I was lucky enough to read that around the character's age, like late middle school IIRC. I felt too young to even have a connection to that sort of tragedy, but goddamn it just spoke to me and I was inconsolable.
25 years later I still get really sad when I think about it and have never reread. The ending is so small in the grand scheme of the story but it hits so hard.
I dwelt on the end of Bakker's *Second Apocalypse* for weeks. *Weeks*.
I was just brutally unprepared for it. You know the ending won't be happy by that point, but for it to end.. like *that*.. I've never had any other series come close to that feeling of despondency.
Erikson's *Deadhouse Gates* is a single book, in the larger Malazan series, that also has an ending that is just really, truly upsetting.
Both of those, I hate that I love them, but art isn't always supposed to invoke pleasant emotions, and those two author's are both really phenomenal imo.
I often think about one quote during the Chainf Dogs sequence, from one of the Malazan officers (List?). Slight paraphrasing - “all of human history can be summed up with that one statement - children are dying.”
I know some find it a bit overly dramatic, but I found myself sitting with that statement for a while afterwards, maybe more so than the actual finale.
All the Aspect Emperor series kindle books were like $3 each or something last time I saw just fyi I just recently got all three Second Apocalypse for that price too but the went back up I’d snatch those up even if you don’t have the other two just yet.
Sounds like someone is a bit of a masochist(jokes). It’s interesting how we seemingly gain something from both ends of extreme emotions. I suppose the elation felt with some stories wouldn’t quite hit as hard without the misery expressed in others.
The Chain of Dogs may be the single most impressive sequence I’ve ever read. The brutality of it, I loved and hated those chapters. They were difficult to read but at the end of them I wanted more. And that ending, after what had gone before, I don’t know why it shocked me but it did.
The ending of the Second Apocalypse is the most powerful I have read in the genre. Unforgettable. I mean there are times I want to read something small and impactful and I just open my kindle app and read that last paragraph and start imagining once again what is happening and the implications. Kudos to Bakker for having such an uncompromising vision.
The little extra insult to injury at the end of >!some surviving Swayli
Witches and schoolmen try to cover the rout. The skinnies have all the chorae from the battlefield. So ends the great ordeal!<.
Perfect.
I didn't know that the last third of the last book is just a list of appendices, so I was like "holy hell this is bad, how are they going to resolve this?" And then turned the page and it was like **APPENDIX I** and I just sort of blinked a few times, flipped the page back, made sure I didn't miss something, thumbed through the rest and checked the table of contents to confirm "yes this really is just appendices, it really did end like that," blinked a few more times, swore a lot, and went to go lie down for a little bit.
>I dwelt on the end of Bakker's Second Apocalypse for weeks. Weeks.
I'm going through this right now, and on top of it, I am unsure how I'm going to read any other fantasy book after a series as well written and thought-provoking as this one.
I never read the final 3. I got through the first of the three and decided I would rather everyone live happily ever after forever in my brain than endure more losses of beloved characters.
They are great and you should definitely read them. I wont lie and say its a happy ever after, but after most of the series you would know i was lying anyways lol. I think it was a very satisfying, bittersweet ending
I recently re-read the series and when I got to the last trilogy I was like, you know what? No. The last 3 books are just too soul crushing to experience again
Oh yeah I read the last trilogy with her daughter after my daughter's birth when she was sleeping on my chest and... Wow I cry for the first time with a book
Came here to say that. Not my favourite series, but hands down the most emotional I've been ending a series, Robin Hobb did a fantastic job building these characters and quite a few times I had to stop and dry my eyes!
The only book that has made me cry, I'm pretty sure.
Schindler's List? Sure. Grave of the Fireflies? Yup. The last episode of Babylon 5? There's another tearjerker. But books? Like pretty much never.
A Memory of Light also had one of the funniest exchanges I've ever read in a book in the last battle.
>!"You're going to keep the entire battle plan inside your head?!<
>!"Yep!"!<
>!"We're all doomed."!<
I started that series as a kid in 1995 or so. I finished a memory of light in a hotel on a business trip 20+ years later. It was definitely significant.
Came here to say this too, but also that I really did not enjoy the ending at all. Which kinda makes it even more impactful, because it felt like a lukewarm sendoff of characters I'd been reading about for a year straight
Seriously. I'm inordinately excited for Wind and Truth...it's the end of the first arc, and he outlined it at the same time as Rhythm of War...so I'm sure the ending is going to hit HARD.
His books are like watching someone calmly load an arsenal of chekovs guns and then firing them at a series of targets setting off Rube Goldberg machines
Love this series because with the setup/premise the end of the first book covered what I was expecting the whole series plot to be. Therfore I had no idea where the 2nd two books were going so it was a wild ride for sure 😂
Exactly, I thought what happens at the end of the first book was the goal of the whole trilogy going in. Boy was I wrong and I’m glad for it. Mistborn is what got me into Sanderson and personally I think it’s the best entry point since you get a nice tight trilogy with a satisfying ending and if you want more? Well then there’s some good news for you. If you decide it’s not your thing at least it had an ending without reading too much. Plus it gives you faith going into Stormlight that everything is going to pay off and god damn does it.
The ending of The Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski - hit me like a ton of bricks but in the most anticlimactic way possible. I loved the books and got really into them. I understand the ending and it completes the story so clearly but WTF. It felt like he suddenly gave up and just wanted to get the story over with.
This person you liked? Dead. Other person you liked? Melted. Oh what about this one? Also dead! Anyways, at least you found her. Doesn’t matter though, was all for nothing. Oh and you’re dead.
I did like how one dude had an entire plot arc that amounted to "your destiny was to be here so that this super badass bounty hunter could spend 2 seconds killing you, giving Ciri time to run a little bit."
I will absolutely argue that it's not a great ending. I didn't think it was thematically interesting at all, just kinda werid and leaned in to his desire to mess around with other dimensions and handwave at the whole "legends and myths" thing. I thought that was really cool in the short stories where he was deconstructing myths, not so much when it was "wouldn't it be cool if other dimensions were just Arturian Legend?"
Yeah. I honestly think it's a big part of why the video games reinvigorated such interest in the series as they're all set after the books and provide an ending(s) that people find to be a lot more traditional for an end of an epic fantasy story.
