thegooddoctor
8/1/2023
My rating system for this website (I have done reviews for ~80 "books" (including short stories, novelettes and novellas, as well as novels).
Their system is out of 5 stars, and allows you to use half-stars, so highest rating is 5 full stars, next-highest 4 ½ stars, etc. -- and lowest is ½ star. I did NOT want to space these ratings equally, giving just as much precedence to low-quality mush as to really good works. For that reason, I laid out my system as follows:
I begin with one star being equivalent to a rating of "C -". Progressing upwards, I add ½ star for each step, up to the maximum 5 stars, which is equivalent to a rating of "A"+. I reserve ½ star for BOMBS, there being no option of zero or negative stars.
Thus - I rated this novel C -, which is equivalent to one star. I felt that C - was rather generous, and I could easily have gone with D+ instead (which would have meant a one star equivalent) It is always with a mixture of anicipation and foreboding when I see a new book in this endless series. After all these years, i feel compelled to keep reading, but ask myself why do I waste time on mediocre books?
If you want the good stuff - I mean the very best stuff - go to the source. The novel Dune by Frank Herbert is outstanding, and the first 2 sequels are very good, as well. You really want to cease and desist before you touch the 4th book (God, Emperor of Dune) - it is truly vile, and one of the very worst SF & F that I have read.
And if you don't start on the not-so-good pseudo-sequels by Kevin Anderson and Brian Herbert, then you won't have a guilty conscience about squandering your precious reading efforts.