The real world is uncomfortable for them because you're surrounded by people who are new, and who change, and whose inner life is inaccessible to you, especially for those who lack a fully functioning Theory of Mind. Static characters are safe and predictable, and the world these fans want to live in is one where people's inner live sand external lives are the same. As in late-period M*A*S*H, where every character had fully explored every other character's issues and there was nothing unknown between them.

For most of us, this total lack of tension is insufferable, but there is a type of person who craves nothing but serene, trusting safety and security that never ends.

Take the Uplift War by David Brin. The third book in the series, it is undeniably superior to the first (Sundiver) or second (Startide Rising).

The key is to have a really fantastic premise and stick with it, consistently following the rules.

And, yes, the next *three* books in that series were terrible.

But the corpse raping continuation of the series is just a way to keep cranking out the bucks. It's no different that having Fred Astaire dancing from beyond the grave with a Hoover vacuum cleaner.

"To be fair, the initial Dune trilogy probably has a claim to rising to the level of literature--time will tell."

The book Dune is really quite good and definitely qualifies, but there's no reason to read further in the trilogy. In my opinion Dune Messiah and Children of Dune are a lot closer to the "unreadable waste of perfectly good ink and pulp" end of the spectrum than they are to the "literature" end.