Consider Phlebas

At first, I was pretty into this book. I liked the concept of Changers and the back and forth between Horza and Balveda, but as the book went on, I just wound up seeing more and more of the trope that ruin “classic” sci-fi for me. From the gruesome cannibal cult to the constant fridging of women in the protagonist's sphere to the general unlikeablity of the protagonist himself, this book just lost me.

The absolute worst though was when Yalson reveals her pregnancy to Horza and promptly offers to have or abort the baby on his whim. You know a book is written by a dude when... And of course the pregnancy only exists to fuel Horza's rage further when she gets killed.

I read this for book club, but it was first recommended to me by a guy I was chatting with online who then went crazy stalker, flooding my messengers with hundreds of repetitive, creepy things when I failed to respond to him instantly, so I had a bit of a bad taste in my mouth for it before I read it. That said, other than Balveda, I just couldn't find much to enjoy in this one.