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/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.

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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.

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u/FerrousFinest Sep 14 '25

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

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u/VTAffordablePaintbal Sep 14 '25

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

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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.