Quote:
Originally Posted by Fishpicker
anyone ever read these?
this series has very high reviews. it makes me wonder if the ratings on Amazon have been astroturfed |
I haven't read that, but alarm bells go off whenever I see anthropoidal cats or talking dogs in a story.
I've only read a couple of things by C.J. Cherryh. One was the first of the "Cyteen" books which I remember as being pretty boring. The second was a Hugo award winning short story called "Cassandra" that I thought was pretty good.
Are the reviews at Amazon astroturfed? Probably. On the other hand, I've decided that it is almost impossible to find good quality reviews that match my taste in literature. Sturgeon's Law says that 90% of everything is crap. The problem is no one can seem to agree on what the good 10% actually is. I also think that the average reader is no more discriminating than the average tv viewer. Some of the most popular authors churn out mediocre garbage year after year and millions of people eat it up.
Rating systems don't work when you have
1) Astroturfing
2) People viewing everything they read from a political angle
3) Mega fans of a particular genre or of a big name author who can't be impartial
4) Snobs infected with Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome who automatically say something is brilliant because they are afraid to admit that they don't understand it.
5) Idiots.
On top of all that, a lot of people have random irrational quirks that make or break a book or movie in their eyes. My dad hates movies that contain flashbacks for instance. I have a friend who hates movies that are snowy and/or darkly lit. Me? I hate stories that are full of squalor like Angela's Ashes or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
The bottom line is: it's hard to find good things to read. My addendum to Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap. 99.99% of critics are full of crap.
Next up:
It's not very good. This is the third Gemmel book that I've read and all three of them have featured the ancient trope where a man and woman hate each other at first sight only to fall madly in love soon after. This is also the third example of a major character having a past he is not too proud of going on a request to redeem himself. One of the things that I liked about the first book in the series that I read, Legend, was that it had a little bit of a mythical feel to it. This book is earthier; it's more violent and rape-y. The author also really overdoes the cynicism of the main character. We get it. There's no need for every sentence that comes out of his mouth to be something about how cold and dark the world is.
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Meh. Worms of the Earth really didn't need a sequel. Bran Mak Morn is written as kind of a putz which doesn't help matters.
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