I’ve made no secret of the fact that I read books in the Urban Fantasy genre. Many of these are about vampires, werewolves and in the case of one series, even a necromancer. Most contain little in the way of a truly unique narratives and it all too common to find ideas and even tropes lifted from one story to another. That might be why I find it so easy to transition from one author to author within the genre. They are all about mostly the same thing: magic in the modern day.

Having said that though, I thought I would shake up my reading habits by diving back into the science fiction genre for a couple of weeks. The first book I picked for this shift is Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.

I’ve gotten about 40 pages into the story but it has been a struggle. I had forgotten how dense a science fiction story could be. Every few words is a name for some planet, city or even person. All of these are made-up names for an entire history of people as they moved from planet to planet. Add to that the habit of starting different sections — each from a totally different character’s point of view —in media res and you have a confusing story. I’d have put this book down hours ago had it not also been also endearing. There is a story there but the density of terms is enough to make the this genre vacationing a troubling experience.

Has there been a book that you gave up because there was just too much exposition to adsorb or too many terms to learn?