Genre Specific Review Groups discussion

In joining this review group you have agreed to review the novels assigned to you on a two month schedule. This group is now in the review phase and is no longer open for sign up.

This is the Speculative Fiction review group. (This includes but is not limited to Fantasy, monster-based Horror, Alternate History, and Science Fiction. Any work that ask the question, "What if?") As with other review groups, you will be expected to read and give an honest review of the books assigned to you. Assignments will be made after the group sign-up has filled.

Participants are expected to post reviews to Goodreads. If the review is positive (three stars or higher on Amazon), the review should be posted to Amazon (US and UK) as well, if the book is available there. This makes having accounts with both Goodreads and Amazon.com a requirement.

If a reviewer and the author agree that the review should not be posted to Goodreads due to quality issues, the reviewer is relieved of the requirement of posting the review. If this occurs in the first round, the second reviewer is relieved of the requirement to read and review the book. This is entirely at the discretion of the reviewer and is not intended in any way to manipulate the rating of any book.

Contact the authors you are scheduled to review to arrange to receive a review copy of their work.

Please post to this topic, both when you receive review copies and when you post the reviews.

If you are going to be late with your review, either post to this topic as soon as possible or message the author and the moderator.

If your book has not been reviewed by the deadline for either round, contact the review group moderator. This is necessary to make certain that the review process is fair for everyone.

Note that any participant who makes no effort to fulfill his or her commitment to this group will have all reviews of his or her work resulting from this group deleted and his or her membership in the Genre Specific Review Group will be terminated.

THE AUTHORS AND BOOKS ARE:

1 Carolyn McBride - If It's Easy

2 L.N. Denison - Going Underground

3 Skye Noir (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4...) - Reader-Only

4 David Finn - Demorn: Blade of Exile

5 James Devo - Blood Red

6 K.T. Munson - 1001 Islands


THE ORDER OF REVIEW IS AS FOLLOWS:

September 1 to October 1

Carolyn McBride reviews K.T. Munson
L.N. Denison reviews David Finn
Skye Noir reviews L.N. Denison
David Finn reviews Carolyn McBride
James Devo gets a bye
K.T. Munson reviews James Devo

October 1 to November 1

Carolyn McBride reviews L.N. Denison
L.N. Denison reviews K.T. Munson
Skye Noir reviews David Finn
David Finn reviews James Devo
James Devo reviews Carolyn McBride
K.T. Munson gets a bye

I have a speculative fiction short story, would that count here?
Here's the Goodreads link,
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

I think we can class Going Underground as speculative. For instance, what would've happened if the Scots had gained independence from the UK?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Are we considering fantasy to be speculative fiction? If so, I'd like to enter Sehmah's Truth. Here's the link:

Sehmah's Truth

I, Chance Maree, would like to add Dark Matter Tiding.

LN has already reviewed my work.

Id definitely like to be involved. Demorn: Blade of Exile is the first book in the Asanti Series. I'm happy to read and review another work in this group - please let me know what I have to do. Thanks, David

I have a pirate fantasy I'd like to add to this list! 1001 Islands is presntly a stand alone book full of adventure, intrigue, and a touch of horror. Basically pirates meets inception all on a planet with 1001 Islands.

1001 Islands

Thank you,
K.T. Munson

K.T. wrote: "I have a pirate fantasy I'd like to add to this list! 1001 Islands is presntly a stand alone book full of adventure, intrigue, and a touch of horror. Basically pirates meets inception all on a plan..."
That's sounds like a ton of fun! Would you like to swap?? I don't quite know the rules but I'd be happy to do that. Thanks, David

David wrote: "K.T. wrote: "I have a pirate fantasy I'd like to add to this list! 1001 Islands is presntly a stand alone book full of adventure, intrigue, and a touch of horror. Basically pirates meets inception ..."

The way the group works is once there are six participants, the moderator schedules reviews in two rounds. So everyone's book is reviewed twice. The schedule is arranged so as to keep authors from reviewing each others books. Amazon does not like mutual reviews and might take them down.

R.

R. wrote: "David wrote: "K.T. wrote: "I have a pirate fantasy I'd like to add to this list! 1001 Islands is presntly a stand alone book full of adventure, intrigue, and a touch of horror. Basically pirates me..."

No problems! Put me down in this round with "DEMORN: Blade of Exile" and let me know what you would like me to review!

Thanks, David

If you've still got room, I'm in.
Blood Red

James wrote: "If you've still got room, I'm in.
Blood Red"

James has read, or is reading Going Underground at the moment.

And Chance has reviewed me too. Sorry to complicate matters!

I reckon we may need a couple more for this group to make it not so complicated...but it is down to our mod, R to decide.

I can read something else of Chance's and I have something else that James can look at, if that is any use to you.?

L.N. wrote: "I can read something else of Chance's and I have something else that James can look at, if that is any use to you.?"

I think that will work. Once we have at least six participants, we will try to work it out.

R.

I'm going to let you into a secret, I am going to be retiring the only other book I have for James, so he won't be able to review me this round. I will have nothing new until September...apologies for that =)

I'm happy to do David and Carolyn.

James wrote: "I'm happy to do David and Carolyn."

James would you like a copy of Demorn: Blade of Exile? Would you like a kindle gift copy or a mobi/ePub/PDF emailed to you?

Cheers

David

David wrote: "James wrote: "I'm happy to do David and Carolyn."

