a two star review of breach of peace by daniel greene
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- This is a REVIEW WITH SPOILERS for a novella that didn't quite work for me, unfortunately. The big spoiler comes at 10:53.
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Thanks for being honest. It’s so hard to find reviews that actually focus on the quality of the work rather than the author’s platform.
Thank you for watching! It was real interesting watching reviews because I saw a ton of 4-star reviews that shared some of my feelings, but both enjoyed it more and I would imagine were also interested in supporting their friend. And honestly, if I ever published anything my friends better do the same. 😂
@@mynameismarines :)
@@mynameismarines lol true. I don't get mad at friends supporting friends either.
Actually I think reviews like this are gold for new writers. He might even apply some of this critique to his next book. And Daniel seems open to do just that and improve by miles. I find this review refreshingly honest compared to others that come off as ‘Zenith gushing’. 😬
Not the Zenith Gushing 🥴
I think as Booktubers keep publishing this will continue to be an awkward as hell space to navigate, but a think a little transparency goes a long way. It's the positioning as "this is a totally objective review" which makes me eye roll. If the reviews just started with "this author is my friend so I was predisposed to like it," I would be like FAIR, YES. GOOD FRIEND.
Great to see an honest review! I'm a big fan of Daniel, but I think a lot of people are going easy on him in their reviews and that's neither helpful to him or potential readers. Prose is REALLY important to me so it's nice to see someone comment on it.
Thank you! I do also think people are extending a ton of grace to Daniel, which is really supportive and wonderful. I mentioned to someone else in the comments that I hope my friends would do the same if I ever chose to publish lol. That said, I think that there is also a case for this just not being my style or taste. I can see people just generally being better suited for this than I am, particularly because yes prose is also really, really important to me as well.
I really appreciate that you are so critical and yet so civil with the criticism. It makes me consider the talking points with a lot of seriousness.
Thank you! I appreciate the comment and kind words. ☺️
The reason I fell out of love with reading and booktube was because of how little reviews reflected the quality of writing, instead choosing to give gushing reviews because they stan the author and the series. You are definitely different. Every review is well thought out and actually focusing on the story and writing in a succinct way. Thanks for this review.
As someone for whom writing is SO IMPORTANT, I feel this. It's still kind of boggles my mind that people can consume a work without really processing or internalizing the writing style, but also I just had to come to grips with different readers, different priorities, different brains. There are things that other people pick up on that fly right past me, personally, and there are things that people care about (intricate magic systems for one) that I just don't care that much about. All of this to say, I hope you find your way back to a love of reading and find more book tubers who gush about their love of words and writing! And thank you so very much for you kind words. They mean so much! ♥️
Totally get that. The hardest video I've filmed was a recent poor review of Klara and the Sun. Im astonished by the gushing over it and I just knew on booktube I was going to see lots and lots of praise because of how great the authors previous book was. Its tough to be authentic and go against the tide.
As someone that read and loved this book - this was a great review. Obviously we came to different conclusions and have different stylistic tastes but you did an excellent job of framing the situation and your thoughts on the book in a super informative way. Thank you!
I second this comment
Thank you so much! This means a lot. ♥️
I think while I was reading I had the feeling of ~getting~ why certain things might work for other readers but didn't for me. I think too that this might've been better for me to binge rather than start reading each novella in isolation.
@@mynameismarines you know and not every book is for everyone. The criticisms you brought up I never thought about because those things don't matter as much to me, but they are so valid and have given me a new perspective to think about when reading and engaging with media. I really like your style
@@mynameismarines , that's obviously a marketing choice...
It's not a novella, it's the prologue of a book that hasn't even begun..
And that's me being nice, there's sooo much I could say..😉
(I read it under an hour...)🤷🏼♀️
It's more like a creative writing class exercise, not something anyone would want to publish
... For that, it's neat.
Maybe a B- or a C.
Monotone, and the dialogues are really messy, especially when there's more than 2 characters involved.
You're exactly on point.
I have to say that it was a smart thing to put the score in the title. A came across with a lot of praising for this book. Either from Daniel's friends or booktubers who didn't want antagonize his audience. I know they were making him a favor. To be successful in certain circles you have to leave your judgment behind a lay a helping hand. I get it but if you do that don't expect me to trust in your judgment anymore. This is why is so difficult to follow any review channel. Everyone wants to be everyone's friend.
Yeah, thinks get complicated when friends/people in the community publish. I think the best thing anyone can do is be honest about the relationship and how it influenced your reading and reviewing if it. That’s why also started my video with “I don’t know him” because it certainly allowed me some distance from the author that not everyone has!
As a very small time indie author, I do think reviews are for readers BUT in the indie space I have also found reviews to be really helpful to my growth as a writer. Neutral feedback from readers is often more useful than beta readers, colleague and editor feedback.
I went into this thinking you were gonna tear into Daniel's work. But I was pleasantly surprised. Your assessment was pretty reasonable and balanced, imo. Great video
Thank you! I save the roasting for the really, really bad stuff 💀
Omg same. So used of people ripping into people's work, but this is very justified
Novellas are so hard to get just right. This is the second review I’ve watched and it doesn’t sound like it would be that great of a time for for me. So thank you for reading & reviewing as eloquently as you always do 💜
It was interesting as I was also reading and watching reviews that I felt like a lot of people shared the same basic complaints but just ended up enjoying it a lot more than I did or perhaps extending more grace. Thanks for watching!
As always, your reviews are so well articulated. Not a book I plan to read, but I always appreciate some balance for a book that has a slew of reviews by friends of the author.
