Everyone’s a Critic

A big part of being a writer is reading, which you have to do on several levels. I find there’s no better source of ideas than reading, especially when you go outside your favorite categories. Four years ago I came across Gods of the Upper Air, about the early-20th century birth of anthropology as a science, transforming from an essentially racist point of view to one that strove to understand cultures instead of ranking them. This reading led to many ideas that are now part of my WIP Only’s End.

Of course there’s reading for pleasure. Some of this for me is re-reading, especially Jack Vance or Patrick O’Brian. A pleasant new discovery this year was Sarah Caudwell. Her Oxford don detective Hilary Tamar is a fresh take on the classic deductive sleuth.

But that overlaps on the third type of reading – reading for work. As Samuel Johnson put it, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.” For a long time I’ve scamped keeping up with trends in my writing genres, and the past few months I’ve been looking at what is currently popular in SF and Fantasy. Writers should be telling stories out of their own vision, but at the same time ignoring what is successful in the marketplace can’t be a good idea.

Since July I’ve gone through nine or ten books, SF, fantasy and mystery. My takeaways thus far are part obvious, part puzzling. The obvious bit is how strongly character-driven genre books are today. I think of SF in particular as a “fiction of ideas”. Two examples for me as Zelazny’s Lord of Light and Zindell’s Neverness. (Hmm, maybe I should change my surname to Zalazar <g>) For both of those books what drew me in was not the protagonist’s backstory, but the richness of the idea: Technology that allows select humans to wield the power of gods and to make religion “real”, and Interstellar travel controlled by a guild of mathematical savants/adventurers. The characters in these books were powerful and well-drawn, but they were mainly vehicles to explore the idea.

The newer stuff I’ve looked always leads with the protagonist’s problem: They are on the run from some trouble, or they’re recovering from a failed romance or job, or they are struggling with prejudice and repression. I get that people have problems, and that problems make things interesting, but in my assessment these books have humdrum ideas as context. I get that not every book can have a world-shaking idea but c’mon – give me something.

The puzzling bit is how successful many of these books are, which brings me to reviews. I’m not going to name any names here but let me quote some reviews. The subject book has thousands, 79% were 5 or 4 stars, 2% 1 star. I bought the book because from the blurb it did have a big idea, something that sounded cool. Some snippets from the 5 star group:

This book is one of the finest I have ever read. There is a question, about loving someone who has hurt you so unimaginably, and an answer that made me ugly cry. I won’t spoil the ending, but you need to read this book. The language is gorgeous, and the characters are very finely drawn, and their growth is beautiful.

What … managed to do with this story is nothing short of mastery. With a narrative steeped in so much history …, one might think you are reading a reference book. However, by weaving in these amazingly diverse and complicated characters and the more fantastical elements the tale transforms into something completely new. There is emotion, double dealings, and the exploration of social constructs and race all wrapped up in a beautifully written package. This darkly … allows the reader to immerse themselves in the world the author created. The vivid descriptions, the richness of the language, and the eloquence make the experience even better.

I spent some time within these pages because I didn’t want to miss anything, absorbing the story for all it was. Every moment reading this, I would always push myself to read just one chapter more. … is truly an epic fantasy worth reading. I cannot wait to dive back in for a second read.

Sounds great, right? There’s thousands of similarly super-positive reviews for this book.

Now a look at the 1-stars:

I truly wanted to enjoy this book. Hat’s off to … for the marketing. And, there are moments where the author’s erudition nearly salvages the otherwise dull, slow-moving plot and plastic characters who, as others have pointed out, are entirely predictable, if not outright unoriginal. I waited for the hook to draw me in, but it never materialized. Meanwhile, the author’s lack of nuance and subtlety was aggravating. The mystery surrounding the plotline is betrayed by an incessant need to state the obvious. author clearly thinks very little of their readers. In the end, I absolutely *could* put it down.

After 163 pages I can honestly say there was nothing to encourage me to invest any more time because all in all the plot and the characters struck me as childish. I could not dredge up any interest in the fate of anyone and the hocus pocus of … was absurd. If you’re old enough to be out of high school read the free sample before making a purchase. I’m glad I got it on sale. Only the second book in 20 years that I read over 100 pages and did not finish and I’ve read a book a week for over 20 years. Very disappointing.

Where did I come down? Squarely in the 1-star category. The big idea fell flat, it really didn’t transform anything. The characters were stereotypes, the plot was predictable, there was a too much political commentary, and the ending was the most depressing, unsatisfying thing I can recall reading.

The puzzling thing is, there’s clearly vast numbers of people who like this. I can’t discount their opinions, but there’s nothing from their reviews I can take away to explain them. I also went back to look at the NYT and WaPo reviews of this book. Each was only a paragraph long, and I’m skeptical they were even written by the review byline author. Reviews by bloggers seem to be about 3 to 1 thumbs up / thumbs down.

If there’s any conclusion to be drawn here, it’s this: If it was possible to predict was the next bestseller is going to be, all of us would be Stephen King. Just have to keep reading and, or course, writing.

Till next time …