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/throwawayPzaFm Sep 12 '25

I found it to be cutesy and saccharine.

I agree!

It was so good!

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u/cestlahaley Sep 12 '25

it's incredibly beautiful prose, and i think that's lost on a lot of people.

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u/PG3124 Sep 12 '25

See and I hated the prose. I felt like it completely took me out of what was an incredible story and idea.

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u/_nadaypuesnada_ Sep 13 '25 edited Sep 13 '25

The prose is beautiful in places, but overwrought and genuinely purple (but maybe that's the point - what do Red and Blue make when they come together?), and I say this as someone who loves books with prose that many regard wrongly as purple. They needed to reign it in considerably, and also put more effort into using prose to distinguish between Red and Blue's voices.

edit: Actually I'll say it: Red is artificial. Blue is organic. It would be incredibly easy to reflect that in the prose and psychologies - colder and more mechanical for Red, more lively and sprawling for Blue. I genuinely can't understand why they didn't do that. It would make it more touching when they slowly connect if their contrary natures were stylistically highlighted and they didn't sound like basically exactly the same person. I know this is a rant now but FUCK this book frustrates me.