My Top 10 Most Disappointing Science Fiction Reads

Really loving the top tens. It's great that you compliment the books you don't like.

Watta weirdo👎block unsubscribe delete 😏

Pedo

Add Earth Abides. I despise this book. It normalizes stupidity.

I am currently half-way through 'How to Lose the Time War' and am having to flog myself to keep reading. How sad to find out that it doesn't get better. Thanks for the video!

The first top ten list that I've only read one of the books, "Childhood's End."

Boy, I got a bunch of disappointing reads. Ones that I can recall:
1. Eon, by Greg Bear. I thought it would be like Rendezvous With Rama which it is often compared to. It's not. Bear skips over investigating the asteroid and straight to humans in conflict over it. Add in that the main character is told things instead of discovering them herself and you have a weak book. And don't get me started on that bonkers 2nd half.
2. Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. I wanted to like this as it was a Christmas gift from a friend. But no... A weak lead that doesn't do much until he undergoes a huge change, Romani, an Egyptian cult and magic. It's a mess and doesn't come to much.
3. Ringworld by Larry Niven. I read it because I love Niven and it won awards and everyone loves it. I didn't. It's travel, then more travel, then more travel, and then it ends. The Ringworld is mildly interesting but once you get past the grandeur of it it just sits there. The characters are bland. Not much in the way of conflict or suspense.
4. Road Side Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers. Great concept for a novel. Instead we get humans who steal and get caught. A weird daughter goes nowhere. The ending is confusing. Just a bland nothing.
5. Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Monks aren't the most exciting of characters. I don't understand people's fascination with them. The world's culture is interesting, too bad we don't see much of it. Then the government comes calling but refuses to help the main character travel to the appointed destination. Ninjas attack a train at the North Pole for no reason. Then the ending comes and is a jumbled mess.
6. Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe. Often on people's "Top 10" lists and the idea of a torturer as a main character sounded interesting. That part of the series is interesting as is what little discussion about it there is. Nothing else about the series makes sense though. Strange things happen for no reason, no explanation. The same characters are met again and again. The main character has zero combat training and yet wins every fight he's in. An unnecessary rape happens then is forgotten. It's just a huge mess from beginning to end. I don't understand why people love it so much. I truly believe Wolfe wrote it as sci-fi parody but no one else has caught on to it.

There are others, but it's late and I'm too tired to think of them.

I like your reviews, but you should look directly into the camera.

Please keep the natural background like the rest of the booktubers. Those changing backgrounds are do irritating.

Seems like some of these titles lean toward YA... or are mainstream SF novels simply trending toward YA tropes for the sake of marketability toward young female readers? Discuss.

I agree about Egan. It's good, just not that good.

A very interesting list. I agree with some of your assessments (Egan), not so much with others (Corey, Clarke; Childhood's End is for me waaaay above anything else Clarke has written, except perhaps for some short stories), but that's all a mater of both tastes and expectations. Thanks!

Re: animated skeletons, ghouls and whatnot, if you want (and you probably don't, but i do) a kind of cozy paranormal mysteries where they function well, see "Dr Greta Helsing" series by Vivian Shaw (incidentally, Arkady Martine's spouse.)

Great video, Michael. I've read some of these books, but have deliberately avoided others, as having worked with books for so long, I've developed very reliable instincts around what I probably won't like, so the '...Timewar' book for example has long been a 'No' for me, despite its beautiful wraps cover. Some people might say "That's not very open minded," but life is short, there are a lot of books to read and developing 'the instinct' is something all serious readers should aspire to, though admittedly it's always been easier for me because of my job. Re 'Childhood's End', my response was, I think, one of surprise that I liked it as much as I did when I read it which was probably 25 years ago, two decades after my first Clarke, but I still kept thinking 'This is like Wyndham's "Exiles On Asperus"....'. A lot of the time you and I have similar tastes, in the sense that I suspect we share common dislikes.

