Conversely I think these are some of the worst books I’ve ever read (and I’ve read basically everything mentioned in this thread). The characters are uninteresting, the plot is haphazard and the ideas are derivative. I can see how it would be appealing if you don’t read much at all but once you’ve experience some higher quality stuff it’s just bad.

It depends. I found them very enjoyable. I'm perhaps not an avid sci-fi reader but I did read some classics.

I try to not be pedantic about plot holes but i’ve felt there were so many ilogical and unexplained decisions. Author just moves on and does not care that it was very distracting.

I liked some of the ideas although i think you can find books that dig into similar ones a bit deeper.

What also doesnt help is that this seems to be the book that people that dont read sci-fi (because its for kids) all read and they love it. I got so many raving reviews from people telling me if scifi was like this they would read sci-fi… annoying as hell.

It says something terrible about the current zeitgeist that these books are as popular as they are.

I look forward to a day when the top scifi is unabashed optimism about humanity's future.

I loved the series the first time through. Great concepts. First use of “dark forest” that I am aware of. Very specific arc of what could happen in the deep future.

I went to read it a second time and found I simply could not get through it. That which I found so exciting was significantly less so the second time around.