Beating the nice nice nice thing to death (with fluffy pillows)
My review of Biohell by Andy Remic is up now at SF Site. It is a very long time since I have written a review for them and I chose an absolutely shocking novel to return with. As I conclude:
When I opened this book I was hoping for something like David Gunn’s Deaths Head series: gung ho adventure SF with the wit to know its strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately this is just witless.
Fortunately, my next book for SF Site – In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield – seems infinitely better.
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Everything Is Nice 
You’re a terrible reviewer! Your opinions are immaturely formed, and you have little concept of fit for purpose. I wouldn’t pick up a classic romance and complain about it’s lack of gore – right tools for the right job. I know this is Internet reviewing but have some standards.
Karl
1 April 2009 at 17:36
Karl, I haven’t read the Remic book, but it seems to me that Martin’s review is almost entirely about whether it does what it should within its subgenre. His criticisms of the plot’s coherence, of Remic’s dialogue, and the insular references of its world are criticisms of whether it does its job *as explosions’n’guns sf*. Martin has convinced me, by evidence and argument, that it doesn’t. And your swipe about internet reviewing seems unjustified too – it’s as good or bad as the writer who publishes it.
Graham
1 April 2009 at 20:25
I disagree. Having online friends supporting this in no way surprises me. I see someone else mentioned the failed writer thing and that certainly comes across in your style. I don’t think you try to understand what books are doing – you have a concept in your head and love to say bad things without thinking of how much work it must have taken Mr Remic.
Karl
2 April 2009 at 07:09
You’re perfectly right that Martin is someone I know. However, we barely agree about anything – you’d be hard-pressed to find any occasion when he mentions me without some degree of snark. But you’re dodging the main issue: Martin’s contention that Biohell fails *by the standards of guns’n’explosions sf*. Have you read the book? Would you like to provide some evidence to argue the other way?
Graham
2 April 2009 at 07:50
you’d be hard-pressed to find any occasion when he mentions me without some degree of snark.
Oh, come now, surely that can’t be true!
Martin
2 April 2009 at 08:29
[…] who is writing decent science fiction action novels? It isn’t Neal Asher and it isn’t Andy Remic. I once thought it might have been David Gunn but now I’m not so sure. In the comments to […]
A Call To Arms « Everything Is Nice
2 November 2009 at 16:50