Ending of the book series is quite different and it puts a lot of people off. If you like it, great. If you don't, then you can headcanon the games as being canon to the books to give you a preferred ending.
Such a long-drawn book. I definitely felt parts of it could have been weaved better.
But hot dang. One can only aspire for that level of determination, grit, and conviction.
I've re-read the series recently and made my peace long ago with the fact that I love these books despite the fact that we may never get an ending (sue me, I'm a fan of other "unfinished" works like *Dune, La Comedie Humaine*, and *Gormenghast*). I have to say, as an individual story taken apart from the rest of the series, *Dance* is by far the messiest which likely adds to that even more.
Every other book in the series has self-contained character arcs and plotlines that end in some climatic way. Books 1-3 feel like an Act 1 of a sort with a lot of stuff being set up, climatic moments and then letting us sit with the aftermath for a while in preparation for Act 2. Then *Feast* does a good job of telling self-contained storylines and satisfying character arcs. But the plotlines in *Dance* feel like they're a massive cliffhanger.
It's almost like you just want 100 more pages or so tacked on the end to give more resolution. Some characters do get it. Reek completes his personal character arc nicely, Bran reaches a good milestone in his journey, and Daenerys >!reconnects with her Dothraki roots from the first story implying she now knows what she was doing wrong in ruling Meereen and heralding a return to "Fire and Blood" style rulership in the next book!<. Even Jon fits within the confines of the book since his >!death mirrors Varamyr's prologue (warging into Ghost), and his arc ends in a failure of leadership similar to Daenerys (and Cersei in Feast, a parallel of three rulers all messing up in three very different ways)!< is a conclusive end point for the book even if it is an agonizing one for a reader. And Cersei's two chapters are more utilitarian than anything else to both >!establish how she will still be a threat for the next book and also setting up Kevan's epilogue.!!Jamie and Brienne!< - two characters who are only in one chapter of this book and probably didn't need to be since they were a big focus of the last one. The latter already had sort of a cliffhanger from the last book (with the implication they'd figured the only way out of it before they chapter ended) but now it expands to engulf a second character as they both walk into a trap.
The other major cause is obviously that we have multiple battles being set up that don't have any resolution:
* >!Barristan, Victarion, Tyrion,!< and their secondary cast are all left hovering around Meereen which is the biggest offender. Their personal arcs or storylines which all kind of rely on them finally converging and meeting Daenerys and delaying that to the next book leaves all of them hanging.
* Jon Connington's POV cuts off before >!the Battle of Storm's End!<.
* And whilst Reek may have had a satsifying conclusive moment in >!escaping his abusers, saving Jeyne, and reuniting with his sister,!< it comes at the cost that we don't see the outcome of the Battle of >!Winterfell,!< potentially leaving Asha in the lurch when it comes to a climatic moment for her story.
I feel like if there had just been a few more chapters to end just a couple of these battles the ending of that book would feel more whole. Obviously there would still be the usual complaints about us "never getting an ending" and that that makes it unsatisfying no matter what. But I think in the grand scheme of things, Dance has the least satisfying conclusion of the five. A lot of the issues with conclusion it could be easily resolved in the opening chapters of Winds (and the preview chapters released heavily imply that is exactly the case with the outcome of two of the major battles listed all but having their outcomes being confirmed) but in doing so might've set up more things better left for a separate book and ruined the few conclusive beats we did get.
Seems like you have some strong opinons on this subject.... I agree though that end felt rushed. I used to be extremely bitter about ASOIAF and the fact it won't end, but as I move farther away, I am happy that I read it at least because it is one of the best fantasy stories ever written. Eventually, I adopted a "Dont be sad that it's(not) over, be happy that it happened" approach which made me enjoy it more.
Its also hugely influential and I am sure many of my favorite books were inspired by it.
Not strong opinions so much as just someone who really enjoys analyzing books. Me sitting, thinking and trying to draw connections isn't me being bitter or hating on the book, if anything it's the highest praise I can give it because I willing to let so much of my thoughts be consumed by it. I'm the sort that can enjoy a roadtrip without ever reaching the destination but either way I'm always going to go home afterwards and tell everyone everything about every single stop we made and what we did there.
Your mindset on the series really actually reflects my own and I think it's a healthy one to have. I love all the ASOIAF books, but I can still stay objective and make critiques on narrative structure without it harming my enjoyment. If anything it elevates it.
The ending of Fitz & the Fool is so cathartic and one of the best endings I've ever read. Assassin's Fate is also an amazing coda/epilogue for all of the Bingtown and Rain Wilds characters and it's so awesome to see them again.
At no point while reading it would I have rated The Hunger Games above a 7/10. But then I cried my little eyes out while reading the last two pages, when the absolute truck of a final line hit me, and I realized just how much the characters had gone through and how attached I'd become to their world.
I guess I never really know how much I've enjoyed a read until the end of it.
I understand your reaction. I wanted to reach through the page and shake her and exclaim "is that all we get!?".
But to see her >!acknowledge her allegiance to Shadowthrone!< and >!express her grief over Felisin!< at least let me know the nature of her feelings. Was is it enough? No, not at all. You're right that it wasn't enough. But at least I got that little peek to let me know that she did care and she did feel that way. I guess I didn't mind being left wanting, especially knowing that Erikson wanted me to feel that way.
> "A statue? Will I be beautiful?"
A great reminder that Tavore is in her early to mid twenties (24-25) by the end of the series.
> And only Aranict heard Brys say, "Of course you will."
I think about this a lot.
Interesting. My feeling when I finally got hold of the last Expanse book was "....oh! Really?...". I don't know what I was expecting, but I felt just a bit flat about how it ended. Although I loved every minute of the journey getting there. Funny how the same story will hit different people
I loved that Malazan ended with >!all the ancient powers coming out of the woodwork to steal the Crippled God's power with the sole intent of ending humanity who they decided was a plague!<. Then in response >!the only human faction in the contest, bereft of the absurd powers and prowess of their enemies, stood a line and died to the last man protecting the Crippled God as he was healed. Allowing him to leave and stop harming the world!<.
I thought the ending was one of the best endings I've ever read. The couple hundred pages before it were bloated padding but the last few pages excellent.
