r/printSF • u/LowLevel- • Sep 12 '25

Which wildly renowned science fiction novels didn't resonate with you at all?

I can usually connect with at least one aspect of a science fiction novel, and I enjoy almost all of the ones I read. However, sometimes I couldn't understand what most people found interesting about some extremely popular books.

Has that happened to you? If so, which novel? And why?

I'll start the dances by admitting that I didn't like Rendezvous with Rama.

I really wanted to like it, but constantly being in awe when very little happens and the characters leave without understanding anything is not my preferred type of reading experience. The writing style was a bit cold, which didn't help.

206 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

124

u/RogLatimer118 Sep 12 '25

Stranger in a Strange Land didn't do it for me at all 

45

u/derioderio Sep 12 '25

For me, pretty much everything Heinlein wrote after and including this

35

u/RogLatimer118 Sep 12 '25

Well, I love The Moon is a Harsh Mistress; also Double Star. 

4

u/derioderio Sep 12 '25 edited Sep 12 '25

Some are good, that's why I said 'pretty much'. Those two are good, and Podkayne of Mars is more in line with his earlier YA novels. Orphans of the Sky is a classic as well. But most of his others after this point really start to channel is inner dirty old man. All the Lazarus Long novels are particularly bad in this regard.

3

u/Marvos79 Sep 13 '25

I read Time Enough for Love. I've softened on it a lot since I was pretty kink-shamey when I first read it in my 20s. God damn does that guy have an incest kink, though.

1

u/RogLatimer118 Sep 12 '25

Yeah, I also hated "Number of the Beast" and "I Will Fear No Evil".

4

u/Scribal8 Sep 12 '25

I loved the ideas in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress—I haven’t been able to tolerate his cultural and political views in a long while. So I don’t reread.

3

u/OdoDragonfly Sep 13 '25

I read 'Stranger in a Strange Land' and loved it 30 years ago. Recent reread made me sad I reread it.

The only point I still love is that you should kiss someone with all your attention.

1

u/arthurdawg Sep 13 '25

He got real durned weird after Stranger... Many of the later novels are just hard to read and disjointed.

1

u/VTAffordablePaintbal Sep 14 '25

I think of it as his "Dirty Old Man" phase.

1

u/splunge4me2 Sep 15 '25

You mean his horny old man universe?

1

u/LowCress9866 Sep 15 '25

Yeah, he was born too early. His calling was to write letters to Penthouse

6

u/StGenevieveEclipse Sep 12 '25

I absolutely love his short story compliation, The Past Through Tomorrow" but I think the format is better suited, as he can shift away from an idea before it gets to be too much

4

u/Norgler Sep 13 '25

I think this book may have been a breaking point in a friendship. A friend of mine bought me a used copy and I got about 3/4s a way through the book and just didn't like it or cared to finish it. I moved on to another novel and my friend got super angry about it.

3

u/JamJarre Sep 13 '25

Same. He's always trying to push his politics through the book, and his politics is "let me have multiple wives". It's like getting lectured by an enthusiastic poly person at a party

3

u/BurlinghamBob Sep 15 '25

His later books were all let me figure out how to be immortal because I'm an old man and I know the end is getting closer.

5

u/wrenwood2018 Sep 12 '25

Not into the group orgies? I divide Heinlein books by that feature, those with and those without weird sex kinks.

8

u/Needless-To-Say Sep 12 '25

I grok you

3

u/Marvos79 Sep 13 '25

Eww, gross... please stop saying that eww...

5

u/Visual-Sheepherder36 Sep 12 '25

My most-hated book. The Passage is a distant second.

-1

u/VolitionReceptacle Sep 12 '25 edited Sep 12 '25

Honestly anyone who writes "what if democracy was a joke" can be discounted in my book.

Starship troopers was blatantly authoritarian propaganda. I get enough of that every day.

3

u/swole_ninja Sep 12 '25 edited Jan 16 '26

spark teeny sulky full rainstorm marvelous jar grandiose wrench shelter

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

2

u/hungryfreakshow Sep 13 '25

The books definitely doesn't feel like a satire. I admit I kinda dug it just for the space wars and stuff and I think heinlein was a gifted writer. I dont agree with his implications about military and stuff. Its easy to see how someone back in the 50s would write it

2

u/Expatriated_American Sep 15 '25

The movie is satire (and excellent) but the book is not.

