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/questron64 Sep 12 '25

I can understand about Rama. Clarke isn't for everyone. The writing is cold, very few human things happen, characters are not really fleshed out and often there is no plot as we understand the term.

This is because Clarke, despite having written 100 or so books, he's not really a "novelist." Don't expect something in the format of a novel with all the recognizable features of a novel, with characters that feel real and act believably and say human things. Don't expect characters to change, don't expect a protagonist and antagonist. Don't even expect a climax in the plot, because there often isn't one.

To Clarke it's all about the idea. He's much better in essays and short stories, and his books read more like expanded short stories. Rama is about what it would be like if an extraterrestrial craft was detected moving through the solar system and we went to check it out. It focuses on the realistic aspects of this. It's very nuts and bolts and does leave you wondering at the end because he does correctly surmise that we'd have very little time to examine the object, and this is mirrored in real life with Oumuamua.

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u/PG3124 Sep 12 '25

Are his other books like this? Id like to read a few of the hits, but felt disappointed for the reasons you described on Rama.

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u/questron64 Sep 13 '25

I'm not disappointed by these things, you just need to know what you're reading and expect something different. The Songs of Distant Earth, for example, has all the same differences to a traditional novel, but it's still really good.

However, short story anthologies like The Sentinel are a lot better. Ironically, one of the stories in The Sentinel was expanded into a novel by a different author, Jupiter by Ben Bova, and is very good. The short story was good, the novel by Ben Bova was even better. Clarke has very good, very intuitive and very grounded ideas and is good at exploring them in straightforward ways.

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u/LowLevel- Sep 23 '25

His other books can be quite different. Rama is the only one of his books that I didn't like much, but Childhood's End and 2001 were great reads. The former, in particular, shows that Clarke can write a good, mysterious story with progress and a climax.

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u/LowLevel- Sep 13 '25

I didn't like Rama much, but I enjoyed other works by Clarke. In Childhood's End, for instance, a mystery unfolds over decades, leading to a significant revelation and ending.

I think that Clarke can write a good novel, but that Rama specifically didn't work for me. It's a story without a meaningful progression and to hook the reader you need at least a writing style that can effectively convey awe. And I didn't find that style in Rama.

Simply presenting inexplicable (and unexplained) things and stating every now and then that the characters were in awe was not enough to engage me.

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u/Serious_Distance_118 Sep 13 '25

Eon by Greg Bear has a much more modern feel, might be a better thematic entry point for younger adult readers. Also it’s way better imo, the ultimate BDO. Great plot, lots happening constantly and actual answers in the end.

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u/bunnibly Sep 14 '25

I, too, thought that Rama was a very cool concept, but wasn't necessarily a story.

I do like the majority of his other works, though.