Review and be damned.

I’ve finished the penultimate edit of ‘The Missing’ for Maureen today. It’s been sent to her and we’ll have a talk tomorrow to discuss. After that and any small minor changes it will be sent off to the publishers and the long wait for galleys and art begins.

I’m reading a novel at the moment that requires a review but it’s pretty bad and I’m having trouble finishing it. I normally read everything, refusing to give up on a book until the very end in the hope that something will grab my attention, but with this one I’m struggling. I feel I should finish it, particularly if I’m to write a review, but find myself resenting the time it is taking up, time that I could spend reading one of the huge pile sat next to my desk that require attention. I know I’ll slog on and finish it but I fear the more time I spend with it the more I’ll hate it and the worst the review will be.

A lovely piece this month by John Connolly on the amount of books he buys in proportion to the amount he reads. I know exactly what he means. I keep saying I’m not going to buy anything new until I finish the thirty odd books I have waiting but still find myself walking into book shops and adding to the collection, then there are the free ones I’m sent and the books for review.

Just been to the cinema and seen a lovely film call The Station Agent. A great little picture, with perfect written characters, understated and minimal, with just the right emphasise on humour and pathos. Check it out.

I've just noticed that the next post will be number 100.

****

Pratchett’s new children’s book ‘Nation’, is a slow burn. He’s left the Disc World behind and created an alternative world dominated by the British Empire. It is seen through the eyes of two children, Daphne a girl shipwrecked on an island that has just suffered a tsunami and Mau, the remaining inhabitant of a once proud and ancient community.
The work takes a little while to get going but once it does Pratchett cleverly discusses ethnicity, religion, power, sex and death. It is powerful stuff, made light hearted in only the way that he can. It also has the best ending of a YA novel I’ve read in some time. It’s really moving and if you have a child I recommend reading it to them, if you don’t, read it yourself. Brilliant.

Read this week:

Nation by Terry Pratchett.

Slipped Through the Net

I'm reading a novel at the moment that I have been asked to review and I have to say it is probably one of the worse books that I've ever come across. This creates for me a dilemma in that I feel I should review the book honestly but at the same time I find myself as an unpublished writer of novels assuming that this is how people will react to my own work.

The book in question (which I won't name) is full of clichéd characters, a premise that is seriously flawed, the language is poor and the pace almost lethargic. It's just not a very good book and I'm sure any amount of clever editing would not have helped. But the book has made it into print. The publishers are classed as independent, which if you don't know the publishing world, means small print runs and selling (in the main) via the Internet. Now there are some excellent works that get published by the independents, work that is perhaps niche and would not see the light of day without them, but even by their standards this work is dire and that makes me worry that some publishers will give this part of the industry a bad name by putting out works of a substandard nature. My work, 'The Missing', if it gets published, will probably get taken up by the independents and it concerns me to be tarred with the same brush. All I can hope is that similar to the big publishing houses not every book that comes out can be deemed successful or even 'good'. Perhaps this is one of those that slipped through the net.