Worst HF you've ever read

Leo62 · Post by **Leo62** » Sat December 27th, 2008, 8:16 pm

[quote=""Misfit""]Oh where do I start? The violence? The rapes? The historical inaccuracies? The 20C characters transplanted into medieval times? All together for me it was simply awful. Ash and EC can pick it up from here.

[/quote]

I can understand objections to POTE because of historical innaccuracies or anachronistic behaviour/attitudes.

But to object to a book set in C12th because it's too *violent*...

...that I don't get.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Sat December 27th, 2008, 8:40 pm

[quote=""Leo62""]I can understand objections to POTE because of historical innaccuracies or anachronistic behaviour/attitudes.

But to object to a book set in C12th because it's too *violent*...

...that I don't get.[/quote]

Oh, but the violence was described in such minute excruciating detail -- let alone the rapes. There was one with the prostitute that went way beyond the pale, it seemed like the author got his kicks on it. A better author can let the reader know what is going on without having to go into such excruciating detail.

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Sat December 27th, 2008, 9:18 pm

I can handle violence, I can handle rape scenes - I can't handle first the graphic lead up to the rape, a lead up that starts practically at page one, then the rape itself, the description of which was way over the top. There was nothing in the story that would have been enhanced by this description. Yes, the 12 century was violent; I did not need the graphics to understand that. It sounded like it was more a fantasy that the author had, and that he enjoyed writing about it. By the time I got to the prostitues rape, I was done.

Leo62 · Post by **Leo62** » Mon December 29th, 2008, 6:20 pm

It's years since I read it. Must admit I don't remember any rape scenes at all

Will have to revisit sometime...

Volgadon · Post by **Volgadon** » Mon December 29th, 2008, 6:40 pm

A rape in the 12th c is no more violent than one in this age, but there is no need to go into sickening detail!!!

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 2:40 am

Okay, I think I said somewhere earlier in this thread that I wasn't going to post a candidate. But at that time I had not read Gladiatrix.

This is a novel that has already been published in the U.K. and is coming out in April 2009 in the U.S. If it were not a LibraryThing "Early Reviewers" book that I had specifically requested (I have been kicking myself black and blue for that judgment lapse), I would have banged the wall with it very early on. I will not detail all of the many wall-banging moments in this book, at least one per chapter, but will simply say that, compared to Gladiatrix, the sexual violence in Pillars of the Earth is sparse and if not tame, at least well-written by comparison (and I'm no huge fan of Follett's prose style, which I find competent but certainly not literary). I have a high tolerance for sex and violence in novels if it's historically and psychologically authentic and integrated with the overall plot in a way that provides at least some degree of enlightenment about history and human nature. The author clearly did some research for this novel (he mentions Wikipedia in the author's note), but the historical details (where accurate) are only a thin cover for a lot of ugly, violent sex and silliness reminiscent of the XXX "women in prison" movies of decades ago. Plus, the one black character in the novel is an ugly, violent, stupid brute with no redeeming qualities (much like the novel) of whose skin color much is made - I'm surprised an American publisher would accept this without edits.

This is the first real "pan" I have done for my website. If anyone's interested in a more formal review, it's at http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Gladiatrix.html.

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 3:13 am

The author of "Gladiatrix" was a member of the older forum for a short time, and I remember him talking about the book, but even then I wasn't interested in it, and now I know for sure I'm not!

SM

gyrehead · Post by **gyrehead** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 3:15 am

I think I picked this up in a bookstore on a read the first twenty-fifty pages and see if it takes and then buy it (so far I'm doing pretty good on this gamble -- I end up buying most and as I am a very fast reader I'm not bogarting a section of the shelves).

Isn't the main character a Spartan? A female Spartan warrior. No matter how convoluted the author's attempt at justifying the premise this alone made it go back on the shelf.

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 3:24 am

The author clearly did some research for this novel (he mentions Wikipedia in the author's note),

ROTFLMAO!!!!! (rolling on the floor laughing my a off. much better as an acronym

Telynor · Post by **Telynor** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 5:38 am

Gladiatrix sounds pretty horrible. I think I will give it a miss, despite my fondness for things Roman. On a side note, one of my favourite bits of film when it comes to gladiators is the scene in I, Cladius where Livia is haranguing a bunch of gladiators before the games. If you haven't seen it, it's a great bit of schtick.