A New Review of Lost Lives

A review of Lost Lives just came out in Amazing Stories Magazine, and hey, that’s always worth crowing about.

If you want to read the full review, you can find it here: CLUBHOUSE: Review: “Lost Lives” space opera novel by Noah Chinn – Amazing Stories

Some things that struck me about this review was that they thought the book managed to stand on its own, even if you hadn’t read the first two books in the Get Lost Saga.

That was a bit surprising. I knew the second book stood on its own well enough, because I had three or four people come to me saying they read Lost Cargo first by mistake, but that they had no trouble following it.

However, Lost Lives largely deals with the consequences of the first two books, so I didn’t know if it could stand on its own.

That said, when I’m editing other people’s books, I always tell authors who are writing series to imagine that it will be the first book someone reads, and to provide information accordingly.

That’s not to say you need to provide a synopsis of the books beforehand. It’s just a matter of providing enough context to ensure the reader knows what’s going on now, even if they haven’t read it. Or maybe have read it, but it was a while ago and they need to be reminded of some key points.

So, it’s nice to know I succeeded on that front!

Another interesting thing about reading other reviews is how people will see your themes and messages from a different perspective, perhaps one you haven’t even considered.

This reminds me of the famous line written by Tolkien regarding the difference between allegory and applicability.

“I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history—true or feigned—with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.”

And I too prefer applicability, because many themes find overlap in many different areas, not just the one you were thinking about when you wrote it. So it was interesting to see his perspective on the freeborn/synth/cyborg dynamic.

How about you? Anything from the review that you relate to or disagree with?