Thank you as always for being so supportive! And yeah, you gotta give it up to the man: he's got real supportive friends.
i think it goes to show that even people who view things critically like greene who is aware of what makes a good story can struggle to execute it well - but it's his first attempt so what matters if he learns and grows from it
i do agree that this is the last kind of story we need cuz ummm cops and I also don't like how he responds to his critics, still nothing against him - i just want him to better himself after this.
I say this all the time!! Like I can break down backwards and forwards what does and doesn't work for me in a story but if you asked me to write one???? No idea where to start. Couldn't be me. And I agree that I think that he, like many authors before him, will continue to grow as he continues to write and edit his work.
Although I'm a viewer of Greene, I didn't buy his novella because being a reviewer doesn't make you an author and I'm against the concept of pre-orders in general. So I wanted to see what people were saying first. Then I saw some reviews and understood it was a mystery, and not the fantasy world I was expecting but more of a grimdark, steampunk sort of fantasy, which isn't for me. Annnd then I saw that the MC were cops and that's just not something I'm ever gonna be interested in reading, no matter who's writing this, but even more from a first-time author. Not the sort of thing I would entrust such an inexperienced writer (and not saying this as an insult! but this is a debut, so he can't be called a professional). I really appreciate this review, which does confirm what I was expecting about the quality of the writing and story from a debut novella. Thank you for this video!
Thank you for watching! Hearing you describe this as grimdark steampunk made me think of the cover and nothing else. If this was supposed to be at all steampunk, there is so, so little of that in the novella.
@@mynameismarines It's what I got from reviewers at least! I'm not sure if Greene ever described it as such.
This admittedly confuses me. Do you only specifically read books you know beforehand will conform to your own tastes and prejudices? Why would the main characters being cops have such a determining factor on your reading a book? I haven’t read Greene’s novella, mainly because I have many other TBR’s I consider far more salient where my limited time is concerned. But having police featured in a story is so beyond the periphery of my consideration, I must say that I find your statement utterly perplexing.
@@bookishbrendan8875 I can't answer for the commenter, but I am someone who reads pretty widely. There isn't much I won't read outright, but that said, I'm also someone who very much reads according to mood and circumstance. As I said in the video, it's already an emotionally taxing time for Americans around the subjects of police and police brutality, so jumping into a story, even in a fantasy world, about those topics would just continue to tax those emotions. It would the equivalent of having recently lost a parent and deciding not to read a book about losing a parent, if that makes sense.
Please don’t put him in a box. He is allowed to expand beyond his scope. I liked the book. I would encourage you to read it yourself before judging him based on one bad review or your predisposition
Newbie writer here.... I think one of the hardest things about writing is getting your own narrating style, and getting it in the first novel is going to be very difficult
Yes! I agree. In a lot of ways, you can tell that Greene reads a ton of the kind of fantasy he wants to writes. His writing felt generic in a way that wasn’t for me. I like a little flare in my prose.
@@mynameismarines yea, that wouldn't be surprising. I tried reading books from different authors so I could know what it was about their styles that made them unique, I found that I usually tried to copy their styles in my writing anytime I thought theirs was interesting. That didn't work so well. It was too generic.
I'm sure he would get it right later on
I love the way you review. I like that you point out your biases on writing style that bothers you but might not be an issue for other people. It’s very refreshing!
Thank you for the kind words! Sometimes my feelings get in the way BUT I try to be mindful of the fact that what doesn't work for me might work for others 😂
@@mynameismarines I love your energy Marines! 😍
So positive, even when you are critiquing. It feels honest. Right now you are my favorite Booktuber.
I haven't read BOP (don't like novellas) but I do follow Daniel so I was interested in the work.
I love this review, and I noticed Daniel self-admitted some of what you noticed, particularly the writing style.
Subbing to you now 👍🏾
He put it on TH-cam now.
This is a super fair review, I enjoyed it more than you but your points of characters and worldbuilding both being subpar are accurate but it worked well enough to wet the appetite.
Thank you! And yes, I could see while reading why this would be a nice appetizer for some, enough a tease to get them to buy the next couple of teases. It just so happened to do a couple of things that are outside of my preferences.
ok im going to correct something but please know that it's something that i learned recently and so im excited to see an opportunity to use: it's actually "whet the appetite". It's based around whetting stones that you would use to sharpen knives!
Agree that a good novella is particularly hard to find. So often I feel that a story in them doesn't feel fleshed out enough in terms of story, theme or character, which it sounds like happened in Breach of Peace as well.
Something that recently hit all of those beats for me though was Burning Roses by S.L. Huang. It's a character-focused blend of Chinese folklore and Western fairytales and I loved every moment of it. Strongly recommend.
Yes, for sure! I think that a novella doesn't have to do ALL of these things very well, but it needs to do at least one to feel like a success to me. I think there should also be a compelling reason for why a story was told in that format.
And thank you for the rec! I've collected a few from these comments already so might do a little binge of reading them 👀
I definitely enjoyed the novella but this is a really well done review. So well done that I find my self realizing some of the issues I had with the book that were a little nebulous to me during my read. Particularly the way the dialogue flowed; while I was reading it I thought that there was something that I didn't quite like about the conversations and I think you nailed what it was for me.
Thank you so much! I always love having those moment where someone else’s review makes me go AHA! THAT WAS IT! ❤️❤️
Great review. I just finished it myself and came to a very similar conclusion. I wish him all the best and can't wait to see his growth as a writer in the next installment. I just hope the sales due to his large following don't hinder that. As artists we should always continue to learn and grow.
