What ruins a good fantasy story?

[fairywaif]

I can't remember the name of the book(I think I blocked it) but all they went on about was Wulder. Trust me, Christian fantasy? Can be pretty boring.

I also hate when they make it that the main charater suddenly gains powers or they have so many that they are a god. (Or if they turn out to be a god.) There has to be SOME kind of struggle.  

[Ziporae]

Choosing between the beginning, middle, or end...
The end is definatly ruined most!! gonk  

[Setsuna Rainrix]

Lets see. . .
I hate when a book kind of just ends. Like, you know there should be more but the author got bored and ended it. I also hate when a series just ends without being completed.
One thing that can ruin a good fantasy story is too much detail! Don't get me wrong, more is almost always better, but there are a few books I've read that put too much. They started describing a chair. color shape wood, but the author took it to another level. It took four pages to describe a chair that really had nothing to do with the damn story!
Another thing that ruins a good story is the depth the author takes it to. I like the main character to have a past, but when 3/4ths of the book is nothing but past, it gets kindof boring.
There's more, but I feel I've ranted (more than likely repetitively) enough sweatdrop .  

[Harbone]

Setsuna Rainrix

Lets see. . .
I hate when a book kind of just ends. Like, you know there should be more but the author got bored and ended it. I also hate when a series just ends without being completed.
One thing that can ruin a good fantasy story is too much detail! Don't get me wrong, more is almost always better, but there are a few books I've read that put too much. They started describing a chair. color shape wood, but the author took it to another level. It took four pages to describe a chair that really had nothing to do with the damn story!
Another thing that ruins a good story is the depth the author takes it to. I like the main character to have a past, but when 3/4ths of the book is nothing but past, it gets kindof boring.
There's more, but I feel I've ranted (more than likely repetitively) enough sweatdrop .

On the contrary! I, myself, am delighted to hear someone else rant for a change! For my part, I hope you find it in yourself to rant on a bit more.

PS. That is one spooky siggy you have there!  

[angelic5252]

when half of the book is explaining the entire government, history, and landscape of the book, that there really is no plot left! it makes it so dull to read crying . because its so long and it seems like it wil never end! xp  

[sabriel111]

I've read over half of a book and nothing is happening and the book was sopposed to be about some person trying to take over the world good versus evil thing but it started talking about a religion like christianity with a different name but what bithers me is thats all the book talks about it's soooooooooo boring and stupid the best thing thats happened is he main character was chased by evil thing but then it turned into some nice happy story when he met some bread maker then got like completly of the point of the book I couldn't finish it it was so bad  

[NightIntent]

(Since I both like this thread, and have something to add....)

When a character's personality or something about his/her character (oh, how obsolete that sounds) in the middle of a book or series, that entirely kills the book or series for me. For example, in A Fistful of Charms (the fourth or fifth book in a series), Rachel does something that she was extrememly against in the first few books, that she's been adamantly opposed to for the rest of the series. After she does that thing, she decides she likes it and wants to keep doing it. That's just wrong. You don't build up a character, just to have them crash like that, and over a stupid reason, too. (Whoever's read the book ought to know what I'm talking about, but I'm not going to be speific, because it kills the entire series.) Yeah, I'm just touchy about characters being consistent. Or at least having a decent reason for changing like that. Changing over time isn't bad, either.  

[Sol-chan]

When a story just ends and leaves you to deside what happened. >.< That's the perfect way to ruin ANY story. Last year we had to read some short stories in English, and there was one called The Lady and the Tiger or something to that effect. And, in the end it just stopped!!! It ended with the lady pointing at a door and leaving the reader to deside which one she pointed at. Aghh!!! I hated it!!! It was really good at first then it just stopped!!! crying I spent several minutes flipping through the text book trying to find the end before realizing that WAS the end. sweatdrop
Also, when the ending is given away by the middle of the book. I hate that, it's sooo annoying. A little foreshadowing is nice, but some authors over do it a bit....  

[NightIntent]

I think I've actually seen some stories that pull that off well. Hills Like White Elephants by Hemingway was one, that I can remember. Of course, I needed notes from the internet to actually understand what the two people were talking about (because I'm dense like that), but the ending had no real, definite conclusion as to the solution of the problem. One of the endings could be assumed, but it wasn't certain that was what was going to happen. But, yeah, most people can't pull that off at all. And that ending just sounds kinda dumb.  

[elmon]

I once read a book (not fantasy) about a man telling about his past on and on. It was pretty lame. In the end, it turned out those stories were made up by him. When you read that, you go like Argh!!! stressed evil scream gonk  

[moonjinx]

would this book happened to be called Dandelion Wine?  

[haelia]

what ruins a story?
killing a character...  

[Meithanos]

Hmm... Bad endings to books DO suck... but to realize this you have to have liked the book well enough to get to that point to read it. So, while you may not read the book again, it didn' t "kill" the book.


For me, lack of decient plot, Static main characters (or characters who don't really change any throughtout the book and/or series), and two dementional main characters (characters who lack any depth to them...) kill it for me.

Take Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire (Not quite fantasy I know, but bare with me)... I kept hearing how "wonderful" a vampire novel it is/was. But I couldn't make it through the first third of the book before I had to put it down. Nothing happens! The characters never change, the narrator (Louis) is very flat, and the storyline was only so-so.

Though on the same hand I LOVE Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's St. Germain vampire series, because the characters (even the minor ones) have depth and the story is rich with culture and plot.

Most fantasy books with this problem I've probably blocked out.



Also preachyness... I don't like it when authors try to force their views on you through books. I'm noticing this more and more in Fantasy novels. SoT being a big one for this... but the storyline is such taht I can overlook it when I read it because everything else about the story is pretty good.  

[scarlett enchantress]

i always hate it when the people you absolutely know should be together never do end up together. and i also hate it when the author is trying to say something but it comes out wrong. like if you were reading a book out loud in class and you didn't realize that you just read something totally gross to the class but makes sense to you because you're the one really paying attention.  

[Pwale]

Fools and idiots.