Bragging Rights

I'm going hot and heavy at reviews for the Peter S. Beagle special edition of GMR (online this coming Sunday), but wanted to brag a little:

My editor at GMR sent me a couple days ago this link to Alexander Irvine's site, where he quotes from my review of The Narrows. He even spelled my name right.

Then yesterday, as a break from writing, I sat down with my advance copy of Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword, which is out at the beginning of August (my review is slated for the August 13 edition of GMR, along with Elizabeth Bear's Blood and Iron, a reissue of Philip K. Dick's Through a Scanner Darkly, and most likely a review of the reissue of C. L. Moore's Judgment Night from Gnome Press and, if I get a copy of Sethra Lavode from the publisher in time, an omni of Steven Brust's Khaavren Romances, which I am really looking forward to writing). Browsing through the plugs in the front, I ran across the last paragraph of my review of The Fall of the Kings from Rambles, quoted almost in full. I have to admit, that's been a secret dream of mine -- to be quoted in print on the book cover or with the other raves inside. Almost got it -- they didn't use my name. (And Cat Eldridge tells me that Ellen Kushner is looking forward to my review of Privilege.)

Of course there's a first cause under all this: many people, I have discovered, look down on Internet review sites as not quite legitimate, which in some cases may be true -- I've read some really horrible reviews on the Web. But then, I've read some really horrible reviews in print, too. But, if you take a look, you'll find sites like IROSF or Green Man Review or Locus Online (actually, they've mentioned me, too), or Science Fiction Weekly, where you can get some thoughtful and honest discussions. There are a whole group of reviewers/critics who are developing an online presence, of which I seem to be one.

(Speaking of Locus Online, I just discovered that two of my recent GMR reviews, of Tanya Huff and Diana Wynne Jones, were noted on July 6.)

The Internet is, before all else, a big brawling mess of free access (at least until Congress hands it over to the big phone companies), so just remember -- there's a lot of junk out there, but there's a lot of good stuff, too. The problem some people seem to have with it, as far as I can see, is that you have to evaluate it yourself -- no one's going to tell you what's good and what's dreck.

OK -- enough bragging. Back to slaving over a hot keyboard.,