Great review! I love how you discuss the writing style because it’s probably the aspect of any book that I put the least amount of focus on in my own reading. The only thing I really make a note of is probably pacing issues in a book. So hearing your thoughts on the writing was so enlightening ❤️
Thank you! Always more than happy to go on and on about prose, so thanks for the encouragement 😂
I read it. It took me two hours, it was a quick read. I also gave it 2/5. The prose isn't flowery, and the detail was really lacking. I feel like he relied heavily on the readers imagination: not a bad thing, but I think he relied on it too much. There was some gore but it was in passing, so I didn't really notice it. The pacing was fast, which is fine, character development is lacking, and the lack of realism behind what the inspectors do and their roles was insufficient. I get it, his world, but there is some sense of realism to how we currently do things, because right now they work, and there a mistakes made ect. Not the worse thing I've read, the worse thing I've read was probably something I published.
I feel like your last sentence alone is what Im going to assume of this book by the time I get this.
I understand his logic of "practicing" but I dont agree with how he started this author career and there is ways to practice without publishing a novella :/
@@lucaleone4331 I mean, I'm writing something else now as I comment this, which, as writers we learn. It was a solid attempt, but this novella would have made a much better novel. It was cohesive, which is a plus, but in the grand scheme of things, it might be beneficial for him to get a critique partner. I feel like he would have benefited greatly from this. Most of the positive reviews I've seen of his have been, biased, unfortunately, but that's to be expected. I have one book out that has 2 reviews, and they were both 5 stars. 1 I can say was biased for certain, the other not so much. I remain skeptical of my own work
Great review! I had the exact same criticisms and thoughts when reading this book as well. I don't know if it was just me, but I also found I struggled a little bit with following the perspectives of the main characters, especially in group settings where they were all talking to each other. It felt like the perspectives or the eyes we were following the story through would just change halfway through a dialogue conversation with no real indication or reason for this change (like the stilted descriptions scattered throughout dialogue). I don't know, maybe this is a common thing that I just haven't experienced yet?
head hopping! happens to first time authors a lot.
Yes, an excellent point!! I think the head hopping contributes to the feel that I didn't get to know any of the characters all that well because their "voice" kind of all blended together.
This was a great review! I love how in depth you went. I find that booktube is often full of surface level discussions, whereas this was so informative. I subscribed 😄
Not gonna be watching this as there are spoilers (thx for the heads up) but I'll check in after I read it! While I'm a fan of Daniel's content, it's cool to see different perspectives of his novella. Especially a negative one as I'm sure there are faults with it given it's his first entry. Hope it helps him and other authors grow in the future as writers!
This is a beautifully constructed review. It’s definitely not a perfect book but I think it is a great way to enter writing in a field that is complicated to navigate. I love how you voiced your thoughts:)
I am a follower of Daniel Green and everything you said was on the nose to me. I felt the characters were bland and the world building just was not there. I am intrigued by the Demi-god and the supposed god that put the Demi there, however, for Daniel being an articulate person and also being so well read, I was surprised to see near non of that transfer to the novella.
I understand a novella is short and it is very hard to get things to come through, but I was expecting to know more about the world... it is after all an intro to the bigger books, so why am I following a characters that do not matter? We got a brief “these are Demi’s you don’t mess with them” kind of vibe and that was it. I was really left feeling empty and it’s been a long time since any book has done that.
The original by Brandon Sanderson, (a short novella) has a fully realized world and characters. So it can be done.
I am proud of him though for getting published and getting the experience. I just felt he should have just went with publishing the first book, rather than the novella.
Great review! Novellas/short stories are difficult to write. The writing has to be so tight. Every word has to be chosen with a great deal of intent. I didn't enjoy the book - but I didn't hate it either.
Your videos are always so interesting and nice to watch because youre so well spoken !
😭
Thank you so much for watching and the kind words! I appreciate the support.
I read a lot of fantastic novellas! If you are interested, I highly recommend Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark, The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard, The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz, and Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor.
Oh yeah, I wonder if she's read The Murderbot Diaries. I remember Daniel Greene mentioning it as one of his inspirations/reasons(?) for doing a novella series first.
YES FOR MURDERBOT. I actually binged them this year and I've loved them. I will say that I think my experience was very much heightened but the ability to binge them. I cheated the novellas a bit by piling them together into a larger reading experience.
I think what Wells does so freaking well (lol) is give us a fully formed character in Murderbot. There are still some limitations you see because of the format-- namely the fact that I think the (human) supporting characters blend together a lot. Not Mensah, but all the others. It's so much more easily forgivable, however, because Murderbot is so wonderful. I gave them all 3 to 4 stars individually, but my enjoyment of the series as a whole is like... 4 -5 stars lol. I can't wait for the next one at the end of this month!
I've read The Murderbot Diaries and I've got Ring Shout and Remote Control on my TBR. I'll have to look into your other recommendations. Thank you!
This is why I love your channel because you are very honest, and you don't tend to go along with the hype.
Thank you for watching! ♥️
I don't always agree with you but I always love your reviews! Excellent work !
Thank you so much! I'm a big time fan of reading or listening to reviews I know will disagree with me because it helps me sharpen my opinions. So when people say "I don't agree but this was cool" I always do a little internal fist pump.
This seems like a really fair, even-handed review. I'm not planning to read it right now, but I'm happy to hear that the content is not as objectionable as I feared.
Thank you! Another commenter mentioned maybe waiting until all the novellas are out to binge them and that sounds like a such a good way to go about reading these if you decide to!