James would you like a copy of Demorn: Blade of Exile? Would you like a kindle gift copy or a mobi/ePub/PDF emailed to you?

Cheers

David"

Okay, people. We are getting a little ahead of ourselves. We need one more person to join. Then assignments will be made.

R.

I have previous acquaintances with 2 writers here. I can help the group by bowing out. I'll catch another group later.

I'd be interested in joining as a reader for Going Underground and/or Blade of Exile.

Authors:

For the first time, Genre Specific Review Groups has a reader-only participant in a review group. I have thought about this for a while, opening up review groups to members who are not currently interested in having their own work reviewed but are interested in reviewing the work of other writers. How this will work is that when the schedule is generated, any participant who would be scheduled to review Skye's work will instead get a bye for that round.

R.

Authors:

We need one more participant to make six. I did include a reminder in my recent broadcast message to the membership that this group was still open for sign up. Hopefully we will find the sixth soon.

R.

Surely we can sort this out now? If we have people who want to review Blade of Exile I'm happy to provide copies.

David wrote: "Surely we can sort this out now? If we have people who want to review Blade of Exile I'm happy to provide copies."

Since L.N. and James cannot review each other's works, there is no way to generate a schedule for five participants. Nothing is stopping reviews independent of this group, but that will make generating a schedule here more difficult, if and when we do find a sixth.

Let's give it another couple of days. If we do not find a sixth by then, we may not be able to do so within a reasonable time frame and it might be best for the people who volunteered for this group to arrange for independent reviews.

R.

Ok no problems, happy to give it a bit more time. After that, please anybody who would like a review copy of Blade of exile let me know, I'd be happy to provide a copy. :)

Thanks

David

I think part of the issue may be the narrow definition being used for speculative fiction. It's just confusing. The description at this point is more the definition for alternate history than a definition of spec fic, which traditionally includes all fantasy, monster-based horror, alternate history, sci-fi, etc. Maybe if you change the label from spec fic to what this group truly is or broaden your scope to include these other areas of spec fic, you will have more responses. Just my two cents :) Good luck!

I think it's ridiculous we are being so specific about all this! I honestly could not care less and just want it sorted who is reading it! Lol

Authors:

I have expanded the definition for this group. I will issue a broadcast message soon. Sorry for the difficulty. I will see if we can get this group off the ground.

R.

Then can I jump back on this review group? I can do Frost Burn or my more romantic based book Zendar: A Tale of Blood and Sand.

K.T. wrote: "Then can I jump back on this review group? I can do Frost Burn or my more romantic based book Zendar: A Tale of Blood and Sand."

You are most welcome.

R.

Authors:

We are now six. (Whew!) A schedule has been published in the initial post of this topic. Please let me know about any conflicts as soon as possible.

R.

Great! The only book I can't review in this group is the Demon Exile. I came read any of the other 4.

Well done on sorting it out, R. Look forward to getting stuck in.

David wrote: "I think it's ridiculous we are being so specific about all this! I honestly could not care less and just want it sorted who is reading it! Lol"

David, I couldn't find a contact button for you on your page. Could you please email me at
dragonquillca@gmail.com
So we can discuss a transfer copy of 'If It's Easy'?
Thank you!

Carolyn wrote: "David wrote: "I think it's ridiculous we are being so specific about all this! I honestly could not care less and just want it sorted who is reading it! Lol"

David, I couldn't find a contact butto..."

Go to David's member page at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show.... There is a gray down arrow to the right of the Follow Author button. Click the gray down arrow. A menu will be displayed. On the menu is a Send Message option.

What if we finish ahead of schedule? Would that throw a spanner into the works?

Carolyn wrote: "What if we finish ahead of schedule? Would that throw a spanner into the works?"

Not at all.

R.

R. wrote: "Carolyn wrote: "What if we finish ahead of schedule? Would that throw a spanner into the works?"

Not at all.

R."

Carolyn and me are COMPLETE! :)

Here are my links for Demorn: Blade of Exile:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...

Here is my review of James Devo's Blood Red:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It is pending through Amazon as well. Good read, and good job James!

K.T. wrote: "Here is my review of James Devo's Blood Red:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It is pending through Amazon as well. Good read, and good job James!"

Never thanked you for the nice review. Cheers, KT!

Hello there.

Here's my review of Carolyn McBride's charmingly beguiling If It's Easy, a lovely read that blew me away.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2W8T...

https://www.amazon.com/review/R1UVL43...

Cheers

James

Thank you so much, James! That might be the sweetest review I've ever gotten.

I'll be posting my review of K.T Munson's 1001 islands in the next couple of days. It's been done for a few but life has interrupted my computer time. Sorry it's taken so long to get up. It's a great read and...no cheating, wait for the review!

Here are my links for '1001 Islands'

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-...

And that's me done and dusted, see you again soon. Hopefully with some new material =)

L.N. wrote: "Here are my links for '1001 Islands'

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-......"

Thanks so much! Glad you liked it. :)

With shame and embarrassment I come today, with hat in hand. You see, I thought I would be able to fulfill my obligations here, and I had every intent to do so. But in all honesty, my memory seems to have left me.
I have a review written for 1001 Islands...on a different computer. But it seems that every time I sit down at it, I get called away by a hundred different things. Between that and surgical menopause, my memory is atrocious.
I have not done right by L.N, and I am ashamed of myself.
I do not deserve to be in the line-up, or the group.

I apologize to L.N, and to the membership at large.

You've got nothing to apologise for....these things happen =).