Re: SKRS #4: All That's Left by Ward & Dilmore Review Thread (Spoiler!
After I finished Rough Beasts of Empire, I read through the review thread (which was nearly as long as the book). That thread is infamous in this sub-forum for being the straw that broke the back of DRGIII's presence in this BBS, but I didn't want to enter it until I'd read the book.
Simply put, that thread was a war zone.
DRGIII was responding to nearly every criticism with long-winded posts rebuking their claims or opinions and, since the book had just come out, he spoiler-coded almost everything he wrote. Hitting one of his spoiler boxes was like stepping on a land-mine: BOOM! wall of text!
He was super-defensive about parts of the book (especially Sisko's choices) and seemed to take any reader's poor view of Sisko's decisions personally. He had to know that what Sisko did would be controversial and polarizing, yet he's flabbergasted when any posters suggest that Sisko made the wrong choice.
It was an odd overreaction to criticism that was 1) justified by the drastic shift in the direction of a popular character, and 2) well & fairly articulated by most of the posters to whom he was responding. This wasn't trolling or mean-spirited rhetoric, just some constructive criticism and a debate about creative choices.
Reading all these exchanges years afterward, the whole thread just comes off as an extremely bizarre hill for DRGIII's participation in this forum to die on.
After I finished Rough Beasts of Empire, I read through the review thread (which was nearly as long as the book). That thread is infamous in this sub-forum for being the straw that broke the back of DRGIII's presence in this BBS, but I didn't want to enter it until I'd read the book.
Simply put, that thread was a war zone.
DRGIII was responding to nearly every criticism with long-winded posts rebuking their claims or opinions and, since the book had just come out, he spoiler-coded almost everything he wrote. Hitting one of his spoiler boxes was like stepping on a land-mine: BOOM! wall of text!
He was super-defensive about parts of the book (especially Sisko's choices) and seemed to take any reader's poor view of Sisko's decisions personally. He had to know that what Sisko did would be controversial and polarizing, yet he's flabbergasted when any posters suggest that Sisko made the wrong choice.
It was an odd overreaction to criticism that was 1) justified by the drastic shift in the direction of a popular character, and 2) well & fairly articulated by most of the posters to whom he was responding. This wasn't trolling or mean-spirited rhetoric, just some constructive criticism and a debate about creative choices.
Reading all these exchanges years afterward, the whole thread just comes off as an extremely bizarre hill for DRGIII's participation in this forum to die on.