@@mynameismarines If I decide to read them that definitely sounds like a good way to do so! Thanks! 😊
I'm curious as to what the split is on people who regularly watch his channel liking/disliking the book vs people who don't. As someone who has watched every fantasy news for probably a year, it was very clear to me what he was trying to do and I really liked it, but it seems like perhaps as an isolated text, it's lacking some things.
I can particularly see how his ideas about how policing should be (both in universe and in reality) supporting the community and getting to the sources of problems vs how policing actually is in many cases, can be smashed into the very different read of "police do great things for the community and also kill people which is fine". I also think my expectations were set for one small snapshot of one small part of the world, and that's what I got. I can see why someone expecting more fleshed out worldbuilding would feel a little shorted.
As for the prose, I'm pretty sure I didn't know that prose style was even a thing until it was pointed out to me, so my standards are rock bottom.
Waiting for Daniel Greene to comment on this video 😂
Exactly. But will he anyway? 🤷🏼♀️
I truly have a feeling he won't lol.
@@mynameismarines 😂
At first a bit skeptical about watching this because, while I know it's not a perfect book, I thought it was an ok and fine first book and that it was a bit of an exaggeration. But now that I finally watch it I most say I agree quiet a lot with it. I also thought the writing was stilted and generic. I feel it was a bit overhyped and that's the main reason why it failed for a bunch of people. I cutted it a bit of slack because, well, it's a first attempt and I know it's really REALLY hard to write. Out off all the TH-camr books I've seen and read I have to say this is one of the best out of a bunch (the Game Grumps'/Arin Hansen's "Secret of the Grande Chateau" and Dross' "Festival de la Blasfemia" are some of the biggest dissapointments of my life as a reader), but overall I agree with you more than I first anticipated. I love a reviewer who can change my mind and make me think critically.
Your review was very tasteful and has me going into reading Greene’s book a little hesitantly but still willing to give it a shot. I cannot believe how entertaining you made your review very insightful!
I have started this, it is taking a while as I am only reading it when putting the kids to bed. But it bothered me in the beginning when Khlid through her cigarette butts down in the middle of a crime scene while the techs were collecting evidence.
Be careful with this video 'cause it has spoilers!!
And yes, lol. There was a bunch of unconvincing police work, if you ask me.
That's why I began writing before being famous, hehe.
dead.
Haha. Touche
ohmylord, the way you're describing yourself as a reader, what you notice and what bothers you/can interrupt the flow is just... i feel SEEN lol, i also focus a lot on style and flow and repetition and just recently when i read Lore (another review from you i liked!) - the author used the word 'massive' so much that when towards the second half of the book there was a paragraph with TWO 'massive's in it, i had to put the book down for a while.
Just finished BOP moments ago and had saved this video until I was able to do that. As a big Adult Fantasy fan I agree with a few comments I read here that describe it more like a prologue which is very common in the genre and a fair point imo. Daniel's favorite series is Wheel of Time and the majority of those stories starts with 100ish page prologues with many POV from out in the world and not the main cast of characters. Also it reminds me of one of the most amazing prologues I've ever read for Way of Kings. All of that is to say I actually loved it and it fits right in the 5/5 stars for me. I have to say I 100% agree this was a fair review and really like your content and the difference was this really just worked for me. I loved the chapter titles, the pacing, the story feels big even in just 134 printed pages and the ending grabbed my attention in a sort of 1984 sort of way and really want more. Thanks for taking the time to read out of your comfort zone and create a great review. Happy Reading :)
Interesting point on sentence length. Will be keeping that in mind on my next novel.
Often when I'm editing I read out loud. It really helps give a feel for the rhythm of your writing. And if something falls into the same rhythm over and over again, you are looking at a few sentences in a row that have the same length or structure. It's not something all readers will pick up on with the thought "this author uses the same sentence length frequently" but it might read to them as there being something awkward or unpleasant to read about the prose.
@@mynameismarines 🙏🏼🙏🏼 thank you!
This was a great review! I wasn't planning on reading this because novellas aren't typically my thing (unless they're horror) & my fantasy genre TBR is already overwhelming me, so I just don't feel like it. Detective mysteries are typically one of my favorite sub-genres, but from everything I've gathered on this one, I don't think it's for me. (I typically read British ones where the inspectors themselves don't commit any violence, so there's no weird feelings about rooting for that to make me feel uneasy, whereas I think this one would bother me a bit)
I also really love detective mysteries and procedurals so I think that beginning of this novella set me up to think we were getting a bit more of that. It might be a little unfair to judge it for what it wasn't, but I got excited for solving some murders! And the cops only barely do and start shooting lots of people and I was like -_-
To the people who want to avoid spoilers, you can watch until 10:53+.
Nice review. And yes, I would like a review of the next book(s), even if you're just reading them for videos. 😅
Thank you for the time stamp. I don't care about spoilers so I'm always the worst about thinking how to frame them. I've added the time stamp to the description!
lol we shall see. If it's another 100 pages for 3.99, why the heck not.
NGL was bummed to get spoiled
@@SilverInThePitchBlack Didn't she say it's a spoiler review at the beginning? 👀
@@Caerulean Did she? My bad if I missed it.
I love your reviews, you're so well-spoken and articulate! Also very much appreciate the less positive ones because you always give great advice on what works and doesn't work in books. Love listening to them on my writing breaks 💜
Thank you for watching and I'm so happy the reviews are useful! I'm not a fiction writer (at least at this stage in my life) so I’m glad someone can take advantage of all the writing tips in my head lol.
