Multiple-volume giant epics with many characters and vast quantities of high-level political intrigue, vaguely imitative of the writers notion of some particular historical era or place.

I do not bounce off these so much as simply slide over them, in the manner of the sole of a foot meeting a lot of wet and soapy bathroom tile.

Had I ever had any sense that the writers of such works had actually engaged in political intrigue themselves or at least talked to someone who had, it might be different.