The Armies of Daylight
I stuck with Barbara Hambly's Darwath trilogy out of love for the author, only to find an ending that made three books of struggle feel pointless. Flat protagonists, frustrating plotting, and one of the most unsatisfying finales I've ever read.
The Panorama Egg
A panorama egg contains an entire fantasy world, and an infuriating protagonist gets to explore it. Baffling, uneven, and often unpleasant—but one magnificent, mysterious sorceress makes the whole thing unforgettable.
Dreamrider
A promising dream-world premise, a giant otter, and some of the most painfully stilted prose and dialogue I've encountered. I abandoned this one after eleven pages, with absolutely no regrets.
The Time of the Dark
A medieval historian, a drifter, and a magnificent old wizard find themselves fighting to survive an apocalypse in another world. An unexpectedly thin plot and unconvincingly resilient protagonists disappoint, but Ingold nearly saves the whole thing.
Dragon's Pawn
A computer programmer named Noble King gets whisked into a fantasy quest. Clumsy prose, casual sexism, an abandoned cat, and an unfortunately attractive fennec fox put an end to my reading.