1. stevesh

    stevesh Banned Contributor

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    True That

    Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by stevesh, Jan 12, 2015.

    If all of the glowing blurbs on a novel's dust jacket are from other authors, it'll most likely suck.
     
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  2. stevesh

    stevesh Banned Contributor

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    If the cover looks like this:

    [World famous author]

    Title

    and [Some Guy you've Never Heard Of]

    it will most assuredly suck.
     
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  3. Selbbin

    Selbbin The Moderating Cat Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    If, under the title, it mentions: 'Book one of the whatever Trilogy' it will most assuredly suck.
     
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  4. Void

    Void Senior Member

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    To be honest, I don't even pay attention to any of the kind words attesting to the novel's brilliance. I'm yet to see a single book that isn't plastered with hollow words from authors and publications I don't care about.
     
  5. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I hunt for books via author interviews. But the interviews are ones given by successful authors, authors whose work is proven to my liking. There's always a point in the interview when the author is asked what she/he is reading right now or recently.
     
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  6. stevesh

    stevesh Banned Contributor

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    Stream of consciousness = river of self-indulgent bullcrap.
     
  7. chicagoliz

    chicagoliz Contributor Contributor

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    The blurbs by other authors are virtually meaningless. Often those authors haven't even read the book. Many times they're repped by the same agent, and the agent has asked them to give a blurb. The author tells them to write one and they'll sign off on attaching their name. (Or something similar).
     
  8. thirdwind

    thirdwind Member Contest Administrator Reviewer Contributor

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    Really?
     
  9. stevesh

    stevesh Banned Contributor

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    Any novel which contains a two-page list of characters and the relationships among them will be too complicated to follow and most likely won't be worth reading, anyway. Same goes for maps.
     
  10. Void

    Void Senior Member

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    How so? Maps seem a perfectly fine reference for locations, it's kind of what they're for.
     
  11. CMastah

    CMastah Active Member

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    I wasn't a fan of name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss (though I found it promising that a debut fantasy author got published. Even though there are MANY debut authors....every time I see a fantasy one it gives me hope), but I noticed that the first comment on amazon was by none other than Robin Hobb (although admittedly I doubt I'd want to read any of her stories, given one book has a character who says less than fifty words in the entire book, and only one word per dialogue). When I checked out the reviews by Hobb....every book she reviewed she gave five stars to....all except for two:

    1. A book she gave FOUR stars
    2. A book that rips off her name/work by publishing wikipedia entries

    I'd HEARD that authors engage in flattering one another's works and such to garner a reader base but.....I would've thought it'd be authors I'd never even heard of, not the well known ones. I DO kind of have sympathy because a good book could easily get ignored by folks who'd never have heard of it otherwise but....I mean still......

    As for maps....well....I remember when I read a large series of books on a character, that I was curious to understand the length of their journey, so I looked it up on a map myself (would've KINDA made it easier if they'd added the necessary part of the map themselves with a line indicating the journey....a clear map, none of that crap you have to decipher).
     
  12. D'hai

    D'hai Member

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    I would have to agree with @Void here, maps are great in a fantasy book, even complicated ones. I can give you a couple of examples, The Dragonlance series has an extensive array of maps available usually at the beginning of the books and even though you skim through them at first, later on when a location is mentioned I it a pleasure for me to go back to the map and track it down.
     
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  13. shadowwalker

    shadowwalker Contributor Contributor

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    I don't pay attention to blurbs or reviews or anything said by people I don't personally know. I also don't pay attention to generalizations about what makes a book good or bad. :)
     
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  14. Gigi_GNR

    Gigi_GNR Guys, come on. WAFFLE-O. Contributor

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    I tend to trust websites like goodreads for reviews more than blurbs, anyhow.
     
  15. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    I usually just read the book and make up my own mind about it. What other people have to say doesn't really matter to me. They may like it, but I might not.
     
  16. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    You can't guarantee that a book is going to be either good or bad by the limited factors set forth in this thread.
     
  17. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I know a lot of authors who will only publicly review books they enjoyed. So it's not that they're lying in their reviews, it's just that they're following a "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" policy.
     
  18. Okon

    Okon Contributor Contributor

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    I enjoy a lot of books that Stephen King recommends or reviews. In fact, I've found a lot of them to be better than his own.

    Oh, and in the spirit of this thread:

    If a book lands face up when you drop it, it will most assuredly suck.

    If the book sinks when you throw it in the lake, it will most assuredly suck.

    If it has an odd number of pages, it will most assuredly suck.

    Finally, if the book in question doesn't fall into any of those categories, or the initial tests are inconclusive, just ask @Lemex to tell you the book will most assuredly suck:D.

    [​IMG]
    "Yes, this is a book. And yes, this book most assuredly sucks."
     
  19. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    Probably, but it's interesting bullcrap. Full of nutrients and life - it just depends on if you want to examine the crap through a microscope.

    Yes, this is right. My word is law. :D
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2015
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  20. iEvoke

    iEvoke New Member

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    Stream of consciousness.

    Now, there's a lot of interesting in that type of "bullcrap". I mean if you try to get deep into it and understand the orgin of the thinking you might realize something you never thought of yourself.
     
  21. Ben414

    Ben414 Contributor Contributor

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    A good litmus test in deciding if a book is good is asking oneself "Would Hegel think this book is good?" In other words, the answer is always "no."
     
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  22. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    My approach is slightly different, it's WWDT, or 'What Would Dante Think?'

    This annoyed me so much once! I tried to read Tom Clancy's complete novels when I was very young, and bought two books that had something like:

    Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six

    Operation Somethingorother

    by Garry Nobody

    Needless to say, the books sucked.
     
  23. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Well, yes. Water isn't exactly good for the pages, I imagine. :p Plus you'll get mud everywhere which will be a real pain to clean up.
     
  24. Adenosine Triphosphate

    Adenosine Triphosphate Member Contributor

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    You can tell the book really sucks if it has words in it.
     
  25. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    No, no, a few words is okay.

    It's just when there's too many words that it starts to suck. I mean, who needs all those words, right?!?
     

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