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Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies's Reviews > Scorpion's Sting
Scorpion's Sting
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2.5. I read this for SFPBO
This book wasn't terrible for a self-published book, but it wasn't very good. It's a typical high fantasy tale, where a bunch of strangers meet and end up pursuing some unknown quest, and frankly, it was kind of dull.
Something doesn't feel right about the writing style. The grammar and spelling was fine, the story flowed as it should, but my little tingly spidey senses that have been developed through thousands of books tells me that this book was not professionally edited. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is about the writing besides that it doesn't flow naturally, and there are inconsistencies in the way it's written. The vernacular has bits that does not strike me as that of a fantasy.
Elements of the story doesn't completely make sense, and I don't mean just the largely unexplained setting. Magical powers are accepted as is, and are haphazard in their appearance and use. I don't understand the place of things and why they are the way they are. I don't understand the power structure of this world. There's also needless sexual violence towards a very young character.
The book was filled with a lot of action, so much so that it bored me sometimes. It also unsuccessfully attempted introspection and inner depth. Whatever self-revelations there were were written without subtlety.
Overall, a decent try, but in desperate need of polish.
This book wasn't terrible for a self-published book, but it wasn't very good. It's a typical high fantasy tale, where a bunch of strangers meet and end up pursuing some unknown quest, and frankly, it was kind of dull.
Something doesn't feel right about the writing style. The grammar and spelling was fine, the story flowed as it should, but my little tingly spidey senses that have been developed through thousands of books tells me that this book was not professionally edited. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is about the writing besides that it doesn't flow naturally, and there are inconsistencies in the way it's written. The vernacular has bits that does not strike me as that of a fantasy.
Elements of the story doesn't completely make sense, and I don't mean just the largely unexplained setting. Magical powers are accepted as is, and are haphazard in their appearance and use. I don't understand the place of things and why they are the way they are. I don't understand the power structure of this world. There's also needless sexual violence towards a very young character.
The book was filled with a lot of action, so much so that it bored me sometimes. It also unsuccessfully attempted introspection and inner depth. Whatever self-revelations there were were written without subtlety.
Overall, a decent try, but in desperate need of polish.
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Finished Reading
December 19, 2018
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Tim
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Dec 20, 2018 05:18PM
You're like the grumpy cat. But not just that. You're like the grumpy cat that bought tickets to a convention for happy cats.
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Tim wrote: "You're like the grumpy cat. But not just that. You're like the grumpy cat that bought tickets to a convention for happy cats."You joined GR just to say that?
@Tim Or, you know, she is a person who leaves honest reviews about books she reads? Could also be that.
Question, do you normally think self-published books are an inferior quality? What would you recommend as the "best" in your mind of the ones you've read?
Yes I do tbh. I know there are good self-pubbed authors out there but I haven’t read any that I would prefer over one of the thousands of books I’ve read that have been published by a more well known publisher. I can’t really say which book I’ve read has been the best
Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies wrote: "Yes I do tbh. I know there are good self-pubbed authors out there but I haven’t read any that I would prefer over one of the thousands of books I’ve read that have been published by a more well kno..."Thanks for the answer! I recommend Rob Hayes WHERE LOYALTIES LIE and M.L. Spencer's RHENWARS SAGA. I've read many self-published books that have also been picked up by publishers later on.
Josiah Bancroft's Books of Babel and Mike Sullivan's Riyria books were origibally self-published got picked up by big 5 publishers. Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft was an SPFBO semifinalist. I have read a number of self-published books that are excellent, and quite a number of traditionally published books that were either poorly written or poorly edited.I saw lots of typos, missing words and messed up editing in many mainstream tradpub books, including one that sold millions worldwide. These were not ARC's, I have purchased them from bookstores and some were hardcover. These were great books with sloppy editing.
I'm not even going to start about the badly written, poor quality books that are traditionally published.
This toxic stigma against self-published books needs to go. The number of high quality indie books is by no means small. They sell equal or higher percentage than tradpub in some scifi and fantasy subgenres, many authors invest in top notch cover art and professional editing.
Esmeralda Weatherwax is doing an outstanding job reviewing indie books and posts great reviews. We have advocates like her and SPFBO to find the great books from the huge number of self-published books. It is already a big industry with a good numbet of highly popular authors and rising stars, some get picked up by bug publishers and some go hybrid or stay indie.
Some of the top selling authors on Amazon are self-published, the #1 best selling author of the entire kindle market in 2015 was an indie as well.
Seriously, this whole prejudice of "Self published=poor quality" needs to go. It's unfair and insulting to many amazing indie authors, books and fans out there.
I don’t read a lot of self published, but The Q by Beth Brower was one of the best books I read last year and she is self published. I’d recommend giving it a try!
@Tim I’m a happy cat and I don’t like “needless sexual violence” or “filled with a lot of action, so much so that it bores me sometimes.” Hey...maybe you’re the grumpy cat.
If you are biased against self-published books, then maybe you shouldn't have been the judge a self-published blog off. Just a thought :|
I used to not really have an opinion about the whole self-pub vs traditionally published because I'd come across some nice self pub work. But overtime, I've noticed that generally speaking self pub work really do need that extra editing either from a professional or the author themselves. So, yes traditionally published work is generally far stronger. Also, I don't want to be mean, but considering the quality of most of the self pub I've read overall, I would say that in eight cases out of ten, if someone wasn't picked up by a published (even a small one) it's because his manuscript was just not good enough. It's one thing to have some rough sentences here and there, but generally it goes deeper than that. The plot, world-building and character development in self pub usually isn't good enough. SFPBO is nice, but ultimately, I don't think it's very helpful as a lot of the work that go through the competition really do need additional work.
