Phailbin starts another thread full of fail at SL.
I had no idea who Mercedes Lackey is – I don’t read that much Fantasy – but she doesn’t like the first ten pages of my Silverthought Press (New York) novel “Bukkakeworld”.
Yes, Fantasy. Mercedes Lackey is a MASSIVE AUTHOR of fantasy novels. She writes them by the bucketload and is very successful. So, what’s she doing dipping her delicate nose into the Hertzan Chimera-horror corporate-lackey-ville of Bukkakeworld. Surely, she’d find it a little offensive, a little IN YOUR FACE.
Well, as her Amazon review of my ‘self-published’ novel Bukkakeworld goes (yes, she went to all that trouble to review the first ten tripey pages of it, quite an honour) it was a load of predictable tripe. To which I’d love to see how SHE thought this novel would pan out over the next two hundred pages and then compare it with what actually happened in the book and see if there was ANY CORRELATION.
This world makes me laugh out loud, with JOY!
It really does.
What’s his point? That fantasy writers are delicate, snooty creatures? Or, that he’s tickled pink that such a prolific, successful author who has a legion of fans would bother to read the first 10 pages worth of his crap? Another possibility is that his post is a a plea begging for more attention from her, although why post it on a horror board, rather than a fantasy one, if that’s the case?
Ms. Lackey’s evaluation was dead-on. She isn’t the only person to have, and state, that opinion.
If Mikkake’s track record is an indication of what will happen next, he’ll either try to smear her across the internet, or write a piss-poor review of one of her works that has nothing to do with the actual story. Grudge wank, anyone?
Advice for Mikkake: if the first 10 pages worth of your book are not indicative of what is to follow, then they shouldn’t be thrown out as a sample designed to induce people to purchase the book. If readers can’t get past the first 10 pages, they aren’t going to read the rest, let alone pay for the privilege, and they sure won’t bother speculating on the contents of the next 200 pages.
Just when I thought he couldn’t fail even more…
What’s even funnier is it took over a year for someone to post a review. I’m not totally convinced it’s actually her, truth be told.
Maybe he’ll set up an account as a romance/erotica author, and post a review along the lines of:
“When the jizz squirts your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore. Sodomy by alarm clock is so original. It’s the best thing I’ve ever read in my life! Highly recommended.”
He really is a bitter, jealous man. It’s always successful writers he likes to tear down. Mercedes has 100+ novels published (none were self published, and many are still in print), a nice following and not without some talent. Everything Mikkake wishes he had.
How sad to be him.
It is the classic cry of the wannabie: “Nobody understands by genius”.
Yeah. Okay.
Sad, Philbin. Really sad.
That’s “my genius” , not “by genius”,
Sorry for my spelling.
Dear God, I hope that isn’t the real “Misty”.
I am one of those “Lackey” Fans (Her Valdemar series originally) and for her to waste her time on someone like Philbin is just… no. I can’t see it.
One, I hope it isn’t the real Misty wasting her time, and two, if it is a fake, I hope it gets reported as such to Amazon. If the review is for real, watch for Mikkake to start badmouthing her.
Even if it isn’t for real, I’d expect him to start badmouthing her. He’s just that type of ass.
That really is Misty. Amazon does some serious checking on whether you are the author or not. They did that with me.
So someone loaned her the book and she was so disgusted that she posted a review.
Misty can have a temper at times.
Hahahaha! PWNED, by a far superior and more successful author. I love it.
I’m taking screen grabs in case the thread gets snipped or deleted.
Number of Mercedes Lackey books I own: 6, but I have read many more.
Number of phailbin’s books I own: 0 and no plans to read or buy any in the future.
I have her Validimar series up through the Owl Knight trilogy (which had horrible illustrations) and her Diana Tregarde books.
She is a very fine author. She has her flaws, but don’t we all?
He just doesn’t get it. Nor does he care too.
Come to think of it, Cuss, did I ever write a book or short story review that didn’t point out a flaw or two? I doubt it, although I suppose it’s possible. At the very least, I try to provide what someone reading my review might want to know about the story, to make a decision about whether to buy it, or take a pass.
Granted, I’m not a writer, but I don’t have to be a farmer either, to know when a rotten tomato should be chucked into a garbage bin or compost heap, rather than sold to the public as a revolutionary new veggie.
Philbin’s posted the first chapter of his latest finished novel “Chimeratown”.
http://www.horrorquarterly.com/mikephilbin/freefiction1.html
Needs heavy editing in my opinion, there’s a glimmer of something that could be interesting there but his style and juvenile attempts to shock just kill it.
I know. I saw that. Just couldn’t bring myself to go read it. At 4 am, when I have to pry one of the cats off my face, I might do so.
The thing that seems to escape everyone is that the first ten pages of Bukkakkeworld offended Misty so strongly that she wrote that review.
It is one thing to ask that someone read the entire novel before reviewing, and another to so offend someone’s sensibilities that they throw it at the wall.
I read the sample. It’s the same thing. His cock wants some grease. Shocking and offending the reader is not going to sell books.
You know, noticing Mikkakke’s fascination with semen, I have to wonder something…
Is he compensating for 2 things?
Perhaps a small penis? Little dicked guys always like to evercompensate with “And then I came on her face!” mainly because it’s the only way they can be sure that the woman isn’t asleep or knew he was there.
