Comment by pavel_lishin

> This is such an investment into the setting that I don't find it all that surprising that I don't find the characters all that compelling per se.

His characters do tend to be a little flat, but I think I almost always found them compelling. His books tend to be a physics or mathematics primer, wrapped in a pretty thin plot, but as soon as you poke at that plot-wrapper, most of the time some pretty good social commentary comes steaming out.