Review

[desperance]

For what it's worth, there's a review of 'Bridge of Dreams' in Romantic Times. Someone who had best remain anonymous remarked that I did seem to have strained all three of the reviewer's brain-cells. I think that's harsh, but 'difficult to absorb' surprised me too; I thought the premise was really fairly simple. Perhaps I expect too much...?

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Well, that's interesting. It's a fantasy, and (despite the cover) they know it's a fantasy, but they review it anyway. If you can call it a review, when, like so many alleged reviews, it's little more than a plot summary (but I digress)...

And the verdict is that this fantasy stuff requires you to pay attention to the nature of created worlds.

Would it be very wicked simply to quote ...incredibly compelling and interesting characters..., do you think?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

To be fair (and as you know, Richard is my middle name), they do review a fair amount of F/SF (eg they've just reviewed matociquala, which was what prompted me to go look in the first place). If, as you say, you want to call it reviewing. Not quite sure why they don't give their people a little more space; the poor devils have read their way through a whole book, after all, they're entitled to a page's worth of opinions about it.

Would it be very wicked simply to quote ...incredibly compelling and interesting characters..., do you think?

On the contrary: it is exactly what I have predicted my publishers will do, if they need a quote for the paperback. Except if I were they, I'd lose 'characters' and just go with the adjectives unattached.

[samarcand.livejournal.com]

The review is indeed incredibly bizarre. It reads like a GCSE book report written by someone on the bus to school the morning they are meant to hand it in.

[devonellington.livejournal.com]

The sensory detail is part of what makes the book so enchanting. You enter into an enchantment, it's a different culture on many levels and you learn to navigate it through the characters.

I bet the reviewer spends a lot of time with tv or video games.

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

The poor reviewer sounds utterly confused, though I can't see why. Unfamiliarity with fantasy, perhaps? No, that's no excuse, because your prose is so beautifully clear and simple and accurate and such a pleasure to read. Some authors seem to think that for fantasy one has to torture the poor English language to the point of incomprehensibility. It's lovely to come across a good story that's well-told.

I'll get off my hobby-horse and return to lurking now.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Oh, coo. Thank you. You, um, you wouldn't like to say something of the sort on Amazon, would you? Both the Amazons, both sides of the pond...?

No, no, I mustn't solicit. Ignore me. I'll just creep back into my writerly hole, and get on with vol 2. Encouraged.