It was like, just "okay, now my self-insert will lecture the other characters on cyclotrons for three pages" when cyclotrons *at no point* come up in the story. TBF it was only about three times in the book and never more than a couple pages' worth, which is better than, say, Hugo managed, but STILL.

I am fine with my Asimov "here is three pages on how to read ephemeris data" from the same period when they go on to navigate to a tiny moon using said ephemeris, but when it's not even RELATED to the plot or themes that's just bad writing by any standard.