Inside the Blogosphere: Worst Endings in Science Fiction and Fantasy

The latest Inside the Blogosphere asked:

What are the worst or most disappointing endings in science fiction/fantasy novels? Why?

Here’s my, no doubt blasphemous, suggestion that the worst ending is for The Lord of the Rings:

“It pains me to say this, as it’s one of my favourite books, but one of the most disappointing endings has to be the fizzling out, living happily ever after ending of The Lord of the Rings. Having experienced such drama and tension throughout the three books the reader doesn’t really expect such a slow winding down to the books. Yes perhaps explain what happens to the characters afterwards, but we really get a bit too much of it. There’s the epilogue where they return to the Shire and everything’s turned a bit sour and they have to sort that out, but after defeating Sauron, this seems a little bit lame. But then Tolkien wasn’t perhaps writing a thriller as such, and he probably didn’t really care too much if readers got a little bit bored, and that’s why his work is so rich and rewarding, so I don’t think I would actually want to change anything either.”

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