I’ve been reviewing science fiction and fantasy books for almost five years now (wow!), and of almost a hundred books that I’ve reviewed, I’ve only rejected two. (The third one doesn’t count because it was Biblical fiction miscategorized as science fiction… probably because of the dinosaurs.) I’m not going to name the books here… they didn’t appeal to me, but I understand that they may appeal to other readers whose tastes differ from mine. But because I’m writing the reviews for somebody else, I end up explaining why I’m not recommending them.
I described the first book I rejected to a co-worker shortly after starting it: “To be honest, I’m not terribly impressed with the book… it seems single-threaded, after reading a series where there are several point of view characters and little to no predictability. Somebody once described John Grisham’s books to me as “written to be movies” for that same reason – a single plotline and one person telling it. If I have to guess, the main character will accomplish her mission, losing some of her team along the way, and live happily ever after. But I’m less than a quarter of the way into it, so that’s only a guess.”
My guess was fairly accurate, and I later apologized to a friend who read the book.
The explanation for the second book I rejected was almost triple the length of my reviews, but it provides too many identifying details about the book to share here. The plot, like the previous reject, felt predictable and cliché (is that redundant?) in what should have been a fabulous premise. I was actually excited by the blurb, and increasingly disappointed as I waded through the book.
We all encounter duds from time to time, so I consider myself lucky given how few review books have turned out to be something outside my reading range.