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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) Reviews and reviewers (Read 5903 times)
barnaby
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Re: Reviews and reviewers
Reply #13 - 05/12/12 at 04:06:29
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reviews are a marketing concept
  
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GeneM
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Re: Reviews and reviewers
Reply #12 - 05/12/12 at 03:54:12
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ErictheRed wrote on 05/08/12 at 15:36:37:
I think, though, that the chess world is a rather small one in the grand scheme of things, with very little money to be made.  I suspect people are very wary of criticising others because of the backlash that might occur within the small, interconnected community.

Agreed. Reviewers are understandably reluctant to criticize. But that means reviewers mistreat their audience.

Solution? --- reviewers could *compare* books, instead of reviewing a single book in isolation.

For example, when a new book on the endgame play is released, it could be reviewed by comparing it to either (A) a similar book or (B) to an older well known book in the same general category.
That way instead of having to say a direct negative like....

"Johnson's new book does not have enough explanatory verbiage after crucial moves."

....the reviewer could say....

"The style of Johnson's book is to have less verbiage per move than Smith provided in his earlier book."

Beyond reducing the I-dont-dare-criticize problem, the comparison approach helps the reader judge and interpret the reviewer's words.
  
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fling
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Re: Reviews and reviewers
Reply #11 - 05/10/12 at 05:46:52
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Glenn Snow wrote on 05/10/12 at 03:26:43:
He doesn't give a lot of reviews but when he does I believe Dennis Monokroussos strives to be objective in his blog.


I have seen some of his reviews and I have often liked them. The thing he and e.g. Watson do is to point out more concretely things that are good and bad, in a fashion that helps you whether or not they actually are truly objective. This is the same thing Aagard speaks about in the blog.
  
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Glenn Snow
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Re: Reviews and reviewers
Reply #10 - 05/10/12 at 03:26:43
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He doesn't give a lot of reviews but when he does I believe Dennis Monokroussos strives to be objective in his blog.
  
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buddho
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Re: Reviews and reviewers
Reply #9 - 05/10/12 at 00:28:54
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Other than Silman's reviews are there any good book review websites? eg are the NIC reviews available anywhere?
  
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Re: Reviews and reviewers
Reply #8 - 05/09/12 at 07:51:17
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Re: Reviews and reviewers
Reply #7 - 05/08/12 at 19:52:16
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Matemax wrote on 05/08/12 at 15:40:46:
Tiviakov on Dearing.

In general reviewers are to close to being authors themselves. GMs reviewing GMs understand too much how difficult it is to write a good chess book. Therefore they can't let them down.

Tiviakov on Dearing!


Tiviakov is a great player but he severely lacks the people's skills.  Smiley
  
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Matemax
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Re: Reviews and reviewers
Reply #6 - 05/08/12 at 15:40:46
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Tiviakov on Dearing.

In general reviewers are to close to being authors themselves. GMs reviewing GMs understand too much how difficult it is to write a good chess book. Therefore they can't let them down.

Tiviakov on Dearing!
  
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ErictheRed
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Re: Reviews and reviewers
Reply #5 - 05/08/12 at 15:36:37
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I think Tony Miles had some good reviews back in his day, i.e. "utter crap." 

I think, though, that the chess world is a rather small one in the grand scheme of things, with very little money to be made.  I suspect people are very wary of criticising others because of the backlash that might occur within the small, interconnected community.
  
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fairchess
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Re: Reviews and reviewers
Reply #4 - 05/08/12 at 15:10:34
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From my experience I have learnt that you cannot always trust the reviewer when the review is a positive one. I always try to find out if there might be a reason for the reviewer to have a biased attitude towards the author (if they are friends, from the same publishing house, etc). 
However, when they reviewer writes that a book is very bad, it is normally very bad indeed.
  
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Jay
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Re: Reviews and reviewers
Reply #3 - 05/08/12 at 13:22:22
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Bibs wrote on 05/08/12 at 12:01:53:
Problem is, they are never really 'independent'.
Sadler was good years ago at NIC. 
Watson good, Flear okay. 
Noone else.
Most are utter rubbish, simply do not engage with the material.


Agreed on Watson who shares interesting history with Aagard.
  
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Re: Reviews and reviewers
Reply #2 - 05/08/12 at 13:00:19
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I agree, the independence problem is one problem, and the lack of commitment is another. I have liked Watson's writing and recommendations as well. Dowd on the other hand seems really CB-sponsored.
  
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Bibs
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Re: Reviews and reviewers
Reply #1 - 05/08/12 at 12:01:53
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Problem is, they are never really 'independent'.
Sadler was good years ago at NIC. 
Watson good, Flear okay. 
Noone else.
Most are utter rubbish, simply do not engage with the material.
  
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fling
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Reviews and reviewers
05/08/12 at 11:34:09
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I noticed the posts by Jacob Aagard at the QC blog and thought about this in relation to the reviews at Chesscafe. Some of the reviewers seem to have their expectations really perfectly set  Grin

E.g. how often has Steven Dowd given anything less than 5 stars, or given much criticism at all?

I would say that it is really hard to find a good reviewer that you can trust, because the job is tough. Which ones do you rate the highest?
  
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