My LEAST Favorite Fantasy Authors

[00:00:00]Again, I love Kirby Hayorn, but I don't want to hear him go cling clang like every two seconds. Hi, my name is Jake and I [music] am a bookish drummer.

[00:00:19][music] >> [music] >> So, for this video, I will be discussing my least favorite fantasy authors of all time. The caveat for this list is that I don't necessarily hate these authors.

[00:00:45]These authors just don't personally work for me. A lot of people love these authors. My wife Stacy is actually a big fan of a lot of these authors that I'll mention and just in general book readers alike. You know, I definitely have the unpopular opinion with a lot of these authors. So, with all that being said, let's go ahead and jump right into it.

[00:01:10][music] So, I've got eight authors to talk about. Four of them I actually own physically or we own physically. And let's just talk about those first. The first one is definitely an author that I have a lovehate relationship with cuz I've read three of their books. I DNFed one of them and I want to like this series, his main series, but I I just can't get into it. And that would of course be Steven Ericson holding up Gardens of the Moon, which is book one in Book of the What is the series called? It's Malazan. Malazan, Book of the Fallen. And like I've said, I've read the first three books. I think I had the unpopular opinion that I actually liked book one the most. I gave this one four stars. I thought it was pretty good. Not perfect. I still didn't really love the writing style, but I thought some of the characters were interesting, and I thought there were moments in this book that were really cool. But then I read books two and three, which are supposed to be like fan favorites, and I liked it a lot less than book one. Those were more like threest star books for me. Again, some cool characters, some really good moments, but overall, the writing style just doesn't work for me. I don't like I don't know. I just don't like to have to do a lot of work for reading. I just want to read something and enjoy it for what it is. But for this one, there's so much like homework you have to do with this series. Like he doesn't explain stuff. Like he'll have something in a scene. He'll just name something. he won't explain what it is, what the relevance is, and then like you'll go look it up in the glossery and then it'll tell you there. But I'm like, give me a little bit of context here. So, I just don't love his writing style. And and like I said, I don't hate him, but I also don't love for my It's a series that I want to love, but I just don't like the writing style. So, definitely a lovehate relationship with Stephen Ericson. Maybe one day I'll give it another shot, but it's just I don't know. For right now, it's not worth it.

[00:03:11]I DNFED book four, House of Chains, you know, just jumping to a completely different timeline and continent. I'm just like, I can't take this anymore.

[00:03:20]So, Steven Ericson, definitely one of my least favorites, even though I really do want to like Malazan. another author that I've only read one book from, so might not be fair to include him, but I know so many people love this book in particular and his other books in general. I'm of course talking about Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. Everyone that I talked to, almost everyone who's read this loves this author, loves this book. They say like the next books in the series aren't quite as good as this one, but so many people love Blood Song.

[00:03:53]I thought it was fine. I thought it was like a three star book. Uh, it was kind of boring. I didn't really love the characters. The main character was interesting, but I just thought it was very overrated and a lot of people also compared it to my favorite series of all time, A Song of Ice and Fire. I just really didn't get that comparison at all. It was good. I didn't hate this by any means, but if this is supposed to be his best book and I thought it was just okay, I'm very hesitant to check out his other books. So, Anthony Ryan, while I don't again I don't hate him, I I just didn't really fall in love with his writing style and I'm not really interested to read his other stuff.

[00:04:35]Another author that I've read a few of his books or actually I finished one and then I dnfed a few of his other books.

[00:04:42]Uh that would be Mark Lawrence. Uh, I first read his book, Prince of Thorns, and a lot of people loved that one. A little too dark for me, and I just didn't really love the main character of Jorg. And that book was just kind of okay for me. Again, it was three stars.

