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The only thing I use Goodreads for is new releases and even then it fails at that because if you've given everything you've ever read by an author one star, Goodreads will never stop telling you about their new books.
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# ? Apr 22, 2021 11:41 |
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ClydeFrog posted:So how would a good review site work? Thumbs up and down and then people have to actually read your review and decide? I'm curious because I've reviewed some stuff on other sites as a 4 outta 5 kinda thing because whilst I really liked it, I thought it could be better or maybe had a few issues etc. It certainly wasn't because I thought I had to wield my powers of critique wisely, lest too many five star reviews weaken the fabric of the crowdsourced opinion universe. From a reader's perspective there's nothing wrong with how it is now, at least re: star ratings. Four star reviews may drag a book's average down a little from the ultimate goal of being as close to 5 stars as possible, but that's the author's problem, not yours. I have fiction on Goodreads and I'm always happy with three star ratings or higher. (Maybe less so when the review is like "this was really great!!!" and they've only given it three stars, but that's more from a generalised dislike of inconsistency than anything else.") That author who went on a rant on Twitter is a psycho.
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Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by KJ Parker - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078W5M7DB/
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ClydeFrog posted:So how would a good review site work? Thumbs up and down and then people have to actually read your review and decide? I'm curious because I've reviewed some stuff on other sites as a 4 outta 5 kinda thing because whilst I really liked it, I thought it could be better or maybe had a few issues etc. It certainly wasn't because I thought I had to wield my powers of critique wisely, lest too many five star reviews weaken the fabric of the crowdsourced opinion universe. Effectively you can't have a good review site because either it's open to everyone and you end up with Goodreads and all the toxic poo poo that brings, or it's a closed site and likely not as representative as it could/should be.
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If you're looking for perfection there it's impossible. One of the issues is inconsistency between standards for different genres -- the more literature-like the genre, the higher the standards, and it goes the other way for stuff that's, well, shallower/trashier/whatever. Like, I read some LitRPG's, and it seems like on Amazon it's nearly impossible for them to go below four stars, and you see tons of ones with 4.5+ stars with barely passable writing. And I'm given to understand that harem LitRPG's have even lower standards.
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I've been blowing through some big-name fantasy like LOTR, Ice and Fire, Stormlight, etc. lately and I wore myself out with all of the overbearing worldbuilding so I got a Warhammer audiobook, Trollslayer. It's written like pulp which is just fine with me, but it's also nice to have Felix pick up a lantern without going into a three page diatribe about what country made the lantern and why the bests lanterns all come from that country. I am also entirely sick of dream sequences that exist either to: a) foreshadow a future plot twist b) gaslight me away from guessing a future plot twist.
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bagrada posted:I was going to say Naomi Kritzer but I guess she started in 2000. I never read the Nightrunner series but I really didn't like the Bone Doll's Twin. It's hard to describe, but I really didn't like the relationship between the protagonist and their best friend.
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If you haven't made an author obliquely seethe on Twitter because of your one-star review on Goodreads then, well, can you really consider yourself really having lived?
Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Apr 22, 2021 |
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Pennsylvanian posted:I've been blowing through some big-name fantasy like LOTR, Ice and Fire, Stormlight, etc. lately and I wore myself out with all of the overbearing worldbuilding so I got a Warhammer audiobook, Trollslayer. It's written like pulp which is just fine with me, but it's also nice to have Felix pick up a lantern without going into a three page diatribe about what country made the lantern and why the bests lanterns all come from that country. Raistilin looked down, he was walking in the footsteps of Fistandantilus, towards the gallows! What could this mean?
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algebra testes posted:Raistilin looked down, he was walking in the footsteps of Fistandantilus, towards the gallows! What could this mean?
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buffalo all day posted:Anyone read an advance copy? Have enjoyed all of them so far but they walk a fine line. Very much in the same vein, although in a small space motel, with characters waiting out a storm.
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Pennsylvanian posted:I am also entirely sick of dream sequences that exist ^ this is me. I honestly just basically skip all of them at this point. It’s usually some heavy handed metaphor which was already conveyed by the plot imo.
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I was a fan of the wheel of time ones, though they're not all actually dreams
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# ? Apr 22, 2021 11:41 |
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I liked the dream sequence-esque bits in Harrow the Ninth.
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