Video Review Response
Thank you to Dominic Noble for making this review of The Fourth State of Matter. It was a thorough analysis that brought up many good talking points. So I figured I would go through and expand upon some of the points and answer questions.
Tagline!
I'm not surprised this is the first thing to come up as it bothers me as well. Unfortunately the publisher decided to make changes to it at the last minute, so this is not the tagline I originally wrote. The original tagline included the word rebellion as a verb, as in an act of rebellion or how one person can rebel against expectations. At some point the publisher decided to shorten the original tagline, reconceptualizing the word rebellion into a noun and adding the "right on target", which does make it sound like we're talking about a capital "R" Rebellion, and not a lowercase "r" rebellious act.
This is an unfortunate side of traditional publishing. Hopefully the book can still give readers plenty to enjoy, even if the tagline is no longer accurate.
2. Opening scene.
On a more positive note, I'm glad to hear that my opening scene made someone laugh and gave them joy on a bad day. When I decided to try my hand writing erotica I vowed to not beat around the bush about it. I wanted to create an opening scene that would set the tone of the book and show readers exactly what they would be getting, and I think I did just that.
3. Soft Science
It is true that most erotica, even scifi erotica, is not known for including a lot of hard science. For this reason I didn't want to go too hard into the science side of the book too early and turn of readers who are probably here more for the erotica. However, I do plan on bringing more of the hard science into the series as it progresses. For example:
a. The Penumbra Belt (the belt of debris/asteroids surrounding civilized space). This will get more of an explanation as Pet learns more about it. At the moment his understanding of it is very over simplistic because that's all he understands.
b. The Void at the center of the galaxy. Yes that is going to play an important part in later stories.
4. Slow Burn
This is a perfect example of the difference between a self contained story and a series. A self contained story would have a much faster pace since it needs to reach its resolution by the end of the book. The Valence Chronicles, however, are intended as a series. The Fourth State of Matter is only one small adventure that kicks off a much larger one. Both types of stories are enjoyable, but do make for a different reading experience, so anyone picking up my book should be aware of what they're getting into.
5. Numbered Planets
This is one of the only points in the review that I think came from a misunderstanding. In the book there is one solar system that chooses to number its planets, but all the others have names. I wonder if the one numbered system stood out more than the others that used a traditional naming system, and that's why it seemed more prevalent.
6. Revali from Breath of the Wild
This part of the review made my laugh, but readers can rest assure that this is not what Xavis looks like. Check out this picture to see what the character actually looks like.
7. Slavery
It was my intention from the start for the concept of décor to be nuanced. It's meant to hang out in the nebulous gray zone of right and wrong, so I'm glad to see it getting a reaction out of people.
As for the fact that the trio (the three main aliens in the book) technically own Pet, this is addressed in the book but never resolved. It's going to be explored more as they figure out their relationship. For now all I'll say is that Pet and the trio each view this reality differently, and that difference will need to be resolved before they can more forward.
8. Pacing
Although not the first book I've written, this is the first book I've gotten published, so some of the pacing issues are probably due to 'first book syndrome'. The Fourth State of Matter had to go through a lot of rewrites before a publisher would sign the series, meaning several scenes got cut, rewritten, or merged with other scenes. Considering this, I think I managed to smooth out the pacing pretty well, although I fully admit that the part of the book where two sex scenes came one right after the other didn't quite line up the way I wanted it to. Since each scene takes place in a different timeline, I couldn't figure out how to redistribute the scenes without fundamentally changing the order of events in the rest of the timeline.
Fans of erotica probably won't see this as a problem as the sex scenes are an important part of the plot (for many fans this many even be the whole reason they're reading the book). For someone who isn't a fan of this genre, however, the pacing may seem too slow for them since they have no investment in many of the scenes. That's perfectly understandable, this book isn't for everyone.
Once again, thank you to Dominic Noble for this review. If even one person sees this video and decides to give my book a chance, then I'll call it a success.