This is perhaps a unfortunate video to comment on, but I've just released my first sci-fi novel and I wondered if you'd be in interested in reading a book from a subscriber. I can email you an epub to the address listed in your about page if that works. Or if you have kindle unlimited I'll just send you an amazon link. No worries if you have a backlog of books to read that means you're not interested.

I feel like all the SF elements could've been removed from "Gideon the Ninth" and it wouldn't have changed the story at all. The different planets felt more like countries. Overall, what lost me with "Gideon the Ninth" is both finding Harrow's character soooo intolerably annoying and overall the plot felt too reliant on mystery, and one that I didn't find engaging. I did enjoy "Mountain in the Sea," but I do think the ending fell flat. I thought the purple prose of "this is how you lose the time war" was the biggest draw of the book

Klara and the Sun was a disappointing read for me as well, but I enjoyed his writing enough to read more at some point. Your honorable mention is one of the books that I originally rated lower (3-stars), but I honestly think about that one quite a bit. Thanks for the video!

Nice list, except for Childhood's End appearance here... 😉 Of course, I get your point, but I would argue that while books that followed it may have expanded on the themes, the fact that, when written in 1953 its ideas were wholly original, should guarantee its place in the SF pantheon.

That was the most even handed review of Ready Player Two I’ve seen! I was much harsher thinking back on it.I felt almost exactly the same as you did, forced nostalgia is a great description. Not to mention we were forced to care about the interpersonal relationships of the developers of Oasis… I couldn’t care less about teenage drama of characters that were mostly dead by the time the first book happened let alone the second. I finished it just to say I did, but I was skimming through most of it. And I liked the first book a lot, not literature but a fun read! I would probably skip a third book.

Interesting 😊I agree on a few but disagree on Aoki’s although I totally get it. That is a bonkers book that shouldn’t work, at all, and yet I ended up loving it. Pondering about Cibola. I remember really liking it, especially the end and also how the authors bring all the factions and their battles into one tiny location. Like you I’ve read all but the last book and I’m also tempted to re-read the whole lot before ending it. I wonder if my enjoyment is linked to using the audiobooks for this series? 🤔 Didn’t like Gideon nor Time War although I may try the latter again… maybe.
Klara was ok but not great (The Remains of the Day is immensely better but not specfic). I did like Childhood’s End but I read it decades ago so no sure I’d still like it now. And I didn’t even try RP2 😂 I loved RP1, for the fun factor, maybe because I grew up in the 80s, and I didn’t want the sequel to taint it.

Would you recommend 'The Expanse' series after a disappointing read with 'Cibola Burn'?

yes daisy is heavy into fantasy while I usually steer clear of it too bad about ready player two if you're going to do a successful sequel it needs to have new ideas and go farther than the original like the second godfather movie for example⚛😀

Good list! I agree with Ready Player 2, although I do lean towards liking it more than being disappointed by it. It did feel forced/lazy at times. For myself, a big disappointment was in the Three Body Problem. Didn’t live up to the hype for me.

The one I voted for!

I havent read any of these but will start Childhood’s End soon.

A number of “snap” moments in this list, including The Mountains and the Sea (dnfed), This is How to Lose the Time War (yawn), Beggars in Spain (interesting ideas, weak execution) and Gideon the Ninth. I too am wary of going back to reread books that I enjoyed when I was much younger because often they don’t stand the test of time as well as I had hoped (eg The Mote in God’s Eye). My biggest disappointment in recent times would have to be Becky Chambers. So many people love her books but I have found them either irritating or heavy handed. Ah well, fortunately there are lots of other books out there 🙂

Gasp 😱 😅 ok so learning my lessons…. Dont send u anymore books 📚. Haha. J/k. It did make the list with an Egan…. So it can’t b that bad. 😊 nice list.

Your lists always pique my interest. So, it's good to see a list that doesn't offer candidates to add to my <large> backlog. I read book #4 earlier this year, and agree with your comments. I enjoyed the televised Expanse series, but my interest in Corey's books ended after Vol2. I liked Ishiguro's The Buried Giant, so guess I'll skip this one.

