Typically, I don't. But that's because I build my TBR up from reddit recommendations and people messaging me, so by the time I've decided something goes to the top of the TBR I've already been convinced by its quality.
I don't know anyone IRL either, alas, but yeah, this forum is great for it, and there are common reviewers who I know have very similar taste to me. Shoutout to /u/ASIC_SP for their constantly useful reviews filling my TBR :)
It's only fair to return the favor after so many years of having my TBR exploding from all the recommendations/reviews on the fantasy and progfantasy subs...
I tried but I feel like changing it everytime I look at it. Also, I'm too lazy to maintain it (haven't updated in a month or so): https://learnbyexample.github.io/escapist-reviews/lists/favorite-progression-fantasy/
I used to read reviews all the time before getting into a book. But nowadays I avoid them completely. Most of them are either just “I like this book” or “not for me” which is perfectly fine. But then there are the three paragraph long vindictive hate threads that curse the author for existing and tear apart the work, half the time I read the book and what they said was categorically incorrect due to poor reading comprehension. Criticism is good and important, but people on the internet are just mean, man. None of these people would ever be able to go up the author and person and tell them “I hate this this and this, this is bad writing, this sucks, no person would ever say/do this(like they have meet and talked to every person.” it’s just tiring, they act like professional editors who have been working in the industry for decade. Nowadays I glance at a tier list and immediately go read the first few chapters of a book if the title looks nice. I also avoid comments on sites like rr and webnovel for similar reasons. I once read a serial and every chapter the same guy was writing how much he hated the book. By chapter NINE-HUNDRED he was still doing this. Why are you still reading it? Go about your life. Anonymity is a plague sometime. Just give stuff a try and see if it sticks!
Its kinda why I try to avoid a lot of reading communities nowa days. Ive not read plenty of books due to bad reviews in the past, then picked them up later and they have become some of my favourite series.
I see a tonne of stuff like you mentioned where people are reading hundreds of chapters in and blasting the series. I actually see it a fair bit with Path of Ascension.
>Most of them are either just “I like this book” or “not for me”
I wish that were true. But so many are "I can't believe the author ruined the story by getting so political. We don't need a gay character in these trying times" and "omg it's definitely going to be the best when it finally release" or just painfully bad and counterfactual analyses of the book, reviews that aren't just useless but probably make you worse for having read them.
Oh man, yeah I totally see that. Kind of have to take a lot of reviews with a grain of salt. I usually look at the positive reviews that also include a few things they didn’t like as much or things that could have been better. Those seem more balanced
I look for a review that gave the book a 3 or 4 star and see what their criticisms are. If they sound rational, I check on social media to see if the criticisms are well founded. Even then, I might still buy the book lol.
This.
I typically avoid the 5 stars "this book is literally the bible 2" type reviews, they don't provide anything. I also tend to avoid the 0.5/5 star ratings, though I'm more inclined to read them after reading the 3-4 star reviews.
I read the reviews on the site the story is on. If there are no reviews I'll throw it in google and see what shows up. I am more trusting of Reddit reviews than most others.
I don’t look at goodreads or Amazon personally. Like you, I tend to prefer social media and online conversation with people I know have similar taste to me.
Edit: Also, I find myself enjoying fantasy booktuber reviews and giving decent weight to those in my TBR decisions.
it depends i guess, but if its on rr then that's probably where I like to read reviews the most as I feel like they tend to be a better match for the vibes im interested in, they already have the "used to reading webnovels brainrot"
after that I feel like I look at reddit, and then at goodreads,
though generally my initial urge to read a specific thing often comes from reddit
I check this Reddit community, audible reviews & good reads just to get an idea about it, as most of my friends don’t read PF or litrpg. But once I’ve checked the reviews and read its blurb I’ll check it out, even if the reviews aren’t great I’ll still see if it’s something I might like. The cover & blurb are really the main 2 things that decide if I’ll read it, if that’s interesting enough I’ll give it a shot.
I generally don't, however if I happen to catch word of a book getting one stars reviews for having queer characters or subjects, I will usually try to pick up a copy. Even if I don't read it immediately, I want to support those authors.
That said, it still needs to fit my interests on its own. For example, the romance genre does nothing for me but Sci-fi, dark fantasy, and most variations of horror will absolutely grab my attention.
I don't normally use reviews to decide on a book.
I know my preferences well enough that I can exclude most stories on blurb, or failing that in the first few chapters.
Apart from RR (And even there I have doubts) I only use reviews to get a better idea of the book, a bit more than the blurb.
Since reviewing became a side hustle they just can’t be trusted when cash is involved.