Or perhaps a problem in the fluid release department? Could it be that Mikkakke, frustrated with the meager few droplets he can summon from his semi-flaccid and substandard manhood, merely writes about this with a self-insertion imagining of it being him that coated everything.
Or maybe he just fucking sucks.
I love the way they are jumping on Lackey for her review. 1. It’s not a pro review. Nor do I think she meant it to be.
2. Unlike Mikkakke, her review actually tells you WHY she didn’t like it. Which is something that he seems to be unable to do.
I’ve done a few book reviews — nowhere near as many as Michele — and if there’s something I didn’t like, I will explain why it bugged me. The very thing that annoyed me might be an attraction for someone else. Who knows?
Isn’t that what a review is supposed to be all about? If it doesn’t provide enough information about the contents of the story to let others know whether they want to read it, what’s the point?
The people who claim that no review is valid unless the reviewer slogs his or her way through to the very last sentence are . . . strange . . . or full of shit.
Diana Tregarde!! Ah-HA! I thought the name looked familiar! I think I read three of her books, which at the time, was pretty good name loyalty for me. I seem to recall that my brother made fun of me for buying Burning Water – but then again, he is eleven years older than I am, and so he knows *everything.* Or, he used to.
(Snerk.)
I’d probably do myself a mischief if Ms. Lackey looked at my stuff at all, let alone left a review of it.
It irritates me to watch them claiming that no one should write a reader review without finishing the entire book.
Well, that would solve one problem, no one would write reader reviews.
But I think the real problem here is that Mercedes Lackey wrote the review.
Double standard for best-selling authors= “If you can’t say something nice, keep your mouth shut cause you don’t deserve an opinon.”
What impresses me about her review is that she managed to read 10 pages of his drivel. I couldn’t manage two paragraphs.
The point that seems to escape most of the folks commenting on that thread is that the purpose of a free sample of the contents is to a) be representative of that book’s contents, and b) draw in the reader to make him or her want to read more of it. If it does neither, it does a disservice to the author and reader alike.
Did you notice that PHilbin said on the Chimeratown excerpt that the name of the publisher was ‘forthcoming’
I suspect that silverthought has fallen out of love with him.
His blog entry about Chimeratown mentioned he was still working on the follow-up to Bukkakeworld, but didn’t specifically say Silverthought would be publishing You the People. Interesting.
Well going by the preview he showed “You the People” will be rather scat heavy, and there are a lot of people who find that more disgusting than wall to wall semen.
And I followed my own advice, and posted a link to a scathing interview of my book, without comment or deriding the reviewer (who also admitted to not finishing it, which I think is a perfectly legit part of a review – indeed, what could say more clearly “I hate this book” than to not finish it?) –
http://www.amazon.com/review/RYLK9ZVW06Q9N/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=097897073X&nodeID=#wasThisHelpful
Now, I wasn’t always this calm, but after two years, I think I see the recurring critiques and I’ll try my best to use them to my advantage.
Negative reviews when they cite the same issues repeatedly can become a means of triangulating on an actual problem in the text and not simply a matter of subjective taste.
Which is one reason beta readers are so important. There are some writers I rely on, and some non writers as well, I look to for help. Simply because I think something works, doesn’t mean it will.
It is painfully clear that none of the nitwits ever let anyone read their work before foisting it on whoever is desperate enough to publish it.
No I think they do have people read it before it’s passed on to the publisher, however they’re carefully selected to fawn over the work instead of providing proper criticism. After all for the nitwits it’s all about their egos.
To some extent, I think that’s true of those who publish their books — often, some tiny outfit that sees itself as a renegade in the industry. There was the incident in which Roger Haller of Cowboy Logic either reviewed a book he published or commented on someone else’s review of said book (might have been Larry’s review of Satirica), without mentioning he was the publisher. Fail.
Bizarrely enough I suspect it may also apply to their fans who see themselves as some sort of intelligentsia, and believe those who criticise the nitwits do so because they lack the intellect to truly appreciate their works. This is an anonymous comment from Mikkake’s “You the People” preview.
“I’m looking forward to reading the full novel when it comes out. I think Mike’s novels will stand the test of time or they may get publicly burned as heresy, depending on which way the pendulum swings. I’ll keep a my copy hidden away somewhere just in case.”
Of course that could just be Larry. I have to be honest here and admit that it’s that condescending, preening sense of superiority that so pervades the average nitwit that makes me grit my teeth, and fans the urge to do unpleasant things to them.
Wait, Lewis, they have fans? Or is it the same way Charles Manson had “fans”?
it’s the same kind of fans that pre-adolescent boys have: those who gaze in awe upon them and say in amazed adoration, “oooooh, grosss.”
I actually used a negative review as ad copy for the sequels to the poorly reviewed product. The reviewer stated: “There is nothing in this product at a GM couldn’t come up with by renting some B movies and taking 15 minutes to write up each one.” For the sequels they were billed as: “For when you are in a hurry, and don’t have that 15 minutes to spare because the Paladin is over there demonstrating his lightsaber skills and running the risk of killing your wife’s parakeet!” Yeah, the reviewer sent me a nasty email telling me that his review wasn’t favorable, and how dare I use his review to sell the rest of my products. 🙂
Haha. That’s brilliant!