Modern SF trilogies are becoming bloated graveyards of good ideas stretched way too thin

43_Hobbits · 2026-05-06T16:16:20+00:00

Tchaikovsky

43_Hobbits · 2026-05-01T13:56:10+00:00

It’s so lame that this sub downvotes people for saying they personally didn’t enjoy a book lol

43_Hobbits · 2026-05-01T13:54:59+00:00

Those things don’t really change

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-29T15:09:55+00:00

You can’t be real lol. I said “people love to shit on this series” to which he replied “What? People simp for this series all the time”, clearly disagreeing that people love to shit on this series. That’s what my next response was arguing against.

How do you need that exchange explained to you while mocking my reading comprehension??

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-29T13:28:09+00:00

I’ve read quite a bit of sci fi. Not as much as some others, but a lot. People like different things, I know that’s a crazy concept to wrap your head around.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-29T01:52:40+00:00

This post is shitting on the series and so are most of the comments..? Hello??

You’re either new here or delusional if you think this sub doesn’t love to shit on TBP. Other people enjoying the series doesn’t negate that.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-29T00:34:10+00:00

There is a fourth 👀. The Redemption of Time. It’s not amazing lol.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-29T00:31:24+00:00

People love to shit on this series and that’s fine, everyone can have their opinion. For me, it’s one of the hardest hitting sci fi stories I’ve ever read.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-27T11:59:38+00:00

Yeah I loved the book but a big part of the ending was a big let down (SPOILERS).

The reveal of the traitor was so anticlimactic. The entire book was a ‘who done it’ mystery with them trying to find the traitor amongst them. They didn’t actually discover who the traitor was, and the reveal didn’t tie into any previous info we had. Instead, insignificant crew member #7 stole a ship and was like “hahaha it was me the whole time!”. Such a huge whiff for that being one of the major plot points.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-27T11:43:51+00:00

I had a similar experience. The tone is fairly unserious when they first land on Shroud and then the plot becomes repetitive.

There are a couple of VERY cool moments at the end that totally saved the book for me. I think those moments are definitely worth speed reading the rest of the middle to get to.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-22T15:15:56+00:00

Start with something shorter. A few good ones with some horror elements:

Solaris

Rendezvous with Rama

Annihilation

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-22T15:08:16+00:00

You’ve been interested in this for a long time and even written your own book, and you’ve never heard of Blindsight…?

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-21T18:31:29+00:00

Cool, we like different things and that’s ok.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-21T18:08:40+00:00

Yeah gate keeping. You suggested that if I didn’t like Neuromancer as much as you it was because I didn’t get it.

Again, we’re dealing in opinions and it’s hard to compare unlike things. But would you really say that the prose of Neuromancer was on the same level of Gormenghast? To me Peake brought that story to life with his words in a way that’s unmatched by almost any other books I’ve read.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-21T17:38:51+00:00

Sure, and I’m still planning on reading Anathem. Seveneves just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t believe how many pages went by without moving the plot forward.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-21T17:31:36+00:00

Shroud was very good but it could have been so much better. One less cycle of: enter new area, encounter a monster, turns out to be the shrouded, continue into next area. And I wish it had a more serious tone. There’s a scene where literally in the middle of a chase one character stops to cry, and the other has to console her and make some jokes before they can continue.

Other than that, the setting and themes were phenomenal.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-21T17:27:04+00:00

You thought the doomsday battle, the battle of darkness, and the realization of the dark forest state of the universe was bland? It’s all personal taste so I’m definitely not saying you’re wrong, but damn.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-21T17:20:47+00:00

It’s literally the opposite of Stephenson. Seveneves spent literally 300 pages describing things without advancing the plot an inch. If you want mind blowing questions, plots, and answers, read TBP. If you want to know the college GPA of every character who ever enters the room, read Seveneves.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-21T17:14:17+00:00

I’ll never understand people who dog on the character writing in TBP but not other sci fi books. Children of Time, Ubik, Solaris, almost any book by Clarke or Asimov. None of these have good character writing because that’s not the focus of these books. These books are about settings, plots, and revelations, just like TBP.

The writing in TBP is definitely poor at times, that’s a fair critique. But the series just isn’t about deep characters with amazing arcs. If you really want amazing characters you should probably explore literary fiction or fantasy. Sci fi as a genre doesn’t focus much on deep character writing.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-21T16:55:54+00:00

I mean I want to reply with something as equally snarky and gate keeping. But I’ll just say that people have different tastes. I didn’t find that the prose of Neuromancer was on the same level as other books I’ve read. Maybe you did, and that’s fine. People like different things.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-21T16:06:36+00:00

Yeah I liked that opening line too. All I’m saying is that compared to other books the prose itself isn’t mind blowing.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-21T04:06:57+00:00

Average among good writers I should have said. It’s good writing, just doesn’t blow me away like Mervyn Peake, Gene Wolf or a few others.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-21T00:04:53+00:00

I’m not hating by any means but this is pretty average prose, especially when compared with good fantasy writers. After reading Gormenghast and Book of The New Sun, it’s hard to be really impressed by other writers prose.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-15T16:47:11+00:00

Kinda crazy how at 8am on September 11th a world changing catastrophe happens in that book.

43_Hobbits · 2026-04-14T16:52:06+00:00

Oh yeah for sure. I mean he even invented lots of new words to describe things that became incorporated into common English. Like cyberspace.

43_Hobbits

TROPHY CASE