One Star Reviews on the First
Saturday, November 1st, 2008 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniBack in April, John Scalzi posted a challenge to writers to post their one-star reviews, own them, and then move on. In April, I Had No Brain, due to the writing of Longeye, but today, I am procrastinating. Herewith and therefore, snippets of one-star reviews received by various Lee and Miller books, for your viewing pleasure.
Note: This is NOT a call to contact Amazon about "inappropriate" reviews, or to pester the reviewers. They're entitled to their opinions, and are clearly passionate about them. It is, however, a fascinating illustration of reader expectation, and how we don't ever read (or, apparently, write) the same book, even when we think we have.
I DARE
If you enjoyed Partners in Necessity be prepared for disappointment when you purchase this book. Yes, those enjoyable characters Edger, Miri, Val Con etc. are still present but their stories are basically over and most of this book centers on new characters that are not nearly as interesting. I know writers have to pay the rent but really-get this one from the library first.
CRYSTAL DRAGON
*(...)composed of page upon chapter of ponderous introspection, mystical meanderings and conversations of individual characters - to themselves! None of the expected kaleidoscopic glimpses of the heart-rending, joyous, hilarious, inspiring, shocking human condition of previous protagonists - just a never-ending monolog of (rather dull) description. I have to believe that some horrible mistake happened at the publisher where some OTHER author's book was inadvertantly substituted for Lee & Millers. (...)
*being a designer, i realize that the creative process doesn't operate by demand, but i would rather learn more about our heroes after they and the Tree left liad than read backstory. (...)give us back miri and the turtles and shan and the rest.
LOCAL CUSTOM (AUDIO)
(...)I tried to listen to it, 4 times, but each time I realized after an hour or so that I had no clue what had been going on and I tried again. I gave up eventually. (...) My advice to the authors is to forget about writing books 2..6 and get a job in a different field.
DUAINFEY
*I was not expecting rape fantasies or sordid sex. I'm not sure why they wrote this, but I'm glad I only got it from the library and didn't pay for it. It's one I won't be adding to my shelf.
*The dialogue was trite, the story non-existent and at times painful.
*(...) disgusted. Sex, S&M and absolutely zero plot or worth while dialogue. Normally I donate my books to the public library but this only deserved the trash can. What a waste of money and time.
*(...) a badly written S&M fantasy with evil elves, a helpless hapless heroine and not much of a plot. (...)I wonder what Lee and Miller were thinking of to write this?
*WHAT A WASTE OF TALENT......DEFINITELY NOT WORTH THE MONEY.....THEY SHOULD STICK TO THE LIADEN NOVELS EVEN OF THEY ARE TIRED OF WRITING THEM (WHICH LATELY DOES SHOW) WHICH HAVE CLASSY DIALOGUE AND SUPERB STORY LINES- WHICH DUAINFEY DOES NOT.....IF I COULD GIVE MINUS STARS I WOULD
Note: This is NOT a call to contact Amazon about "inappropriate" reviews, or to pester the reviewers. They're entitled to their opinions, and are clearly passionate about them. It is, however, a fascinating illustration of reader expectation, and how we don't ever read (or, apparently, write) the same book, even when we think we have.
I DARE
If you enjoyed Partners in Necessity be prepared for disappointment when you purchase this book. Yes, those enjoyable characters Edger, Miri, Val Con etc. are still present but their stories are basically over and most of this book centers on new characters that are not nearly as interesting. I know writers have to pay the rent but really-get this one from the library first.
CRYSTAL DRAGON
*(...)composed of page upon chapter of ponderous introspection, mystical meanderings and conversations of individual characters - to themselves! None of the expected kaleidoscopic glimpses of the heart-rending, joyous, hilarious, inspiring, shocking human condition of previous protagonists - just a never-ending monolog of (rather dull) description. I have to believe that some horrible mistake happened at the publisher where some OTHER author's book was inadvertantly substituted for Lee & Millers. (...)
*being a designer, i realize that the creative process doesn't operate by demand, but i would rather learn more about our heroes after they and the Tree left liad than read backstory. (...)give us back miri and the turtles and shan and the rest.
LOCAL CUSTOM (AUDIO)
(...)I tried to listen to it, 4 times, but each time I realized after an hour or so that I had no clue what had been going on and I tried again. I gave up eventually. (...) My advice to the authors is to forget about writing books 2..6 and get a job in a different field.
DUAINFEY
*I was not expecting rape fantasies or sordid sex. I'm not sure why they wrote this, but I'm glad I only got it from the library and didn't pay for it. It's one I won't be adding to my shelf.
*The dialogue was trite, the story non-existent and at times painful.
*(...) disgusted. Sex, S&M and absolutely zero plot or worth while dialogue. Normally I donate my books to the public library but this only deserved the trash can. What a waste of money and time.
*(...) a badly written S&M fantasy with evil elves, a helpless hapless heroine and not much of a plot. (...)I wonder what Lee and Miller were thinking of to write this?
*WHAT A WASTE OF TALENT......DEFINITELY NOT WORTH THE MONEY.....THEY SHOULD STICK TO THE LIADEN NOVELS EVEN OF THEY ARE TIRED OF WRITING THEM (WHICH LATELY DOES SHOW) WHICH HAVE CLASSY DIALOGUE AND SUPERB STORY LINES- WHICH DUAINFEY DOES NOT.....IF I COULD GIVE MINUS STARS I WOULD
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 04:19 am (UTC)Wait a second...It's not really S&M Porn? *pout* What an utter disappointment. Guess I'll just have to go back and re-read my copies of the Liaden books for the zillion-and-fifth time.
Y'know....not everything has to be sexual, but when it's appropriate to the story, then it ought to be in there. The two last lines in that one chapter where Lina and Priscilla hold hands when leaving after the ping-pong tournament is more ~affecting~ than most folk's erotica.
But what do I know? I'm just a reader...mind you, in my spare time I run a group for kinky people, and I keep steering them to Local Custom as a treatise in how to actually communicate with one's prospective partner...*laughing*...or not, as the case may be.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 11:06 am (UTC)LOL! It wasn't written as S&M Porn -- there's the whole thing about Writing What You Know. There is also, as you say, the whole thing about Writing What the Story Needs. But some folks are more ...sensitized... to certain issues than others.
My favorite form of this in the Liaden Universe are the people who loathe Daav yos'Phelium because he "abandoned his son." Nothing -- not necessity, not the character of the Clan and the apparent danger to it -- nothing can get them past that Single Unspeakable Crime. *Shrugs* IAOTA, and I can, alas, Only Do So Much.
Local Custom as a treatise in how to actually communicate with one's prospective partner
Telling the truth is a good thing. You just need to be sure that you're telling it in such a way that the other person can actually understand what you're saying...