I came out of the book with just a nebulous feeling of blah.
lol. I said I was floating along in the book, but could've subbed that in for "nebulous feeling of blah."
This was a great review. I liked it a little more than you, I gave it 3.5 stars. Because English is not my native language, I didn't really have a problem with the writing. I thought it was gonna be much worse tbh 😅.
As for the police brutality, you're a 100% right. I'm not American, but even I cringed a few times when reading, so if someone doesn't really want to read a story like this at this time it's totally understandable.
Thank you! And to be totally honest, I had also braced myself for worse. It was better than I expected, which sounds really mean, but I think I was just over preparing myself to not like it, just in case.
I love green but this is a very nice review, personally i like it more so far personally but you gotta respect how well you conducted this review
So interesting to hear your review after the discussion of authorial intent! It sounds like a pretty meh book, but it is interesting that you didn't see any obvious pro-cop politics in it. I was wondering if it really did have that message, or if it was just the very (unintentional?) political act of publishing a cop story at this point in time. I know you watch/read/listen to a ton of other media as well, so if you notice any trend in how cop stories have been approached/received since last summer, that would be a fascinating video.
I’m not sure if you’re unaware, but Daniel actually made a video on this exact topic. Just to be clear he doesn’t personally agree with the things his characters do in the book, he’s very much left leaning.
Excellent review. I appreciate the specificity of it and the point by point analysis of character, plot and prose. No vague "Well, you know..." type comments. Nicely done.
You seem to be confirming some suspicions and worries I had about what it might be like. Thank you for a thoughtful review, as always. ❤
Thank you for watching ♥️
I watched mainly for curiosity to be honest, but I was very impressed by the quality of the review (regardless of the opinion itself). I need to check more of your videos.
I know this is harsh, and maybe wrong, but I simply don't read booktubers books.
Finally an unbiased review! I personally think it’s unethical for a book reviewer with such reach and influence to push his own books that he admits aren’t his best work. The booktube channels I think feel intimidated not to give it a positive review for fear of the audience overlap tuning out to their channel.
You are so articulate and your voice is so soft (meaning it's wonderful to listen to you). Thank you for your thoughts.
I do watch Daniel's channel but I am very hesitant to read this novella. I don't usually enjoy novellas in the first place. I also prefer to have a complete series before I read so I can binge. Maybe when the three novellas are out, I may give it a try. I just don't know.
I understand your hesitation! I kinda wanna read the book because the concept sounds interesting, but I'm always cautious when it comes to self-published books. And since it's coming from a person a watch on a regular basis I don't know if I would pick it up because I'm interested in the work or just because of him. I'm still on the fence. 😅
On the pro side: it is so short so there isn't a huge time investment. It did take me 3 sittings to get through because I personally wasn't super invested, but it also wasn't a slog, you know? I'm a super curious person, which is why I read it! I can totally see wanting to give into that curiosity.
That said, I think binging the 3 novellas might absolutely be the way to go here. And not just for him, but I just recently read The Murderbot Diaries and I binged the 4 novellas and am sure I loved them more that way than I would've if I read them more spaced out. It allows the bits of character and world building to come together more fully.
@@thereadingmushroom1936 On the self-published bit: I think this was a clean draft! The writing style wasn't to my taste, but also I've read worse traditionally published thing so I think that has more to do with inexperience and style than self-pubbed. I'm not necessarily encouraging you to run out and read it, because I do think it was a tad underwhelming, but if you are curious, it's a relatively low time investment!
@@mynameismarines Yes, that's true!
I think I will check it out eventually, but it's not on the top of my list. Great review by the way. 😊
Yeah, I also hesitate because not knowing if my motive is just being a fan of Daniel or if I really am interested in the story.
I mean, I finally broke down and bought To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers because of all the good things I heard about it. Always before, my eyes would just glide past it on the bookstore shelves because of how small it is. I read it last week and loved it but probably wouldn't have even given it a try if not for the fact several booktubers I trust for scifi recs love the author and this novella.
And one more thing that makes me hesitate on Daniel's novella is the smoking. I hate to sound like a snowflake but I really struggle with media that portrays smoking. Both of my parents died younger than they should, in part due to smoking, and I developed asthma from second-hand smoke. If something is really good, like the show The Queen's Gambit for a recent example, I still cringe but force myself to look past it. Not sure if I'll be able to do that with Daniel's work if it isn't spectacular.
See? There was some hit and miss for me when you gave your opinion right up until you hit the think of the perspective of living in the US right now, and I love that because I haven't heard that enough.
Thanks for this review! I already knew I wasn't going to read it yet because I have a paranoia about attempting to start a series by an unknown or inexperienced author, fearing that they might just give up on or abandon the series as I'm starting to get invested. I always wait until they've released 2 or 3 entries and I'm more convinced they'll stick it out.
But this review brings up a lot to consider and I'll see how Greene evolves as a writer before deciding if his stuff would be for me or not.
Thoughtful video as always, Mari! Really impressed with how thoroughly you talked about your reading experience while also predicting how that may have differed if other elements had worked better for you - like how you mentioned the personal politics aspect was possibly blunted by your lack of investment in the characters/story.
Thank dearest! I think because I had all of this pre-release context, I really was thinking about what other people might be seeing as they read. I get why this might be exciting for others, but meh for me.
I read it and didn't really enjoy it much, I've been following Greene for a while too but what changed for me was reading Brandon Sanderson and there is this obvious mimicry going on. I agree with you that it didn't do much in terms of world building and anything established could probably be done in a blurb or marketing of a future book. The ending felt like it was just trying to establish nobody would be returning, there was this darkness to it which normally I'd like but it felt out of nowhere and there wasn't a build up to it.