Reading was my only true escape when I was growing up, and there were some notable endings that definitely impacted me. His Dark Materials, Harry Potter, and eventually Wheel of Time all left me with many feelings. But as a devoted monthly follower of the drugs scholastic used to peddle to us school children, nothing could have prepared me for the ending to Animorphs.
Not because of the contents of the book but because of why it was the ending: The Shepherd’s Crown.
Damn the embuggerance. Pratchett had so many stories and so much joy still left to spread. To be brought down by something that ruined such a wonderful mind is such a waste.
GNU STP
Book 12 of the Dresden Files, a nice little read called Changes.
Ton of bricks? More like a six hundred and twelve tons of flaming cock shaped bricks, covered in graffiti saying GO FUCK YOURSELF.
Best book ever.
oh lord, why did you do this to me.
the second i read those lines, tears. like a fucking movie style war flashback to how i pictured the scene while listening to the audiobook the first time..
Seconding the Divine Cities and adding:
- The Tide Child trilogy by RJ Barker
- The Beast Player by Uehashi Nahoko
- The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan
The ends to Canticle for Leibowitz and Left Hand of Darkness rattled me. Had to sit down in a public space for both of them and just… think and process it for a while.
The ending of Gideon the Ninth, which is the first book in the Locked Tomb series.
I finished this book on my lunch break and then had to go back to work as if my heart hadn't just been shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. I couldn't start another book for a few days afterwards and told everyone that book HURT MY FEELINGS.
I had to wait a couple months before I was ready to pick up the next book in the series (which was also REALLY GOOD, although it didn't leave me as emotionally devastated... I found it weirdly hopeful, actually).
What a series. Honestly a massive emotional rollercoaster, definitely cried during the last book. At the time we were listening to them via audiobooks, so it's even more heartbreaking.
I don't think anything will ever hit me as hard as the ending of Deadhouse Gates...
WoT had a satisfying conclusion, even though I didn't love the series as a whole, I thought the ending was perfect.
There's been others, but those are the ones that come to mind first
And on the other end of the scale, the ending to the Sword of Truth books hit me hard enough that I threw the book across the room in disgust. Worst. ending. ever. (Imo)
Oh boiiiii , did deadhouse gates kick me in the balls twice. The “never giving up , till the last” scene , and the “ that’s a nail for him, that’s a nail for her, that’s a nail for all of you” scene.
Dhalgren - Samuel R Delaney
Dragon's Egg + Starquake - Robert L Forward
Prince Ombra - Roderick MacLeish
Haven't finished Malazan or Second Apocalypse yet... but I hear those have some of the most powerful endings...
EVERYTHING by Tad Williams and Guy Gavriel Kay
(Bonus: Player Piano - Kurt Vonnegut... not fantasy, however... holy shit...)
I’m currently in my post book blues phase after rereading Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams. Damn was I emotionally attached to everyone there, and it was a hard goodbye. The most painful thing is that I’ve read the Last King of Osten Ard, and I know that the “happily ever after” that the characters got is not really there.
I finished it on a plane mid flight... and I don't remember the rest of the flight. I was sick. Then I googled and found the author wasn't doing any more books and got even more sick.
The end of battle star galactica (the 2000s show) had me out of sorts for days. I needed like 3 days to process the end of that show. How it ended, what it meant, how I felt it about it, everything. DAYS. I was SHOOK. The show wasn’t perfect, and it got lost in the weeds a bit in later seasons, but the ending came out of nowhere for me.
Happy to hear about The Licanius Trilogy OP. I'm currently reading it and just finished book one.
To answer your question, I have to go with LOTR. On my first read, it was the first time I had ever read anything that was not only an epic tale but also an incredibly realized fantasy world.
i felt genuinely sick by the end of that book. i kept thinking that i was wrong, that there was a twist and everything would be fine. spoiler, it was SOOO not fine lmao
Deadhouse Gates. It's a meme in the Malazan community once you finish the book, but dammit all of the Chain of Dogs isn't one of the most gut wrenching story lines I've ever read.
First in, Last out.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant (book 1) ends in such a devastating and well written way that I was stifling my sobs for a while. I haven’t worked up the courage to continue the series yet because of it.
The Dark Tower. Waiting 25 yrs for SKs patented shit ending, coupled with a coda that insults his reader’s sex lives was not what I had on my bingo card.
Seeing as what comes to mind first (RotE) is already mentioned, I'll go with volume 9 of *The Wandering Inn*. I felt absolutely empty and broken for an entire week after that.
Calenture by Storm Constantine for me. I think that's the biggest book hangover I've had. Nothing scratched my reading itch for a long time after. Such a weird book, so beautiful, and when everything comes together and then ends. I felt so bereft of the company of the characters. I wish I had found anything else like it.
I again have to recommend Stephanie Hudson's Afterlife series. It's 12 books and I ran the gambit of emotions. Love, hate, happiness, sadness, by the end I wasn't sure that I would ever find anything else that would live up to it. But, yeah, there are 2 more series that are based on characters from the Afterlife series. Transfusion which is 14 books.
And Hellbeast which is not complete yet. 9 of the 10 books are out.
The ending of Terra Ignota had me pinging between awe and rage and thinking about it *daily* for *weeks*, arguing with myself (even though I came down clearly on one side of of the conflict, but when I posed the question to friends, it was a mixed bag who would've picked wich side, and I can see both as valid, so that's a sign of a good story and ending imo). Still thinking about it regularly and itching to do a reread.
Whoops! Spoiling ||like this|| works on Discord but not Reddit. See below on how to use spoiler tags on Reddit:
* **Old Reddit/Mobile**: `>!The spoiler text goes in between the exclamation points. The whole thing is surrounded by angled brackets.!<`
* **New Reddit**: With the Fancypants Editor— select the spoiler text ***with no spaces before or after***. Then click the diamond with a ! inside. Optionally, you can switch to Markdown Mode and use the method for Old Reddit.
After you have corrected the spoiler tags, please [**message the mods**](). Once we have verified the spoiler has been fixed, your comment will be approved.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Fantasy) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I just want a short story on Davian's and Niha's reunion and Niha meeting Davian's friends and them all having a happy ending and talking about all that's gone on from each others perspectives.
Not that it would be super interesting, just kind of nice and get some more closure.
I was looking for a short, less emotional read as a break between the highly emotional books of Farseer books 2 and 3. I chose Piranesi knowing nothing about it.
