I read Forty Signs of Rain, got to the end, realized it was only the first, and that the next book was going to focus primarily on the character I liked least (I believe he was the NIH researcher), and just had no enthusiasm to pick up the next one. I also wondered whether it should even be properly classified as science fiction, really, given that 9/10 of the novel is -- well, it's fiction about science, but there's not actually a lot of speculation in it. In many ways, it's an entirely mainstream novel. This of course changes in the later books, with the weather. Still.

I respect KSR more than I like him, I have to admit: his characters rarely leap off the page for me, and they pretty much have to do that for me to invest time in rereading anything. I tend to tell people who ask to read Antarctica instead of the Mars trilogy, as it addresses most of the same issues in 1/3 the space. *grin*

But Escape from Katmandu was a wonderful collection, full of humor and creativity, or so I recall. And I really did love the California trilogy.