One-star/five-star reviews, and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin

[inverarity]

I'm curious to know how many of you have had the experience of reading a book, deciding you love/hate it, and then reading a highly critical/laudatory review and thinking, "You know, they're right, I didn't think of it that way before," and revising your opinion? Do you actively seek out negative opinions, even of a book you like, to find out why

Comments

[anonymous]

Who are these authors that you want to read everything by? Just curious, as I'm looking for new things to read for the summer.

dream-child

[inverarity]

Honestly, it's been quite a while since I really went through an author's entire oeuvre, and I'm not sure there are any new authors on my "must-read" list.

Back in the day, I read almost everything by Robert Heinlein (despite my growing distaste for his politics, or more accurately, the politics of most of his fans). I also really liked Larry Niven and Stephen King. I'm not even sure I'd know what to recommend in the way of recent releases. I will say, however, that I've bought quite a few books after they were recommended on John Scalzi's blog, and so far haven't been disappointed. (I've only read one book by Scalzi himself -- Zoe's Tale -- and found it enjoyable enough, but it didn't entice me to read the rest of his Old Man's War series.)

read the first chapter

[anonymous]

I read the first chapter online after you last referenced the story. I lost interest because the writing wasn't very good. It felt like something written by a good but not prodigal teenager. All of the asides were part of that. For the record, I didn't like Eragon either - you could tell all of the different stories he was pulling ideas in from. This writing level is something I tolerate in fanfic because a lot of writers are just learning to and polishing their fiction writing. I try not to buy books at this level though - although I'll occasionally pick one up from the bargain bins if the story is unique.

I think 2/3rds of the time my opinion of something doesn't change based on the reviews. The other third of the time is evenly split between revising upwards and downwards.

- So this is real life...

Re: read the first chapter

[inverarity]

I've never read Eragon. I agree that the first chapter isn't great in terms of writing style, but the world that was introduced, and the plot hook, caught my interest. I think the writing gets better, but I too can see where Jemisin is trying to emulate other writers she admires.

David Eddings

[anonymous]

I used to really like David Eddings. I have a ton of his books, and particularly his Mallorean and Belgariad series are very entertaining. But I heard some criticism of him (basically, all his characters are pretty much the same, it's very much uber-feminist, etc.) and I realized that it's true. I still like him, but now I feel bad about it. :P

~DarkSov

Re: David Eddings

[inverarity]

I read one book by Eddings, years ago -- it was from one of his big epic series, but I don't remember which one. It was really bad. The characters were all one-dimensional and the dialog read like something out of a TV show script.

But we all have our shameful guilty pleasures in our pasts. (See upcoming post. ;))

[anonymous]

Please post AQ 3 - chapter 7 soon, I'm dying to read it :).

Deathly Hallows review

[anonymous]

So I read the DH review, because I wanted to understand the people who hated it so much

Re: Deathly Hallows review

[inverarity]

Hemmens's review was definitely more snark than critical analysis. However, he did touch on a few things that I thought were significant in retrospect. For example, Harry's death-march into the woods, with his parents cheering him on. That was quite touching when I first read it, as Rowling intended. However, I agree with Hemmens that in retrospect, it's pretty effed up for your own mother, whose sacrifice to save you is the foundation of the series, to be telling you that she's proud of you for offering yourself up like a sacrificial lamb.

That said, I agree that reviews that focus entirely on negativity and snark and can't bring themselves to find one good thing to say about what they're reviewing aren't terribly informative, and should be read for entertainment purposes only. (Unless it really is so atrocious that there's nothing good to say about it -- and Deathly Hallows definitely does not fall into that category.).