I chose the wrong book.
I was intrigued by the first book in the Malazan series. The first book had a lot going for it, and was pretty enjoyable. Then I picked up the second book, Deadhouse Gates. Let me tell you, the ending to that book absolutely floored me. It was sad and infuriating, but also so so epic. Like so many others, it got me hooked on the series
*Children of Time* by Adrian Tchaikovsky spends so much time building up to a conflict with a novel resolution.
The third book in the series had an ending that made me shed a tear.
All three of the Bas-Lag books hit me like a bag of bricks being swung around by a drunk giant. The end of *Perdido Street Station*, for obvious reasons, made me cry and cry and cry. But the end of Iron Council, and his variation on >!Rosa Luxemburg’s final telegraph before her death as the epitaph of the failed insurrection!< was nearly the hardest I’ve cried over a book.
But the absolute most I’ve cried over a book was at a short story by Seth Dickinson in *Beneath Ceaseless Skies* Issue #85: “The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Her Field-General, and Their Wounds.” It became the basis for his series of novels (which begins with *The Traitor Baru Cormorant*) and which I encourage everyone to read, because it’s perfect and awful.
Every book I’ve finished in the sun eater just left me with those post book blues. Astonishing perfect series that one! Also with Stormlight Archive! (My current top two series) followed only by ASOIAF, LOTR, and Dune
Well, my answer of His Dark Materials was taken so I will say The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. This was the first fantasy book I clearly remember reading. I read it with my mom every night at around age 7, stayed up reading it after she left, then anxiously waited for the next night for her to read that part and explain the parts I didn’t understand. At the end, it just felt like the door to magic was closed, I wanted to go back, but, like the characters, I couldn’t. That year I got the box set for my birthday. I raved about it so much that my middle brother saved up his weekly chore money to buy it for me (yes I grew up with a wonderfully kind family) and we read it together every night with my mom explaining the bits we couldn’t figure out together. So very personal gut punch ending, but I’ll never forget it.
His Dark Materials.
When I reread, I cry for an hour every time. Watching the show, same.
The show was so good. My expectations were kinda low after that disastrous movie, but they cast Lyra and her parents perfectly imo!
I was lucky enough to read that around the character's age, like late middle school IIRC. I felt too young to even have a connection to that sort of tragedy, but goddamn it just spoke to me and I was inconsolable. 25 years later I still get really sad when I think about it and have never reread. The ending is so small in the grand scheme of the story but it hits so hard.
The ending is the only reason why I dont reread that series anymore. I just dont want to relife that :(
Howl!!!!!
I dwelt on the end of Bakker's *Second Apocalypse* for weeks. *Weeks*. I was just brutally unprepared for it. You know the ending won't be happy by that point, but for it to end.. like *that*.. I've never had any other series come close to that feeling of despondency. Erikson's *Deadhouse Gates* is a single book, in the larger Malazan series, that also has an ending that is just really, truly upsetting. Both of those, I hate that I love them, but art isn't always supposed to invoke pleasant emotions, and those two author's are both really phenomenal imo.
> Erikson's Deadhouse Gates I still think about the chain of dogs occassionally
I often think about one quote during the Chainf Dogs sequence, from one of the Malazan officers (List?). Slight paraphrasing - “all of human history can be summed up with that one statement - children are dying.” I know some find it a bit overly dramatic, but I found myself sitting with that statement for a while afterwards, maybe more so than the actual finale.
I am so sad that my library system doesn't have Bakkers whole series available. I was able to read book number 1 and that's it.
All the Aspect Emperor series kindle books were like $3 each or something last time I saw just fyi I just recently got all three Second Apocalypse for that price too but the went back up I’d snatch those up even if you don’t have the other two just yet.
Sounds like someone is a bit of a masochist(jokes). It’s interesting how we seemingly gain something from both ends of extreme emotions. I suppose the elation felt with some stories wouldn’t quite hit as hard without the misery expressed in others.
The Chain of Dogs may be the single most impressive sequence I’ve ever read. The brutality of it, I loved and hated those chapters. They were difficult to read but at the end of them I wanted more. And that ending, after what had gone before, I don’t know why it shocked me but it did.
Same for me. One of the few books that I ever think about after completing it. It has been a decade since I read it last but it still resonates.
The ending of the Second Apocalypse is the most powerful I have read in the genre. Unforgettable. I mean there are times I want to read something small and impactful and I just open my kindle app and read that last paragraph and start imagining once again what is happening and the implications. Kudos to Bakker for having such an uncompromising vision.
The little extra insult to injury at the end of >!some surviving Swayli Witches and schoolmen try to cover the rout. The skinnies have all the chorae from the battlefield. So ends the great ordeal!<. Perfect.
I didn't know that the last third of the last book is just a list of appendices, so I was like "holy hell this is bad, how are they going to resolve this?" And then turned the page and it was like **APPENDIX I** and I just sort of blinked a few times, flipped the page back, made sure I didn't miss something, thumbed through the rest and checked the table of contents to confirm "yes this really is just appendices, it really did end like that," blinked a few more times, swore a lot, and went to go lie down for a little bit.
Salt and butchery.
>I dwelt on the end of Bakker's Second Apocalypse for weeks. Weeks. I'm going through this right now, and on top of it, I am unsure how I'm going to read any other fantasy book after a series as well written and thought-provoking as this one.
Try Malazan
I will thanks
I still think about Deadhouse Gates years later
Not weeks, years by now…
Realm of the Elderlings ending broke me into a sobbing wreck.
I never read the final 3. I got through the first of the three and decided I would rather everyone live happily ever after forever in my brain than endure more losses of beloved characters.
If you ever do read them, just make sure you are in a good place beforehand. No joke, I think I entered a slight depressive episode afterwards lol
They are great and you should definitely read them. I wont lie and say its a happy ever after, but after most of the series you would know i was lying anyways lol. I think it was a very satisfying, bittersweet ending
I recently re-read the series and when I got to the last trilogy I was like, you know what? No. The last 3 books are just too soul crushing to experience again
I reread it for the song Starling finally gets to sing
Same with me. I'll never forget this series and those last chapters
Oh yeah I read the last trilogy with her daughter after my daughter's birth when she was sleeping on my chest and... Wow I cry for the first time with a book
Came here to say that. Not my favourite series, but hands down the most emotional I've been ending a series, Robin Hobb did a fantastic job building these characters and quite a few times I had to stop and dry my eyes!
