I received my first really poor review recently for New York City Legend. It was posted on Goodreads along with a one star rating and is added here in its entirety.
strangely dated book, set as it was in, at a guess, the 1990s. The plot centres around a magical realm populated by sprites and a unicorn that's enclosed within a portal on the 26th floor of an office block in New York. The office block is scheduled for demolition, and it's kind of up to Ben Darkly, a ridiculously bland vague-businessman-type-person to save the day. Kind of.
The plot didn't make a whole lot of sense, the romance was kind of token, at best, and the description of magic was very poor. Also, some amazingly casual racism (a character is referred to as 'the most attractive coloured woman he'd ever met'), and just a failure to seriously connect with any character central to the story made this an unrewarding read.
I think other authors have done Urban Fantasy better - notably Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and Holly Black's Tithe/Valiant/Ironside trilogy."
The plot didn't make a whole lot of sense, the romance was kind of token, at best, and the description of magic was very poor. Also, some amazingly casual racism (a character is referred to as 'the most attractive coloured woman he'd ever met'), and just a failure to seriously connect with any character central to the story made this an unrewarding read.
I think other authors have done Urban Fantasy better - notably Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and Holly Black's Tithe/Valiant/Ironside trilogy."
I admit to being disappointed, especially with the comment about casual racism since that couldn't be further from my mind. Still, everyone's opinion is just as valid and so I repost it here.
It was also the first full length novel that I ever finished and I'm continuing to develop my style, so it's useful feedback.