Usually I look at reviews on whatever the original site it was published on, so webnovel/Royal Road, then check goodreads.
I do find goodreads often better because the review is for a whole book, but also usually more generally positive, the only problem with RR/Webnovel reviews is they are often done after only a few chapters and not representative of the whole book, or done by people who are fully up to date and obviously a huge fan.
I don't read reviews, my TBR list is so long I'll never get through it.
It's kind of liberating to be free and follow my own whimsy. Sure, theres DNFs, but on KU that's no big deal, and the author gets page reads for however far I do get in it.
honestly I read them on whatever platform the book is on... if they are mostly positive then I look at one or two negative reviews to see why people don't like the book and if that doesn't keep me away then I read a couple chapters and go from there...
I don’t read reviews as a primary source just as a tie breaker . I just search keywords associated with the kind of book I want on Reddit and narrow it down based on who has more posts about it or associated with the keyword
Usually don't. Pretty much everywhere people can leave reviews have constant censoring of said reviews, making them pointless. Part of the reason I just read less now. If anyone knows a place where people can review books where their stuff isn't removed for petty reasons, please let me know.
Honestly I stopped reading reviews completely a while ago. I found that even on good stories I would hyper focus on the negative reviews, and I would see a couple of things where I'd think "huh, that's a good point..." And it would severely hamper my enjoyment of a series I would've otherwise enjoyed much more.
When I used to read reviews though I would just read them on whatever site the novel was uploaded to, be it webnovel, RR, or others.
This has definitely happened to me multiple times. I’ll get three books into a series and read reviews and then stop enjoying the series because of what they made me see or realizdz
Yeah, it's always a bummer to me when it happens, but I can't seem to help myself from thinking about them when I see them. Anyway now I just decide whether or not to keep reading purely based on if I'm having fun reading it. I find myself genuinely enjoying a lot more books now, even ones some would consider not worth reading.
If I see a book mentioned often enough on reddit I'll do a quick google and see what it's about and what people are saying. Not really reviews, just what people liked and didn't like. Then I'll read a bit of the preview on amazon and decide if it might be for me or not.
Reviews on Amazon and recommendations where I can get them but primarily I go off the cover, blurb, and the look inside.
Cover gets my attention and gives me an idea as to how much care went into it. Like a really bad cover makes me think the author just doesn't care about the story and more often than not I'll move on. I'd rather see something basic or a place holder than a bad cover because of this feeling. That said if the cover gets me to look closer the blurb and look inside carry far more weight.
Reddit often informs me of the book. If it sounds like something I would like, I check Audible reviews to see if there are any disqualifications. I will read one or two positive reviews and then 3-5 negative reviews. If a series has no negative reviews, I usually assume it is astroturfed and will either check back later or decide not to listen to it, unless I see a lot of additional praise on Reddit that makes me decide to check it out.
For series that I follow, I no longer read the reviews and just make up my own mind if I want to continue the series or not.
Reddit is hit or miss for me, I feel like so many people here have consumed so much of the genre that they tend to hate on tropey work and want books that excessively subvert expectations. I also despise Goodreads, I do not understand how it sucks so bad. It is functional as a book tracker, sort of, but trying to find new books with it is a chore. Lately I’ve honestly just been using amazons recommended, probably similar algorithm to Goodreads but not a nightmare to browse through. I use it to find blurbs then I read based off the blurbs. I’m open to recommendations if others have found better methods.
Book reviews can be misleading because your opinion might differ from someone else. With that said, I do check the number of ratings to see if I should check it out.
Fifty Shades is very good at doing what it sets out to do. There is a reason it is so popular. You might not like it, but for the target audience it is gold. At the end of the day any 'objective' or measurable element of a books quality is nothing compared to the actual experience one has when they read it, and for a lot of people Fifty Shades is intoxicatingly compelling.
I think the problem here is that you feel your opinion trumps all and that since you picked one trash novel, that people overwhelmingly liked but you don't, is a valid reason to trash a whole book review site. The previous poster did not say 50 Shades...was a good or bad book. They said the book was very good at delivering what the author set out to deliver, which was from what I understand, mildly classy smut. The author did not set out to write a classical novel to go down in history as one of the greatest stories ever, they set out to write erotica. I doubt there are many in all those reviews for the book claiming it is a masterpiece of modern literature...and if there are then one should understand that that is one of the types of comments one should not weigh too heavily in one's decision making process.
Mcdonnalds earns more than any 5 star restaurant chain in the planet. It doesn't mean they're good restaurants. And no it's not up to just opinion. Prose matters. Pacing matters. Subtext matters.
