The New York Review of Science Fiction’s Writers Guidelines. Note the “we recommend these considerations to all reviewers everywhere”. This isn’t specific to sci-fi, it’s applicable for any kind of literature reviews.The difference between a quickie review (“thumbs up!”) and genuine criticism is often a sense of context. Take the latest samurai vampire novel, for instance. A good NYRSF review should do more than simply report the reviewer’s gut reaction to this particular book. It should place it in the context of the author’s other work, and of the work of others today, and in the past in this esteemed and popular category. Indeed it should place this individual novel within the larger context of vampire samurai fiction as a whole. Where does this book fit in the grand history of the saumrai vampire novel? How does it compare against the great samurai vampire novels of the past. What are the essential virtues, expectations, and/or limitations of the entire samurai vampire genre? And does this novel imply whither goest the samurai vampire novel? This sort of context can make a good review all the more informative and illuminating.
And at the NYRSF, we still want our reviewers to aspire to this goal. Commonly when we edit a review we ask the writer for more context. And we recommend these considerations to all reviewers everywhere.
