[rune]

:) I was just wondering if it is worth me putting any book reviews on this site.

I noticed there are a few but whenever I look for good reviews for authors I havent read before there are never any on for what I want.

Do any of them really help?

rune

[Erebus]

Personally, I think the reviews can be very worthwhile, especially our official sffw.com reviews, which are done by the staff here. We try to edit the other reviews that the general public submit, avoiding wherever possible the one-liners or biased statements like This book RULEZ!!!!!!! and that sort of thing. We try to only post reviews where the reader has actually thought about the book they've read and provided some genuine helpful feedback. Though of course, this isn't always immediately apparent in some of the reviews posted here. I would suggest you look through our OFFICIAL (http://www.sffworld.com/authors/official.html) review section, and this may give you an idea of what to include in any reviews you tackle yourself, as well as giving you an insight into some wonderful novels.

I think reviews can be as helpful as they can be damaging - I guess it's all a matter of balance. As a published writer myself, I am all too aware of the horrors of a so-called bad review, but thankfully, I've received mostly honest and well-balanced feedback for my works thus far. I think that's all any writer can ask for really. :)

[Lani]

I don't think that the reviews are the best thing to look for if you want to read the book unless it's a review from someone you know.
I think reviews are much more useful if you want to compare your opinion on a book with the opinions of other people. So i think posting reviews is worthwhile, but reading reviews prior to reading a book is not.
I would think that synopses are much better if you are trying to decide if the book is something you would like to read.