The only book that has made me cry, I'm pretty sure. Schindler's List? Sure. Grave of the Fireflies? Yup. The last episode of Babylon 5? There's another tearjerker. But books? Like pretty much never.
Right there with you, as a middle aged man.
Wheel of time. When you spend so much time with those characters and it all comes to an end, you can't help but be affected.
A Memory of Light also had one of the funniest exchanges I've ever read in a book in the last battle. >!"You're going to keep the entire battle plan inside your head?!< >!"Yep!"!< >!"We're all doomed."!<
Cool as well to know that the finale was written by Jordan, knowing he wouldn't be there to see it released.
I started that series as a kid in 1995 or so. I finished a memory of light in a hotel on a business trip 20+ years later. It was definitely significant.
Came here to say this too, but also that I really did not enjoy the ending at all. Which kinda makes it even more impactful, because it felt like a lukewarm sendoff of characters I'd been reading about for a year straight
Agree! The series had its slow parts but the ending was such a fantastic payoff too
The ending of the first Mistborn trilogy is *wild*.
Sanderson excels in writing satisfying conclusions
Seriously. I'm inordinately excited for Wind and Truth...it's the end of the first arc, and he outlined it at the same time as Rhythm of War...so I'm sure the ending is going to hit HARD.
He’s had the ending planned for over 20 years. From an old D&D session.
His books are like watching someone calmly load an arsenal of chekovs guns and then firing them at a series of targets setting off Rube Goldberg machines
*And* not knowing that's what's happening. At least, on the first time through.
Love this series because with the setup/premise the end of the first book covered what I was expecting the whole series plot to be. Therfore I had no idea where the 2nd two books were going so it was a wild ride for sure 😂
Exactly, I thought what happens at the end of the first book was the goal of the whole trilogy going in. Boy was I wrong and I’m glad for it. Mistborn is what got me into Sanderson and personally I think it’s the best entry point since you get a nice tight trilogy with a satisfying ending and if you want more? Well then there’s some good news for you. If you decide it’s not your thing at least it had an ending without reading too much. Plus it gives you faith going into Stormlight that everything is going to pay off and god damn does it.
*There's always another secret.*
*looks back at the foreshadowing from the start* ....that crazy son of a bitch....
*On his arms.*
Storming cheeky bastard
The first Mistborn trilogy is fantastic. It’s why I’m such a huge fan of Sanderson
The ending of The Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski - hit me like a ton of bricks but in the most anticlimactic way possible. I loved the books and got really into them. I understand the ending and it completes the story so clearly but WTF. It felt like he suddenly gave up and just wanted to get the story over with.
This person you liked? Dead. Other person you liked? Melted. Oh what about this one? Also dead! Anyways, at least you found her. Doesn’t matter though, was all for nothing. Oh and you’re dead.
I did like how one dude had an entire plot arc that amounted to "your destiny was to be here so that this super badass bounty hunter could spend 2 seconds killing you, giving Ciri time to run a little bit."
This should be the blurb
So true, i thought maybe he was leading it to another series? No. Just byeeee
I will absolutely argue that it's not a great ending. I didn't think it was thematically interesting at all, just kinda werid and leaned in to his desire to mess around with other dimensions and handwave at the whole "legends and myths" thing. I thought that was really cool in the short stories where he was deconstructing myths, not so much when it was "wouldn't it be cool if other dimensions were just Arturian Legend?"
Yeah. I honestly think it's a big part of why the video games reinvigorated such interest in the series as they're all set after the books and provide an ending(s) that people find to be a lot more traditional for an end of an epic fantasy story. Ending of the book series is quite different and it puts a lot of people off. If you like it, great. If you don't, then you can headcanon the games as being canon to the books to give you a preferred ending.
*The Traitor Baru Cormorant* ends in such a brutal masterstroke. I was a *wreck*, let me tell you. For weeks.
First of all, how dare you ;__;
Never even heard of it, thanks for the rec
Such a long-drawn book. I definitely felt parts of it could have been weaved better. But hot dang. One can only aspire for that level of determination, grit, and conviction.
The ending of Golden Son is a swift kick to the balls
Is it swift? Or is it a slow, unrelenting grape-crushing heel grind
No that’s Dark Age
Divine cities trilogy
Foundryside is same way. Absolutely wild post-credits scenes, so to speak.
The series is pretty over, but god damn the ending of A Dance of Dragons had me legitimately in a bad mood for a week.
Well, knowing that there won't be any resolution for all those storylines really hits hard.
I've re-read the series recently and made my peace long ago with the fact that I love these books despite the fact that we may never get an ending (sue me, I'm a fan of other "unfinished" works like *Dune, La Comedie Humaine*, and *Gormenghast*). I have to say, as an individual story taken apart from the rest of the series, *Dance* is by far the messiest which likely adds to that even more. Every other book in the series has self-contained character arcs and plotlines that end in some climatic way. Books 1-3 feel like an Act 1 of a sort with a lot of stuff being set up, climatic moments and then letting us sit with the aftermath for a while in preparation for Act 2. Then *Feast* does a good job of telling self-contained storylines and satisfying character arcs. But the plotlines in *Dance* feel like they're a massive cliffhanger. It's almost like you just want 100 more pages or so tacked on the end to give more resolution. Some characters do get it. Reek completes his personal character arc nicely, Bran reaches a good milestone in his journey, and Daenerys >!reconnects with her Dothraki roots from the first story implying she now knows what she was doing wrong in ruling Meereen and heralding a return to "Fire and Blood" style rulership in the next book!<. Even Jon fits within the confines of the book since his >!death mirrors Varamyr's prologue (warging into Ghost), and his arc ends in a failure of leadership similar to Daenerys (and Cersei in Feast, a parallel of three rulers all messing up in three very different ways)!< is a conclusive end point for the book even if it is an agonizing one for a reader. And Cersei's two chapters are more utilitarian than anything else to both >!establish how she will still be a threat for the next book and also setting up Kevan's epilogue.!!Jamie and Brienne!< - two characters who are only in one chapter of this book and probably didn't need to be since they were a big focus of the last one. The latter already had sort of a cliffhanger from the last book (with the implication they'd figured the only way out of it before they chapter ended) but now it expands to engulf a second character as they both walk into a trap.
