Dear Author

[neadods]

Dear Author,

One of the nasty things I'm going to say in the book that inspired the previous letter is that too much time was taken recapping the other six books in the series, and that in one case, the exact wording was reused to introduce a character - presumably because that author didn't figure the beach-reading crowd would realize the redundancy 6 chapters apart.

Imagine my thrill that you have
1) spent over 50 pages recapping the single book before this one, often repeating concepts, and
2) described the same character with the same phrase EIGHT TIMES IN AS MANY PAGES.

For all the flaws in the other book, there was at least a faint attempt to set up a plot, and said attempt appeared in the first chapter. In yours, there are 50 pages of reminders that I shouldn't have bothered with this book first.

I'm giving up. At this point, any review would be a retread of the flaws from one book and the plot from another anyway, because you've pretty much combined the worst of both.

Comments

[travels-in-time.livejournal.com]

It makes you wonder...don't professional authors understand the concept of "beta-reader"?

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Except in this case the beta would be the editor(s)*, but yes, surely the relevant authors and publishers would've had sufficient pride/shame to give the thing what amounts to a heck of a betaing before ever letting the thing get to the outside world. Or maybe they were just worried about getting the Next [Author] Book out there before the next quarter was out.

*acquisitions sometimes make modest proposals to authors at acceptance stage; certainly copyeditors flag up things that don't look right.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I think this one understands that "this crap sells no matter what" unfortunately.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

ouch
sounds like a tortuous job reading that one....

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I solved that one by stopping. Ugh!

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

And yet... you just KNOW there will be someone who thinks it's
"The gratest booke EVAR!!!11!eleventy!1!"


(Hack, gag,... it hurt to write that, I just want you to know.)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

And that, in a nutshell, is why the buggers keep coming out.

[flaviarassen.livejournal.com]

And yet I can't get published....

(Bitter? Moi?)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

In both cases, the authors have over a dozen books out, and I think the editors are of the opinion "their fans will read any crap." And to be honest, I probably wouldn't have too much of a bug up my butt about this one if I had read the first one in line, except for the recurring "he was the best of us all" line about someone who apparently wasn't.