I’m not a huge fan of Greene. But I will say, I think his personal views are pretty antithetical to the portrayal of police in the story. I think that he’s writing a fictional world and in that he’s exploring what these characters would actually think and feel. And like Abercrombie, problematic people and ideas can still be the “heroes” of a story... just my take.
I agree! I don’t really think this is about whether gray or “problematic” characters can be heroes. Of course they can be! The material point to me is that readers then get to decide if they want to read those stories lol. So sure, he can write about cops abusing power and not believe in cops abusing power but then readers can decide if this is a good time and place for them to read a story about cops abusing power.
@@mynameismarines agreed. For sure. I just think the arguments people had about his personal beliefs influencing his characters... just isn’t accurate at all. And weird. Not saying you’re saying that... just clarifying what I view on the matter. I mean... Greene is pretty clear about being highly liberal and progressive. (Not that you can’t be nuanced or have hidden biases...) anyway, I’m rambling. But ya, I’ll defend Greene on this issue. I don’t think it’s fair to judge an author based on the characters they write... THOUGH, I will say, it would be *better to show the problematic nature of your problematic characters. But maybe that will be discussed more in his later books... 🤷♀️
@@adrianreinstein6608 You know, it's not an easy thing to write, and ideas that come may to us feel genuine but the truth is they are influenced one way or another by what has and/or is going on, example, a backstory and even a name of one of my characters had a really unique sound about them...took me two full years to actually realize I'm ripping off a 20 year old game I played back when. So it may not have even been his conscious intent to venture into the whole sphere of events that recently happened, mind is a tricky thing to play with, and a writer has to play with his own mind to draw out something both unique and interesting. Thing is everywhere you go you'll find the first rule of writing is basically conflict, and conflict can be insensitive because, well, it's conflict, someone always suffers in conflict...but still, this being said I think Daniel should have given more time to himself to mature as a writer and editor even, to better recognize how his work might be interpreted when certain key parts are taken out and placed under special scrutiny, which a reader has the right to do.
Btw, good video with a deep review.
Thank you for you in depth review! I feel like a have a sense now of whether I would like it or not. As always I appreciate you candor :)
I'm glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching ♥️
Reviews need to be honest. People also need to realize reviews are subjective. People need to disagree with one another without being angry with each other.
I like Daniel Greene. I don't know if I'll like his book.
Stay strong vs the assholes :).
I haven't read the novel but what you mentioned about the dialouge and the descriptions sticks out to me. It's a common fanfic thing and I have nothing to say about that but it's so interesting to me.
Hmm, yes. I’m not a fanfic reader at all but it also doesn’t surprise me that that sort of description placement would happen there.
@@mynameismarines it's a fairly common thing. It's something I would've considered a trademark of fanfic writers writing books but I think fanfic style writing is just more widely used now
I knew this wasn't a book for me when I saw the review from 'Captured in Words' . The Greene is a friend of the Reviewer and the opening sequence of that video, for me, touched on the cringe factor. It has Greene appearing with a gun to 'coherence' a review and although I understand the intent here was humor, it was too much for me at this time. I honestly was confused that Greene would find this appropriate, especially given the whole authorial intent debate. I found the whole thing tone deaf and it made me decide that I wasn't going to buy the book. Anyway... thanks for a thought provoking review.
I love your way with words, and how fluidly you express your ideas. I enjoyed the novella quite a bit, but every criticism you made coincides with the ones i have and even some I didn’t know I did.
I really like to see reviews like this, very specific about the style and issues about the writing. I am not even interested on this book or genre but I can always learn about issues on Literature to avoid them in my future work. Gracias.
I do enjoyed Daniel's videos. But him as first time author, sometimes I understand that the first time Authors have to learn from their mistakes that they had made. I remembered I had read the Author's first debut,but I got annoyed by the book that it's mostly info dump and it hardly focused on the main story.
Great to see an honest and constructive review with great technique analysis.
Best honest critical review so far.
This was a fantastic review! I loved the points you made, and how well you explained your opinions 🌟
Thank you for watching and for the kind words!
I'm a fan of Daniel Greene, and I went into this novella wanting to like it, but this review is absolutely fair.
I'll probably read the second when it's available. Hopefully he'll have improved.
"oH mY gOd, HoW dArE yOu!" but for real, interesting to see different perspectives
😂
Thanks for watching!
@@mynameismarines No problem, haven't seen a lot of ur stuff. While I don't agree with all of it I get it, which shows your ability to communicate
Yeah I totally see where you're coming from and i think that if he watches this video he would learn a lot. I personally enjoyed the novella but I agree that i found the killing off kind of awkward and as if it was for the "shock effect" and the feeling of just drifting through this story
I wondered too if it was meant to feel more like a cliffhanger than it actually did to me. It felt rather definitive to me, and yes played more for shock than anything else. To introduce 3 main characters and then end them all in the span of 100 pages was tooo muuuuch.
Heya! This was an excellent review and I subscribed for more really thoughtful and critical feedback on these type of books. I found this book to be really lacking immersion and therefore interest in the characters and how the story develops (if it does at all). I didn't hate it, but it certainly makes it to my dishonourable mentions of 2023 because it wasn't ultimately my cup of tea.
