Doing what most authors do, I assume, checking the links back from my webpage, I chased down an bookseller page dedicated to one of my books and found a few reviews there. Two very good ones and a really, really crappy one describing Sword and Shadow as “Boring.” Really? I can only assume that the person responsible was upset by the lack of thrusting and panting and sweaty man-boobs.
I’ll admit it. If someone picks up one of my books hoping for heaving bosoms and graphic penetration, they’re bound to be disappointed. I don’t do sex scenes. There are plenty of authors out there who are damn good at them and, well, I have no real motivation to try to compete.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for complex fantasy adventures with interesting characters, fast-moving plots, and facile fight scenes, they might be exactly what you’re looking for.
That’s the thing about fiction, like music. It’s all about individual tastes. Some stuff that I’ve seen others get all hot over have left me with a serious case of the blahs. I’ve set aside more paranormal series than I’ve finished, to be honest. Too much sex and I’m a goner, especially when they tie it in with the plot (my wife loves that sort of thing) so the characters get juiced from sex–enhancing their powers, forging an unbreakable link, etc… <yawn> Done to death as far as I’m concerned.
I also don’t like vamps and weres as separate species. One of the attractions, to me, is the idea that any of us can be changed like that, becoming more than we are. One of the major concepts of the Infinity Project in general is about people holding onto their humanity despite the changes that have been wrought in them. In the Infinity: Empire series one of the catch-phrases they develop is “humanity abides,” which means, basically, that no matter how alien they might be in some respects, everything that starts out human can remain human on a emotional and intellectual level. Yes, even vampires. In fact, some of them are rather good at it.
I think, in the end, we’re writing for ourselves and we can just hope that others climb on for the ride. Writing to please other people is a zero-sum game. You can never please everyone and it’s maddening to even try. I write what interests me–there really isn’t any other option. If the story bores me, I’ll never finish it.
So I’ll take my lumps and crappy reviews and keep on truckin’. I can only match such things with reader letters telling me how much someone loved one of my books (the most recent have been about Tales from the Magitech Lounge, which is my favorite book so far). Getting letters like that really make my day, and while reviews on bookseller pages may drive sales, those direct emails really drive my motivation to write. So either way I win. Even a bad review is nothing compared to that.
So I smile and shrug and think, “hey, it’s no big deal.” And sit down and write something about my perception about it with a smile on my face.
“Boring?” Wow. Okay. To each his or her own. I recently ran across a crowd of people heading for a Celine Dion concert and thought, I’d pretty much rather drive an ice-pick through my ears. It doesn’t make them wrong, or stupid. Just different from me.
And you know, different is good.
As Marion Zimmer Bradley put it in her sci-fi novels, “Hunters of the Red Moon” and “The Survivors,” we should strive to “leave others their otherness.” And that’s something I can get behind 100%.
Viva la difference.