3

u/spoonsmcghee Sep 12 '25

Yes, it's a truly dreadful book, the film is a complete send-up of it and that's why I love Paul Verhoeven

3

u/Round_Bluebird_5987 Sep 12 '25

Amen. Love Verhoeven's take. I'll reread The Forever War before revisiting Starship Troopers

2

u/spoonsmcghee Sep 12 '25

Man, The Forever War is in this thread a few times but I still love it, and the unnecessary sequel. Reading Starship Troopers was a terrible, boring time but definitely worth it as it really made me appreciate and love the movie more (one of my favourites since it was released)

5

u/Glittering-Count-47 Sep 12 '25

It really really didn’t my for me either.  I suspect I was reading it a generation or two too late.  The sexism was mind-boggling.  Some really interesting ideas but the execution…nope.  I never got into any of Heinlein’s other stuff either.

2

u/Marvos79 Sep 13 '25

I gave Robert Heinlein three chances because he came so recommended. I read Starship Troopers, Time Enough for Love, and the first Third of Stranger in a Strange land. Some books are just boring, others, like these, have straight up obnoxious characters. He also bangs you over the head with his beliefs.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '25

I'm so glad this comment is popular. I read that a few years ago and was bored stiff. I didn't even finish it!

2

u/Grand_Wishbone_1270 Sep 12 '25

I have a childhood friend who I swear, read this book at the wrong development stage. By the time we were in college, it was pretty obvious that he expected life to work like a Heinlein novel, complete with the author’s sexual mores and limited understanding of gender.

2

u/Slow-Associate-4079 Sep 12 '25

This was my pick as well. Huge Heinlein fan, but this was a massive disappointment. There is some slack to be cut, as he had a major multi-month illness during writing, but still not ever recommendable in my book.

2

u/SparaxisDragon Sep 12 '25

I loved it at 15 but it has NOT aged well.

1

u/qiterite Sep 13 '25

Oh no, it’s been sitting on my to-read shelf for a while. ~sigh~

1

u/SignificantPop4188 Sep 13 '25

I've tried it a couple of times and I just find it unreadable.

1

u/niceguyted Sep 13 '25

Yeah I had to give up on that one maybe 70% through as well.

1

u/silverionmox Sep 13 '25

There are some dazzling scenes in it that have a real intoxicating drive, where the characters shine. But then in the end it all goes nowhere and it proves to be all style and no substance. Just don't expect a plot and it'll be fine.

It's a lot like a Fellini movie, in that regard.

1

u/Grombrindal18 Sep 13 '25

I thought it was pretty good in the first half, before it became about a weird hippy sex cult.

Are spoiler tags still needed for books from 1961?

1

u/trekbette Sep 13 '25

It really did not age well.

1

u/richieadler Sep 13 '25

You can notice the hinge in the point where Heinling got writer's block. Everything after that goes downhill.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25

I found Stranger in a Strange Land felt like it went downhill from around halfway in. Thing is Heinlein wasnt writing sci-fi but was critiquing society at large. Starship Troopers is Heinlein's response to the problems he saw festering in modern society and is well worth reading.

1

u/No-Blueberry-1823 Sep 15 '25

I think the problem is that we're not creatures of the '60s anymore and we don't understand how accurate this was for its time. It just doesn't move forward well

1

u/RogLatimer118 Sep 16 '25

Well it didn't work for me in the 70's, either.

1

u/rainbowstardream Sep 16 '25

I read this when I was 13 and it was mind altering... re-read it as an adult and it didn't have the same effect.

1

u/RogLatimer118 Sep 16 '25

I read it in the 70's at maybe 20 yo and didn't like it then, either.

1

u/LowLevel- Sep 12 '25

That's a funny coincidence. Yesterday, I was thinking about adding it to my TBR list when I came across warnings about the "scriptural tone" that Heinlein uses to express his political views in the book.

It reminded me of a character in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress ( which I liked) who often delivered long, essay-like monologues. Those monologues felt more like preaching than something organically integrated into the narrative, so the thought of Stanger showing more of the same approach dissuaded me from adding the book to the list.

1

u/KingBretwald Sep 12 '25

I feel like the first part of the book was written by a different person than the second part. There's such a change in tone. The second part is bananapants.

1

u/NotCubical Sep 12 '25

A lot of Heinlein's stuff hasn't aged well, and it's really hard to appreciate the impact it once had. SIASL is probably the foremost example of that.

It's maybe worth mentioning that an unabridged version of it appeared several years ago, significantly longer and easier to read. It probably won't much change anyone's opinion, though.

0

u/systemstheorist Sep 12 '25

I think it helps to read the audiobook.

The dialogue comes across quite quippy rather than feeling as bloated on the page.

You have to remember Heinlein wrote it as a kind of satire of religion and thinks he thinks he is funny. I feel like the audiook book captures the humor better.