[00:05:00]And then I tried to read the sequel and it just wasn't as good. Again, I just didn't really like how he handled his characters. And then I tried to read like first books in his other series. I think one of them was like Prince and the Fool or something, something like that. And I didn't really like that one either. And then I tried to read Red Sister and I dnfed that one very quickly. So, it's just something about his writing style that I can't quite get into. Now, I know a lot of people love Mark Lawrence, including my wife, and you know, she's uh got a few books that she still needs to read by him, but she really loved um Prince of Thorns and that whole trilogy, and she's very eager to continue with his books. I am not, however, um but I know a lot of people love him. Uh he's very popular for a reason, but for me personally, I just don't quite get it. Another author again that my wife loves and that a lot of people love. Again, I have definitely unpopular opinions with a lot of these authors, but one author that I just can't quite get into really is John Gwyn. Now, I'm holding up the second book in this series. What's the series called again? The Faithful and the Fallen. Because I did read and somewhat enjoy book one, Malice. I liked that one enough, but then when I went into this book, I really didn't like the structure and the writing style. I'm not someone who loves short choppy chapters, especially in fantasy books. I love kind of more like medium length chapters where we get time to breathe with the characters, time to explore the world, do some world building and lore. But with this book, good lord, it's like I don't know 600 pages and there's like well over a hundred chapters and the chapters just seems so short. And this book is I would say this series really is definitely plot driven, a little less character driven and world building. Uh it's just a lot of military tactics, a lot of battles, and it just these chapters just go by so quick, and I just don't love that kind of writing style. I really don't even love it really with any kind of genre, but especially fantasy where I just want time to breathe with the characters and the world. This one just seems to be going at a very quick pace, which I know a lot of people really enjoy that, but for me personally, I just didn't quite get it.

[00:07:25]Now, I've been told that some of his other series that are outside of this realm or whatever are pretty good. I might try one of those, but I'm a little hesitant just because I don't again, I really don't love his writing style. So, while I did enjoy the first book, the second book just was not to my taste.

[00:07:42]And now we have four more authors that we actually don't own physically. We used to, but we probably got rid of them. One of them I'll talk about definitely uh the most overrated fantasy author in my opinion. It's working today. Joe Abberrombie, very famous for The Blade Itself and that whole trilogy and really his whole kind of universe. I think there's like nine or 10 books in that world that he writes in and I I just don't get it. And again, kind of the same thing. Like I somewhat enjoyed the first book, Blade Itself. Maybe like a four-st star book. Um the characters, I think there was like three or four main POVs. I liked Glocka a lot. The other ones were kind of just okay. But there and again there were so many comparisons like oh this is like the new king of grim dark like George R. Martin was one of the first and now Joe Abbercrombie has come to replace him.

[00:08:37]And I just read it and I was just like really really I just I thought it was good. Um very slow pace like almost nothing happens in that book. Um and then I get to book two and I've been told or I was told that like oh the plot starts to pick up again and I get halfway through that book and literally nothing happened. Good god. and the things that I've heard about that trilogy. Um, like I' I've kind of just spoiled myself on it. Like just I'm glad I stopped it because I just really would have hated the directions that went in.

[00:09:12]Um, yeah. I just I just don't get it.

[00:09:14]It's one of those things that I just I know everyone loves him and loves his books and loves his writing, but I just really don't get it. I think he's easily the most overrated fantasy author working today. Now, a lot of people would probably say Brandon Sanderson, but you guys know how much I love Stormlight Archive, so I'm not gonna pick him, obviously. But yeah, Joe Abberrombie, man, just not for me. And if that didn't make you mad, let's pick another fantasy author that I know a lot of people love. Robert Jordan, obviously very famous for Wheel of Time. And again, I read book one. I didn't hate it. Eye of the World definitely more of a three-st star book. very slow, very descriptive, a lot of dream stuff happening. And it was kind of annoying because he would just have these very long descriptions of stuff that I didn't care about. And then finally when something interesting would happen, it would go by in like a paragraph or two.

[00:10:09]I'm like, what are you doing? So yeah, that one was kind of like, okay. And then of course I heard like, oh, it gets better and better. And then I read book two. I got a couple hundred pages into that and I just realized that I just didn't care about this world. I didn't care about the characters. It was very slow. I just I just couldn't get into it. Now, I know a lot of people love Wheel of Time, including some of my best uh friends here on book, Andrew Nico.

