"IT’S JUST TOO FAR-FETCHED!"
If there is one phrase that stops me
feeling a book review has any credibility, it’s that one, or some variation of it. ‘The story line is too
far-fetched.’ ‘That would never happen!’ ‘How can the author expect us to
believe such nonsense?’ To me, these types of comments are often made by people
with a certain lack of intelligence. Let me explain why I believe this to be
the case.
Consider this point: Without exception I
could say to every single living person on this planet “you don’t know what you don’t know”.
In my debut novel, The Pyramid Legacy,
I have the characters discussing themes such as the existence of God, aliens,
parallel universes etc. The ‘don’t know what you don’t know’ concept was at
work. Action took place in 2025, a time where the Internet no longer existed. ‘That
would never happen!’ stated one reviewer, with a tone of authority. Why not?
Sure, the specific reason of why/how it was destroyed wasn’t provided in the
novel, but it is certainly covered in the forthcoming sequel, Operation Stonehenge, for reasons which will become clear to
readers. Just because the reviewer couldn’t understand how it could be
destroyed was no reason why it couldn’t be done.
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| Release date t.b.a. |
Let me use an analogy to explain this point
further. Take yourself back to the turn of the 20th Century. Two
brothers were hard at work designing the first powered flying machine. Many
people mocked them – including their FATHER! Some years earlier Bishop Milton Wright
was discussing philosophy with a college professor. The bishop's opinion was
that all useful inventions had already been made. The professor disagreed and
in turn told the bishop that he was mistaken. "Why, in a few years, we'll
be able to fly through the air," stated the professor. "What a
nonsensical idea," responded Bishop Wright. "Flight, is reserved for
the birds and the angels." Bishop Milton Wright was, like you and me, a
person who didn’t know what he didn’t know.
I wonder how the bishop would have reacted
if the professor had then added. ‘Far from nonsense Bishop Milton. In fact I’m
writing a novel set in the early twenty-first century, where over five hundred
people are transported several thousand miles at an altitude of thirty-six
thousand feet, at speeds exceeding five hundred miles per hour. I shall be
calling the craft, an Airbus.’
As authors we use our imagination to
develop creative, and at times, challenging story lines. Readers are without
doubt entitled to an opinion of our work. This opinion in the vast majority of
cases is of course totally subjective. (If a book has grammatical errors and
spelling mistakes, then a mention of this in a review is clearly not
subjective.) But I find it somewhat irritating when a book is pilloried by a
reviewer who a) hasn’t actually read the damn thing, b) can’t string a sentence
together themselves, and/or c) clearly doesn’t have the intellect to follow the
story line.
Now I’ve voiced my opinion about book reviews, I’d be very
interested to hear what annoys you the most about them.
Clive Eaton lives in a former farm-house
with his wife, Judy, in the heart of rural Norfolk, England. He enjoys
photograph, walks in the countryside and along the coast, and watching F1. He
hates having his photograph being taken,
and the only photo he uses of himself online is one taken by his youngest
daughter, Lucy, when she picked up his camera, in a restaurant in
Liechtenstein, when he wasn’t looking.
More on Clive at his website HERE.
Follow Clive on Twitter @CliveEaton
Check out Clive's book marketing blog HERE.
And you can find him on Facebook too.
