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.)

[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.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

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

[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]

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.

[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.

[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.

[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]

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.

[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]

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]

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.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Well from what I have read of all those debates concerning race and whatever appropriation - the people who are authentic members don't want no books written about them by non-members, they just want certain clichés not supported and authors to listen when they complain...

So even though he's working with a bit of a mistaken impression, you're thinking about his criticism and the result of that will go into future work. No more can be asked for.

[ewein2412]

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

[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.

[meener.livejournal.com]

every review that guy has written has been a horribly negative one! i think he's got a chip on his shoulder.

i have posted the review i made on goodreads when i first read the empty kingdom. i should have posted it on amazon, too!

[estara.livejournal.com]

yay!!

[ewein2412]

♥

that was a very sweet thing to do!

[nwhyte]

Amazon reviews are one of the more poisonous spaces that I have encountered on the internet. That was one of the reasons I recently deleted all of mine.

The unbiased reader of this particular review will rapidly conclude that the reviewer is projecting his own obsession with Ethiopian / Eritrean history onto your writing!!!

[ewein2412]

a very noble move indeed! You are right, the Amazon reviews are plagueful. And it is so counterproductive for a bookseller to allow negative attention to be aimed at their own "products." It was like pulling teeth to get Amazon to delete a spurious review of one of my books that ranted about George Bush and had absolutely nothing to do with me.

Amazon's comment system is also frustrating, as there's never any notification. You have to be kind of obsessed to keep an exchange going.

I am a real fan of Goodreads. I never reviewed books until it came along--felt I couldn't appropriately ream those I disliked on my blog. But an actual review forum is so much more appropriate and forgiving.

Incidentally, one of the annoying things about this particular review is that it's posted against the wrong book--he's clearly referring to A Coalition of Lions.

[estara.livejournal.com]

I can understand that for you personally, but what if you want to raise support for an author on one of the biggest book markets in the US - didn't they say that Amazon is the biggest independent bookseller in the US?

If I get comments for my reviews I just don't react. As long as I haven't posted anything inappropriate my positive review won't be deleted and any further reader can decide for themselves if it's true.

I think the not so well-known authors who get discovered via casual browsing and recommendations can use all the positive reviews they can get.