I don’t think Daniel should have made the video calling out that 4 star review. He recently made a video titled “Breach of Peace Review”, where he said that he is reading the reviews and taking the criticisms into account, which I guess is fine, but he shouldn’t say that publicly because people might feel less inclined to leave honest criticisms from this big book tuber. Also he has commented on multiple peoples reviews on TH-cam most of them are his fellow BookTube friends who he gave arcs too, and that to me is sus, because of course his friends aren’t going to critique it in a way that they would make Daniel look bad. Idk he seems insecure as a writer to me, but I’ll try to read the novella to form my own opinion. Don’t come for me please lol.
I totally get friends being supportive, honestly, and I hope my friends would do the same for me. I also think I would be curious to read my own reviews, but it's the responding that I think crosses a line. I hope if you read it, you enjoy it!
@@mynameismarines Makes sense. Thanks Marines I’m going to buy it today and read it this week. 😃
You make a lot of great points here and I think it’s a fair review. I enjoyed it quite a bit but I’m probably a bit biased because I’ve been a fan of his channel for years now. You’re a great reviewer. Subbed!
Thank you! And that's totally fair. One of my close BookTube friends is trying to sell a novel right now and I already know that when she does, I'm going to be predisposed to love it lol. It happens!
I don't love detective/procedurals, so I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like this anyway but I appreciate your reviews always!
Thank you! And honestly this is so light on the detecting, but there is enough of that flavor that if you aren't a fan of it, I totally understand skipping this one! You've got all of the vibes of a detective mystery with not much of the satisfaction.
love love love this review so much. appreciate your perspective as always.
Thank you for watching! ♥️
I don't think Greene really said anything wrong in his video. Since he's so engaged with the high fantasy book community, and has been for such a long time, I'm willing to take his word for it that the problems he was discussing do exist.
That being said, I agree that him releasing a book about police brutality is, at best, kinda tone deaf. I have a lot of his same privileges cause I'm white too, and even I can see why people would be upset. Like, why did he think, especially in this moment, that his perspective on this topic was the one we all needed to hear?
Yes, I'm not actually questioning the truth of what he's said, but just noting that I can't respond to the particular comments I didn't see and am ultimately sharing information third hand.
The thing is that I'm not even sure this is a story about police brutality. The police are ultimately brutalized even more by higher powers? It's like the brutality is incidental to this story he chose to tell about super empowered cops. idk, it's weird and just something for potential readers to be aware of!
While I loved this novella, I totally can see where you’re coming from! In response to your idea that everyone’s dead, Khlid’s still alive and I think this story is totally setting up her character for a bigger arc in the next book!
very interesting and balanced review! thanks for sharing your thoughts
Thank you so much for watching! I appreciate it 🥰
Uh-oh. I'll be coming here every hour to check if he 'clarifies on his intent' or stuff like that
😂 I think I’ll be fine BUT I’ll tag you if anything changes 👀
DISCLAIMER - I recently subscribed to you and I like your work. I have watched a ton of your stuff and I encourage other people to do the same.
I am black and I get your point. I hope that trial is fair and that murderer of a cop gets what he deserves, but as a writer, regardless of the political climate in the real world, I would hope that my editor is objective and professional enough to not judge my FICTIONAL work based on that.
Even if you were going to to do the above, he doesn’t exactly praise the system with the reveal at the end. It all ends up just being the system in an empire he builds. This is also a reference to your world building critique.
A lot of your points stems from the fact that it’s a novella and it should be judged as such. For example
- Would you prefer it if he goes into long expositions world-building, when he has so much more to establish within the short scope of a novella?
In my opinion, he did a good job raising curiosity about the world which sets up world building In the following books.
The rivalry between Samuel and Chapman edges out their characters well enough for me within the scope of a novella. (See the above point about this being a novella). I have read novellas in the past and for a novella, this isn’t as bad as you make it look. In fact I think it’s efficient.
I agree with you about the prose but it’s his first book and he is coherent enough to drive the point. I think his prose shows promise.
I am a new booktuber and I have learnt a lot from your reviews. You encouraged me to put myself out there and I am grateful for that. However, I feel like my review of the book is more objective.
I think this book is great for anyone trying to get into the fantasy genre.
Thank you for watching and for the kind words up at the top!
Almost the first thing I mention in the review is that this is a review with spoilers. I have also added it to the description for clarity, however.
I don't think that it's a matter of an editor judging the fictional work. As I did in this video, I think a professional editor will be able to just look face value at the writing, setting, plot and characters. Separately, though, a reader, editor, or reviewer will also have feelings about the way a work of fiction fits into cultural context. And I agree that I don't think Greene writes from a position of praising the system. I sad as much in the review. I don't think there is a ton of political commentary here. That said, I think it's still fair to say to readers, "hey, there are police exercising a bunch of characters in this work, so if that's not something you are in the mood for considering what's prevalent in the American news cycle currently, be aware." It would be the same as not wanting to read books about losing a parent if you recently lost a parent or people who wouldn't want to read about a global pandemic right now because of being inundated in that personal experience. We make these choices all the time about what we are in the right headspace to read and watch.
I do think there are lots of examples of novellas that do a wonderful job world-building in a limited amount of time, which was my point in saying that writing novellas are hard. Two of my most recent examples are The Murderbot Diaries and the novella in the collection The Office of Historical Corrections. One is sci-fi and one is speculative fiction and they both immediately and gracefully build out a world for the readers. Not a complete world, mind you, but enough that you get a sense of grounding for the story. I didn't get that in Breach of Peace, though there might be other readers out there who did! I would not have preferred a bunch of exposition, but there is a bunch of ground between "very little world building" and "a wall of exposition."
