i'd rather castrate myself with hydrochloric acid then read anything she writes

Is that because you had read her stuff?

I stay away from anything by James Joyce. Anyone who makes up language while writing a book... well, I'm just not going to get it or love it. Here's an excerpt from Finnegan's Wake if you need more reasons to stay away. The whole book is like this (Ulysses is awful, too).

...Well, you know or don't you kennet or haven't I told you every telling has a taling and that's the he and the she of it. Look, look, the dusk is growing! My branches lofty are taking root. And my cold cher's gone ashley. Fieluhr? Filou! What age is at? It saon is late. 'Tis endless now senne eye or erewone last saw Waterhouse's clogh. They took it asunder, I hurd thum sigh. When will they reassemble it? O, my back, my back, my bach! I'd want to go to Aches-les-Pains. Pingpong! There's the Belle for Sexaloitez! And Concepta de Send-us-pray! Pang! Wring out the clothes! Wring in the dew! Godavari, vert the showers! And grant thaya grace! Aman....

Yeah, that's pretty bad. Tolkien created his own languages, though.

I read one book and couldn't stand her the story, her writing style well anything... I don't see why anyone would say she is an excellant author...All that after reading reviews of The Vampire Lestat and how people loved it...Figured i'd try it since someone else bought it, and man was that an utter waste of time,,,

Well, to be fair, she's a genre writer. I.e. it's only good if you're into that genre. The Vampire Lestat was a pretty dull read, but the sequel, Queen of the Damned isn't bad. Story-wise, that is. But, again, genre fiction doesn't have to be "great".

Anne Rice's books read like she's doing it for the money. Her Beauty series written under A. N. Roquelaure is pretty interesting erotica. Not the best writing ever but they are nasty in a good way.

I heard she's found religion now.

...

Then would not the majority of authors be considered genre authors? Considering I read a lot of fantasy, I wouldn't say I am opposed to "genre" authors, but at least they could be good at what they do.

In that case, you shouldn't judge an author on just one book.

I often don't judge authors on just one book. I read The Vampire Lestat and hated it, I tried to watch Interview with a Vampire and hated it, watched Queen of the Damned, and well outside of Akasha I hated it... I know movies aren't often close to books, but well they often give a sight into the way the novel was laid out. Like I can't read the Harry Potter books, but I can watch the movies. I have tried to read more then one and made it through the first two novels though I can't say I would read any of the others ones and would say hey were good for children to read.

I'm guilty of judging authors by one book. I read the first three chapters of Terry Brooks' Sword of Shanarra, saw it was a LotR ripoff, gave it back to the person I borrowed it from and never read another one by him. I've heard his stuff got better over time, but I still haven't gotten around to giving him another try.

Luckily I never read the LotR series before reading Terry Brook's series and well I loved it. Still rereaed them from time to time and well I really need to get back to reading the books so I am able to follow the story of the newer novels.

Shadow how is it a rip off? I have read both series and there are similarities but nothing glaringly horrible. All fantasy is pretty much mirrored by every other fantasy book out there. Everyone who has written about elves harken back to Tolkien and even further back than that to a few early 18th century works of fantasy.
It is story that seperates each author and Terry Brooks is an excellent story teller. He still packs a wallop with his new books.

The last book I started to read The Elf Queen of Shannara...is it really worth reading the rest of the series?

Hmm, let's see...a small group of heroes, representing the various races in the world, including humans, elves, dwarves, and some stunty guys about half the size of humans, band together to save the world from a great evil...yep, sounds like a repackaging of LotR to me.

Here's my two cents:

Ethan Frome was awful.......there's a few hours of my life I'll never get back;

Darksword series by Weis & Hickman were great, then they slammed your head into a wall with an ending so friggin' bad it defies description;

and there must be a few more, but I can't think of them offhand, and I'm sure it'll come to me....

A-fucking-men.

It was worse than bad. It made me, in fact, want to find their phone numbers and ask for a conference call, then demand who did acid first, and WHY, GOD, WHY???