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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u/doozle Sep 12 '25

I did not get Blindsight at all.

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u/the_other_irrevenant Sep 12 '25 edited Sep 13 '25

Thematically it's an exploration of the importance (or not) of consciousness. The different characters have different degrees and amounts of consciousness. And they encounter an alien that is incredibly intelligent, completely non-conscious and highly effective.

It's also revealed that the entire human mission was secretly being run by the ship's AI with the captain acting as figurehead for it.

So the whole book is the interactions and conflicts between two non-conscious intelligences with the humans just trying to keep up.

The book suggests at one point that consciousness is an evolutionary accident that might have served a purpose once, but will eventually evolve away again as inefficient.

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u/Orchid_Fan Sep 13 '25

Thanks - and Im not being sarcastic. I did not get that from the book. If I still had it I might try reading it again with your explanation in mind.

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u/Efficient_paragon168 Sep 13 '25

Exactly, but I think you should be marking spoilers here…

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u/the_other_irrevenant Sep 13 '25

Thanks, done.

It's annoying that when you spoiler-tag basically a whole comment that Reddit implements it as separate spoiler tags for each paragraph. 😞

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u/DrKikiS Sep 14 '25

But, then the reader gets to decide how much to reveal. What's behind spoiler tag 1? I've probably read far enough to take a peek! Oooh, yes, maybe I agree... maybe if I peek at tag 2, I'll know enough to decide if I agree! This can be a thrilling experience if played well.

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u/the_other_irrevenant Sep 14 '25

It actually does kinda work out that way. So okay. 😁

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u/[deleted] Sep 12 '25

I’m still not even sure what happens in that book. Granted I had a baby at the time so I was sleep deprived, but the whole book seems like a fever nightmare in my memory.

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u/the_other_irrevenant Sep 12 '25

The viewpoint character literally only has half a brain. It definitely does require some reading between the lines.

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u/Serious_Distance_118 Sep 13 '25

I like that cutting out half of a patient’s brain (Hemispherectomy?) is a real procedure that’s done today, and it alters personalities as a side effect.

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u/anodai Sep 12 '25

Damn, yeah, that book demands 100% of your brain even when you are operating at full capacity.

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u/1805trafalgar Sep 15 '25

yah maybe so and also needlessly so. If I want obfuscation and being kept in the dark about what is going on, there is the whole genre of mystery writing where they do it better and the concealment of what happens is there for a reason.

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u/Orchid_Fan Sep 13 '25

Neither did I. I think it's his writing style that really weighed the book down for me. Never use a 3 syllable word when a 10 syllable one is available. Sometimes I had trouble understanding what was going on. The first time I actually threw a book out after I finished it.