The Price of Desire: “Mediocre” at Best

An Amazon reviewer (who chose not to leave his/her name, not even come up with anything spunky and amusing) left the following thoughts:

Initially interesting characters do nothing in a mediocre send-up of pseudo-Islamic society.

The character and worldbuilding is excellent, and leads to some initial hopes, but it’s follwed by zero delivery and no actual dramatic peak or denoument, the book just ends and on a cliffhanger no less. Of course it’s not much of a cliffhanger since you’ve long given up on any rational act by either main character.

Well, mystery reader, I’m glad you thought my characters were at least initially interesting.  But I’d like to correct you on one thing: it’s not a “pseudo-Islamic” society; it’s a society based on British-occupied India.  I do owe a nod to historian William Dalrymple’s work on Islam in India, specifically in terms of how he’s fleshed out our understanding of the interaction between cultures.  And fans of (the historical figure) Shahjahan will also recognize aspects of Moghul influence.  But ultimately, if there’s a key religious theme here, it’s Hinduism.

I’m sorry, too, that you felt there was no dramatic peak; obviously, as a writer, there’s nothing you can really do about a reader who says “your book is boring.”  It’s disappointing, to be sure, but not everyone is going to like everything.  Although I would like to point out, again, that the reason the book ends on a cliffhanger is because it’s the first in a series.  Were everything to be resolved in book one, there’d hardly be material left over for the next four books.

This is, indeed, a book about a grown man with the maturity of a jellybean and the woman who hates him.  A woman who’s been through a great deal, herself.  You’re quite right in observing that not all of their acts are rational; had I wanted to write 150,000 words about precisely the sort of thing you’d see, when you looked out your window on your daytime-deserted suburban street, I could have done that.  Although, to be honest, one thing you discover working from home is that nothing is quite as rational as we’d have ourselves believe.

Thank you for your feedback, dear reader, and may your next experience–with whatever book–be more positive.