From what little I have read of his work, and furthermore the reason I have only read a little of his work -- the dialog. Besides all the abilities mentioned above, it appears that his superhuman protagonists as well as their supporting friends can carry on a flawless conversation for a chapter or two, without a single grunt, "uh", or missed beat. True, words on paper do sound much more elegant and prosy than they ever do in reality, but it comes to a boring point when the characters are never at a loss for something brilliant or brilliantly funny to say. I am by no means saying that we should be subjected to onomatopoeic mutterings in the middle of a scene or forced to slog through an extremely described accent (British, southern, northern, Irish, they all look terrible on a page), but, come on, the characters are conversationally invincible. At least show some sign of vulnerability or misunderstanding, because otherwise they're not real. Science fiction may be about ideas and not character emotions, but quantum bi-dimensional teletransportation can be more of a drag than Anne of Green Gables if it is surrounded in a disgusting muck of poorly written dialog.