Did they pull these names out of a hat?

[conuly]

With nods to Arthur C. Clarke’s Rama series and the real science of Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves, a touch of Hugh Howey’s Wool, and echoes of Octavia Butler’s voice, a powerful tale of space travel, adventure, discovery, and humanity that unfolds through a series of generational vignettes.

Yeah, okay.

(I really hate the practice of trying to describe books as X meets Y, where the variables are authors or other works, but this particular paragraph takes the cake!)

Comments

[wendelah1]

Your point is well-taken but now you must tell us the name of the book.

[conuly]

Sorry, the reviews weren't great and I closed the page.

[crystalpyramid]

“I have read very little science fiction and this book is also science fiction.”

[conuly]

"...I think."

[calimac]

My all-time favorite is the fantasy novel billed as "In the tradition of The Lord of the Rings, Siddhartha, and Watership Down." It resembled none of these, but they were all fantasies of a sort.

[conuly]

Was it any good?

[bibliofile]

Were there dharma buns on a quest? Because there should have been, with that description.

[silveradept]

That's a very confused reviewer, or a very incoherent book.

[oursin]

'In the tradition of Flann O'Brien, Edna O'Brien and [some other Irish writer I don't recall, could have been Beckett, could have been Wilde, could even have been James Joyce, but anyway, Some Other Irish Writer totally unlike either of the two badly matched foregoing that the publicist could call to mind]'
=
'This book is an Oirish Dog's Breakfast'

[conuly]

Oh, c'mon, how different could Flann and Enda O'Brien even be? They share half a name, after all!

[hudebnik]

I've been overhearing a lot of those sentences in recent weeks: my wife shalmestere is a collection-development librarian, and has been attending a lot of Zoom promo events by publishers.

[conuly]

They're so tiresome.

[hannah]

A while ago, someone was trying to sell me on a TV series by saying it was X meets Y, with Z! And I had to hold myself back from taking the piss and saying, that just makes me want to rewatch X.

[conuly]

But not Y or Z?

[hannah]

I didn't know Y, and the comparison to X made me think Y wouldn't be as much fun to watch.

[cellio]

Thus guaranteeing that only people who know most or all of the references will read further. Nice way to drive away potential readers, people! Would it hurt y'all that much to have a bit of an actual description? Sheesh.

[conuly]

Oh, there was description later. I still think this was an especially crappy paragraph of the "X meets Y" genre.