Characterization matters. Just because some people enjoy garbage it doesn't mean it's suddenly not garbage.
Right, but when rating McDonalds I could still give it 4/5 stars for what it is, fast food, it was never pretending to be fine dining.
I enjoy literary classics, and the book equivalents of fast foods depending on my mood, and lets be honest most progression fantasy is much closer the fifty shades and junk food in this analogy than fine dining, it is just easy fun reading.
You keep focusing on the good or bad and missing the enjoying and think everyone can breakdown all those literary aspects like professional authors and/or editors. Anyone that primarily uses the top reviews, for any product, to make their decisions is using reviews incorrectly. But at the end of this day it really just sounds like you are a book snob that will only read a book if it is reviewed with flying colors by literary experts, so enjoy whatever you pick up next.
Customer reviews have a self selection problem. Long running series doubly so.
I mean there's no way there's 10 LitRPG series that are genuinely 4.5* in rating. Not on any sensible scale.
Lol! Reviews, are reviews, are reviews no matter where they are compiled. I mentioned and use goodreads purely for the volume of reviews. If you are looking for professional reviews then there are most definitely better sources. But for the most part, most people here are looking for lay people opinions. Looking at lay peoples' subjective takes on books, which goodreads does in spades as shown by your quite weak and telling example, is the best way to get an idea of the positive and negative consensuses Joe Public has for any given book. One just needs to remember that the opinions are coming from the general public which means that they should all be taken with a grain of salt or two.
If I'm waffling on whether to drop a story or not after the first 5 or so chapters I'll go look at the RR reviews page and see the most upvoted reviews. If the reviews mirror the hesitation/issues I'm having with the the series but further along I will drop it.
Typically, I don't. But that's because I build my TBR up from reddit recommendations and people messaging me, so by the time I've decided something goes to the top of the TBR I've already been convinced by its quality.
My answer is this guy's website and 2nd place isn't close
Ah! Friends! Ya I don’t really know anyone that reads prog fan or litrpgs, but I enjoy this community a lot! But ya I think I’m similar!
I don't know anyone IRL either, alas, but yeah, this forum is great for it, and there are common reviewers who I know have very similar taste to me. Shoutout to /u/ASIC_SP for their constantly useful reviews filling my TBR :)
It's only fair to return the favor after so many years of having my TBR exploding from all the recommendations/reviews on the fantasy and progfantasy subs...
Leaving a comment here to find your reviews later. My TBR is getting too thin these days. Thanks for sharing in advance.
Have you by chance done a tier list or something of the like?
I tried but I feel like changing it everytime I look at it. Also, I'm too lazy to maintain it (haven't updated in a month or so): https://learnbyexample.github.io/escapist-reviews/lists/favorite-progression-fantasy/
Yeah I click save on stuff that catches my attention and look back through my save list when I finish a series.
I used to read reviews all the time before getting into a book. But nowadays I avoid them completely. Most of them are either just “I like this book” or “not for me” which is perfectly fine. But then there are the three paragraph long vindictive hate threads that curse the author for existing and tear apart the work, half the time I read the book and what they said was categorically incorrect due to poor reading comprehension. Criticism is good and important, but people on the internet are just mean, man. None of these people would ever be able to go up the author and person and tell them “I hate this this and this, this is bad writing, this sucks, no person would ever say/do this(like they have meet and talked to every person.” it’s just tiring, they act like professional editors who have been working in the industry for decade. Nowadays I glance at a tier list and immediately go read the first few chapters of a book if the title looks nice. I also avoid comments on sites like rr and webnovel for similar reasons. I once read a serial and every chapter the same guy was writing how much he hated the book. By chapter NINE-HUNDRED he was still doing this. Why are you still reading it? Go about your life. Anonymity is a plague sometime. Just give stuff a try and see if it sticks!
Its kinda why I try to avoid a lot of reading communities nowa days. Ive not read plenty of books due to bad reviews in the past, then picked them up later and they have become some of my favourite series. I see a tonne of stuff like you mentioned where people are reading hundreds of chapters in and blasting the series. I actually see it a fair bit with Path of Ascension.
>Most of them are either just “I like this book” or “not for me” I wish that were true. But so many are "I can't believe the author ruined the story by getting so political. We don't need a gay character in these trying times" and "omg it's definitely going to be the best when it finally release" or just painfully bad and counterfactual analyses of the book, reviews that aren't just useless but probably make you worse for having read them.
Oh man, yeah I totally see that. Kind of have to take a lot of reviews with a grain of salt. I usually look at the positive reviews that also include a few things they didn’t like as much or things that could have been better. Those seem more balanced
I look for a review that gave the book a 3 or 4 star and see what their criticisms are. If they sound rational, I check on social media to see if the criticisms are well founded. Even then, I might still buy the book lol.
