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Hey guys. Thanks for the feedback. Any honest feedback is a help.
This trilogy of books is the result of nearly 3 years of very hard work, I do research to keep my books realistic. Of the people who have actually read the first book, a high percentage of them have returned to purchase the second and third in the trilogy. (It looks like about 90% to me)
Considering that anyone can download a hundred free books on any given day nowadays, I take it as a strong affirmation of the quality of my books. Let's face it. If you don't like what you've read, you certainly aren't going to come back for more.
The one star review you're talking about actually isn't as well written as you might think. His sentences just go on and on with hardly a comma in sight. There are a few spelling errors thrown in, and his overall assessment of what the book was about was completely wrong.
The guy latched onto it at a forum, and then went over the top to nit pick it to death. This was just a case of getting trolled,
and is probably partially due to the fact that I am a self pubbed author. His review was totally lopsided, and he actually tried to make the book's strengths into weaknesses. He also happened to leave out that it has a very tight plot.
The story was always meant to be an action adventure set upon a sci-fi background. In some ways it's not unlike the John Carter of Mars novels. From what I've heard about this kind of thing though, it seems that he trashed it simply because the plot didn't
go in the direction he thought it should. Just for your information, the cardinal rule of reviewers is not to blame the author if the story doesn't go in the direction you would have liked. The truth however, is that the book really was exploring one of the paths he mentioned, but he just wasn't perceptive enough to pick up on it.
His simplistic summation of the lead character also goes to show how little he knows about life.
The person the book is about is retreating from a very dark past, and is a Jekyll and Hyde character. Basically he's a hollow man searching for his own humanity. If I'd portrayed him any other way, it would have been unrealistic.
In the second and third installments, his darker and more merciless side comes out for a peek.
As for the comments he made about rationalization and vindication. If he hadn't missed that subplot I mentioned, and had any understanding of what was really going on, he might have realized how ridiculous that comment was.
The reviewer's comments say more about his own personal biases, than it did about the book.
Throughout the story, the lead character doesn't go running to anyone, any more than James Bond would go running to M.
The playoff between the male and female leads in the book comes to one simple conclusion. A new friendship is formed.
It comes about in quite an interesting way as well, which he also chose to overlook.
I just wish that readers would learn that most of the reviews in this industry are bogus.
I recently downloaded a book that had a couple of high level reviews beside it. On opening it, I couldn't believe my eyes.
Honestly, the book was a disaster area. I found a number of blatant spelling errors, and half of the formatting was missing.
If that wasn't bad enough, all of the print was forced over to the right side of the book.
And then there's the nasty one star trollers. I recently learned that there are more than one hundred one star reviews beside The Great Gatsby. I don't particularly think I'd like the book, but I'd never be so mean spirited to give it an unbalanced one star review. I hope I don't need to point out that virtually every book is going to get one star reviews at some time or another.
As for the lack of reviews for my books, that really comes down to my bad luck. I only started releasing them around the time of Amazon's last rule change. I was inexperienced in the business side of this, and underestimated the need to get reviews early.
Instead I used the time to write another two books for a total of five. I really put everything I've got into writing an engaging plot in every book I write. Probably the best guide for anyone these days is to just read the first chapter on Amazon. You'll certainly get a better idea of whether the book appeals to you or not. If it doesn't happen to grab you, then that is fair enough, but it pays to remember that we all like different things. What doesn't appeal to you, might very well appeal to somebody else.
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