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I've been slogging through Cassandra Rose Clarke's Star's End, which was pitched to me as being space opera.
It isn't. Like, at all.
There seems to be a decent story in here somewhere, but the structure ruins it. "Now" chapters told in third-person limited alternate with first-person "X years ago" chapters. Every attempt at creating any sort of tension in the "then" narrative gets gutted as the "now" chapters reveal every pivotal plot point before it comes up. It's like watching a movie that starts with a shot of a shattered vase on the floor, then spends the next two hours trying to create suspense about whether it will fall off the table and break.
We see a family ripped apart by an event that should be the emotional linchpin of the novel, but that scene's saved for the end of the book. Instead, we get enough cold, clinical information to see it coming hundreds of pages in advance, so that when the emotional climax finally arrives, it packs no punch. The heart of the story is reduced to the last piece in a puzzle we've already assembled.
I'll finish the book, because I agreed to review it, but I'll be glad when it's over.
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