Scifi and fantasy are my greatest loves when it comes to what I read, admittedly, however, there is a hell of a lot of science fiction and and fantasy that I simply don't understand.

A lot of it seems to center aroung the technology or science and the characters play second fiddle-that's just not the way it's supposed to work. I prefer a story that take seriously character development, while the genre-specific elements of the story serve as backdrop.

Some mistake the setting with the crux or message of the story, a scifi 'setting' will often result in poor character development, plot lines, etc.

This rant is a product of my strufggling to read Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. In my opinion, it is an uneven (and unwieldy) book-not only that, but I am disappointed with the ending. Bah!