Worst science ficton book of all time.

[Wanzerfan]

My pick would be Shadow of the Warmaster. It's so bad that I can't remember the author's name.

I couldn't even get throught the first chapter, not because the story was bad, far from it.

It was because the damned thing was so badly edited that it was freaking unreadable!!! I guess the guys who edited and published it didn't have access to a copy of The Modern Writer's Handbook.

The errors were so numerous, I can only list a few. Let's see run-on sentences from hell, almost page-lenghth paragraphs that jumped subjects back and forth at the drop of a hat, as well as many others.

Your choices?

Edited January 23, 2010 by Wanzerfan

[Gubaba]

My pick would be Shadow of the Warmaster. It's so bad that I can't remember the author's name.

I couldn't even get throught the first chapter, not because the story was bad, far from it.

It was because the damned thing was so badly edited that it was freaking unreadable!!! I guess the guys who edited and published it didn't have access to a copy of The Modern Writer's Handbook.

The errors were so numerous, I can only list a few. Let's see run-on sentences from hell, almost page-lenghth paragraphs that jumped subjects back and forth at the drop of a hat, as well as many others.

Your choices?

I envy you for having the good faith to assume that a book with a cover like this...

...could be anything other than awful.

[Seto Kaiba]

Hmmm... the worst science fiction book of all time?

Considering the sheer volume of piss-dribblingly bad sci-fi on bookstore shelves these days, singling out the worst of the bad lot is going to be no mean feat. At the very least, each and every one of the licensed Star Trek novels and the Star Wars expanded universe novels deserves a (dis)honorable mention either for bordering on the unreadable or being the very worst kind of fanwankery, if not both. Also noteworthy is the Ultramarines series of Warhammer 40,000 novels by Graham McNeill, whose dubious talents as a wordsmith have brought forth a protagonist who is so profoundly one-dimensional that he isn't just impossible to like... he's impossible to relate to in any way, shape, or form. While it certainly feels like reaching for the low-hanging fruit, it would be remiss of me not to also nominate the Robotech novelizations written by James Luceno and Brian Daley under the pseudonym "Jack McKinney", as their Sentinels books could quite easily be called one of the worst crimes against the English language since the invention of ebonics. I would also include Like a Phoenix From the Flames: The Founding of the 597th and Like a Phoenix on the Wing: The Early Campaigns and Glorious Victories of the Valhallan 597th by General Jenit Sulla, though they (and the truly staggering amounts of overly purple prose they contain) must be excused on the grounds that the books themselves are fictional, and only "excerpts" from them were ever actually published in the Ciaphas Cain novels written by Alex Stewart under the penname "Sandy Mitchell".

That having been said, my nominee for the worst science fiction book ever written is The Return, a Star Trek novel penned by William Shatner after the release of Star Trek: Generations. In this horrid crime against both the Star Trek franchise and the literary arts as a whole, the author (Mr. Shatner) takes it upon himself to unkill James T. Kirk and involve him in a pointlessly overcomplicated plot by a Borg-Romulan alliance to assassinate Jean-Luc Picard, allowing him to indulge in a series of Mary Sue-esque antics like beating up Worf, outwitting Data, and dying gloriously while singlehandedly crippling the entire Borg collective and sucker-punching Picard to show him who's boss.

Of course... Shatner didn't let Kirk STAY dead... and promptly revived him with an almost equally bullshit excuse in the next novel, only to be dragged into the Mirror Universe to confront his alternate self, who has become the ruler of the Terran Empire.

[Gubaba]

I'd go a little further than Seto and say that most tie-in books are pretty awful, overall. Especially if they're tie-ins for a game rather than a show. But even with a show...one of the big problems is that only rarely will the books be able to show the characters changing or gorwing in any meaningful way. None of the Star Trek writers would, for example, be able to kill off McCoy, or have Kirk get married. (I know that in the Star Wars books, these types of things CAN happen, but I haven't read any of them beyond the Timothy Zahn trilogy, wich I found adequate but not enthralling...certainly not enthralling enough to read the dozens of books that followed it.)

So yeah...tie-ins. It's more surprising when they're NOT terrible than when they ARE. Creativity-by-committee at its worst.

I might nominate the equally creativity-by-committee Dune sequels...but I haven't actually gotten the nerve to pick any of them up.

Heinlein has written some pretty atrocious stuff, most of it late in life.

Piers Anthony has written a lot of terrible books as well...I read a lot of crappy sci-fi and fantasy when I was in junior high, and he's the only writer who still moves me to anger when I dwell on the fact that I once liked his books.

[CoryHolmes]

I'm going to have to chime in here with a bit of an usual candidate: Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson. It has an enjoyable premise, mostly decent writing, entertaining characters, and pages upon pages of infodump infodump infodump!

[Gubaba]

I'm going to have to chime in here with a bit of an usual candidate: Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson. It has an enjoyable premise, mostly decent writing, entertaining characters, and pages upon pages of infodump infodump infodump!

But...that's part of the point of the book. It's one of the things that makes Stephenson such an interesting writer...

[CoryHolmes]

But...that's part of the point of the book. It's one of the things that makes Stephenson such an interesting writer...

If by "interesting" you mean causing :

*flings book down in disgust and picks up new book*, then yes, he is an interesting writer

Edited January 23, 2010 by CoryHolmes

[eugimon]

If by "interesting" you mean causing : *flings book down in disgust and picks up new book*, then yes, he is an interesting writer

First moore's BSG and now snowcrash... at least you're consistent in having horrible horrible taste.

[CoryHolmes]

First moore's BSG and now snowcrash... at least you're consistent in having horrible horrible taste.

Look at my sigline, too Not to mention Rifts, SGU, HGTV...

