A review by brinnet
The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction: 6 Steps to Writing and Publishing Your Bestseller! by Philip Athans, R.A. Salvatore

4.0

This book gives great insight to things to consider when writing your own sci-fi/fantasy novel. Although I majored in literature, I've never had much of an idea of what makes a book seem cliche or how to improve writing. Either I liked something or I didn't, but I couldn't quite pinpoint what was missing/needed. This book fills in the holes I was missing. It's explicit, honest, and perhaps most importantly, easy to read. I didn't feel like reading this was homework (I was browsing through books, liked it, and paid real world money for it...so, in fact, it wasn't homework). The book is mostly focused on how to write a "bestseller" and spends a short bit at the end about publishing it. If you're looking for details about how to publish, there's probably a better book out there. However, the author actually is an editor and has accepted and rejected thousands of books (or, thousands per book he accepts) -- so hurray for reading something written by someone who's actually part of the biz.

Bottom line: I'd absolutely recommend this book to anyone who wants to start learning more about what makes good fantasy/sci-fi writing. You won't have to slog through this one.