What ruins a good fantasy story?

[obscene_laughter]

for me, it's a mix. the first thing an author can do is start off badly, with lines that are so cheesy you'd rather read a fourth grader's book. another is slow down the action.... with romance. *falls asleep*. normally some romance is good, but it depends on whether the characters are really able to describe their feelings-to tell whether they were or were not justifiable, done for the right reasons or to distract a cop or something like that. anotehr big one: to much detail. believe it or not, i got bored over a good book because it had to much detail. xp  

[worthlesshadow]

example of a book that has a bit too much detail: Lion Boy. It took one flippin page just about to describe all the crap in one room. it was still a great book, but it was too much gonk

romance. I am against romance. though, if it actually belongs in the story line, than yeah, it would be interesting. not a big gooshy person, and too much description on how the person looks is kinda sick too stare  

[Marlaina]

bad writing... period... you can have a fabulous story, but if the author doesn't know thier craft (or if the editors didn't beat them into shape) i just can't get into it...

also things that don't belong in the world... you're going along, sucked into the book when all of the sudden you come across something that doesn't fit into the world that the author has created... if they can't explain why it's there i just want to throw the book across the room... then pick it up and finish it, but it still irritates me to no end  

[worthlesshadow]

that's sad. also opinion on what ruins a good story, fantasy or just in general, it being forced upon reading sucha book domokun that's the worst  

[Nuala]

Funnily enough, I was just griping about Williams, too. smile  

[6hi6]

if everything is given away just like that the book loosses me  

[Aryamenda13]

I think what ruins a fantasy book is when authors don't know how to write, well they do but they just go on and on about one thing. Run-on sentences and stuff like that. They can't just cut to the chase well that wouldn't be fun either but a whole chapter trying to get to one point. Thats what I think ruins a fantasy book.  

[Cassandra_the_Prophetess]

NightIntent

Flux_o_color

I don't like it when a book goes way to indepth with the politics. I love adventure and action and romance, but when you read a whole chapter about the politics, I sometimes lose interest.

Really? Politics from certain books can be really interesting. Like Through Wolf's Eyes. It's a really good book, and there's action mixed with politics. The whole plot of the book is about who will get the throne after the current king, whose children all died, dies. I love it. The politics can get a bit confusing sometimes, but it's so interesting. And I don't know why. Normally I hate politics.

I totally agree, i hate modern polotics, but sometimes it just makes the book. I think really fantsatic fantasy books have one key element, and that is the world they are set in, it has to be realistic, yet completely alien, and i think creating a completely new set of rules (for example, politicallty) helps to make that world more real. Take The Empire Series, by Raymond E. Feist, politics is a key theme, and its interesting because its nothing like what we are familiar with, politics there is cuthroat and ruthless, like ours, except literally! The involvement of the protagonist in that political really defines her too.  

[Marsel_lilas]

NightIntent

Flux_o_color

I don't like it when a book goes way to indepth with the politics. I love adventure and action and romance, but when you read a whole chapter about the politics, I sometimes lose interest.

Really? Politics from certain books can be really interesting. Like Through Wolf's Eyes. It's a really good book, and there's action mixed with politics. The whole plot of the book is about who will get the throne after the current king, whose children all died, dies. I love it. The politics can get a bit confusing sometimes, but it's so interesting. And I don't know why. Normally I hate politics.

*nods* Yeah, a great deal of politics, but sometimes those books are useful for when I'm writing....but I usually had to reread some of the books because they got confusing in some areas.  

[mangosteen]

Oh, PREDICTABILITY!! It's horrible, and it ruins a perfectly good plot. Sometimes an author can use 'predictablity' to surprise people by twists in the plot, but just plain predictabiltiy is annoying and distracing. Also horrible cliches, and books that have such similarities to other books that you're constantly distracted by comparing the two, especially if the one you've already read was written before the one you're reading now. The Sword of Shannara is a good example of this...

xd I feel like i'm nitpicking. I just like a good fantasy book... recently i've been having a hard time finding a good one... perhaps it's because i'm so picky! 3nodding  

[heathen_scum]

worthlesshadow

Wordstreamer

Oh..... And I remember one series, was almost entirely centered on religion. 've got nothing against religion in fantasy, but it went into depth--and depth--and more depth--on religion. It started to bore me, and I finally started skimming through the book. It got better, though. Plus side. xd

too into depth with one subject, like religion (neither am I against religion) kinda makes it boring. its like a commentary. ick...commentaries....

pretty much based on all one's particular interest and opinion. 3nodding

actually C.S. Lewis' space trilogy Pelandria, Out of The Silent Planet and That Hideous Strength have a really interesting religious undertone woven throughout the plot enhancing and strengthening the characters and giving great motivation etc...

but personally what ruins a book most for me is someone who thinks they can write but can't scream gonk scream stressed evil
grrr
sorry but it really gets me worked up...like the guy who wrote eragon...ugh...he was the worst writer i have ever read...i swear i wanted to shove a literature book down his nose...

yeah and another thing that i believe ruins a good story is a complete lack of logic...all the best stories have several assumptions or changes in them but aside from that they make it as if it was real...
for example harry potter...in the first book he tries to save the sorceror's stone from voldemort and instead ends up just about giving it to him...if you think about it voldemort would never have been able to get the stone if harry hadn't been there and might actually be caught by dumbledore instead of escaping...and instead of punishing harry he was made into a hero and encouraged to be a brat and think too much of himself...a complete lack of logic such as this ruins a story  

[Cassandra_the_Prophetess]

I just thought of something that really puts me off!

Overly powerful characters!!! I don't want to read about a magician who is so magical, he can do anything and everything! There have to be limitations! That's something that irritates me about David Eddings books, though i adore some of them, Belgarath is a great character, but he lacks humanity, in some ways.  

[heathen_scum]

hey!
belgrath did get his butt royally kicked by torak...
(this is meant is a none offensive way cause i know i'm gonna sound offensive...)
but anyway i really must disagree...i believe that the characters in edding's books are some of the best characters and its mostly because they are so limited...remember when belgrath almost lost his ability to do magic because he was using to much? things like that make it so much more real...some other books i could mention *cough cough harry potter cough* have no limit to the characters power and are just so bloody annoying  

[NightIntent]

I've got a new one to add. Bad endings. Or bad character pairings and then a bad ending. I'm currently reading a book (yes, I skipped to read the end) and it's got both. I was ready to scream, and that almost entirely killed my interest in reading the book. It's the fourth book in a series, and I heard it was the best so far. I disagree. Vehemently. That's at least two books in the last week that I've read that have crappy endings. How disappointing.  

[Rabid Nozomi]

I don't know about the plot being crushed by the story, but I did read "The Fairy Godmother" by Mercedes Lackey, and it was a great story and plot and written wonderfully, but then, towards the end, there was sex and it ruined the whole book.