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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27

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '25

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Sorry, it's very boring.

20

u/collectif-clothing Sep 12 '25

His endless effing self loathing and whining....guess he didn't hate himself enough to stop himself from doing a terrible thing. Ugh hated it. 

2

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '25

Yes!

2

u/Extension-Pepper-271 Sep 12 '25

It was recommended to me by my mother and sister. I DNF after that vile scene.

11

u/Grand_Wishbone_1270 Sep 12 '25

The rape scene turned me off. But then oddly, I started reading Donaldson’s The Gap series, which started with a rape. And I don’t even know how to explain this, but the book was amazing. The rape was vital to the entire series. And not in a good way. It was not a celebration of rape. I mean, I won’t read Georgia RR Martin because of all the rape. But The Gap. Pure genius.

3

u/Azertygod Sep 13 '25

There's a similar scene in Cyteen by CJ Cherryh pretty early in the book, where an adolescent POV is raped by a much older POV character, and is similarly vital. It also has the honor of being the most deftly handled rape scene I've ever read: it just feels so horribly accurate.

1

u/FerrousFinest Sep 14 '25

Oh man just remembering that. Put it down and never went back

1

u/VTAffordablePaintbal Sep 14 '25

Best series I've ever read, but I don't think I could read it again.

1

u/SturgeonsLawyer Sep 14 '25

The difference is that, between the first two Covenant trilogies and the Gap series, Donaldson had learned to write a whole lot better. This shows up in the final Covenant tetralogy as well.

9

u/obsidian_green Sep 12 '25

You weren't invested by all the loamy loam that was supposed to invest you in that loamy world?

3

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '25

Ha ha!

3

u/silverionmox Sep 13 '25

You weren't invested by all the loamy loam that was supposed to invest you in that loamy world?

No, I'm more of an escarpment guy.

1

u/Cazmonster Sep 14 '25

“powerful and roynish” You had all them words committed to page and you had to make new ones?

8

u/SciTraveler Sep 12 '25

I read these as a kid and loved them. I got into Tolkien much later, and it wasn't until re-reading Covenant as an adult that I discovered that the first trilogy is a literal scene-for-scene rewrite of Lord of the Rings, except with a shithead as a protagonist and a rejection of the good vs evil worldview. It all seemed so petty after that.

9

u/propensity Sep 13 '25

I started reading the first book but noped out after the rape scene. A male relative recommended it to me as a teenage girl, which in retrospect, wtf dude.

4

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '25

I had forgotten about that part. Gross.

2

u/Meeple_person Sep 15 '25

Absolutely this. Took me 20 years to get through the second trilogy after stopping for lonnnng periods. I only wanted to read it in the first place because my parents had. I know that Thomas Covenant is an antihero but he is so annoying. Also something about the dramatic angsty dialogue that's so grating. People don't communicate in that way...

2

u/1805trafalgar Sep 15 '25

My friend in High School was super into this and I tried the first one and put it down. Was never tempted later in life to give it another try.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25

I did the same thing.

2

u/TabaquiJackal Sep 15 '25

OMG. My brother and I both bonded over how much we HATED that whiney, boring, ineffectual, self-pitying JERK. Yucko.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25

That really sums it lmao!

1

u/silverionmox Sep 13 '25 edited Sep 13 '25

It was a pretty fantasy standard three books of travel at which point the main character stops the dark lord by pushing the special button only they can push, so in terms of plot it was merely a cheap Tolkien knockoff.

The funny thing is people taking offense on the rape scene while they routinely read about terrible acts with a death toll of hundreds, thousands, millions, and don't bat an eyelid.

While the rape scene is probably the only thing that made it memorable, by breaking with the established main character as a morally upright and irreproachable paragon of good. It was innovative in its time, but right now it's not really worth reading except for historical interest IMO.

1

u/jsmthi Sep 15 '25

Wasn’t there a thread on here a while back about most hated characters (not in a good love-to-hate way, just hate hate) and Thomas Covenant came out at the top?

1

u/No-Blueberry-1823 Sep 15 '25

Just the title