[sbelskie]

If you don't read/like much genre fiction, I would say probably no. The pacing is well done and I genuinely find story compelling, but the writing while solid-ish is not exactly of high literary quality.

Additionally, in terms of genre I actually find Weir's books to be more like detective novels than sci-fi, though obviously lots of sci-fi elements in them.

[jetbalsa]

I've found and some have proven that sci-fi is just a setting of sorts, a background to the story at hand. For instance the Backyard Starship series is 100% a detective / cop novel set in space. Asimov did one called The Naked Sun that was pretty much a murder mystery and from what I understand written to prove a point that sci-fi really is just a setting to what ever main genre you want out of it.

[jowea]

I have the same opinion, likewise for fantasy. But a lot of scifi and fantasy stories really have similar tropes and plots, even if it is possible to write say, a romantic book with scifi trappings. There are also some books like I, Robot that really are about the scifi and not just another genre in a scifi setting.

[xyzsparetimexyz]

That's definitely not true for a large number of science fiction stories. The science is often a core component and can't be substituted for anything. What does Star Trek look like in a fantasy setting? It doesn't work at all.

[sbelskie]

Yea that makes a lot of sense. The first Expanse novel (at least Miller’s storyline) fits here as well.

[jetbalsa]

I also think anime is in the same boat, there is a ton of different stories you can tell and how they are animated. its a shame it gets all lumped together like it does