What is a Review?
or, A Moron’s guide as to why I’m not going to summarize the book for you!
In a day and age where providing someone a Tinyurl to something I’ve written saves me from having to continually repeat myself, I have decided to explain what a book review actually is. With any luck, it will allow me never again have to explain why I haven’t summarized the entirety of a book, and why you are an idiot if you expect me to do so.
To start with, let us look at the very word, review. My Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus says this about the word review;
“a critical appraisal of a book, play, or other work. a retrospective survey or report.”
And under the thesaurus of the word review there is no sign of the word summary, or anything that would appear underneath the word summary in a thesaurus.
So what does that tell you?
Moving on, let us look at what the purpose of a review is, from a logical standpoint.
Picture the scene: you are looking for something to read, and so you head to Amazon.com. You find some books that are “similar” to other books that you have read, and so you want to find out about the book. So naturally you scroll down to the “Customer Reviews” section, and have a look.
When you get there, do you want to know what happened at the beginning, middle and end of the book, or whether getting to the end of the book is fun, easy, difficult or interesting? Do you want the entire book lessened to four paragraphs, or would you prefer that the reviewer tell you that the storyline is worth reading, and doesn’t make your eyes bleed?
That is the purpose of a review.
A review is there to whether the author has writing skill and imagination, or managed to get through on imagination alone. It’ll tell you whether the story lets you lose yourself in the margins of the book, or whether you are drawn out by inaccuracies, or even by something that makes you think. A good review will enlighten you as to whether the story has good characters, or 2-D characters with no more life than a worm on the end of a hook.
So no, for the last time, I will not summarize the book for you. In fact, I’m going to tell you as little as humanly possible about the overall story, because otherwise you’re not going to read it! And if you do, you’re going to rue the day that you read my review, because I will have ruined the book for you.
Imagine what would have happened if someone had told you that the Fool and Amber was the same person… oops!
Posted: October 28th, 2008
Author: Lee
Do you have something to add to this post? Please leave a comment
Book of the Month
Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill
Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And its been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.
Latest interviews
Interviews plus question and answer sessions with authors, narrators and publishers.
Must-reads
The following reviews are of books that begin the very best fantasy series available.
Competition: Win a signed copy of Graham Hancock's Entangled
Graham Hancock is the author of The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis, Heaven's Mirror, Supernatural and other bestselling investigations of historical mysteries. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages and have sold over five million copies worldwide. Written with the same page-turning appeal that has made his non-fiction so popular, Entangled is his first work of fiction. We have five signed copies of Entangled to give away as prizes. Email us the answer to the following question and the lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive a copy of the book, signed by the author.
Special Feature: Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe
Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.
Special Feature: Understanding the author of Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.
