First off, congratulations to David McKay and Gregoria for winning last week’s giveaway of the signed copies of The Towers of Midnight. Contact us as soon as possible so we can ship you your book.

Secondly, I have a question to ask you about star ratings.  We work on a five star rating system here at Fantasy Literature. Other sites use four stars or a 1-100 scale. My questions, spawned by a discussion we’ve had amongst the reviewers lately, is what the star ratings mean. When you see a book marked 2.5 stars, what do you think that means? For me, 2.5 stars is an average book. Three stars is slightly above average. Four is good and five is great.  I’ve gotten stingier about handing out five star ratings in the almost two years I’ve been reviewing here. Now, fives go on books that make my best book of the year short list. I think some people feel that a 2.5 is a fifty percent, which we all know is a failing grade, but that’s not what I intend with my ratings.

So I’m interested in feedback both from our other reviewers and readers. Reviewers, what does your star rating mean and readers, what do you think the star ratings mean? Let’s see if we can clear up any confusion.

Let us know what you think and we’ll enter you in a drawing to win the book of your choice from our stacks.

Author

  • Ruth Arnell

    RUTH ARNELL (on FanLit's staff January 2009 — August 2013) earned a Ph.D. in political science and is a college professor in Idaho. From a young age she has maxed out her library card the way some people do credit cards. Ruth started reading fantasy with A Wrinkle in Time and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — books that still occupy an honored spot on her bookshelf today. Ruth and her husband have a young son, but their house is actually presided over by a flame-point Siamese who answers, sometimes, to the name of Griffon.