eep

[ewein2412]

I was looking up the ISBN for The Empty Kingdom and discovered that it's been seriously reamed by an Ethiopian reader. Very interesting criticism (it's actually a review of A Coalition of Lions, though he doesn't refer to the title). I'm rather taken aback at his notion that my politics are shamelessly Eritrean Apologist.

http://www.amazon.com/Empty-Kingdom-Mark-Solomon/product-reviews/0670062731/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

Comments

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute...I thought those books were marketed under "YA Fantasy" not "Eritrean History"....

I voted it down (which I've only done once before.)

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

My god, that is depressing. And also the only review.

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

There is also this, on the same Amazon page for me. I was trying to figure out how to give The Empty Kingdom stars without writing a full review right now. (I have never reviewed anything on Amazon.)

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Writer-Ever/forum/Fx1QBK9WHH08CKK/TxZLK4SMS801Z7/1/ref=cm_cd_dp_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&s=books&asin=0670062731&store=books

It made me feel happier.

[ewein2412]

gosh, thank you! I confess it has me a little freaked out. It is true that I mess around with history a lot. But I think most of the specific historical inaccuracies mentioned in this review are defensible... maybe not so much the racial ones.

[ewein2412]

hah! Amanda is my best friend.

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

That is less exciting than it being from a random stranger, but it is still there.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I think complaining about the British barbarians is overlooking the fact that the books came out of a book about the British barbarians (and, I admit, The Winter Prince is still my favorite of your books and one of my favorite books, period). You didn't start with Ethiopia and paste the British barbarians in. You started with the Matter of Britain and ended up in Ethiopia.

Sure, there's a story about Ethiopian history that needs to be told, but I'm not sure that you, specifically, not being Ethiopian, are the one to tell it. That said, he may have some points, although I don't know enough about Ethiopian politics to sort them out.

[ewein2412]

one of the things that I remember worrying about at the time I was writing Coalition was that I might fail to do justice to the monastery at Debra Damo--and that it was incredibly unlikely that Goewin would have been allowed in. However, I did find a few lapses in their strict no-girls-allowed policy, not counting Gudit (Judith), the 10th century non-Christian queen who sacked and burned the place!

I don't know much about modern Ethiopian politics either.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

It's still fiction. I hope he doesn't get hold of the story I'm working on!

[ewein2412]

i dread to think what will happen when the french, germans and scots see the one I'm working on now.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I have always had the impression that you have specific reasons for deviating from history when you do so. :)

(Huh, I wonder if Gudit was Guy Gavriel Kay's model for Judit in The Last Light of the Sun? I'll have to read up about her.)

[estara.livejournal.com]

You'll find out ^^

[estara.livejournal.com]

If I'd read it already, I'd be posting on it. I wrote a comment to that guy trying to point out its fantasy - and I voted it down of course.

[ewein2412]

I have always had the impression that you have specific reasons for deviating from history when you do so. :)

Thank you! That is exactly how I operate!

[estara.livejournal.com]

I think I know why he's so upset, Amazon has it filed in Historical Fiction:

"Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#55 in Books > Children's Books > History & Historical Fiction > Fiction > Africa"

- can you or your publisher do something about that?

[ewein2412]

thanks, that is a really level-headed and moderate comment to have made! I do have a certain amount of sympathy for the guy--there is a raging and ongoing debate about whether or not writers should venture outside their culture/race/religion/gender etc. However, I think my British history is just as flawed as my Ethiopian history, if not more so--by this argument no one should write historical fiction, as no one can possibly be trusted to get it right. "The past is a foreign country." Part of the reason I do write historical fiction is because I reckon the field is a bit more level--everyone else is a foreigner there too.

[ewein2412]

welllll... technically it *is* historical fiction.

He's located in Addis Ababa. I don't know where he got his copy, but it's very likely it was sourced directly from me by some circuitous route. (Unless he ordered it from Amazon, I suppose.)

[ewein2412]

BTW, I was talking about A Coalition of LIons, as that's the book he seemed to be reviewing.

[ewein2412]

I'm especially worried about the Glaswegians

[ewein2412]

way off topic... when you first read The Winter Prince, did you read it in English or in German?

[estara.livejournal.com]

You would be, they'd be able to come and knock on your door ^^.

[estara.livejournal.com]

"(I have never reviewed anything on Amazon.)"

It's totally easy, as long as you've written blog posts before and of course have an Amazon account. You get to preview and everything.

[estara.livejournal.com]

I haven't bought fantasy books in German since I was... about 20? Yeah, because I did my au-pair stint then and had enough English for anything.

I'm 43 now.

Which is the long way of saying in English.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, I haven't bought any German books in years...

[estara.livejournal.com]

How come? Jo Walton's alternate history isn't historical fiction...