A game everyone can play!

[james_davis_nicoll]

When Paul Cook says

I’ll go ahead and say it: this is as close to an unpublishable novel as I’ve ever seen that’s actually achieved print.

he is talking about Niven and Benford's Bowl of Heaven. I deduce from this that he has never read the Tor edition of Norman Spinrad's He Walked Among Us or (oddly, also Tor) Ken Shufeldt's Genesis, which attracted reviews like

You want an example of how NOT to write a book? This is it. And every author who sold his soul to include a quote on the cover should be ashamed.

and

Quite possibly the worst book ever published. A couple of hours of my life that I'll never get back. Amazon, is there a reason I am forced to give it one star? It presumes that this book has some redeeming qualities.

What would be your candidate for the novel that is as close to an unpublishable novel as you've ever seen that actually achieved print?

Comments

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

ACROSS THE NIGHTINGALE FLOOR, by Lian Hearn. Its protagonist is the last survivor of a village that was attacked in an attempt to kill him, since he has talents which are capable of sorting the enemy out within forty pages or so.

I gave up partway through the second book when it finally dawned on me* that nothing conclusive was going to happen.

There are, I think, five books in the series.

It would be a better world if everyone who intended to write was taught the difference between suspense and stalling.