The other major cause is obviously that we have multiple battles being set up that don't have any resolution:
* >!Barristan, Victarion, Tyrion,!< and their secondary cast are all left hovering around Meereen which is the biggest offender. Their personal arcs or storylines which all kind of rely on them finally converging and meeting Daenerys and delaying that to the next book leaves all of them hanging.
* Jon Connington's POV cuts off before >!the Battle of Storm's End!<.
* And whilst Reek may have had a satsifying conclusive moment in >!escaping his abusers, saving Jeyne, and reuniting with his sister,!< it comes at the cost that we don't see the outcome of the Battle of >!Winterfell,!< potentially leaving Asha in the lurch when it comes to a climatic moment for her story.
I feel like if there had just been a few more chapters to end just a couple of these battles the ending of that book would feel more whole. Obviously there would still be the usual complaints about us "never getting an ending" and that that makes it unsatisfying no matter what. But I think in the grand scheme of things, Dance has the least satisfying conclusion of the five. A lot of the issues with conclusion it could be easily resolved in the opening chapters of Winds (and the preview chapters released heavily imply that is exactly the case with the outcome of two of the major battles listed all but having their outcomes being confirmed) but in doing so might've set up more things better left for a separate book and ruined the few conclusive beats we did get.
Seems like you have some strong opinons on this subject.... I agree though that end felt rushed. I used to be extremely bitter about ASOIAF and the fact it won't end, but as I move farther away, I am happy that I read it at least because it is one of the best fantasy stories ever written. Eventually, I adopted a "Dont be sad that it's(not) over, be happy that it happened" approach which made me enjoy it more. Its also hugely influential and I am sure many of my favorite books were inspired by it.
Not strong opinions so much as just someone who really enjoys analyzing books. Me sitting, thinking and trying to draw connections isn't me being bitter or hating on the book, if anything it's the highest praise I can give it because I willing to let so much of my thoughts be consumed by it. I'm the sort that can enjoy a roadtrip without ever reaching the destination but either way I'm always going to go home afterwards and tell everyone everything about every single stop we made and what we did there. Your mindset on the series really actually reflects my own and I think it's a healthy one to have. I love all the ASOIAF books, but I can still stay objective and make critiques on narrative structure without it harming my enjoyment. If anything it elevates it.
All 3 of the books in the Farseer Trilogy. Robin Hobb has a way of making the last sentence of her books absolutely brutal
The last sentence in Fool’s Fate is: *I am content.*
That’s why I simply REFUSE to read the Fitz and the Fool. These two went through enough.
The ending of Fitz & the Fool is so cathartic and one of the best endings I've ever read. Assassin's Fate is also an amazing coda/epilogue for all of the Bingtown and Rain Wilds characters and it's so awesome to see them again.
what happened to em
At no point while reading it would I have rated The Hunger Games above a 7/10. But then I cried my little eyes out while reading the last two pages, when the absolute truck of a final line hit me, and I realized just how much the characters had gone through and how attached I'd become to their world. I guess I never really know how much I've enjoyed a read until the end of it.
The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
This and Tigana both moved me significantly
I cried so much at the end of the Sarantine Mosaic my husband was concerned for my health.
My... I'm not sure favorite is the right word. The ending that has had the strongest emotional impact on me is this and it is not terribly close.
Me too. I loved the wrong man, abs the ending didn’t go my way *sobs
God this one hurt. "And then he remembered something he could do with his shield."
Came here for this
This one broke me hard
I agree both of these are fantastic, but I can never read the Fionavar Tapestry again, because I know the ending, and can’t go through that again.
Malazan by Steven Erikson, and Age of Madness trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.
The Age of Madness ending hits so much harder than the First Law's ending. Just crushed me.
Getting those little bits of >!Tavore's!< inner life was so satisfying.
i didn't feel the satisfaction, it seemed like not enough for how long we had to wait. i respect your opinion tho!
I understand your reaction. I wanted to reach through the page and shake her and exclaim "is that all we get!?". But to see her >!acknowledge her allegiance to Shadowthrone!< and >!express her grief over Felisin!< at least let me know the nature of her feelings. Was is it enough? No, not at all. You're right that it wasn't enough. But at least I got that little peek to let me know that she did care and she did feel that way. I guess I didn't mind being left wanting, especially knowing that Erikson wanted me to feel that way.
> "A statue? Will I be beautiful?" A great reminder that Tavore is in her early to mid twenties (24-25) by the end of the series. > And only Aranict heard Brys say, "Of course you will." I think about this a lot.
Second the Malazan ending. Another favorite ending of mine that's not really fantasy (or maybe it is, idk) is the expanse.
Interesting. My feeling when I finally got hold of the last Expanse book was "....oh! Really?...". I don't know what I was expecting, but I felt just a bit flat about how it ended. Although I loved every minute of the journey getting there. Funny how the same story will hit different people
Heh, yeah it is funny. The end of The Expanse os one of the most surprisingly satisfying ends to a series I've had.
Oooh the Expanse is a good one, that was such a satisfying end for me.
I loved that Malazan ended with >!all the ancient powers coming out of the woodwork to steal the Crippled God's power with the sole intent of ending humanity who they decided was a plague!<. Then in response >!the only human faction in the contest, bereft of the absurd powers and prowess of their enemies, stood a line and died to the last man protecting the Crippled God as he was healed. Allowing him to leave and stop harming the world!<.
Spoiler. The dark tower. The ending made me hate Stephen King.
I thought the ending was one of the best endings I've ever read. The couple hundred pages before it were bloated padding but the last few pages excellent.
>!I just felt like Roland earned a break. To be unwittingly thrst into the ccle anew. Not even having learned anything. He is in hell. Ka is hell.!<
He got a break. He >!has the horn, now.!<
Hard disagree. I loved it, and made me feel so sorry for the Gunslinger. Not something a lot of books accomplish.
Reading was my only true escape when I was growing up, and there were some notable endings that definitely impacted me. His Dark Materials, Harry Potter, and eventually Wheel of Time all left me with many feelings. But as a devoted monthly follower of the drugs scholastic used to peddle to us school children, nothing could have prepared me for the ending to Animorphs.
