Review Policy
What I review
The short answer is – no, wait, there isn’t a short answer, so here’s the mid-length one. I started this blog to write about SF, and in the process I’m getting a better handle on what SF means. There’s space opera, high fantasy, traditional axe-grinding hard SF, thrillers as gritty as the A12 in January, children’s books, centuries-old classics, and mainstream theatre without a hint of anything futuristic or supernatural. For the long answer… read the blog.
How I choose it
To an extent it chooses me. Some of them I wait for for months, some I find in the library or in second-hand shops, some I find at conventions – and increasingly, I find an author on the Internet and if I like their style I’ll read their books.
I don’t pay much attention to publication dates, and don’t really care about being first or even early to review something – the way I see it, there’s a great many overlooked books out there already, and I can’t count the number of times I’ve found out about something wonderful years after it was released. I’d rather dig up something from the 1970s (or the 1870s) that hasn’t been written about than contribute Yet Another Bestseller Review to the pile.
I don’t have any financial interest in the business to declare, and only rarely get review copies from publishers. (Anything I’ve been sent, or offered the opportunity to download, will be tagged with “arc”.)