Signs of Spring!

1) Robin sightings!
2) My eyes and throat itch! Allergies!
3) Muddy puppy paws!

No love form the latest SFBC review of the Code/Rules/Law omnibus. I am not a goddess in this reader's pantheon. He expected a story with a female protag written by a female author to be a gripping read. He was ungripped. He hopes my storytelling improves, though, because I apparently have an interesting interpersonal relationship style for my character's interactions.

If I ever need a boost, I'll go back and read the SFBC reader reviews for the Code/Rules/Law omnibus. One states that "Kristine Smith is like unto a god...or a goddess to be more accurate." The other said that the story began slowly, but then "the genius of Kristine Smith's writing took hold."

I'm going to need that over the next few months.

Remember that grumpy Amazon review I groused about a few weeks ago? The one in which the reviewer consistently misspelled the name of a major character?

Someone posted in the review comments that they had been on the fence about buying Endgame, but the review convinced them to take the plunge. Seems that said review, which was pretty spoilerific, indicated that the story had veered in a direction the commenter had wanted it to go, but had been afraid it wouldn't.

Guess I should just leave them alone to do their little thing. Reviews.

I have never read a take on Jani that connected her various physical travails in any way with eating disorders or self-mutilation. I always considered the martial aspects of the scarring, the physical manifestations of a violent people. As for the eating...Jani loses her appetite when the shit hits the fan, and it hits the fan a lot. And she tends to push herself. I always wondered whether I made mention of her sleeping enough, because there were times when it seemed as though she went for 48 hours straight.

I never considered the human aspect of those disorders.

An ENDGAME review from last month's Romantic Times.

The worldbuilding is meticulous and fuses both human and alien physiologies and motivations beautifully. Jani's a wonderful protagonist, and readers will root for her to come out on top.

I can understand the reviewer's comments about new readers feeling adrift, but...some have, and some haven't. In any case, I'll take it.

pbray liked ENDGAME.

::happy::

When you make a point of discussing a character at length, criticizing them, taking author to task for taking the easy way out regarding them...

...you need to make sure you refer to that character by their correct name. Because calling said character by the wrong name begs the question as to whether you really were paying attention.

The first Amazon review for ENDGAME is up, and I think it's the most thoughtful, interesting, *quiet* take on Jani's storyline that I've ever read.

"What's extraordinary about this book is the way Smith conveys the details of a particular character thinking and acting at a particular place and time: this is me, this is here, this is now. Smith can place a character at a time and a place as well as anyone I've read."

I know, I should ignore reviews. But I needed this one today. Someone got it, then took it places I didn't expect, and that's what it's all about.

A couple of reader reviews so far, this one from chris_gerrib and Jeri.

Both remarkably spoiler-free...which is more than I can say for the Klausner review.

ENDGAME's been Klausnered.

chris_gerrib was one of the ten readers who snagged an advance copy of ENDGAME from Eos for review purposes, and his review is here. He seems to have liked it. Could be spoilery, depending, so be warned.

sartorias reviews "Incident on a Small Colony" for Tangent Online's current issue, and liked it:

The tech stuff is neat, the atmosphere tense, with vivid description and convincing detail, the action pretty much non-stop, and the emotional tension builds inexorably. Three whammies before the end, all different: the thing that makes memorable stories is not just nifty skiffy, great pacing, but the electricity between human beings. One of my favorites.

Incident was my first short work to see print, virtual or otherwise. I'm very pleased with how it's been received so far.

::happy::

A very nice review of CODE OF CONDUCT on SF Reviews.

However, I am most certainly not the Kristine Smith who served as Deforest Kelley's caregiver in his last months.

When I first signed the CODE contract back in '98, word went around that I was a Kris Rusch pseudonym.

That's not true, either.