Agony Column

[Gary Wassner]

I think you are right Jay. There is no point in having your books reviewed if the reviewers are not credible, and he certainly is. But I still wonder if it makes sense sometimes to ask for problems. If he hates Epic Fantasy and is tired of elves and ogres, then why prime his pump with another book that he might initialy have proclivities against? Judging a book by its personal merits is what I would always hope a reviewer would do. Of course, we all see them differently, those merits, and we all read differently - we see things that others miss and we miss things that others see. If I was selling millions of copies already, then I wouldn't be so worried about testing the limits by asking a tough critic to review a book utilizing tropes that he has proclaimed he does not support.

Now, I may be wrong entirely about him. I am going by what others have told me. It's an uphill battle with many reviewers today when they read the synopses of my books. Not one has walked away spurning them in the end though, so i admire the perserverence and objectivity in the industry. But I still worry.

If you tell me that he is fair minded and open-minded, then I will trust you on that. I don't know him or his reviews. If you tell me he will read me without prejudice, then I believe you.

[Brys]

I'm losing respect for Rick Kleffel - he has not given a negative review. When he's reviewing books that are genuinely good, he writes decent reviews. But then he ruins it by not having a single negative review - and he reviewed Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan, and the review still made it out to be competent epic fantasy.

I have never read any criticism from him that I felt was too out of proportion.

I've just never read any criticism by him. That's a problem - his reviews are Harriet Klausner style but with a bit more depth (ie he seems to actually have read the books, but despite that he feels he can't say anything bad about them). I know he has a lot of respect, but quite frankly, I don't see why. His reviews don't seem particularly credible to me - the only differentials in books he has are those which are outstanding and those which are good. It doesn't help you to decide.