BC9: A Slow Start?

When readers voice their opinions of my work in their reviews, I have a strick no retaliation policy. If someone expresses a negative viewpoint, I don't respond. I instead choose to appreciate the time they took to read the book and leave a review.

Now that Beyond Cloud Nine has been published for almost two years, I've received enough feedback to glean a few recurring patterns in what people are saying. Therefore, this blog post takes a look at the top three constructive criticisms about the novel: the "slow start" of the beginning, the grand-sweeping conspiracy, and the likeability of the main protagonist.

The first and most common shortcoming I read in reviews is that the book starts off slow. I understand what readers mean when they say "slow," but from a pacing and action standpoint, the first few chapters are anything but slow. After a handful of introductory pages, chapter 1 portrays two space battles. Following a terrorist attack at the end of chapter 2, chapters 3 and 4 are mostly action. Chapters 5 through 12 take it down a notch with character building and interpersonal conflict but the pace of the exposition remains steady. I think readers who get used to the action in the first 4 chapters might perceive a brief lull in 5-12.

Continue reading the rest of this article on Greg Spry's Blog.