Today, the guys in the Goodreads Top 5 Wednesday group had a great topic: My least favorite books in my favorite series.  And all the participates had great lists with well respected books from big name series.  Many of the choices pretty stunning for different reasons.  All of which means it got me thinking about what books I’d pick to be on my own list.  Which, of course, led me to go look through my “read” list on Goodreads.  Which lead me to put my own list together.  Which lead me to decide to share that list with everyone and see if you agree with my choices or not.

5) Servant of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist & Janny Wurts 

I really, really adored this series when it was first released back in the late 1980s.  Mara of the Acoma was a complex, cunning and strong female lead during a time when that was in short supply in most fantasy series.  But where book one and three of the series were page turning affairs, I always found this installment of the series a bit hard to like.  Not sure why that is.  Maybe, it is just the dreaded middle book of a trilogy.

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4) The Runes of the Earth by Stephen R. Donaldson

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant have been going on for a long time.  I have personally read and enjoyed (Okay, Covenant does make it difficult to enjoy at times.) all the series, but I have to say this book was a horrible struggle to get through.  The reason is simple: Linden Avery.  In the Second Chronicles, she was a great supporting character who had a surprisingly important role in the conclusion of the trilogy, but here she absolutely bored me to tears.  She was so difficult to like it almost ruined the whole series for me.

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3) King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

I personally view The Broken Empire as the seminal grimdark series.  To me, nothing will ever top it.  The same way no other fantasy series will ever snatch away The Lords of the Rings’ spot as greatest fantasy series ever.  But I did not enjoy reading King of Thorns.  It infuriated me in so many ways.  Even though most of my complaints were “fixed” in the third book, I still have King on this list, because when I finished it I seriously considered not finishing the trilogy.

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2) Knight of the Demon Queen by Barbara Hambly

I’m not sure this book should even be on this list.  Why?  Well, even though I loved Dragonbane (book one), I hated every other book in the series.  This just happens to be the one I hated the absolute most.  But I’ve decided to put it on here, because I feel I should reward it for being horrendous.  I’d explain the reasons my hate for this novel flows so strongly, but I do not even wish to revisit such a dark period of my reading life.  Yes, it really was that painful to read.

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1) The Dark Tower by Stephen King

The Dark Tower series was a journey I will always remember.  Roland the Gunslinger and his ka-tet will always be in the conversation whenever I’m asked to name my favorite group of questing companions.  Several of the individual books are among my favorite novels ever.  But this grand finale of the epic saga disappointed me in every way.  The Crimson King? A major loser.  The dark tower?  Resolved nothing.  The story book ending for several characters?  Far too Hollywood to end such a dark story.  I could go on and on, but I will let The Dark Tower’s spot on top of this list speak for itself.

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