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Celestial Reviews 305 - Sept 12, 1998 Note: Every once in a while I get questions and comments about my ratings. The most common criticism is that my ratings are "too high." Once more, here is my defense. When I started doing these reviews three years ago, the stories I reviewed were much weaker. A 10 then meant that the story was darned good – about as good as I expected a story to be on this newsgroup. Stories have improved markedly since that time. There is still crap out there, but if you are selective you can easily find more good stories than you can possibly have time to read. I feel an obligation to maintain some sense of continuity, and so a rating of 10 now means that it would have been outstanding "back then." In addition, I try to reserve for myself the stories written by my guest reviewers. This is supposed to minimize the potential tendency of guest reviewers to kiss up to one another or to screw someone who gave them a bad review. Many of these reviewers also happen to be really good authors, and so their stories tend to receive high ratings. When I venture out and review stories by authors I have never heard of, they often get much lower ratings. This leads me to believe that my high ratings are not completely without merit. Finally, I STRONGLY urge you to put more emphasis on what the review says than on the numerical ratings. In fact, I am not offended if you put more emphasis on your own reactions than on my numerical ratings. If you want to know what stories I think are "best," look at the monthly or annual ratings. Overall, I seriously believe that any story to which I give 9s and 10s is likely to be a "good read." And some of the stories that make the Top Monthly and Annual lists are better than what you'll find in published anthologies. I encourage my guest reviewers to rate the stories any way they want. If they are consistent, readers of CR will learn how to use the information these diverse readers supply for them. Second note: Bob and Sam were trying to get in a quick eighteen holes of golf, but there were two terrible lady golfers in front of them, hitting the ball everywhere but where it was supposed to go. Bob said, "Why don't you go over and ask if we play through?" Sam got about halfway there and came back. Bob asked, "What's wrong?" Sam replied, "I couldn't confront them. One of them is my wife, and the other one is my mistress. I didn't realize they even knew each other" Bob nodded. "That could be a problem," he said." I'll go talk to them instead." Bob got about halfway there and came back. Sam asked, "What's wrong?" Bob replied, "Small world." Final note: Remember: even though someone else may be posting my reviews for me, my e-mail address is still Celeste801@aol.com. - Celeste |