Cross-posted to !sciencefiction@lemmy.world
It is not possible to read all the Sci-Fi books out there. So you must have a process for selecting what you do read. Reading a book is an investment in your time. Your time is valuable. No one wants to waste that time reading unworthy books.
I have never codified my criteria. And it has changed and evolved over time. I suspect it will continue to change moving forward, as who I am tomorrow is not who I was yesterday.
What is your criteria to date?
Mine is that it must meet ALL the following criteria, some objective and some subjective.
- it must have at least 1,000 reviews
- it must have at least 70% 5-star reviews
- if after reading about it I get the suspicion that it’s a romance disguised as Sci-Fi, I automatically reject it no matter what
- if it’s YA, it really needs to be exceedingly compelling to choose it
- Space Opera also needs to be exceedingly compelling
- if I get the feeling it’s trying to preach I’ll reject it
- if i get the feeling it has (messaging, strong opinions, or political overtones) about today’s societal issues, I probably won’t choose it. Not judging; I primarily read for escapism.
I guess that’s about it. There’s probably more but I just haven’t put that much thought into it yet.
I’m very interested in how y’all decide to choose a book to spend your valuable time reading.
For me the most important criterion is that the characterisation should be compelling enough to make me care about what happens to the characters, otherwise I DNF. So I generally try to read books by writers known for writing well-fleshed out characters. However, I know that I cannot depend much on other people’s reviews because what someone else might consider amazing about a book may not matter to me in the least. So I don’t give a lot of attention to number of reviews or star ratings. I have come across several books with thousands of reviews and high ratings, which were definitely not worth it.
Who do you think are best authors that do good characterisation?
Robin Hobb, Janny Wurts, Lois McMaster Bujold, Steven Erikson and many more in fantasy and scifi. My all time favorite ones are Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte.
That’s an interesting list. Thanks for your input.