Part of the job of being a good writer is being a voracious reader. It’s actually one of my favourite parts of the job! I can devour a good book in a day, and occasionally will finish multiple a week.
An expensive part of the job, certainly, but important.
But some of the sci-fi I read isn’t exactly contemporary. I’ve read a lot of foundational stuff, including Asimov (see what I did there?), and it can be difficult to wade through some of the old fiction. Values and judgments back then were very different, and sometimes jarringly so.
The series I’m reading right now isn’t that old, and it’s not that difficult or problematic. But there are a lot of elements that were in vogue at the time that have since fallen by the wayside (and mostly aren’t missed). “Male Gaze” is a constant problem… the inclination to view every woman in a story by their sexuality and attractiveness, and to have the heroic men all be muscular violent types. I’m oversimplifying, but you get the idea.
It’s not the worst sin that old sci-fi is guilty of, but it is jarring when read with modern sensibilities. But this is part of the job… learning what older writers did wrong, so that I don’t make the same mistakes… I make new mistakes instead.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!