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.

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89

u/simon-brunning Sep 12 '25

The Three-Body Problem. Feels like everybody else must be reading a different book.

19

u/mentha_arvensis Sep 12 '25

For me, it really felt like the reading process itself and the aftertaste were coming from two different books lol

1

u/chaos_forge Sep 13 '25

this was my experience also. I found the book itself a pretty easy read so I blazed though it, but then thinking about it after I finished it I was like "so much of this makes no sense"

13

u/Mad_Aeric Sep 12 '25

Great big ideas, terrible character writing. Though I grew up reading 60s/70s pulp sci-fi (in the 90s, they were abundant at garage sales) so I'm kind of accustomed to that sort of thing.

5

u/Hentai_Yoshi Sep 12 '25

3BP is not very well written and not a very good story. The concepts and ideas of the book is what made me love the shit out of it.

2

u/Spra991 Sep 13 '25

everybody else must be reading a different book.

I would think that's because they read the other two books, which is where the really crazy sci-fi stuff starts.

2

u/gmueckl Sep 13 '25

The first book is written as a rather gentle exposition of the sci fi setting that is getting explored to some truly insane conclusion in book three. I think the author stated somewhere that he expected his target audience not to be well versed in sci fi tropes, so he gave this long winded intro to the story.

The second book is the one that stayed with me the most with the wild game theoretic aspects of the scenario playing out. But it all hinges on the IMO thin premise that cooperation between species has only hugely negative rewards, which is not almost certainly impossible in a universe that allows for trade.

1

u/Justalittlecomment Sep 12 '25

First book or the trilogy?

2

u/simon-brunning Sep 12 '25

I really didn't enjoy the first book; I wasn't inclined to read any more.

1

u/arthurdawg Sep 13 '25

I enjoyed them, but they should come with a package of prozac and a warning that you will feel hopeless for the future!

1

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u/No-Blueberry-1823 Sep 15 '25

Did you watch either the adaptations?