Battletech and Reader Criticism

 

So, Elements of Treason: Honor has been out for almost two weeks and it's doing well and getting good reviews -- for the most part....

But someone posted a tweet that said the following about the novel:

"This novel's broken me. Not in terms of my like of the era, but in terms of my ability to write a review. I'm too contemptuous of it. It is a terribad novel, but I hate putting out so much negativity in a video.There will be no review, sorry. Its just too cancerous."

        That caught my attention, so I tweeted at him the following: 

I'll bite! What's wrong with it?

        He replied with:

I think I'd rather have a lobotomy before I read anything about Peter Cobb again, to be frank. The plot in and of itself isn't the issue, with the Horses being divided or anything. Twitter's a terrible format for this due to its character limit too XD-

I was surprised, but not angry at the original statement or their reply. It's his opinion and he's entitled to it. It's frankly the worst review I've ever had, and it kind of makes me smile. I decided to write this post about writing BattleTech and reader's reviews and criticism. 

A few authors see criticism of their stories as an attack upon themselves. That's why you have to develop a thick skin as an author. And sometimes the criticism is valid, while other times it isn't, and still other times, it's subjective. A rule that authors have to learn early is that you're not going to please everyone all the time. You will have readers who love every word you put down, while others will find what they see are chinks in the armor and try to jam a blade through. And some people will love some stories your write and hate other stories.

That is true for Battletech stories. I've had four Battletech Novels published and looking at the Amazon ratings, I can see that, for the most part, the reviews are good. So, I did a little cutting and pasting and took images of the customer review chart that ranks the product, in this case, my novels on a scale from one to five. I also included reviews from each novel, two good and one bad. this is what I see when I look at the reviews. Note that each review is exactly how it was written on Amazon. All I did was cut and paste the reviews.

First up us Icons of War, my first novel.  As you can see, most people gave it 4 or 5 stars, but a few gave it 2 or 3 stars. And here's a couple of excerpts from the Amazon reviews:

This book was a great adventure with knew characters, so you never knew what was going to happen. Once you start reading it, you're not going to want to put it down.

I really enjoyed this story, it covers a lot of lore previously little explored. I am super excited to read more of this author and this IP.

 

The story does a good job of helping move the Battletech timeline forward and does tie up some loose ends. The story is action packed and does keep one wanting to keep reading. The writing was more of a young adult style with unnecessary, out of place and not needed sex scenes. I expected more from the author since he takes every opportunity to let everyone know he is a writer with his posts on how to write. The editing is in line with all Catalyst Game Labs publications. It leaves a lot to be desired. Missing words seemed to dominate the mistakes with some general sentence structure issues. Three stars because of editing and less than average writing. The story being interesting saved it from a two star rating.

The first two were from 5-stars reviews, while the last one was a 3-star review. Same novel, different reactions. That doesn't make the 3-star's opinion any less valid, they just saw it differently than the other two. And no matter how well you write, every reader sees the story differently. 

The ratings chart fro Elements of Treason: Duty.

A slightly lower rating. Most are still 4 or 5-Stars ratings, but a small percent gave it only 1 or 2-Stars.

Now for a look at the reviews:

One of the better BattleTech novels. Highly recommended!

Great novel that tells the origin story of the Tamar Pact. Fast paced and fun. A must read for the IlClan era.

Political through an through. Don't even think there was a mech battle in this one.

The first two were 5-stars while the third was a 2-star. Now, the third one puzzles me, because there are definitely 'Mech battles in the novel, two of them at least, besides some other military action. To me, it's a head scratcher.

We now move onto the second Elements novel, Elements of Treason: Opportunity. Of the three, this was the most challenging, because I had to write about an established main character, who was a bad guy -- ruthless, ambitious, and wanting to regain power. So, I deepened his background and character. The rating table:

Most are still giving it a 4 or 5-star rating, but there's a few more 1 through 3 stars. As for the reviews:

The story was good, fun to read, well paced. Not a lengthy tome, but it tells the story and reinvigorates a character I didn’t care for at all.

really enjoyed the Duke’s turnaround after losing the throne and how things worked out. very excited about the last chapter and the surprise. well worth the read

The worst one I ever read was also buy this author.

The last one was a 2-star review, while the first two were from 5-star reviews. Again, some book, different opinions.

Now, the last one, Elements of Treason: Honor, had its own challenges. A clan with little fiction time, a character that was somewhat described in Sourcebooks, and a few events that had to be in the novel. After two weeks, the rating are this:

A smaller sample, but still most ratings are 4 or 5-star. The number of reviews is much smaller this time, but they will come in time.

I would recommend this book to any BattleTech fan. The characters are well defined and well able to identify with. I enjoyed reading the Battle of Sudetan from the Hell's Horses' POV, too. Peter Cobb became my favorite character as swiftly as an Epona moves, and I really hope to see more of him - and more of the Horses - in the future.

Craig is a great author and does an outstanding job of bringing characters to life. I'm glad to see the Horses finally getting a book of their own. My only critique is that there were some minor typos.

It's a Battletech book. You get schlock action, schlock politics, likeable heroes and some solid tough guys. Giant robots fight it out in the far future. People talk.

The hero's a bit Mary Sue, but the background and setting are well done and enjoyable.

Again, two 5-star and one 3-star (The only ones up at the moment). It's clear that not everyone enjoys my writing. Most do, a few don't. That's all right. The fact most people like what I write is good enough for me. I do learn from every story I write, and I'm proud of everything that gets published (Well, almost everything. . .  There is a Battlecorps Unit Digest I wrote that has enough spelling errors in it  that still makes me cringe when I read it...)

And to be honest, Battletech stories are never going to be considered classic literature in the vein of Sherlock Holmes or Shakespeare. But they are a part of a unique universe that was been growing and changing for the last forty years. I am apart of that living, breathing universe. No other universe -- Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who -- has a consistent background (Doctor Who can be excused, because... time travel and the Doctor!!)

My best advice for any writer is to treasure the good reviews and brush off the bad reviews. You can't take offense to any bad review, but you can't let the good reviews go to your head -- reviews, both bad and good are a fact of life. The best you can do is write well enough that you have many more good reviews than bad. I've been lucky so far in that more people like my writing than dislike it, but I can't coast on that. There's always more room for improvement, always trying to not only get more reviews, but also more 4 and 5-star reviews. Reviews tell me how well (or how badly) I'm doing. So far, so good.

Now that all three of the Elements of Treason novels I was asked to write are now published, I can move onto the next project, and I have several  at various stages of production. I hope most will be out this year or next.

Have a good day!

Craig