Abandoned book series

After I finished my post yesterday, I made another list of unfinished series. This time I am going to list the series that I did not like or did like but do not wish to continue reading – either because the first part was not that great or because I lost interest in that series. Only after I made this list did I realize that I have abandoned many series. Another point to note was that most of these series are fantasy series and a lot of them are young adult. This list was kinda eye opening to me as I realized I should stop picking young adult fantasy that others found interesting. I should explore other genres as I do not seem to like many young adult fantasy books. I should read more negative reviews and see why some people disliked a book before buying it. There is a good chance that one of those negative reviews might give me a hint as to what I might not like about that book.

I also abandoned two series which belong to “cozy mystery” genre and that is one genre that I will avoid in future. I seem to be doing okay with the other genres but when it comes to fantasy, I don’t think I like all the hyped books. I need to pick them carefully and not just buy a book since it is famous.

Note to self: I prefer darker novels with twisted characters more than sweet goody goody books.

Coming to fantasy series, I have abandoned 11 of these series after reading the first part. The reason for abandoning was that I did not like the first part and in most cases hated the first part –

1. The Kingkiller chronicles (The Name of the Wind) by Patrick Rothfuss – My review of this book is here.
2. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor – My review of the book is here.
3. Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan – My review of the book is here.
4. Howl’s moving castle by Diana Wynne Jones – I thought I would really like it, but as the story progressed, my interest in the book kept decreasing. It is written like a fairy tale, but still I felt it was boring. Once Sophie joins Howl, the story started losing charm. I did not like Howl’s character. I thought it might get interesting as I progress, but it just got worse. I had to force myself to read further. Some parts are funny, but most part of it is boring. I skimmed through the last few chapters. I watched the movie as I heard it is better than the book and did not like it either. It was very different from the book, since it did not have some of the boring stuff in the book. It instead had some wars and fights. But still did not impress me that much.
   Conclusion: Howl’s moving castle is not my cup of tea
5. His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass) by Philip Pullman – So damn boring is what I thought when I finished some chapters. Then it seemed to get interesting but again the narration made me fall asleep. Why does he have to go into such minute details?! She got up, brushed her teeth, ate seal meat and then cried. Who wants to know such minute details? The plot as such was interesting but it could have been more interesting provided the writing was better. There are no twists and turns in the story. Hardly anything surprising or suspenseful happens. Every other page had “She cried, she sobbed”. Full of conversations and she keeps consulting one or the person for advice. Had enough of it. And the protagonist is such a big liar and stubborn female that I did not like her. These kind of dialogues were major turn offs: “You en’t human”, “you like to fainted”. The part about Adam and Eve was even more boring. With great difficulty, I somehow completed the book. The only part I liked is the bears fight. I liked Iorek Byrnison among all the characters. 
6. Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe) by C.S. Lewis – I did like the first book in the series but not so much that I would like to read all the other parts.
7. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer – My review of the book is here.
8. The inheritance cycle (Eragon) by Christopher Paolini – My review of the book is here.
9. Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan – My review of the book is here.
10. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass – I expected a kickass tough character in this book. But it is a pathetic version of Twilight like someone has written in their review. Even Twilight was better as it had me hooked till the end and there were some suspense elements in the story. This book talks about an assassin who is more concerned about her looks, reading books and hitting on men. She sounds more like a college girl than an assassin. And like many others have already mentioned in their reviews, the author keeps saying she is the best assassin but we don’t see anything great in the main character’s actions – so more of telling than showing. I am having a hard time reading this book as it talks about eating, sleeping, chit chatting and nothing eventful happens. One of the important reasons for disliking is that I could not relate to the main character – at all! She is more concerned about kissing the prince than she is about surviving the competition or getting out alive. She is irritating and stupid. I did not find anything remote that can be termed as fantasy. Setting of the story is like Game of thrones and the competition sounds like Hunger games but that’s where the comparison ends. I am not sure I want to read any other book by this author again. I could not finish this book. I heard the series gets better as you proceed but I don’t want to waste time on this series with that hope.
11. Hunger games by Suzanne Collins – I loved the first part but found it to be too violent and scary. I did not have the courage to continue with this series.

Others –

1. Chocolat by Joanne Harris – Not as interesting as I thought it would be. But it was quite different from all the books that I have read so far. The movie was much better and it has Johnny Depp in it.
2. The No.1 Ladies’ detective agency by McCall Alexander Smith – It was an okay one time read. I thought this was a book with a single mystery like Agatha Christie’s novels. But it has about 10 cases that this detective solves and all the cases are trivial. They are solved so easily by her, that I wonder if I can even call her a detective. She solves mostly by talking to people or lying or following them. Nothing that intriguing or puzzling. Also it is written in a boring fashion and is not fast paced. I would rather call this book a women’s fiction than calling it a suspense novel. Also the name is misleading. I assumed it was a detective agency with many lady detectives. But there is a single detective in this novel.
3. The Princess diaries by Meg Cabot – This book is an exception in this list as I loved the book. It was hilarious but I am not that interested in picking the other books in the series. One of the reasons I think is because I have already seen all the movies based on these books with a great starcast of Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews.
4. Flavia de Luce series (The sweetness at the bottom of the pie) by Alan Bradley – I liked that it was a historical fiction based in England. I love stories which are British. I liked the mystery as such and how Flavia catches the murderer. I liked her interest in chemistry and her lab experiments. But the author has used pretty complicated sentences, even though it was not necessary. I did not like the writing much. Plenty of unnecessary conversations and scenes. Also I could not believe that a 11-year old girl could solve a murder case that easily. The clues to the murder were found relatively easily by her.. as if it just struck here accidently.
   Overall an okay cozy mystery but not so good that I want to pick the other books.
5. Millennium series (The girl with the dragon tattoo) by Stieg Larsson – My review of the book is here. 

I noticed something on my blog by going through some of my old posts. I usually review books that I do not like more than the ones that I like. Also I only write detailed review for non-fiction books. I somehow don’t feel the urge to review fiction books that I liked. I should change this pattern.