My two star reviews are "it's okay" and I stand by that. I said it was clean and it had a complete plot. I also mentioned that the prose might not bother other people who value other aspects of storytelling more, but for me, someone who really prioritizes writing style "coherent enough" and "shows promise" aren't worthy of something higher than a 2 star. I said that while others might find this enough to whet their appetite, it just wasn't so for me and my personal preference in short stories and novellas.
I'm glad you've enjoyed my reviews in the past! But I don't think your review is "more object" than mine since all reviews are subjective. I was very careful to frame this as both my opinion and according to my taste. Unfortunately, this didn't do it for me, but I'm glad you liked it!
@@mynameismarines Thanks for clarifying a few things.
You are right. Reviews are subjective and we have different opinions.
I also edited my comments about spoilers after I watched it again.
I see what you are saying concerning the prose but prose is only one aspect of the book. I wouldn’t rate books solely on prose but to each his/her own.
I respect your opinion enough to check out the novellas you mention. Thanks!
Have a wonderful day!
I ordered the audiobook with my audible subscription (which pisses me off you can’t get anywhere elsewhere but whatever) and it helped me heavily to pass this book with Kate Reading and Michael Kramer narrating. Your review is really spot on, I felt well... not much for this story? Like I give Daniel kudos for his first attempt at publishing which isn’t easy but a novella this short with so much going on and no space to breath in? Yeah I can figure it won’t go smoothly but his intentions were pure (at least some of them, not the recent ones...)
There really was too much going on for the medium. He needed to remove like one major character and one story element, at least, because nothing had room to breathe or time to be developed. You really have to think about the space a novella allows and what you can accomplish in that space.
I appreciate this review! Unbiased and completely fair. I do like that Daniel understands his limitations as a writer, therefore he won't pump out some badly written 600 page "epic." But the fact that it feels inconsequential in the grand a scheme of things makes me hesitant.
I've yet to see a scathing review so I guess that's good. I'm currently working on my own novel (2nd draft) and sometimes it makes me scared to see these booktubers pumping mediocre to bad work haha. I feel like my stuff is garbage 😂
Novellas are harder to write than novels, you have much MUCH less space to work with. You can't flesh out anything in a novella: world, characters, the magic system, nothing. So if anything, Dan aimed too high for his first book.
great review, Marines! i have been more interested in the discourse around the novella/authorial intent. i'll be interested to see how people feel about the follow-up novellas and if he takes any criticism into consideration when writing or editing them.
Thank you! Always a delight to see you in the comments. ♥️
And because I've been following this, I've looked at his Twitter a bunch and he has made comments about already using reviews to improve his second novella. He basically said that he's using these novellas to collect the review advice and become a better writer before getting to the main stories in this world.
How have I never come across your channel!!!! Great review.
Thank you for watching! ❤️
@@mynameismarines keep up the amazing work!
Can you do a video about popular books that you like?
Yes, I can. I really suck at posting consistently, but I'm going to really try to do this video next.
@@mynameismarines Please finish Scythe and review and also try reading the Unwind series which is probably Neal Shusterman's greatest work.
Love the honest and detailed review! It piqued my interest I might pick it up.
I just finished this book this morning and after hearing nothing but praise I was looking for a different voice, so thanks for that. I read to the end of the book and wondered what the point of it all was. I get that it was introducing a world and testing the waters for the author, but, it just left me flat. Like a little puff of misery, really, considering what happened to all the characters by the end. Oh well.
Thank you for reviewing Greene’s book. After the discussion here I was curious!
Yes, me too!!! I was torn between reading and not reading, but ultimately, I couldn't fight the curiosity.
I read this book through my library. They had the kindle book, so I borrowed it.
I do follow his channel, I mostly watch for his fantasy news as I don't always agree with his opinions on books.
I think I gave this book a 1.5 on Storygraph since they allow half stars. For me, the characters were a little one-note. I knew what he was trying to do from him talking about his characters, but I don't think he achieved it the way he thinks he did. I read it in October, but I have no memory of anything that happened, and I remember details of other books I also didn't really enjoy that I read in 2015.
Just listened to the book on TH-cam and I pretty much agree with you. This is a good unbiased review.
I listened to the audiobook so I never noticed the short sentences, the stiltlation of the texts, or the monotone monologue. I wonder if I read the actual book, instead of listening, if my opinion would change.
I take it this is the Daniel Greene? I guess it's all subjective. Hope he didn't take this too hard.
I haven’t read it, but I suspect a lot of people reviewed it positively to gain acceptance “virtue signal” if I could call it that. I wrote four books myself and paid for an editor to go through them because I wanted to do the best I could although I never went down the self publishing route for reasons. I wonder if Daniel got someone professional to go through his text to make it better.
He said multiple times he did with multiple editors
I think its a bit much to say the novella is inappropriate given "the times" as I agree that I don't think theres any clear commentary on police brutality, so I think the warning you give is unnecessary. Aside from that your review is absolutely spot on with everything else, and I gave it a 1.5 stars myself, for all the reasons you gave in the video. Well articulated and great review, and I agree with others that I think if Daniel actually saw this he would benefit immensely from the constructive criticism.
Thank you so much! I would only say that the warning is unnecessary *for you*. Given the way that police brutality have taken over the current news cycle in the US, I just think it’s incredibly fair that someone who is sensitive to the subject might not want to encounter police violence in fiction right now.
What a well thought out, articulate review. Thank you! Subscribed :)
Khlid is not confirmed dead.
I agree with all the points you brought up, but I read to just enjoy and I had so much fun reading it.