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Hmm... Though I'm on record as saying that I take bad reviews way too seriously, it was interesting to see John Scalzi simply throws them out there, then challenges other writers to do the same.
Maybe he's right. Maybe I should simply own those reviews. Just because. So... here they are, snippets of my one star reviews:
A MAGIC OF TWILIGHT
"Reading for me is about enjoyment, pleasure, being able to lose myself in the worlds of various, wonderful imaginings.
A Magic of Twilight was far removed from any wonder or pleasure. Reading this was really hard work, with little return. My entire focus was on learning a new vocabulary, trying to keep track of family name prefixes, and ultimately there was no reason to even try. In hours of reading there was not one character I cared about. I was bored to tears."
"Having read the Cloudmage series I waited on pins and needles for this to come out! Curled in a blanket on my sofa I soon found myself lost trying to pronounce proper names! A good book for me is one that you can read and enjoy, loose yourself, almost like you're there...not one where you have to stop every five seconds and try to sound out a name."
HOLDER OF LIGHTNING:
"1. It's interesting that it's ok for her mother's loved man to try and kill her but it's not so ok for her to kill him in self-defense.
2. The usual, power goes to head of young person who is not equipped to deal with massive amounts of power, plot is truly a pain.
3. The, "let's strip the main character of everything she loves in life" plot device gets tired, FAST.
4. Jenna is just irritating...period.
5. Jenna's mom is amazingly self-centered, kind of brings a bad name to mothers in general.
6. Book doesn't seem to have much going on except for lots of betrayal and gore. "
"I spent quite a bit of time re-reading sections of the book hoping that the second time it would make the scene understandable. It didn't. The primary issue I had with the book is that even if not everyone knows all the truth, self-defence was never a good enough reason to kill the people trying to kill her. There was no right path for this girl. Her options were kill or be killed, and apprently it is fine or everyone else to kill in self-defence, but not for Jenna. I continued to read the book, even with my rising dislike of it, cause I belive in giving the book a fair shot ... but it never got any better."
THUNDER RIFT:
"This book is a compilation of badly ripped off characters from Greg Bear, Orson Scott Card and others, with karate kid wise aliens speaking "deeply" and "meaningfully"."
DARK WATER'S EMBRACE:
"Leigh creates new words and a new culture. This is what makes the book confusing, and hard to follow. I found myself constantly referring to the "translations". In the beginning is a list of their words they've created, and which are used in the book. It's a neat idea, but it's very distracting. For example, using Ke and Ker for she and her. You get used to it, but now and then, they throw in a really bizarre word which refers to a plant life, animal, or something else. Keep in mind this book has a lot of sexual references, to activity and body parts. It especially has a lot of homosexual references."
Maybe he's right. Maybe I should simply own those reviews. Just because. So... here they are, snippets of my one star reviews:
A MAGIC OF TWILIGHT
"Reading for me is about enjoyment, pleasure, being able to lose myself in the worlds of various, wonderful imaginings.
A Magic of Twilight was far removed from any wonder or pleasure. Reading this was really hard work, with little return. My entire focus was on learning a new vocabulary, trying to keep track of family name prefixes, and ultimately there was no reason to even try. In hours of reading there was not one character I cared about. I was bored to tears."
"Having read the Cloudmage series I waited on pins and needles for this to come out! Curled in a blanket on my sofa I soon found myself lost trying to pronounce proper names! A good book for me is one that you can read and enjoy, loose yourself, almost like you're there...not one where you have to stop every five seconds and try to sound out a name."
HOLDER OF LIGHTNING:
"1. It's interesting that it's ok for her mother's loved man to try and kill her but it's not so ok for her to kill him in self-defense.
2. The usual, power goes to head of young person who is not equipped to deal with massive amounts of power, plot is truly a pain.
3. The, "let's strip the main character of everything she loves in life" plot device gets tired, FAST.
4. Jenna is just irritating...period.
5. Jenna's mom is amazingly self-centered, kind of brings a bad name to mothers in general.
6. Book doesn't seem to have much going on except for lots of betrayal and gore. "
"I spent quite a bit of time re-reading sections of the book hoping that the second time it would make the scene understandable. It didn't. The primary issue I had with the book is that even if not everyone knows all the truth, self-defence was never a good enough reason to kill the people trying to kill her. There was no right path for this girl. Her options were kill or be killed, and apprently it is fine or everyone else to kill in self-defence, but not for Jenna. I continued to read the book, even with my rising dislike of it, cause I belive in giving the book a fair shot ... but it never got any better."
THUNDER RIFT:
"This book is a compilation of badly ripped off characters from Greg Bear, Orson Scott Card and others, with karate kid wise aliens speaking "deeply" and "meaningfully"."
DARK WATER'S EMBRACE:
"Leigh creates new words and a new culture. This is what makes the book confusing, and hard to follow. I found myself constantly referring to the "translations". In the beginning is a list of their words they've created, and which are used in the book. It's a neat idea, but it's very distracting. For example, using Ke and Ker for she and her. You get used to it, but now and then, they throw in a really bizarre word which refers to a plant life, animal, or something else. Keep in mind this book has a lot of sexual references, to activity and body parts. It especially has a lot of homosexual references."