The Week in Womble aka please stop talking
Helloooooo!
I had a day off this week. My first day just to myself without having to talk to people on laptops. It was freezing, everywhere bar supermarkets appears to be shut but I felt so much better for it. As I type next door’s building works is a little tricky and constantly noisy. I am hoping in six weeks I don’t have to listen to drills ever again!!
Scvandals in Reviews
This week you may have heard about the Locus review where the reviewer a) agreed to read book 2 of a trilogy and then moaned the book was too complex b) managed to mix up a Filipina-based fantasy world with pre-Norman Conquest England c) had a track record of using fauirly passive aggressive critism of other works by authors of colour damning works with faint praise then d) blamed not reading much epic fantasy e) in their defence of their work sai they praised diversity for adding ‘spice’ to the genre and not seeing that such a term was itself problematic. Locus has put those reviews offline; said it will do better and very little else and finally f) thought people of colour may be best placed to review books by authors of colour.
Oh so much to unpack
- It is totally fine as a reviewer to agree to read a later part of a series first. I’ve done it once by accident and on a couple of longer series midway through. But you can’t blame the book for making the back story not that understandable. Trilogies in particular aren’t designed to be jumped on midway they are usually the bridges in a bigger story. That is on you as the reviewer – you can ask for a summary from the publicist and there is a thing called google or perhaps asking another blogger you know who has read it to explain it. Being upfront that you’ve not read much more on the books and blaming the book for the confusion is in my view unprofessional – you can say it’s not a place you’d recommend people to jump in on but for me particularly in a professional magazine respected by the industry this seemed inane.
- If you’re going to be a blogger/reviewer then you’ve a choice to make it explicit which type of books you want to review and stick to your chosen sub-genres. Or if you are going to be a more general genre reviewer then have the sense to read widely and get to understand the genre and where it is developing. I think whatever the genres you focus on reading a healthy mix of stuff will help you get exposed to what this genre can do and for me helps me get a sense for what good looks like. That’s why I like to mix up what you get on this blog. Not liking a certain type of tale and still accepting books to review within it will end badly and in a professional review site I question if that is fair to the books and publishers who are sending in review requests.
- Let’s be honest for me a lot of this is just simple racism and a reviewer who thinks of diversity more as tick box to mention to show they care and not really engage with the subject. If you think reviewing is about highlighting the ‘exotic’ you’re doing this wrong. You should be appreciative of a culture but don’t try shoe horning it clumsily into western culture do not compare an intricate culture using dance to Dirty Dancing. Do some wider research there are plenty of good resources to help explain other approaches to story-telling and the more you read the more you understand.
- The most worrying thing though is that there is here an editor involved. Someone read those reviews and thought they were fine. I question that person’s judgement and wonder what that person’s own thought on diversity are. We often talk in genre of gatekeeping in terms fandoms and publishing but reviews can also be an area for concern. Especially in a paid professional industry magazine that says they have editorial policies to stop this. We can all do better.
No one is perfect but if you make mistakes hold your hand up but do much much better.
Things I listened to
I have finished the mammoth Good St Podcast relisten and I’ve really enjoyed the Ten Minutes With feature they’re doing. Asking people what they’re currently reading is unsurprisingly something I chime with, but it has been really interesting hearing how people have faced into a pandemic and lockdown. The guests make this work and it was nice to not feel that my reaction to the last year wasn’t alone - comforting
Next week back to a broader mix of podcasts
What I’ve Been Watching
Wandavision – Episode 6 is intriguing
Queen’s Gambit – Episode 3 adds drama and sets up problems, I have concerns for our lead but thoroughly enjoying it! Stylish but the highlight is Ana Taylor-Joy’s complex and defiant Beth - a genius chess player in a virtually all male field
Lupin – Watched the first episode and hugely impressed. An touch of Leverage but the star is Omar Sy who in 44 minutes creates a character full of complexity and mystery playing a host of roles. I am very looking forward to the rest!
What Have I been Reading and Reviewing?
A good week on the blogging front
The Library of the Dead by T L Huchu – a brand new contemporary fantasy series although this is set in a near future dystopian Edinburgh. This is going to be something many people will need to get their hands on.
The Last Snow by Stina Jackson – a sobering and unsettling dark scandinavian noir!
Made to Order: Robots and Revolution edited by Jonathan Strahan – with stories from Brooke Bolander, Ken Liu, Sarah Pinsker and more looking at our artificial intelligent friends. Great value
The Salvage Crew by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne – a space salvage mission goes terribly wrong! So far reminding me of Murderbot meets the Martian and one of the most surprising SF novels to get on my radar.
Beyond the Latch and Lever: Speculative Short Stories edited by Susanna Skarland and Elle Blackwood – a lovely anthology using the theme of doors missing SF, fantasy and horror.
What am I Going to Read?
In the near future zombies, histories and galaxies!
And so much more!! Good luck for the future – we will get there. See you in a week!