Genre fiction that reads like bad fan fiction.
I was reading a book in a popular sci-fi series, but I'm going to keep this vague. The main character from the story is a well-known character in a military hierarchy... let's say he's a Class 8 Thingdoer (who has evolved, over the years, from a Class 7 Thingdoer, because as you know, good work is rewarded with promotion in military circles). Well, it involves him meeting up with a character that, in canon, he last saw ten years ago, when she was Class 1 Thingdoer. Only now, she's a Class 9 (out-ranking our well-known chum). Only, here's the thing. Miss Class 1 was shown to be, at best, average. She was clumsy, if plucky, and when adversity struck it left her stunned and almost unable to function (except Mr Class 7 got her moving and thinking on a solution again).
Suddenly, in the amount of time it took an exceptional individual to go from Class 7 to 8, she shot all the way up *past* him to Class 9, AND became the Head Of Thingdoers in the process. This is a guy who's saved not only his unit, but the established setting on more than one occasion (in-canon!), and the book gave no explanation as to the Wondrous Deeds she would have had to perform to reach her rank, and no indication she'd become exceptional off-screen. Also, until he met her again, he didn't even seem to know she was Head Of Thingdoers, even though that's kind of something a Thingdoer would expect to know, wouldn't you think?
In the end, I quietly finished the book (it was only 90 pages), and have resolved never to revisit it. It's the first in a series, and there are others by different authors, so I'll give them a try, but oy.
