Forge of Valor

As much as I love the convenience of the Amazon business model, this aftershock in light of my negative review of Out of the Black will not die, and I see this in part as not just a contest between two writers who may never break ranks out into successful authorship, but a critique of digital immediacy. Would I have purchased this text had I viewed it on a bookshelf in a book store like Borders? Hard to say. Quentin Tarantino may opine to the ever plodding Charlie Rose that he "likes genre," but I am more diffident than the stylized filmmaker, who needs a transfusion, if the failure of his Jewish revenge fantasy is any indicator. I tend to prefer the next generation when it comes to authors who can challenge the conventions of  genre, and Lee Doty is not such an author, but rather a talented hack who cannot escape comparisons to Rowling and come out worse for wear. In a very real sense I am tired of discussing this, wish Doty well in all his future endeavors, but will not let it go that his novel drops the ball, not once, but four or five times, and screams out for a brave editor who would have helped this fantasy operator clean up his act. I bought the text on the strength of another customer reviewer who asked, "When was the last time a fat nurse was the hero?" A lesson in here for keeping faith with professional critics, as per my training.

As to my Amazon reviews, I do not write them for the sake of the Common Reader, or to move products with the company, per se, but to keep my critical faculties engaged with the intent of a future project for publication. My distaste for Lee Doty's notable and continued cop outs did not receive the full weight of my intellectual censure, but this is precisely because it was not worth my time and effort to point out its defects. My review is a write off, and not a real effort, and no further exertion on my part will be forthcoming. Doty behaves as if I killed his daughter's teddy bear just to be a bully. Due to this I'll never read another work by him knowingly.