Huh, I just read a pretty positive review of Midnight Never Come and was thinking of giving it a try because I'm always looking for tolerable Tudor fiction...may I ask what put you off?
Well, first off, that first page left me with the impression that I'd have to slog through a book full of such descriptions getting in the way of More Interesting Things, and I've long since run out of time and patience and even the mental ability to deal with books that make me tired. The storyline/back cover blurb didn't particularly wow me with the promise of seeing something radically different. Wow, faeries at Queen Elizabeth's court. Wow, a parallel queen in the fae world entwined with Elizabeth's court. Gee, do you think there will be political and magical intrigues with the throne of England in the balance? Maybe magic will factor into key historical moments!
Sarcasm aside (because you can break down any genre book into these sorts of generalizations and make fun of them), I guess things just sort of felt...obvious when I read it and that it wasn't going to do anything I wasn't expecting and hadn't seen elsewhere.
Second, historical fantasy/fiction is one of my least favorite genres to begin with. The historian in me prefers the non-fictional variety. Which probably isn't helpful to you if it's something you do like. It's just not a cup of tea I like to drink from very frequently, and only when a lot of folks I trust tell me it's really good and worth it.
Yeah! It seems like a small thing, but it's just so basic that it immediately makes me think the author isn't going to think anything else in the book through very carefully.
It also tells me there are editors who aren't thinking too closely, either. Because I can get how an author might be too close to the work to see some of the small details like that, but well, that's what we hire and pay editors for. To catch things that a more objective eye will see when the author is too involved in the work itself to notice.
no subject
Well, first off, that first page left me with the impression that I'd have to slog through a book full of such descriptions getting in the way of More Interesting Things, and I've long since run out of time and patience and even the mental ability to deal with books that make me tired. The storyline/back cover blurb didn't particularly wow me with the promise of seeing something radically different. Wow, faeries at Queen Elizabeth's court. Wow, a parallel queen in the fae world entwined with Elizabeth's court. Gee, do you think there will be political and magical intrigues with the throne of England in the balance? Maybe magic will factor into key historical moments!
Sarcasm aside (because you can break down any genre book into these sorts of generalizations and make fun of them), I guess things just sort of felt...obvious when I read it and that it wasn't going to do anything I wasn't expecting and hadn't seen elsewhere.
Second, historical fantasy/fiction is one of my least favorite genres to begin with. The historian in me prefers the non-fictional variety. Which probably isn't helpful to you if it's something you do like. It's just not a cup of tea I like to drink from very frequently, and only when a lot of folks I trust tell me it's really good and worth it.
Yeah! It seems like a small thing, but it's just so basic that it immediately makes me think the author isn't going to think anything else in the book through very carefully.
It also tells me there are editors who aren't thinking too closely, either. Because I can get how an author might be too close to the work to see some of the small details like that, but well, that's what we hire and pay editors for. To catch things that a more objective eye will see when the author is too involved in the work itself to notice.