I'm in the middle of reading asimov's Foundation Trilogy and oh my God the first book is boring. The psychohistorian section was really good because one gets introduced to a huge Universe. I mean you hear about Trantor being this planet with 40 billion people who are in charge of administering the whole galaxy. For a moment I almost thought I was gaal arriving at Trantor in this crazy spaceship, checking out the nice space scenery. I felt like I had been the one graduating with my PhD and was finally arriving at this new world. I felt like I was the one taking the car from the Spaceport to this fancy hotel. It was a great introduction.
But the sections on encyclopedist and the mayors is so boring it's always these dudes talking about some random policy. And there is no real action at all whatsoever. There are no women in these sections, no one is boning down, no real character development, etc. These two sections feel like someone is giving me a dull summary of conversations that took place.
I'm looking for some books that are up there with dune and Hyperion. I also loved a dark matter, I thought I was such a fun book to read. And there is no hate on Asimov, as a matter of fact I loved his book The Gods themselves. Old man's war was really cool too. So far the books that I have abandoned this year has been a memory called empire, the three body problem, and I'm really close to abandoning the foundation Trilogy LOL. And your recommendations need not be science fiction or fantasy.
I'll be down to read a book about humans in other parts of the universe, interacting closely and maybe intimately with other species.