[Gubaba]

If by "interesting" you mean causing :

*flings book down in disgust and picks up new book*, then yes, he is an interesting writer

Well...he's not really a sci-fi writer in the classic sense, is he? He's more of a slipstream postmodernist.

I always find it funny that so many science-fiction (and fantasy) readers seem to get incredibly annoyed by narrative techniques that have been common in mainstream lit for nearly a century now. The stuff Stephenson is doing was last considered "experimental" in the 1940s, at the latest.

If Stephenson confuses you, how can you handle James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, or Franz Kafka...?

[CoryHolmes]

If Stephenson confuses you, how can you handle James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, or Franz Kafka...?

I 'unno. Probably instant ennui. Besides, I'm very selective in my chosen media. I enjoy very few TV shows/movies/books/anime/etc. but the ones that I do partake in, I take to the obsessive extremes.

[Max Jenius]

This is a pointless thread. There's so many wretched no name sci-fi books out there.

[Gubaba]

I 'unno. Probably instant ennui. Besides, I'm very selective in my chosen media. I enjoy very few TV shows/movies/books/anime/etc. but the ones that I do partake in, I take to the obsessive extremes.

Cripes...you're bringing out the worst "Lit Major with something to prove" tendencies in me...I'm gonna back away from this thread slowly now...

[anime52k8]

I hate books, reading words makes my head hurt. I enjoy having all of my inconsequential entertainment media spoon fed to me by a glowing box.

Edited January 23, 2010 by anime52k8

[spacemanoeuvres]

I envy you for having the good faith to assume that a book with a cover like this...

...could be anything other than awful.

thanks for that, I needed a laugh this AM.

hehehe

this thread reminds me of a story I read on digg a while back, though it's fantasy/supernatural not sci fi:

http://digg.com/arts_culture/The_Worst_Boo...y_Aaron_Rayburn

the review is pretty funny.

Edited January 23, 2010 by spacemanoeuvres

[Dynaman]

as others have said, the mind boggles at the possabilities...

The worst I've ever seen, but it was only a webpage joke, was "The Lord of the Rings, the novelization of the movie". I'd post a link if I had one, it is hilarious.

The worst SciFi I've managed to read was "Homeword Bound" by Harry Turtledove, NOTHING happened in the entire book - but we get exacting descriptions of every meal the characters eat. (a real pity, since the series this book is part of was one of my favorites of alternate reality fiction).

Harry also seems to have gotten very lazy in his latest novels, lots and lots and lots and lots of repeated information is used to bump up the page counts.

And there is at least one good Star Trek book, can't remember the title but it would have been placed about 100 years before Kirk and Company (but it was written long before the Enterprise came out). The story focuses on a Klingon, and darned if I can remember much else, time to dig it up and read it again.

[F-ZeroOne]

One of the worst I've read recently was a fantasy/SF mix by, I think, John Ringo. It had our hero surprised whilst nekkid and fighting off assassins with an axe, after which he made jokes about the size of his "chopper".

[Ghost Train]

Going Rogue by Sarah Palin.

[eugimon]

Going Rogue by Sarah Palin.

ahem... science-fiction not "fantasy".

Thank you.

[David Hingtgen]

I hope no further comments from mods will be necessary.

[Wanzerfan]

I envy you for having the good faith to assume that a book with a cover like this...

...could be anything other than awful.

God, that's the effing book . I checked that one out in the HCC (Houston Community College) library, and regretted I did so when I started reading it. Needless to say I returned it a few days later.

Jo Clayton, huh? Now I know who to avoid like the freaking plague .

[Gubaba]

God, that's the effing book . I checked that one out in the HCC (Houston Community College) library, and regretted I did so when I started reading it. Needless to say I returned it a few days later.

Jo Clayton, huh? Now I know who to avoid like the freaking plague .

So, can you explain why there's a teddy bear with a pistol on the cover...? 'Cause that's got me almost curious enough to read the book myself.

[Robelwell202]

I'm surprised that no one's mentioned 'Battlefeild Earth'...

Gawd, that was a turkey!

[buddhafabio]

I'm surprised that no one's mentioned 'Battlefeild Earth'...

Gawd, that was a turkey!

i dont know about Battlefield Earth i thought it was good. but l ron hubbards mission earth was bad.

the dark nest starwars series was bad. the wave was badd also

Edited January 24, 2010 by buddhafabio

[Wanzerfan]

So, can you explain why there's a teddy bear with a pistol on the cover...? 'Cause that's got me almost curious enough to read the book myself.

No I can't. Also notice the beer in its right paw?

Like I said, I bailed about 10 pages into the first chapter, the editing was that bad. It might have something with a kidnapping plot, but I didn't get far enough in the story to find out. I did read the capsule on the back cover, though. That was the only reason I picked it out. God, that book was almost enough to induce an anuryism (sp.?).

All I can say now is that book made almost no sense.

Edited January 24, 2010 by Wanzerfan

[taksraven]

This is a pointless thread. There's so many wretched no name sci-fi books out there.

Same as the "Worst film' thread to a large degree, it doesn't matter who makes crap because Asylum is always out there making crappier stuff. The best thing to go after are more "Well respected" works that are overrated shite.

Thats why I will choose Dune. Not so much for the original book itself (that was barely passable, but at least an attempt to do something different), but for the terrible works that it spawned, and I don't just mean the stuff written by others after the death of Herbert. A lot of the stuff he wrote himself after the original was god awful. (Fish Speakers, Honoured Matres, etc.... FFS) The stuff written after his death is just icing on the cake on proving how crappy it is.

I think that the Dune books had the same sort of thing as Stephen King books. They are so thick that stupid people carry them around to pretend that they are "intellectual".

Taksraven