When I get really bored, I read Amazon forums. Rarely participate, as my real name is associated with my Amazon account, but often read, follow links, etc. I recently heard about this guy:
John R. Vacca
First of all, just LOOK at his reviews. They all have the same first two sentences: "Are you an X looking to Y? If you are, then this book is for
you!" Where X is some computer-related profession and Y is some new computer-related skill. The last sentence, by the way, almost always uses the phrase "most excellent."
The long second paragraph of each review is basically a listing of the table of contents in sentence form, with not much variation in the first words of sentences. "Then," "then," "then," "next," "next." Every review I looked at had 5 stars. (I didn't look at all 447 of them, I'll admit that.)
Someone in one of the Amazon forums found this gem of a web page. Wherein Mr. Vacca offers to write reviews for money, among other things. Now I personally wouldn't use his editing or ghost writing services, if the reviews he posts on Amazon are any example. I really think a computer could generate his reviews.
So no, he's not writing reviews of fantasy novels. But this is just one more example of the crap that goes on behind the scenes of Amazon reviewing, and it reflects on the quality of Amazon reviews across the board. As long as this sort of behavior is allowed, all consumers suffer. So down-vote his reviews, and others like them, when you see them (as I always do with the Klausner-bot).
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