Tag: book reviews

Congratulations to Steven M. Moore

Congratulations to author Steven M. Moore on a great review of his science fiction book, Survivors of the Chaos.

Civilization passes through a social singularity. The U.S. and E.U. break apart. China collapses. Companies consolidate and expand around Earth and to the far reaches of the solar system, becoming the glue that prevents anarchy as they contract mercenaries to brutally maintain order and ensure profits.

Three reluctant heroes rise above this Chaos. A mild Midwest rancher becomes a vengeful vigilante in the Big Apple; an aging astrophysicist struggles to save alien artifacts found on one of Saturn’s moons; and a tired and reluctant mob enforcer finds a new life aboard a starship on its way to 82 Eridani.

Pulitzer-nominated reviewer David W. Menefee of Bookpleasures.com says of the book, “Readers steeped in current literature will appreciate the brevity of scenes that burst in front of you with a blinding flash of startling detail and then exit as quickly as a comet streaking through the night sky.” You can read the whole review here.

Survivors of the Chaos is available from Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Barnes & Noble.

Spotlight on…Christmas fiction

It’s that time of year…Christmas. You either love it or you hate it. Or you hate the toil and trouble, the trailing around the shops, trying to find something for Great-aunt Alice that isn’t yet another pair of fluffy slippers or that she won’t put in the drawer and try and remember to put on display every time you call round. It’s all a mad silly rush and you vow, yet again, that you’ll be more organised next year and start in May, roundabout when you’re starting to think of your summer hols.

My recommendation? Well, aside from sorting dear old Alice out with a Kindle/ereader and a few respectable books (or grabbing a passport and escaping to Timbuktoo), let me suggest sitting down in a nice comfy armchair beside a pleasantly glowing fire with a cup of deliciously steaming-hot cocoa (or if it’s after six, some mulled wine maybe?), and forget about the festive lunacy and escape for half an hour with a seasonal short story. It’s safe, it’s legal, it’s cheap, (well, depending on the number of glasses of mulled wine you have), but more importantly, it’s a tried and tested (by me) remedy to help prevent loss of sanity.

Two authors and four books spring to mind for this little home-grown cure. Continue reading “Spotlight on…Christmas fiction”

Sooo Phisticated

Photo copyright Stuart Miles
via freedigitalphotos.net

In October 2009, I received my first one-star review. The rating didn’t bother me much, because the reviewer’s other one-star reads included two of my favorite books plus an Oprah club pick. But a particular line in the text of the review haunted me for nearly three years: “The writing was so unsophisticated.”

After I read that line, it hardly registered when other strangers described my book with words like “compelling”, “important”, “heart-wrenching”, and “superbly written”, because my brain kept going back to so unsophisticated. I had never in my life strived to be sophisticated–I’m not even sure what it means–but suddenly it became the measure by which I judged every passage I wrote. Continue reading “Sooo Phisticated”

Fifteen Things NOT to Say in Response to a Book Review

This is not a hate post, or at least it’s not solely a hate post. 😉

Just for myself, I really don’t believe an author has any business saying anything to a reviewer in public. Let’s be clear: Readers do not review books on behalf of writers. The function of a review is not to service an author’s ego. Reviews are a way for someone who has read a book to tell people who are thinking of reading it whether or not they would recommend doing so. That’s pretty much it. It is a reader-to-reader equation which, I personally think, the writer of the book in question should keep out of altogether. Continue reading “Fifteen Things NOT to Say in Response to a Book Review”