My problem with Robinson is exactly the opposite - it's when he burns an entire chapter describing his alternate sociological theory involving the four humours just fucking because or spends three chapters retreading the exact same love triangle without resolving anything or doing the JRR Tolkien "list ALL THE THINGS" approach to burning wordcount by rattling off everything in the hold in alphabetical fucking order. There's an impressive array of engineers and physicists who write science fiction. To no one's surprise, they geek out on the science rather a lot. That's fine. That's appropriate. What drives me to distraction is where they go "I understand fluid mechanics, therefore I can postulate a one-world government without needing to understand the first fucking thing about human dynamics" aspects that bug the shit out of me. I was gonna buy a used Easton Press copy of the Durant books. Then in surfing around on eBay I found Gore Vidal's copy. Should be here by Friday.