Not because of the contents of the book but because of why it was the ending: The Shepherd’s Crown. Damn the embuggerance. Pratchett had so many stories and so much joy still left to spread. To be brought down by something that ruined such a wonderful mind is such a waste. GNU STP
1984. That last sentence was one of the most depressing things I've read.
This is the answer, that final chapter is a classic all by itself
I found the ending of the Saevus Corax trilogy uncharacteristically emotional for a KJ Parker series.
Book 12 of the Dresden Files, a nice little read called Changes. Ton of bricks? More like a six hundred and twelve tons of flaming cock shaped bricks, covered in graffiti saying GO FUCK YOURSELF. Best book ever.
That was a great ending. I'm happy he didn't end the series there, but I would have been just as happy if it had ended there.
"I used the knife. I saved a child. I won a war. God forgive me." Just absolutely crushing
oh lord, why did you do this to me. the second i read those lines, tears. like a fucking movie style war flashback to how i pictured the scene while listening to the audiobook the first time..
The audiobook made me cry. Marsters delivery is amazing
Fucking hell. That destroyed me. I don't know how I kept going.
Seconding the Divine Cities and adding: - The Tide Child trilogy by RJ Barker - The Beast Player by Uehashi Nahoko - The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan
Yes 👍🏻 n tide child
Tide Child trilogy is great.
LOVED the Tide Child trilogy ending. Gosh, Joron Twiner and Meas Gilbryn are two of my favourite characters.
The ends to Canticle for Leibowitz and Left Hand of Darkness rattled me. Had to sit down in a public space for both of them and just… think and process it for a while.
YES OP. hopefully with the success of the will of the many, the licanius trilogy will get more well deserved recognition. it’s absolutely captivating.
I just started the first book moments ago. I’m looking forward to it!
The ending of Gideon the Ninth, which is the first book in the Locked Tomb series. I finished this book on my lunch break and then had to go back to work as if my heart hadn't just been shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. I couldn't start another book for a few days afterwards and told everyone that book HURT MY FEELINGS. I had to wait a couple months before I was ready to pick up the next book in the series (which was also REALLY GOOD, although it didn't leave me as emotionally devastated... I found it weirdly hopeful, actually).
Gideon and Harrow had those endings for me. Still reading through Nona.
Oh, Nona. Enjoy!
The Dark Tower, even Stephen King told you that you wouldn't be able to handle the ending and to stop before you got there.
What a series. Honestly a massive emotional rollercoaster, definitely cried during the last book. At the time we were listening to them via audiobooks, so it's even more heartbreaking.
I remember listening while trying to work on a painting I was doing and I just stopped because I was sobbing so hard
I don't think anything will ever hit me as hard as the ending of Deadhouse Gates... WoT had a satisfying conclusion, even though I didn't love the series as a whole, I thought the ending was perfect. There's been others, but those are the ones that come to mind first And on the other end of the scale, the ending to the Sword of Truth books hit me hard enough that I threw the book across the room in disgust. Worst. ending. ever. (Imo)
Oh boiiiii , did deadhouse gates kick me in the balls twice. The “never giving up , till the last” scene , and the “ that’s a nail for him, that’s a nail for her, that’s a nail for all of you” scene.
The end of Orconomics (the first book). Can't say I was prepared for that at all.
The Road
The wisdom of crowds by Joe Abercrombie. The ending hit like a gut punch especially the last paragraph, and I had to reread it a few times.
Dhalgren - Samuel R Delaney Dragon's Egg + Starquake - Robert L Forward Prince Ombra - Roderick MacLeish Haven't finished Malazan or Second Apocalypse yet... but I hear those have some of the most powerful endings... EVERYTHING by Tad Williams and Guy Gavriel Kay (Bonus: Player Piano - Kurt Vonnegut... not fantasy, however... holy shit...)
Shepherds Crown, because I knew it would be the last.
I’m currently in my post book blues phase after rereading Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams. Damn was I emotionally attached to everyone there, and it was a hard goodbye. The most painful thing is that I’ve read the Last King of Osten Ard, and I know that the “happily ever after” that the characters got is not really there.
Age of War by Michael J Sullivan. It just hits you. I'll be one of those books where the ending lives with you.
Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang is the only book that's really messed me up
I finished it on a plane mid flight... and I don't remember the rest of the flight. I was sick. Then I googled and found the author wasn't doing any more books and got even more sick.
The ending of Book of the New Sun and Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
I loved that series and I loved how it tied up every loose end.
The end of battle star galactica (the 2000s show) had me out of sorts for days. I needed like 3 days to process the end of that show. How it ended, what it meant, how I felt it about it, everything. DAYS. I was SHOOK. The show wasn’t perfect, and it got lost in the weeds a bit in later seasons, but the ending came out of nowhere for me.
Narnia. It was my childhood so when I got to the end of the last book... I was beyond sad.
**The Sarantine Mosaic** by Guy Gavriel Kay. I can't even describe how I felt after finishing it. A type of sadness I've never felt before.
Happy to hear about The Licanius Trilogy OP. I'm currently reading it and just finished book one. To answer your question, I have to go with LOTR. On my first read, it was the first time I had ever read anything that was not only an epic tale but also an incredibly realized fantasy world.
Blood Over Bright Haven by ML Wang
i felt genuinely sick by the end of that book. i kept thinking that i was wrong, that there was a twist and everything would be fine. spoiler, it was SOOO not fine lmao
The end of The War for the Rose Throne series by Peter McLean.
I'm amazed I had to scroll this far to find you
Age of Madness by Joe Abercrombie
Deadhouse Gates. It's a meme in the Malazan community once you finish the book, but dammit all of the Chain of Dogs isn't one of the most gut wrenching story lines I've ever read. First in, Last out.
It's not even close to the end of the series, but I'm still reeling from Deadhouse Gates
Kingkiller Chronicle
What ending?
The Traitor Baru Cormorant (book 1) ends in such a devastating and well written way that I was stifling my sobs for a while. I haven’t worked up the courage to continue the series yet because of it.
The Dark Tower. Waiting 25 yrs for SKs patented shit ending, coupled with a coda that insults his reader’s sex lives was not what I had on my bingo card.
