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A review by rheren
The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton
1.0
This is my book #89 on Goodreads, and this is the first book I've ever given 1 star to. I've been saving 1 star for a book that I couldn't even finish because it was so bad.
As I've been a scifi fan for a long time, I've gotten used to some of the seemingly inevitable aspects of the genre. One of those is that for some reason there's always gotta be a sex scene somewhere in the book. It's refreshing to run across a book that doesn't, but it's rare. It's like Tom Clancy-style thrillers: almost all authors feel this overwhelming need to include a totally unnecessary sex scene, I guess for audience gratification. I can always just ignore it and move on.
I'm giving this as an introduction, because I don't consider myself a prude or to have a weak stomach. However, this book's filth was literally sickening. I can not go on. Every single interpersonal interaction seems to include sex: eyeing someone to see if they're going to be good for sex (they always are, of course), gauging the circumstances to see if they can be raped (usually they can), long, intricate descriptions of sex and rape scenes. The satanist torture and butchery descriptions were extremely graphic, too. It was all starting to affect how I see people and think about people in real life, and it was just too much.
The sci fi aspects of the book were terrific, and I really wish I could get past the smut. Believe me, I tried: several times I was like, "It can't possibly be like this the whole book: surely I'm going to get past this section and it'll be more bearable". But halfway through I'm throwing in the towel. This book is just too nauseating to be worth it.
As I've been a scifi fan for a long time, I've gotten used to some of the seemingly inevitable aspects of the genre. One of those is that for some reason there's always gotta be a sex scene somewhere in the book. It's refreshing to run across a book that doesn't, but it's rare. It's like Tom Clancy-style thrillers: almost all authors feel this overwhelming need to include a totally unnecessary sex scene, I guess for audience gratification. I can always just ignore it and move on.
I'm giving this as an introduction, because I don't consider myself a prude or to have a weak stomach. However, this book's filth was literally sickening. I can not go on. Every single interpersonal interaction seems to include sex: eyeing someone to see if they're going to be good for sex (they always are, of course), gauging the circumstances to see if they can be raped (usually they can), long, intricate descriptions of sex and rape scenes. The satanist torture and butchery descriptions were extremely graphic, too. It was all starting to affect how I see people and think about people in real life, and it was just too much.
The sci fi aspects of the book were terrific, and I really wish I could get past the smut. Believe me, I tried: several times I was like, "It can't possibly be like this the whole book: surely I'm going to get past this section and it'll be more bearable". But halfway through I'm throwing in the towel. This book is just too nauseating to be worth it.