]

Comments sections should automatically censor out annoying assholes!!

[inhuien]

Comments sections should automatically censor out annoying assholes!!

Golly, I hope they don't roll that feature out here.

[Sandwurm88]

HAHAHAHAHAH GOOD ONE!!!

[SandChigger]

That guy better watch out for ... midgets!

[inhuien]

Midgets? Forget about them. It's the Ankle Biters you need to fear...

[trang]

hmmmmm I disagree on many counts but the list has some merit. As a balance I looked at his Best science fiction and again disagree on many counts. I have read more than my share of the books on any top SF list, and think he miss's the boat on some. He doenst have any Heinlein, Verne, Clarke, Wells, Haldemam, Niven, Silverberg, Card, Stephenson,etc. He does have a John Varley book on his best list, (sadly I havent gotton to that one, Varley is a fav of mine).

I think older series that are measured by modern sticks isnt what they were ment for. Yes they're timeless series and books like Stranger in a Strange land, Dune, Time Machine, 20k leagues under the sea, but those are another category.

Series like the Lensmen and Foundation are just that, the foundations of the genres. These series are more for the pay it forward aspect. Authors can read them and learn, many have borrowed heavily from the frameworks they set down.

That is just my opinion and when I go back for reread or even a "New" old book, I try and keep that in context of the time and place it was written.

[Freakzilla]

I liked the Foundation series. I haven't read it in a few years and of course its no Dune but it was one of my introductory series to SF so maybe I'm biased. It was grand in scale and I loved the concept.

[A Thing of Eternity]

I liked Foundation, I started with the books he wrote last though (read them in Chronological order rather than publishing order) and as such was a bit jarred by the massive drop in writing quality when I got to the originals. They were great, don't get me wrong, but they were better in concept than they were in execution, the prose just wasn't great.

[DuneFishUK]

They were great, don't get me wrong, but they were better in concept than they were in execution, the prose just wasn't great.

That's annoying - I've only listened to an old BBC radio adaptation, and I thought it was great and was looking forward to reading the proper books at some point...

(The radio version is online at: http://www.archive.org/details/IsaacAsi ... ionTrilogy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

[Freakzilla]

They were great, don't get me wrong, but they were better in concept than they were in execution, the prose just wasn't great.

That's annoying - I've only listened to an old BBC radio adaptation, and I thought it was great and was looking forward to reading the proper books at some point...

(The radio version is online at: http://www.archive.org/details/IsaacAsi ... ionTrilogy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

Jesus, do they do a radio version of EVERYTHING?

[TheDukester]

That BBC adaptation is an old classic. Mid-70s, I believe.

I actually own it (it's available at both iTunes and Amazon), but I haven't gotten all the way through it. I find the audio to be very muddy; headphones are almost a requirement.