[00:10:33]I'm sure there's others, but yeah, uh it's just not for me. another very overrated fantasy author that's really only written a couple of things and they're supposedly working on the third book but they've been working on it for about as long as George has been working on Winds of Winter actually. Um I'm of course talking about Patrick Rothfus now I've read Name of the Wind and I actually liked that book. It was a three three and a half star book. Now I kind of have the opposite opinion that a lot of people have with this book. I loved loved the first couple hundred pages of that book. I thought it was excellent. I got a couple hundred pages in. I'm like, "Oh, I I understand why people love this book." But then it kind of does like a tonal shift and change of scenery and it's where Qu gets to the university and once that happens, I didn't really care about the book after that, which kind of sucked because I loved the first couple of hundred pages. It was excellent. And then from that point on, once it gets to the university, I just lost complete interest in the book. And I still I was it was fine, but it just didn't compare to the first couple hundred pages, which I thought were excellent. And then, of course, I DNFed Wise Man's Fear, just kind of a continuation. I really didn't care. And the things that I hear about book two, Wise Men's Fear, I'm glad I DNFed it because I don't think I would have enjoyed it. Now, I know a lot of people love Patrick Rothfist, and of course, they're very annoyed that he's still working on book three, but I'll be honest, I probably have no interest in reading book three if and when it comes out. Um, I I liked the first couple hundred pages of Name of the Wind and then after that just kind of fell off a cliff for me. And the last fantasy author I have to talk about is Ellie Miset, who wrote one of my least favorite fantasy books that I've ever read, The Magic of Recluse. Now, I jumped into this one because I really wanted to like this series. Not because like the series at all or the author was interesting to me, but the whole series on audiobooks is narrated by my all-time favorite audiobook narrator, Kirby Hayorn. There's like over 20 books in the series. He narrates all of them. So, I was just like, "Oh, man. If I love this first book, I can kind of binge through all of these." And Kirby Hayorn is amazing.

[00:12:58]But that first book just was awful. I gave that book maybe like one and a half stars. I just I didn't like the character, the main character especially. And the writing, oh my god, the writing was so annoying that he Ellie Madison does this thing where he like every couple of pages or like just a few times on every page it's felt like was automatia.

[00:13:25]Good lord. Like automatopia can be fine, but like when it's just like every sound he has to spell out. So like if there's a fight to cling cling the swords and then there's horse noises.

[00:13:39]and like trees whis just oh my god if you took out all the automatopia in that book the book would be like half the length I swear but like yeah that that just got really annoying and it sucked cuz again I love Kirby Hayorn but I don't want to hear him go cling clang like every two seconds Jesus Christ but even if it wasn't for the anamanopia I just thought the story wasn't very compelling ing. I thought the main character was very annoying. It's one of those main characters where like like he just if I remember correct he just thought everything in life was boring and like if like if your main character like his viewpoint he's viewing everything as boring, how the hell am I supposed to view it any other way? So, it just got under my skin and I I I somehow managed to finish that first book and then I said, "Well, maybe the first book, you know, debut, maybe a debut by that author. I don't know." But I I went ahead and tried the second book and it was just the same thing. I got super annoyed and I think it was also written in like present tense or something like that and it just really didn't work for me. So, I just threw that whole series out the window, which is a shame because I really wanted to like it mainly because Kirby Hayorn, but I just couldn't stand the writing, the automatopia, the characters weren't good. Just almost everything about that book just was not good. So, Magic of Recluse, Ellie Miset, definitely one of my least favorites.

[00:15:19]All right. So, those are my least favorite fantasy authors of all time. And again, I've read good books by these authors, but in general, these are the authors that I have the least amount of interest to either read again or to go back and try them again. These are authors that I just think of that I'm done with. And if you're curious, some of my all-time favorites obviously are George R.

[00:15:51]Martin, Brandon Sanderson, Bradley P.

[00:15:54]Bolio, Michael J. Sullivan, some newer ones like Daniel Abraham, and Peter McClean, Scott Lynch. So, in general, like those are some of my personal favorites. Now, of course, these eight fantasy authors I know are generally loved by most fantasy fans. I'm sure, you know, there's always going to be differing opinions, but in general, these are my least favorites. Definitely comment down below if you agree, especially if you agree, but definitely if you disagree as well. There's probably going to be a lot more of that than there is people agreeing with me.

[00:16:26]So, comment down below if you agree or disagree with my takes here. And definitely comment down below who are your least favorite fantasy authors.

[00:16:33]Even if they're my favorite, I want to hear it down below. So, comment down below. And of course, if you enjoyed this video, please give it a quick thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. And stay subscribed for more content. I try to post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Book us a tour discord down below where we've always got tons of buddy reads and readalongs happening all the damn time.

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