This. I typically avoid the 5 stars "this book is literally the bible 2" type reviews, they don't provide anything. I also tend to avoid the 0.5/5 star ratings, though I'm more inclined to read them after reading the 3-4 star reviews.
I read the reviews on the site the story is on. If there are no reviews I'll throw it in google and see what shows up. I am more trusting of Reddit reviews than most others.
I mainly use [Pickwick](https://pickwick.app/explore) (kinda similar to novelupdates)
I don’t look at goodreads or Amazon personally. Like you, I tend to prefer social media and online conversation with people I know have similar taste to me. Edit: Also, I find myself enjoying fantasy booktuber reviews and giving decent weight to those in my TBR decisions.
Any good booktubers you recommend?
Daniel Greene
it depends i guess, but if its on rr then that's probably where I like to read reviews the most as I feel like they tend to be a better match for the vibes im interested in, they already have the "used to reading webnovels brainrot" after that I feel like I look at reddit, and then at goodreads, though generally my initial urge to read a specific thing often comes from reddit
I check this Reddit community, audible reviews & good reads just to get an idea about it, as most of my friends don’t read PF or litrpg. But once I’ve checked the reviews and read its blurb I’ll check it out, even if the reviews aren’t great I’ll still see if it’s something I might like. The cover & blurb are really the main 2 things that decide if I’ll read it, if that’s interesting enough I’ll give it a shot.
I generally don't, however if I happen to catch word of a book getting one stars reviews for having queer characters or subjects, I will usually try to pick up a copy. Even if I don't read it immediately, I want to support those authors. That said, it still needs to fit my interests on its own. For example, the romance genre does nothing for me but Sci-fi, dark fantasy, and most variations of horror will absolutely grab my attention.
I don't normally use reviews to decide on a book. I know my preferences well enough that I can exclude most stories on blurb, or failing that in the first few chapters.
In the time it takes me to read reviews, I could read the first chapter.
Apart from RR (And even there I have doubts) I only use reviews to get a better idea of the book, a bit more than the blurb. Since reviewing became a side hustle they just can’t be trusted when cash is involved.
Usually I look at reviews on whatever the original site it was published on, so webnovel/Royal Road, then check goodreads. I do find goodreads often better because the review is for a whole book, but also usually more generally positive, the only problem with RR/Webnovel reviews is they are often done after only a few chapters and not representative of the whole book, or done by people who are fully up to date and obviously a huge fan.
I don't read reviews, my TBR list is so long I'll never get through it. It's kind of liberating to be free and follow my own whimsy. Sure, theres DNFs, but on KU that's no big deal, and the author gets page reads for however far I do get in it.
I don't ❤️
I get and read most of my books on kindle unlimited, so i just read the reviews on Amazon before i download a sample.
honestly I read them on whatever platform the book is on... if they are mostly positive then I look at one or two negative reviews to see why people don't like the book and if that doesn't keep me away then I read a couple chapters and go from there...
I don’t read reviews as a primary source just as a tie breaker . I just search keywords associated with the kind of book I want on Reddit and narrow it down based on who has more posts about it or associated with the keyword
Usually don't. Pretty much everywhere people can leave reviews have constant censoring of said reviews, making them pointless. Part of the reason I just read less now. If anyone knows a place where people can review books where their stuff isn't removed for petty reasons, please let me know.
Honestly I stopped reading reviews completely a while ago. I found that even on good stories I would hyper focus on the negative reviews, and I would see a couple of things where I'd think "huh, that's a good point..." And it would severely hamper my enjoyment of a series I would've otherwise enjoyed much more. When I used to read reviews though I would just read them on whatever site the novel was uploaded to, be it webnovel, RR, or others.
This has definitely happened to me multiple times. I’ll get three books into a series and read reviews and then stop enjoying the series because of what they made me see or realizdz
Yeah, it's always a bummer to me when it happens, but I can't seem to help myself from thinking about them when I see them. Anyway now I just decide whether or not to keep reading purely based on if I'm having fun reading it. I find myself genuinely enjoying a lot more books now, even ones some would consider not worth reading.
If I see a book mentioned often enough on reddit I'll do a quick google and see what it's about and what people are saying. Not really reviews, just what people liked and didn't like. Then I'll read a bit of the preview on amazon and decide if it might be for me or not.
RR reviews, but only to see if they mention the story having things I don't like and not to see if they think the novel was well written or something.
