Lee's writing has been criticized for excessive descriptions of the characters' personal lives and especially plentiful sex scenes unrelated to the plot, reminiscent of romance novels. In one critic's words:
- "[ Cradle, a novel coauthored by Lee] just drags on and on and is littered with unnecessary sex scenes that, if you read much of Gentry Lee’s work, you will find is one of his obsessions. I fail to understand why Lee feels that he must include sex scenes in the middle of a science fiction novel that have nothing to do with the story. Once would be OK, but after about the fourth time I found myself dropping the book and thinking “again?!”"
Moreover, Lee has been criticized for a stereotypical portrayal of race in his work and his unusually abundant use of terms such as black, white, Arab and Mexican to describe characters.