Childhood's End is my second favorite sci fi novel after Hyperion, and i read it when i was 40 i think and it blew my mind. Not nostalgia here, a great book with a great idea that left me very melancholic. Super recommended.

My big disappointment - the three bidy problem. I can't say it was bad - as far as I can tell it's very good. I am sure the translation robs it of some stuff but I can see the good writing is there. The reason I was disappointed by it was more that it starts out as science fiction and then does a hard switch to science fantasy. And I actually like both of those genres but they don't work being smashed together is all... they are both genres where you have to pick one or the other.

I don’t think I’ve heard a single positive review for Ready Player Two, and I probably won’t ever pick it up. Glad I got to enjoy the first one though! 😅

Ready Player One is YA for 50 year olds. (like me)

You can only be disappointed in relation to your expectations; and my expectations come from the consensus of readers, and my familiarity with an author’s body of work. Agreed, I don’t regret I read them and wouldn’t necessarily not recommend them. I’ve often thought a great video would be Books You Enjoyed Less Than You Expected, and now it’s here..…Here’s my two cents worth, I hope I never have to update: (In no particular order): The Gods Themselves, The Player of Games, Rendezvous with Rama, Parable of the Sower, The Dispossessed, The Mountain in the Sea, A Time of Changes, Termination Shock, Glasshouse, The Day of the Triffids

I didn't expect to see Greg Egan in this list

I'm right in the middle of the Eyes of the Void and finding the series to be a bit disappointing. I really enjoy Tchaikovsky's work and hopefully Lords of Uncreation will improve this trilogy but so far this doesn't compare not only to The Children series but also his short stories like the Expert System pair or even Redemption's Blade. That being said, I'd read it a hundred times before I pick up Too Like The Lightning again.

Ditto on RP2. My goodness that was bad. It was 4th or 5th sequel bad. Nowhere near first sequel drop off.

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This was a good one 🤝

I've read 5 of these and mostly agree with your takes. Ready Player Two was the most disappointing (and the only listed book that I don't recommend to other readers). Mountain and the Sea, Cibola Burn, and Klara and the Sun also were mildly disappointed but had more redeeming qualities. I enjoyed Childhood's End the most, but I read it early on in my sci fi journey and it might not hold up to a re-read. Luckily I only have one other listed book on my TBR, How to Lose the Time War.

I agree about the romance in Time War feeling juvenile. The way I describe it is a Romeo & Juliet story in a scifi time war, and the same way as the actual teens in Romeo & Juliet, the two lovers throw themselves into it waaaay too hard too fast, and they don't even know each other very well. I didn't get it

I loved Gideon but it is not sci-fi at all. If it was nine countries or islands instead of nine planets, it would change exactly zero. Maybe the sequels are different.

I read the first 7 Expanse books and enjoyed the TV series, although it ran out of steam at the end.
For sci-fi with politics, I really liked "Red Mars", "Green Mars", "Blue Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Ready player 2 is only disappointing if you expected it to be better than what was a groundbreaking original (pretty unrealistic). If you just wanted it to not suck then you will be rewarded as it was just like the first one.

Blasphemy! I've been reading sci-fi for almost 50 years and The Expanse is the best series ever. So is the TV series. Loved it so much I got the OPA symbol on my next. Granted you chose the weakest book in the series so there is a universe where I forgive you.

I bounced off of Gideon the Ninth as well. I am starting Cibola Burn soon. Now, I am nervous 😅.

I read Childhoods End earlier this year and really didnt like it at all! Colour me disappointed. 🤷‍♂️

Very interesting as always! I have read about 80 books in the last year, mostly rereads of my books that needed to be replaced by hardbound in good shape. Out of these, only Childhood's End is in my read file. It was a bit disappointing to me as well. I recently picked up a copy of Anything You Can Do by Randall Garrett. I was very impressed with it at 10 or 11. First contact story with very unique and really unexpected cultural twists.

Ha! As soon as I saw the title for this video, I wondered if Gideon would be on it!!!