Babel-17

Sci-fi has always been a genre that was difficult for me to really get into. This novel didn't end up being that much different. The story itself was enjoyable enough, as were the characters, but I still felt as though it was lacking something that kept me from really loving it. Part of the problem that I typically have with sci-fi is that it tends to introduce too many characters and places at one time. When that happens, I tend to have a really hard time remembering who's who, what the person that's speaking was suppose to be like or look like, and because of that I'm kept from making any sort of bond with the characters. The characters are likeable, but not loveable. Another problem is when they begin to talk about things like technology, substances, places, in lengthy descriptions. A lot of the time I had a hard time wrapping my brain around what was being explained. There were times when I didn't even get that far, I only got the sense that what was being said was important, that I was SUPPOSE to understand something, but instead of grasping it, it flew straight over my head. There were also times where there was too little description, such as the environments, and I ended up getting extremely disoriented. The best example of this was near the beginning when the main character was getting together her crew.