Normally I wouldn’t comment on a review of my books, but in this case I’ll make an exception. Looks like *someone* read the book, or at least skimmed it, since that bit about “Natch plead[ing] with the Melbourne legislature to no avail” isn’t in the back cover copy. (But to reinforce your point, Ghost of M, she does get that plot point wrong. It’s not Natch, but his mentor Serr Vigal, who pleads before the Melbourne legislature.)

Hard for an author to complain about a 5-star review, though, especially when it’s the only reader review currently up on Amazon…

The discussion continues on from there, and it’s still ongoing.

So now I’ve been inspired to write a little piece here answering the question: what do authors want from reviews of their work anyway? I can’t speak for anybody other than myself on this one, but what I want is very simple:

1. Opinion. Have one. Better yet: have several.
2. Honesty. Love it? Hate it? Moved? Unimpressed? Offended? Enraptured? All I want is your honest opinion, whether it’s favorable to me or not. Don’t worry about the politics, don’t worry about the personalities, don’t worry about what’s popular or unpopular in the stores or what other critics are saying. What do you think?
3. Insight. I want to know that you engaged with my work. Whether you loved it or hated it is not always the point; I want to know that you thought about it. And if my book left you with a soul-crushing emptiness that sucks light out of the universe? That’s fine too, as long as you gave the book a fair shot. Skimmers and summarizers don’t impress me.
4. Elaboration. I can handle the fact that you found the book far-fetched. But I want to know how and where. Specific examples help. Better yet, specific quotations that you took the time to type verbatim from the text.
5. Disclosure. Are you and I up for the same award? Are you the brother of the guy I dissed in an article on my blog? Are you a specialist in the field that I’m writing about? Are you my uncle? None of these things disqualifies you from writing a useful review of my books. I just want to know.
6. No anonymity. There’s a reason Slashdot’s default label for commenters who don’t leave their names is “Anonymous Coward.” Give your review a byline. It doesn’t necessarily have to be your full name or your real name; just don’t say something provocative and then duck behind the shield of anonymity. I want to know something about you; I want to be able to put your opinions about my work in some kind of context.
7. Originality. Anyone can find a detailed summary of MultiReal on the website, or on Amazon, or in other reviews for that matter. Anybody can toss around the phrases “high octane,” “edge of your seat,” and “page turner.” Feel free to confirm impressions that other readers have had, but I’m much more impressed when I see some positive or negative tidbit that I haven’t seen before.
8. Accuracy. Probably not the most important point, but important nonetheless. I can forgive misspellings of minor characters’ names; I can forgive that you said the assassination by beer bottle bludgeoning took place in Barcelona instead of Madrid. But when you completely mangle entire plot threads because you weren’t paying attention, you’re just wasting my time.
9. No pandering. It’s nice to be quotable, and yes, quotable blurbs can often find their way into the front matter of the next book. But please, don’t say pithy things just for the sake of trying to get on the book jacket or the website.
10. No spoilers. It’s not for my sake that you should avoid spoilers; it’s for the sake of my (potential) readers. When a review blithely spoils a suspenseful plot element a third of the way into the novel — like this review of MultiReal from SFRevu does — well, it’s irritating.

By the standards listed above, I’d have to say that the most interesting and plain useful reviews I’ve read of my books are probably Paul Kincaid’s take on Infoquake for the New York Review of Science Fiction, Norman Spinrad’s discussion about Infoquake in Asimov’s, and Jason Pettus’ detailed review of Infoquake on the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography.

Mostly positive reviews, true, but not wholly positive reviews. Paul Kincaid calls Infoquake “a brisk, well-told science fiction adventure set in the normally unadventurous world of business”; but he also takes me to task for the silly character names, the preponderance of appendices, and the backwards-looking historical quotations. He complains about the science. But Kincaid’s review did something that other wholly uncritical five-star reviews did not: it had an impact on the writing of books 2 and 3. Specifically, his point about the improbability of a multi-generational dynasty like the Surinas caused me to rethink certain background elements of the plot that will come to the forefront in Geosynchron. It cast a light on some ideas about the Surinas that I had been toying with beforehand but never quite parsed out.

I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of impact I want to have on the authors I review.

Anybody know how to petition Amazon to get a deleted review back? Certainly anyone who claims my book is worthy of the Hugo, Nebula, Philip K. Dick and/or Campbell awards deserves to have their voice heard by Amazon shoppers. You know, just for fairness’ sake.

Anyway, here’s the review (which luckily was still in my browser cache):

Snowcrash IPOs (NASDAQ: NACH)
Norman A. Levinson “Enterprise Software Architect, Fortune 50; formerly Shuttle Orbiter Computing Engr STS-1, MCSE MCDBA CWSP CCNA Linux+” (redmond, wa United States)

Linus Torvalds Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution meets Bill Gates/Microsoft Gates: How Microsoft’s Mogul Reinvented an Industry–and Made Himself the Richest Man in America This is Edelman’s 1st book and 1st of a (Jump 225) trilogy and is arguably worthy of a Hugo, Nebula, Philip K. Dick, and or John Campbell Award. Infoquake introduces future generation Visual Studio/Eclipse Integrated Development Environments with MindSpace (holographic IDEs), combined with JIT Agile software development, tipping points and viral marketing from hell. It takes a lot to establish critical mass on the heels of works like Snow Crash Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book), and Neuromancer Neuromancer but Edelman does and successfully keeps the reader from eating, bathing, or connecting with the real world until they have reached the last page. Like many of the greatest SF writers who missed the Hugo et al on their debut novel, their second one often was the one that earned them immortality. To Multireal, the 2nd in the trilogy Infoquake (The Jump 225 Trilogy). In the words of Somasegar, Namaste!

And while I’m at it, here’s a message I received from a female MySpace reader the other day that had me in stitches:

I am singlehandedly selling more copies of your book, David. It is a real guy magnet. I had a man talking me up in the elevator yesterday because I was holding Infoquake. This is really excellent writing and many of your ideas seem visionary. I am about 2/3 through.

You heard her, ladies: Infoquake is a “guy magnet”! I’m very pleased. Too bad she also failed to mention that the pages, when ground up and mixed with aloe, can help prevent aging.

Now back to finishing that @$!*#!%$^ second book.