Sunday, February 28, 2010

Another Amazon Review From A Fan

Just had another review posted on Amazon by a 'fan'. Daniel Smith. Not great I'm afraid. Only three stars. Oh dear...

Leather is a great writer... but this story didn't convince me..., 28 Feb 2010

I'm a great fan of Stepehen (sic) Leather having read ALL of his previous books... but this one is... a bit strange / different. I won't explain the reasons here as I don't want to spoil the read for others.

It's true that Leather still manages to catch the reader's attention and generate tension with a plot that moves along at a great pace... but the whole story line and style is so different to Leather's other books and stories that it could easily be classified in a completely different genre - and one could almost be led to believe it had been written by a different author (albeit a good one...). I have recommended Leather to many friends, but I'm not sure this book would make me do the same.


How many reviews does he have on Amazon? Want to guess? Yes, just the one. This one. Cheers, Dan! Any chance of you putting up reviews of the books that you enjoyed?

3 comments:

John Potter said...

I am also a big fan of your storytelling and thought it brave and admirable that you have switched genre. I also left a review on Amazon: J Potter. I also only gave it three stars.

It had a very powerful beginning, thought it great you were looking at the existence of God within popular fiction but felt you really missed an opportunity to almost redefine the genre. The Goth was a brilliant touch but by limiting yourself to established religions and occults, you failed to give us much that James Herbert didn't do twenty years ago. My opinion.

I will buy the next book because i am a fan and the core characters are excellent, you write women very well. I hope this does not turn out to be Randall and Hopkirt and heavily features the Goth, because she was by far the character that interested the most, beside Jack and Jenny. Parallels between the Goth and Larsson's Salander would be very welcome because we won't be getting any more of her.

As an over 40 something I am eagerly awaiting feedback on a 27 year old female on Nightfall, she has not read James Herbert before.

Stephen Leather said...

Hi John - I'd read your review and if got to review reviews I would have given it five stars! It was fair and balanced and I could see why you gave it three stars. Funny you mention Randall and Hopkirk because my uncle was a screenwriter on the original series! I did toy with taking it that way but decided against it. Robbie Hoyle won't be appearing again, though Nightingale will revisit his grave.

The Goth (Proserpine) is in book two and will be back again. The big problem of course is where do I take it? Does it become a sort of X-Files series, or does it go much much darker. I'm tending towards the latter but it is a very difficult series to write because there are no limits.

Anyway, the new Shepherd book is out in July - Rough Justice - and it's a cracker!

Thanks again for such a considered and balanced review,

Stephen

Unknown said...

Well I thought it was fantastic......I wasnt to sure when i first picked the book up but i soon got hooked and couldnt put it down (0230 late nights).

Grew very quickly to Jack (huge dan and joker fan)and i am glad to see you are writing another jack story.

keep it coming