What’s in a star?
In the past, before ebooks and the rise of self-publishing as a viable option for serious authors, we could assume that although we didn’t necessarily like every book we read, we could assume that the writing was of a reasonable quality. If we wrote a review, all we had to do was say whether or not we liked the book. That’s easy. Now, however, especially if you’re reading ebooks, you can’t assume that quality, even from mainstream publishing houses. On the other hand, even at the cheap end of the market, you can’t assume poor quality, because there are plenty of books from self and Indie publishers that are every bit as good or better than anything published by the mainstream. This gives reviews the vital function of being an arbiter of quality, not just an indication of how many people liked the book. However, we can’t assume that a…