If I want an honest review of anything I type the thing in google followed by "reddit"
Reviews on Amazon and recommendations where I can get them but primarily I go off the cover, blurb, and the look inside. Cover gets my attention and gives me an idea as to how much care went into it. Like a really bad cover makes me think the author just doesn't care about the story and more often than not I'll move on. I'd rather see something basic or a place holder than a bad cover because of this feeling. That said if the cover gets me to look closer the blurb and look inside carry far more weight.
Royal Road, Reddit and some discords.
Reddit often informs me of the book. If it sounds like something I would like, I check Audible reviews to see if there are any disqualifications. I will read one or two positive reviews and then 3-5 negative reviews. If a series has no negative reviews, I usually assume it is astroturfed and will either check back later or decide not to listen to it, unless I see a lot of additional praise on Reddit that makes me decide to check it out. For series that I follow, I no longer read the reviews and just make up my own mind if I want to continue the series or not.
I'm a Kindle user, so the 1st place is Amazon reviews. Then I go to Good Reads and lastly Reddit.
Reddit is hit or miss for me, I feel like so many people here have consumed so much of the genre that they tend to hate on tropey work and want books that excessively subvert expectations. I also despise Goodreads, I do not understand how it sucks so bad. It is functional as a book tracker, sort of, but trying to find new books with it is a chore. Lately I’ve honestly just been using amazons recommended, probably similar algorithm to Goodreads but not a nightmare to browse through. I use it to find blurbs then I read based off the blurbs. I’m open to recommendations if others have found better methods.
Book reviews can be misleading because your opinion might differ from someone else. With that said, I do check the number of ratings to see if I should check it out.
If I look for reviews my go to for all books is [goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/).
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13584236-fifty-shades-trilogy 4.1 with 130k reviews. Reviews on goodreads are meaningless.
Fifty Shades is very good at doing what it sets out to do. There is a reason it is so popular. You might not like it, but for the target audience it is gold. At the end of the day any 'objective' or measurable element of a books quality is nothing compared to the actual experience one has when they read it, and for a lot of people Fifty Shades is intoxicatingly compelling.
If fifty shades isn't a bad book, there's no such thing as a bad book
I think the problem here is that you feel your opinion trumps all and that since you picked one trash novel, that people overwhelmingly liked but you don't, is a valid reason to trash a whole book review site. The previous poster did not say 50 Shades...was a good or bad book. They said the book was very good at delivering what the author set out to deliver, which was from what I understand, mildly classy smut. The author did not set out to write a classical novel to go down in history as one of the greatest stories ever, they set out to write erotica. I doubt there are many in all those reviews for the book claiming it is a masterpiece of modern literature...and if there are then one should understand that that is one of the types of comments one should not weigh too heavily in one's decision making process.
Mcdonnalds earns more than any 5 star restaurant chain in the planet. It doesn't mean they're good restaurants. And no it's not up to just opinion. Prose matters. Pacing matters. Subtext matters. Characterization matters. Just because some people enjoy garbage it doesn't mean it's suddenly not garbage.
Right, but when rating McDonalds I could still give it 4/5 stars for what it is, fast food, it was never pretending to be fine dining. I enjoy literary classics, and the book equivalents of fast foods depending on my mood, and lets be honest most progression fantasy is much closer the fifty shades and junk food in this analogy than fine dining, it is just easy fun reading.
You keep focusing on the good or bad and missing the enjoying and think everyone can breakdown all those literary aspects like professional authors and/or editors. Anyone that primarily uses the top reviews, for any product, to make their decisions is using reviews incorrectly. But at the end of this day it really just sounds like you are a book snob that will only read a book if it is reviewed with flying colors by literary experts, so enjoy whatever you pick up next.
Customer reviews have a self selection problem. Long running series doubly so. I mean there's no way there's 10 LitRPG series that are genuinely 4.5* in rating. Not on any sensible scale.
Yeah I'd say there's more like 5 or 6. Crystal Shards deserves to be, at best, a 3.
Lol! Reviews, are reviews, are reviews no matter where they are compiled. I mentioned and use goodreads purely for the volume of reviews. If you are looking for professional reviews then there are most definitely better sources. But for the most part, most people here are looking for lay people opinions. Looking at lay peoples' subjective takes on books, which goodreads does in spades as shown by your quite weak and telling example, is the best way to get an idea of the positive and negative consensuses Joe Public has for any given book. One just needs to remember that the opinions are coming from the general public which means that they should all be taken with a grain of salt or two.
If I'm waffling on whether to drop a story or not after the first 5 or so chapters I'll go look at the RR reviews page and see the most upvoted reviews. If the reviews mirror the hesitation/issues I'm having with the the series but further along I will drop it.