Ana Kai Tangata

[Malachi_Constant]

It really is a great collection, and I for one truly didn't find much to nitpick about it, even though I consider Scott a friend. To be fair though, I read many of these stories after we first met, before we formed our friendship, and was reading them to give him a critical eye as he was finishing them up.

As for Joshi's review...quite scathing. The typos are very, very minimal so I was a bit surprised they were even pointed out. I have much respect for Joshi when it comes to Lovecraft scholarship, but his view on weird fiction IS extremely narrow, and I feel that the further away from Lovecraft he gets, the less he truly understands or cares to understand. Tone-Deaf may be a good term for it. I have seen him champion writers (friends or his "discoveries") whose work I find to be very underwhelming. Then again.... this IS the guy who wrote The Assaults of Chaos...

[njhorror]

I'll have to read this and decide for myself. I've had trouble with some of Joshi's reviews in the past, yet the praise did seem a bit exuberant. My guess? I will come away satisfied, and looking forward to more from Mr. Nicolay.

Quote Originally Posted by Malachi_Constant

Then again.... this IS the guy who wrote The Assaults of Chaos...

Ouch!
===========================
Since I haven't read Ana Kai Tangata I am not qualified to comment on its merit or lack thereof, but S.T. Joshi's review does remind me of the following taken from an obscure literary publication of last year:

"We admit to having lost track of the number of times in the weird horror fiction community a first book by a new author has been trumpeted as the work of a fully-formed talent eliciting comparisons with established masters in the field. Rather than it being regarded as the duty of a fledging author’s more experienced peers to offer constructive criticism, it is more often the case they are prepared to run the risk of encouraging an author (and his prospective readers) to believe he or she has little more to learn concerning their craft, and that their work evinces scarcely any scope for improvement.

[name redacted], through no fault of his own, suffers from the disadvantage of having been treated in this fashion across the superficial spectrum of social media, and his first collection has consequently raised unduly high expectations of being a truly consummate debut. These expectations, for the current reviewer, the book does not quite fulfill."

Mark S.

[ramonoski]

I think I'll side with Joshi on the specific and particular issue of using dashes to start a line of dialog, then simply throwing everything else (character actions, descriptions, more dialog) into the same paragraph with no more punctuation than commas and perhaps a period or two. Now, I don't think it's big enough an issue to single out a book for it, but Joshi's pointing out made me realize I've seen it quite a bit in recent authors (weird or otherwise) and it has always ringed as an imposture to me. Like it's saying "well, this is how Joyce did it, are you saying Joyce is not good enough? Look at it! Makes it seem more literary!"

In other languages dashes are the norm when writing dialog, but they typically follow guidelines precisely to avoid the kind of confusion Joshi complains about. For instance:

Quote

—Yes, I read your review —he said—, and I think this is a very valid point even if the rest are, well... —his eyes wandered as if trying to find the right words perched around the room— somewhat moot in their subjectivity.

But maybe some writers think having a dozen dashes in a paragraph doesn't look aesthetic and that's why they only use the opening one? Maybe they're trying to break away from the tyranny of orthotypography? I don't know, one would have to ask them, I guess

[mgriffin]

I believe any writer who uses unorthodox punctuation realizes this will irritate some readers, and maybe reviewers too. It doesn't bother me much as a reader, but I don't blame another reader for saying, "I wish the writer wouldn't do that."

Considering the question of whether Nicolay's friends have been overexuberant in praising this book, I do think it's common that a writer's friends will have read the book before the public, and possibly even before professional reviewers. If I'm looking at a review written by someone who is a friend of the author, I consider two things. First, does the person mention the relationship, to give people considering the review perspective which may help them judge whether the review is honest, if not impartial? Second, does the reviewer frequently go around handing out 5-star reviews and hyperbolic praise for every book by every one of their friends?

If the reviewer tries to hide the relationship, it suggests they're trying to make the review seem more impartial or objective than it is. If they admit the relationship, the person reading the review can discount the objectivity of the reviewer to whatever degree seems fair.

If the reviewer has gone around over-praising inferior work by other friends in the past, then of course any very positive review subsequently offered should be questioned.

If on the other hand, the reviewer has responded to the published work of friends and associates with different responses, including less-stellar reviews, or even non-responses (which in most cases is the strongest criticism one is likely to offer, in public at least, the work of a friend or associate) then I'm more likely to believe that the opinion offered by the reviewer is an honest one.

In the specific case of Ana Kai Tangata, I think more and more impartial reviews and assessments will be appearing soon, and this should help everyone still on the fence to better assess whether the book may be of interest to them.

I believe the post by Mgriffin is the most astute on this topic thus far.

Mark S.

[njhorror]

I just wish F&B would get a move on with their Amazon US orders. What are they hand-cranking them page by page, or something? Sheesh!

[Malachi_Constant]

I'm under the impression that Amazon should start shipping them soon. And for some reasons the slipcases for the deluxe edition won't be ready to go until August, so I know many are waiting for copies of those too.

[lovecraftezine]

One of the reasons John Grisham became successful was because of all the support of his friends.

Quote Originally Posted by luciferfell

I do think Joshi made some good points about some members of a social group getting together to push Scotts book a little too hard. Some of the reviews Ive read of his book I find hard to trust since they are so over the top positive and I know that they are in the same social circle. Which is no comment on Scott or his book... but some of his 'friends' may have done him a disservice by deciding instead of reviewing his book instead they are advertising his book.

[mgriffin]

At WHC I heard somebody complaining to Dennis (owner of Fedogan and Bremer) about the book being available from his own site, but not Amazon. Dennis answered that it was an issue with either Amazon or the distributor failing to order the book, even after they had been solicited for an order, and not a case of Dennis holding back stock from Amazon to drive buyers to his own web store.