Archive for Reviews

Inapt review combos

I recently read Tom Holt’s 1987 fantasy novel Expecting Someone Taller. On the front cover is this blurb: “RECALLS BOTH TOLKIEN’S LORD OF THE RINGS AND TWAIN’S CONNECTICUT YANKEE … AN ENTERTAINING ROMP!” —Publisher’s Weekly I’ve never been terribly fond of the style of review where you describe a work as a cross between two […]

Pan

Occasionally, critics and reviewers can be entertainingly vicious. I generally don't approve of that sort of thing, but sometimes I can't help being amused. Case in point: the first line...