I’ll go with the low-hanging fruit: Mein Kampf. I’ve read it, cover to cover. As a piece of propaganda, it’s good. As an example of good writing? Absolutely not (though I will admit I have only read it in translation). Oh, and the whole fascist, racist, and generally shitty worldview of the author that he infuses into the text. And the fact that the author is literally Hitler. You 5-star that book? You’re a Nazi. Period. And as a Jewish person, I don’t look too kindly on them.

    • Zagdil@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      With Heinlein, Orwell and Asimov its these particular books.

      Stranger in a strange land:
      Not one but two smug author self inserts that lecture in a condescending tone. Also all the -a womans boon is being a beautiful fembot- nonsense. Dropping interesting meditations that could be made about communication, socialization and conscience for a neo liberal sex utopia for manchilds.

      Foundation:
      Other works of him are far better. Foundation is stilted, slow and awkward. The concepts are often interesting to engage with, but the delivery is crude and smooth brained.

      Animal Farm, copy pasted from another comment I made here:
      I kinda hate Animal Farm. It is a good book and it is incredibly effective at dealing a deadly blow of a message. I think it is somewhat of a consensus, that is a bit too good at what it does. It drowns out competing thoughts and wields the animal metaphor like a warhammer.

      If someone genuinely likes any of these 5/5 I am pretty sure they didn’t understand them properly and actually like the bluntness or stopped learning after reading them.

      Larry Niven is the SciFi equivalent to raunchy soft cover romance novels in the back of a gas station.