How To Write Reviews...
This page exists to help you write reviews if you are uncertain how to proceed. If you already know how to want to do it, then go ahead!
All reviews, regardless of style, should include: the author's/authors' name(s), the book's title, the series title if applicable, the rating (with v, b, or x as appropriate), and it would be nice if you included the categories to which it belongs (please wait until the categories have been updated before you begin adding this information).
Reviews...
There are different ways to do reviews. Some people prefer the action reviews that begin with a 1-2 sentence description of a scene (see Roberto's Man-Kzin Wars VII review). Others prefer to be lyrical (Kristin's Earthsea reviews). Yet others like to go straight for plot (Sarah's Narnia reviews), character (Bina's The Hound and the Falcon review), or theme descriptions (Raven's The Little Country review). Some people even prefer to describe a book in relation to an author's entire bibliography, or to explain its place in a series (Tim's H.P. Lovecraft reviews). Some books have a serious problem which must be clearly (though kindly) pointed out, such as bad grammar, incorrect spelling, or plot holes (Shawna's Search for a Soul review).
In short, the type of review one writes is obviously dependent not only on one's own tastes, but also on the book in question. Some books are plot oriented. Others are character oriented. Try to write a review with at least some of the same tone as the story itself so that readers can get a subconcious feel for what they will like.
Some basic ideas: every review should contain at least a short plot description. They should also contain commentary on the main focus of the story, be it characters, or theme, or whatever. If the author has strong opinions that may upset some people, please mention that. Please also mention if there is extreme or unusual violence, sexual activity, or subject matter. A review of Illuminati! should include a mention that it is often disjointed and focuses on massive and paranoid conspiracy theories, or else you won't have done your readers any service at all. Blatantly racism, sexism, or any other kind of bigotry that you notice should be mentioned (in case it would seriously offend a reader to pick up the book), but you don't have to harp on these topics if you feel that they were not the main focus or were excusable for some reason or other.
Try to stick to 1-2 paragraphs per book unless you think it's the most important novel in the world, or unless it is highly controversial. Trilogies should take between 1 and 3 paragraphs. Absolute length is less important than carefully choosing your words.
Please don't forget the book title, author name, series (if applicable), rating, and categories if you can. That makes it less time-consuming for me to put up reviews, giving me more time to maintain the rest of the site.
Authors...
Author reviews should be between 1 and 3 paragraphs long. They should neither be complete fan-worship odes, nor should they be angry diatribes. Even more so than in book reviews, the idea is to give the readers a balanced, semi-objective view of the person as a writer. You might mention what series the writer is famous for, what genres she/he prefers, and what style the reader can expect. If the author is also known for editing, genre contributions, writing in a language other than English, writing in another genre (e.g. mystery or children's), or creating something in another field (e.g. engineering), these are nice things to add, too.
An author review establishes the baseline from which book reviews are written. If one mentions in the author review that he only writes cyberpunk, one need not add that to every book review- a simple "this is more technical than usual" or "this is more of an action-adventure" would suffice.
Others...
Series reviews are good in cases where an author has created a world or series that is rather long and involved. One might also call these "world reviews". These are usually single paragraphs that give the reader a basic idea of what to expect in this world, such as what are its physical and psychological laws. The more unearthly the system, the more important a series review is. These are optional but often helpful.
For authors with a few dozen (or more) years of publishing under their belt, a bibliography comes in very handy. You can find these in the back of some books, or even sometimes on-line (if they are on-line, we can just link to them). For an example of a well-written bibliography, see Tim's Future Boston reviews.
Non-fiction books that are genre-related (such as biographies of authors, theses about elements of the genre, or factual information of interest to readers of speculative fiction) are being added to the site. Please submit them to the Non-Fiction category by author (or in the case of biographies, by the author that they are about). Reviews for these follow the same general format as fiction novels, but without plot descriptions, obviously. ^_^
Ratings...
Due to requests, here is a general guideline for how to rate books in terms of maturity level. This will be divided by type of rating (violence, sex, subject matter). If you're still confused, email me with questions.
Violence (v): A G-rated book should have basically no violence, nothing more evil than "I'll get you, my pretty!" and a melting puddle. PG should not be worse than any given Disney film. After that, you may use your own judgement. Please keep in mind how much detail is devoted to the violence, and the moral assumptions the book makes about violence in general. Torture, rape, and certain other kinds of violence should probably be mentioned clearly in the rating, such at "v-torture". Please make your own judgements as to what is serious unusual enough to be mentioned. The one exception is for books rated G or PG, where you should send a short description to me of any significant violence, so I can add that to the Children's Corner description.
Sex (x): G and PG-rated books should have no more than holding hands, or possibly kissing. No explicit discussions of sex should exist. No, menstruation is not sex. Yes, masturbation is.
Subject Matter (b): While there is no seperate category for foul language, you can toss that under this catch-all category for everything from studying the nature of human evil to people promoting the use of drugs. This is basically your excuse for bumping up the rating on a book that really just isn't aimed at or appropriate for kids.
This page owned by: Raven
Last Updated: December 21, 1999
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