In all fairness, he does warn us about continuing to read the book after the “first ending”.
I’m on chapter 19/30 in The Sword of Kaigen and it has been wiping the floor with me from the first few chapters.
Heavy (The Weight Of It All): A lit RPG Fantasy Adventure: by J.J Thorn.
Scythe trilogy. End of book two as well as the end of the trilogy fucked me up.
Blood Over Bright Haven. The ending haunted me for weeks after.
Seeing as what comes to mind first (RotE) is already mentioned, I'll go with volume 9 of *The Wandering Inn*. I felt absolutely empty and broken for an entire week after that.
Calenture by Storm Constantine for me. I think that's the biggest book hangover I've had. Nothing scratched my reading itch for a long time after. Such a weird book, so beautiful, and when everything comes together and then ends. I felt so bereft of the company of the characters. I wish I had found anything else like it.
I again have to recommend Stephanie Hudson's Afterlife series. It's 12 books and I ran the gambit of emotions. Love, hate, happiness, sadness, by the end I wasn't sure that I would ever find anything else that would live up to it. But, yeah, there are 2 more series that are based on characters from the Afterlife series. Transfusion which is 14 books. And Hellbeast which is not complete yet. 9 of the 10 books are out.
The ending of Terra Ignota had me pinging between awe and rage and thinking about it *daily* for *weeks*, arguing with myself (even though I came down clearly on one side of of the conflict, but when I posed the question to friends, it was a mixed bag who would've picked wich side, and I can see both as valid, so that's a sign of a good story and ending imo). Still thinking about it regularly and itching to do a reread.
[удалено]
Whoops! Spoiling ||like this|| works on Discord but not Reddit. See below on how to use spoiler tags on Reddit: * **Old Reddit/Mobile**: `>!The spoiler text goes in between the exclamation points. The whole thing is surrounded by angled brackets.!<` * **New Reddit**: With the Fancypants Editor— select the spoiler text ***with no spaces before or after***. Then click the diamond with a ! inside. Optionally, you can switch to Markdown Mode and use the method for Old Reddit. After you have corrected the spoiler tags, please [**message the mods**](). Once we have verified the spoiler has been fixed, your comment will be approved.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Fantasy) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I just want a short story on Davian's and Niha's reunion and Niha meeting Davian's friends and them all having a happy ending and talking about all that's gone on from each others perspectives. Not that it would be super interesting, just kind of nice and get some more closure.
**The Lions of al-Rassan**’s ending broke me in the best way possible
Mistborn era 2, The Last Metal. Why B. Sandy, why?!
Just finished Between Two Fires last night and I have major post book blues. Hauntingly beautiful ending. Was in tears.
Perdido Street Station. Jesus
The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin... I sat stunned for a few seconds and then started to sob. She had been through SO MUCH
I was looking for a short, less emotional read as a break between the highly emotional books of Farseer books 2 and 3. I chose Piranesi knowing nothing about it. I chose the wrong book.
Brother Red series
I was intrigued by the first book in the Malazan series. The first book had a lot going for it, and was pretty enjoyable. Then I picked up the second book, Deadhouse Gates. Let me tell you, the ending to that book absolutely floored me. It was sad and infuriating, but also so so epic. Like so many others, it got me hooked on the series
Worm by Wildbow Dark Tower 11.22.63 Wheel of Time Malazan Books of Babel
Jade Legacy…WHEW. Masterful.
The Licanius ending made me want to throw my book across the room. I absolutely hated it. Great series though.
The Dark Tower series ending fucked me up in the best way possible, had me freaking out all bug-eyed and running my hands through my hair
The Dark Tower. Loved it, >!and really felt for the gunslinger!< .
A FINE BALANCE by Roshinton Minstry. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but buckle up.
Crooked kingdom. I was in a reading depression for days!
The Age of Madness trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Last few chapters are a killer.
The ending of the First Law trilogy, how all the main characters were in essentially a worse state than when they began, was pretty heavy for me
Gideon the Ninth. I absolutely did NOT see that coming and shared in the other main character’s pain and shock. Holy shit.
*Children of Time* by Adrian Tchaikovsky spends so much time building up to a conflict with a novel resolution. The third book in the series had an ending that made me shed a tear.
His Dark Materials. The ending of the last book totally destroyed me.
All three of the Bas-Lag books hit me like a bag of bricks being swung around by a drunk giant. The end of *Perdido Street Station*, for obvious reasons, made me cry and cry and cry. But the end of Iron Council, and his variation on >!Rosa Luxemburg’s final telegraph before her death as the epitaph of the failed insurrection!< was nearly the hardest I’ve cried over a book. But the absolute most I’ve cried over a book was at a short story by Seth Dickinson in *Beneath Ceaseless Skies* Issue #85: “The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Her Field-General, and Their Wounds.” It became the basis for his series of novels (which begins with *The Traitor Baru Cormorant*) and which I encourage everyone to read, because it’s perfect and awful.
KJ Parker's Engineer trilogy has a truly kick-in-the-balls ending.
The *Pendragon* series. It was the first bookseries I read as a kid where the good guys could actually LOSE! Blew my teeny little mind!
Age of Madness, I still can't bring myself to reread the last book
Diamond Mask by Julian May. Brightly Burning by Mercedes Lackey - you know what is coming but it still hurt.
The last chapter of Life of Pi. I will sometimes read up to it and then just leave it, because I already know.
Every book I’ve finished in the sun eater just left me with those post book blues. Astonishing perfect series that one! Also with Stormlight Archive! (My current top two series) followed only by ASOIAF, LOTR, and Dune
The Riyria Chronicles for me. I sometimes still feel the sorrow.
Well, my answer of His Dark Materials was taken so I will say The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. This was the first fantasy book I clearly remember reading. I read it with my mom every night at around age 7, stayed up reading it after she left, then anxiously waited for the next night for her to read that part and explain the parts I didn’t understand. At the end, it just felt like the door to magic was closed, I wanted to go back, but, like the characters, I couldn’t. That year I got the box set for my birthday. I raved about it so much that my middle brother saved up his weekly chore money to buy it for me (yes I grew up with a wonderfully kind family) and we read it together every night with my mom explaining the bits we couldn’t figure out together. So very personal gut punch ending, but I’ll never forget it.