Paromita Mukherjee

Only read 1.5 books but its not like Malazan at all. Happy reading! (although happy and Bakker don't really go together - wish you an enriching read!)

@Susana Imaginário interesting vacation read. 🤭 Sending virtual cookies should you need them.

Is it just me or does Glissinda sound like an awesome name for a cow? Gaskin sounds fun. I hope he is more chill than Jeeves!

@A_FROG_IN_TIME I love it. And the fact it ends on a slightly ominous note. I want to be friends with the nose-beaked Hummingbird. 🥺 RIP. Deep Dark and I are best friends. The cave sounds awesome. And I don't like The Gentleman much so we are all set. I like the idea of this part a lot but it's a little more staccato compared to the previous paragraphs which had a very smooth flow. Any chance of reworking a bit? The other suggestions I have are mostly cosmetic. Would impacted be better here than affected? Everything before this is a direct contrast to The Gentleman which feels right. This one reads a bit out of place to me because are we saying The Gentleman didn't care much for being practical or safe? Or just that his idea of practicality and safety was not in conflict with going out whereas for Deep Dark it was? If the former, then this line is good otherwise I'd change to something like " The Deep Dark felt safest in her cave". I really like it. If I have any more thoughts, will share in DM but the quirky nature of the narrative is 👌. And go Deep Dark amirite? 🤭

I think I'll be fine but I'll ask if I get stuck hehe. First I want to try to write something and see if it actually works. Will give it a try.

If you'd accept one-off posts, I'd like to try and put together something on topics like weird fiction, some of my favourite authors (let me know if it has to be SFF and I'll limit it to that), maybe a piece on Hercule Poirot who is still the best detective ever for me 🤭 or Agatha Christie in general. Please let me know what you think.

@Steve I actually went to GoodReads and read the synopsis and some older ARC reviews from like late April/mid May 2023 before this whole fiasco. Sadly, it seems like it could have been a good book. Now all the reviews which presumably brought down the GoodReads average to 1.1 were posted on 31st May, 2023 and as @Susana Imaginário said, contain nothing about the book. They only call out the author's behaviour (which to be clear was very bad, she called the reviewer who gave her 4 stars by an expletive and shared her Goodreads profile on a different platform - unprofessional). But I have no idea if the book is that bad or not. I don't think reviewing the author's behaviour on Goodreads was right either, they could call her out on other social media platforms or call to boycott the book also (for those who will not separate art from the artist) but rating a book without reading it at all based solely on the author's conduct means nothing. 🤷🏽‍♀️ I hope this is removed now that anyway the publisher has backed out. Or if the author issue an apology, maybe they can work something out, I don't know. But 1.1 average within one day (and 671 ratings, many debut authors don't get that many) is such a backlash, it's scary.

Wish I could pin this everywhere. This, a 💯 times this.

Agree completely. I do think what she did crossed a line somewhere especially on a public platform but the "penalty" was too harsh. Maybe if she issued an apology it might have been different? Probably not. I do try to separate author from their work very strongly. If they called out reviewers on a public platform (even jokingly, the point was it backfired) but their book was a 4 star read for me, I wouldn't change it. But I would note "author can be a jerk". Would it stop me from reading their next work? Not really.

Very nice. 👌 And please post here, I wanna read too. 🥺

Thank you so much 🙏🏽

Thinking about getting into The Witcher series. Question please - has anyone read the books not in English/ know someone who has read the books in a language other than English? If yes, is the writing good?

Haha I may have become too emotional like "nooo why you feel this way, such a good book!" It is indeed getting weird. Freedom of speech also comes with responsibility but some times people are acting first and realising the wider implications later. Since this is social media where everything spreads like fire, the negative reaction is becoming untenable and leading to a witch-hunt like situation as @Steve mentioned in the very first post. I feel very sad. As an individual, all I can hope and plead is no to online harassment. No to defamation of creators who have acted in good faith. By all means the person who created images using AI, passed them off as original art and defrauded author(s) has to be called out. Let us please not take authors down with it.

Just a general reader here but as someone who has been lucky enough to read a manuscript of your first book The Healer and excerpts from your cosy fantasy novel, emphatically and absolutely YES. You are a very good storyteller. This is not being nice or anything like that. It's my opinion as a reader. We need good storytellers. Always have, always will. Something that has survived since the dawn of human civilisation and is integral to the experience of being human cannot be defeated by any technology, however radical it may be. All my best wishes. “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Very, very sad. A lot is based on trust, will authors focus on writing or check all this? (And most or all of them have other work too, that era when a writer can sit and write all day if they want is gone). Apparently the latter since people are doing unethical things and defrauding but ultimately blame falls on the author because its their book. Really tragic.😔