Technical Review Format

I'm trying a new format for my future book reviews. I will rate the novel on several different elements to try and present my opinions of the book in a clear and concise format. This selection of elements is likely to change, but I will keep this post up to date with what I mean by my ratings.  There is a table at the end of this post with some clues as to what I consider the various ratings to mean.  Since I almost exclusively read and review speculative fiction, the world building is of particular importance to me.

Let me know what you think or if you have suggestions for changes.

Element/Metric

Plot

This is the overall story line. Is the story engaging? Does it have a good rhythm and keep my interest and does it make sense within the boundaries of the author's world. I strongly prefer stories where the good guys win and the bad guys lose. That doesn't mean that the protagonists can't be slapped around a lot.

Originality

The originality of the world, characters and plot. Is it original or is it more of a derivative work. In my opinion derivative works can be good reads, but I do prefer originality. Doing original work is increasingly difficult with the explosion of new books we are seeing.

Writing Style

How engaging is the writing? Does it flow? Does the style of the story get out of the way and let you enjoy the story? I prefer a clear and clean writing style with more attention to actions and words than to descriptions.

Grammar

How well the story has been proofread. Number of grammatical, spelling or typing errors I notice. I tend to not notice grammar much, so if this is less than a four, you can be sure its pretty atrocious.

Characters

How well fleshed out are the characters? Are they believable, interesting, and consistent. Do they provoke sympathy and antipathy? Are their actions believable?

Interactions

This covers interactions between characters and other characters or characters and the world. Strong dialog, realistic interactions, well thought out consequences to the characters actions are important.

World

This is a rating of the texture, feel, or character of the author's world. I give credit for originality and consistency. I dislike plots which set out the rules and then require the characters to break them to succeed.

Enjoyment

This is a measure of how much fun I had reading this book. This is not necessarily tied to any of the other metrics and could possibly be affected by the phases of the moon or the general state of my life.

Here is what I am currently considering each score to mean. In general 1 and 5 are rare and 3 is acceptable.

Metric	1 star	2 stars	3 stars	4 stars	5 stars
Plot	Couldn't choke it down	Not great, forced, unbelievable, dull	Average reasonable plot	Engaging plot, solid pacing, effective climaxes	Couldn't put it down.
Originality	Fan Fic	Overdone	Mix of new and old. Reasonable	Several original concepts. Refreshing	Truly original work.
Style	Impenetrable	Gets in the way of the story but still readable	Reasonably transparent, maybe with a few glitches	Transparent style, solid sentence structure and rhythm	Outstanding style which actively contributes to the enjoyment of the story
Grammar	unreadable	hinders story. needs editing	A few mistakes scattered though the book. Not enough to cry about	A couple of mistakes in the entire novel.	perfect
Characters	Dull, boring, 1 dimensional	Some redeeming value but not compelling. 2 dimensional	Average characters. Not the driving point of the story.	Some good to excellent characters with medium to high complexity	Complex, compelling characters.
Interactions	Unbelievable, dull, or stilted dialog	Tired interactions, unimaginative dialog. motivations not clear, inconsistent consequences for events	Reasonable dialog reasonably consistent. Some stretching of credulity.	Good solid interactions between characters . believable dialog that is germane to the story.	Great, witty, appropriate reparte. Clever use of world rules by characters.
World	Inconsistent and arbitrary.	Unbelievable world which detracts from story	World is average. It isn't particularly compelling or bad and doesn't affect the story much.	Interesting world, reasonable rules, consistent interactions.	Fascinating, well developed, believable worlds.
Enjoyment	Bleh. Where's the lighter?	I can wade through it if necessary, but rather watch TV	Engaging enough to be worth the read.	Good solid fun. Definitely worth the time	Tickled pink by it. Would actually read it again.