Contest Reboot: Yay Results!
First off we’d like to thank all those who entered our contest to become the next EBR reviewer. All sorts of people entered. It’s really fascinating to us how different reviews can be–even on the same book. We appreciate the time and effort y’all spent and it gives us warm fuzzies to know you guys like us enough to become one of us. We chose books that were written by well-known authors but that also weren’t perfect, because we wanted to make sure incoming reviewers could see flaws and analyze the stories and characters in a way that our EBR readers would appreciate.
The submissions were great, but there were two “winners” who really impressed us:
Jane Funk – She sent us two reviews, one for ELANTRIS and one for CHILDREN OF THE FLEET, and both were great (I quote Dan, “serious writing chops, actually two chops because she sent two, and that’s more chops than usual”). She has great style and understands what it means to help readers figure out if they want to read a book or not. We can’t wait for y’all to read her reviews and see more from her in the future.
Allan Bishop – He sent us a review of DUNE, which was not only a thorough exploration of its story, characters, and themes, but also its relevance in the current climate of genre literature. He already has a blog where he’s published book reviews as well as author interviews. I have a feeling his insights on speculative fiction will encourage some interesting discussions in the near future.
We picked people who wrote well and agreed with us but who would also be a good addition to our blog. We hope it’s obvious that’s what EBR needs. Other contestants who didn’t win had problems usually associated with rehashing the plot or talking about their reaction without really explaining why the book was good or bad, had stuff in their reviews that was incorrect or we didn’t agree with, or it just wasn’t written how we liked. Because this is our website and we want reviewers who fit in with our little crew of speculative-fiction-loving readers. Ultimately our goal is to make this site better for all of YOU readers who want to know what’s the best of the best.
We’ll be posting their reviews over the next few weeks. Look for ’em to show up soon. We’re sure you’ll enjoy reading their stuff. Because we did. 🙂
