Gah!

[lydamorehouse]

By now, everyone on the planet interested in writing-related stuff has probably read that one author's meltdown over a bad review.

Today, I get it.

I totally get what went through her head. I've been kind of lamenting the fact that not a single soul has reviewed Resurrection Code. But, then I thought, "Well, maybe someone has and I just never saw it." Turns out, I missed one after all.

Okay. Some press. Um, yay?

But, frankly, I'm not sure what to make of it. The author, a science fiction writer like myself and a colleague, read the book in a way I didn't think was possible. He mistook two very different characters as the same person. He writes: "It isn’t until mid-way through the book that we learn that El-Aref is also known as Mouse and Mohammed is a fallen angel called Morningstar."

?????

I don't even know how you could even get that when Morningstar and Mohammad talk to each other in several scenes. I mean, usually, when people are standing side by side, it's a pretty good indication they are NOT, in point of fact, one and the same person.

Also, he tells the reader that Mouse is neither Christian nor Muslim, he's Sunni. Last time I checked Sunni is a branch of Islam, just as Catholic is a type of Christianity.

This is a big head scratcher.

A big part of me wants to write a rebuttal, but I can't see any way that would work in my favor and not make me look like a sour grapes author.

I'm probably going to have to let it go, and say the published author's mantra: "People are entitiled to their opinions of my work, even when they don't love me. (Even when they're WRONG about basic facts.)" And just breathe, but this made particularly difficult because there's not a single review, good or bad or medium, out there BESIDES this one.

Yes, this is my not so subtle beg, okay? Please, if you've read the book, say something about it somewhere. You don't have to love it. You can hate it. Just say something -- extra points if you can keep the characters straight!

Comments

[seawasp]

I don't have any problems with authors correcting reviewers on objectively factually wrong points.

[swords-and-pens.livejournal.com]

This. You can either contact the reviewer, or make a polite post on the blog. Arguing with someone who didn't like your work is one thing; politely and professionally correcting a blatant error is another, IMO.

Not envious of you on this one.

[lydamorehouse]

Yeah, I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out how to do this in a non-judgemental way, though. (I mean, my impulse is to write: "Are you HIGH?? How the [bleep] did you even GET that???"

So.... um, I think I may just have to sit on my hands for a while. :-)

[seawasp]

Very simply. "Just to clarify, Character X is NOT Character Y. I am unsure how my writing managed to confuse you this way, but they are completely different people."

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

I did that for the Shock Totem discussion board concerning my story in issue 3. One guy really hated it but he made assumptions about me that I didn't think were correct.

I had an entire preamble about how I feel uncomfortable saying this becuase everyone has their opinions and if he didn't like the story he didn't like it and that's fine, but...

And then I clarified.

I might have wrapped it up with "hope you read something else by me and like it." but probably not.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine just published his first ever interactive fiction game as part of a big IF contest, which pretty much guarantees it getting a bunch of reviews from major figures in the scene, as they review all the comp games. Sadly, the game is not being well-received (and if I'm honest, it's not that awesome a game, so I can't blame people). He's been remarkably chipper about the whole thing. However, there was one review which contained a major factual error, and he too had a lot of trouble letting it go. Eventually he had a correction submitted *only to the factual error (no mention of the rest of the review, which had been fairly scathing)* by a third party. Of course, his case differs from yours in that there was an available third party that made sense, since the rules of the competition indicate that all communications by the authors about their games while the voting period is open must be conducted only via the competition organizer (who vets the request for allowed information), so the competition organizer, who agreed that the complaint was valid, put in a correction, which the author adopted. Even though you don't really have that recourse, I can totally get the desire and how it would needle at you.

[lydamorehouse]

You know, I'm a lot like your friend in that it's not the fact that this reviewer clearly HATED my book that bothers me. I mean, in all honesty, it hurts me to get a negative review.

I mean, no one like to hear, publicly, that someone thinks your baby is ugly.

But, you know, I've written a few books already and I've suffered those particular slings and arrows before. The truth is you REALLY can't please all of the people all of the time. I'm 100% down with that, even when it stings.

This is just *so* weird. I think, maybe, the truth might be that the reviewer skimmed the book and thus got a completely mistaken impression. His review makes it sound like he sort of liked the beginning, but thought I dropped the ball/changed my story at the end... and, even though it's a short book, I can easily see a scenario where he just thought, "damn. I need to review this pronto" and, well....

[ashkta.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Resurrection Code as of yet, but I do have it on my desk, and I'll be reading and reviewing it right after the book I'm currently working on. So there will be at least one other review out there on the big internets soon.

As for the review with the bad facts...I think that's a legitimate reason to write a rebuttal, but I can understand your reasons for not wanting to do so. Figuring out how to explain without starting an argument is rather difficult online.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I suspect he didn't actually read the book, just skimmed it and wrote the review. But not to know that Sunnis are Muslims? How is that possible these days?

[eagle]

I just got my copy a couple of days ago and now will make sure to find time to read it during my upcoming vacation. I'm rather behind on reviews at the moment, but that means a review should be up hopefully sometime this month, and if not, early next month.

It's very unfortunate (although understandable) that publishing cycles work in a way that causes reviews by people who buy books after they're out and then take some time to get to them to not really contribute to the success or failure of that critical early period of a book's sales. :/

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

I haven't picked up a copy yet, though thoroughly intend to. Once I have I'll certainly put a review up on my review blog (www.bookzombieblog.com)

2 minutes later: now on order!

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

My first published story was "Ghost Dance" in Weird Tales. I never saw a review (there are few reviews of short fiction) but I had mentioned a three-piece bar band whose original guitar player had really liked the blues. A highly intelligent friend of mine jumped to the conclusion that it was intended to be a blues band, and in that case, some other things I had said made no sense at all. I looked at the story as critically as I could and decided that the friend simply hadn't really read it closely, but had simply "jumped to confusions." I corrected her on the fact, and believe it was okay that I did so; you can do likewise.

[riverrocks.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of a play I was in years ago where the theater critic from the local major paper totally didn't get what the themes of the show, got major characters mixed up, and in reference to the plot, wrote "and then they drive, I think, to Cuba," which was inaccurate and impossible. Oh, and he also hated the show.

What you have here is what I've come to call a Drive to Cuba review. Turn it into a funny story if you can, but don't let it change the way you write or duly impact your opinion of yourself. For every piece of art there is a person it is not intended for and unfortunately some of those people are reviewers and critics.

This person did not read the book.

[idairsauthor.livejournal.com]

He may have turned the pages and moved his eyeballs around, but if he couldn't tell that Mohammed and Morningstar are two different people, I wouldn't worry about any evaluative judgments he may have made.

This is plain reading comprehension fail and I would submit that it is probably not your fault. A guy who thinks Sunnis are not Moslems is probably liable to other confusions.

Good luck getting better reviews!

Re: This person did not read the book.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

Of course, the problem is that if he was skimming it like that then he probably hated it already. Oh well, can't win them all.

[vanaabegra.livejournal.com]

I just picked up Resurrection Code today. I will have read it by Minicon.

[lanyn.livejournal.com]

Hm, I just read the review and did not interpret it as the reviewer having trouble separating the two characters. He merely said that halfway through he found out they were more than they had appeared to be in the first half of the boo, not that he found out they were different people. I didn't see anything in the review to indicate he thought that, and I'm sure, had he, it would have been pointed out in much bigger letters.

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