Christian Speculative Fiction discussion
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Anyone interested in starting our own review group?
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Mod
Tessa wrote: "I'm interested."
Hi Rondi and Tessa, and thanks for you interest in joining our review group! We're delighted to have you aboard.
I have to tell you, though, that our first session is fully subscribed. Would you mind hanging in there until our next session, which will probably be starting in June some time? I have you on the list, and will let you know when we're getting set up for that.
Until then—the Lord bless your writing and reading!
—Steve.
Thanks Steve. I understand the difficulties in trying to get the "right" book to the "right" person. I'm happy to accept whatever I'm given.
Mod
There's been a great response to this new review group, and we now have enough participants to start our first session—and some standing by for the second!
So here are my lists of everyone signed up, and I'd be glad if you would confirm that you are taking part, and that I've got you in the correct list:
SESSION 1, April–May
Authors-and-reviewers:
√ 1 Lara Lee
√ 2 Steve Pillinger
√ 3 Lauren Salisbury
√ 4 Justin Coogle
√ 5 Brannon Hollingsworth
√ 6 Glen Robinson
√ 7 C.S. Wachter
√ 8 Bridgett Powers
√ 9 Kenyon Henry
√ 10 David Bergsland
√ 11 Guy L. Pace
√ 12 Sean Russell
Reviewers only:
√ 1 Stoney deGeyter
√ 2 M.H. Elrich
√ 3 Cassie
√ 4 Cortez Law III
√ 5 Ann
√ 6 Rondi Olson
SESSION 2, June–July
Authors-and-reviewers:
1 Jan Fallon
2 Cortez Law III
3 Rondi Olson
4 John Kramer
Please can all of the above respond as soon as possible to confirm they're correctly listed. And if I've left anyone out, please let me know!
Once the participants are confirmed, we'll move to a special thread where the actual business of the review rounds will be conducted. As I mentioned elsewhere, this will not be a general discussion thread, so it will be set apart in its own folder.
Looking forward to getting started!
—Steve
Mod
I've placed a check mark against your names (plus my own) in the list above.
This is how I'll acknowledge future responses.
Mod
Mod
Hi, Tnkw01. It's great to have you as a reviewer!
I think, though, that you may have been under the impression there's space for more reviewers in Session 1. That's true, but not in the way you thought. To make the session work, so that all the authors get the same number of reviews and all the reviewers review the same number of books, we need either an equal number of reviewers (12), or half the number (6).
As you can see in my post above, we currently have 6 reviewers for Session 1; so adding 1 more won't work. But I can certainly add you to the list for Session 2. Would you be OK with that?
Mod
I've now opened the special, non-discussion thread I mentioned earlier, in which we'll make all the necessary practical arrangements for the two review rounds of this session; and where links to the final reviews everyone has done will be posted: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/....
So from now on we'll be 'meeting' there, not here, and this thread will eventually be closed.
I'd be grateful if all our author-reviewers could now post in the new thread the GR link to the book they would like to have reviewed in this session, as well as their own GR profile link. E.g.:
Steve Pillinger, The Mindruler.
And those who are just reviewing, could you also add your GR profile link? This will help us all to stay in touch with the right people and to review the right books!
I hope soon to set up the pairings for the two rounds so that our authors receive 3 new reviews each. This is exciting! Have fun everyone.
See you in the other thread!
Mod
Looks like I've missed the first round - but I am definitely interested in participating in later rounds - as author and reviewer (fair and honest reviews).
Mod
Steve wrote: "Hi, Jeanette, and welcome to our review group! I'm sorry you haven't made it for the first session, but I've added you to the list for session 2. I'll let you know as soon as we start getting set u..."Thanks, Steve. No worries - was away the last few days. Look forward to the next session :)
Steve, great idea, thank you for organizing this. I'd be interested in reviewing for the next round and in the future author/reviewer.
Mod
Count me in too. Is there a link to the group to join?
Mod
I've added you to the list for our second session in June–July. I'll get in touch when we start setting up.
Mod
Mod
I've completed your reviews. What an amazing novel! I loved it! And I'm so glad on this review forum you were my first to read. So enjoyable and the characters so good. I can't wait for the second book. Any idea when it'll be out? :)
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Amazon (UK):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-...
Kind regards, Steve!
Sean
Mod
Just one small matter: You've posted the links in this thread, when actually they should be in the reviewing thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/.... Just to keep everything together, would you mind copying this post and re-posting it there?
Thanks!
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Christian Speculative Fiction
Books mentioned in this topic
The Mindruler (other topics)The Sorcerer's Bane (other topics)
You're not the first to voice that concern, Stoney. Let me say, first, that the model we're following is that of the larger GR review groups, which have proved to work well and provide authors with reviews within a reasonable time frame. Those larger review groups allow participants to select a broad genre for a given review session, such as sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal. (So we're already narrowing the field significantly by specifying Christian Speculative Fiction!) But no further narrowing of the field of interest is permitted: part of the deal when you join such a group is an agreement to review whatever you are allocated even if it's not something you're really 'into'.
I've personally seen the benefit of that: I've had to review books that I wouldn't normally have glanced at twice, and have been surprised by how much I enjoyed them. So this can widen the reviewer's perspective. And an important principle is involved here: that as reviewers we should assess a book as objectively as possible, according to its merits as a piece of writing, not just by our gut reactions to the content matter.
But, having said that, I agree that one of our goals with this group is to try and avoid that wrong kind of reviewing by providing authors with reviewers who are already basically sympathetic towards their subject matter. All being members of the Christian Speculative Fiction group is already a big step in that direction. And in future, though there's no time for it now, we could try to narrow the field of interest further by setting up new sessions focussing on specific sub-genres of Christian Speculative Fiction.
But that, as I say, would be for the future—and we'd need to see whether we have enough books in a given sub-genre among our prospective participants. That might easily not be the case: we are not a large group as groups go.
Right now, however, for our first review session to work, everyone needs to be willing to accept that they may not get exactly the book they might have chosen to review. If someone strongly objects to the book they've been allocated they can approach me, and I'll see whether a satisfactory swap is possible. But if all our authors are to come out of this exercise in 2 months' time with an equal number of reviews—and without any two people reviewing each other (which GR does not allow)—I may need to say that no swap is possible in a particular case. I hope our participants will be broad-minded enough to understand and accept that.
And above all I hope we'll all have fun, and be able to glorify God as we do this!